At work we’re setting up a system so we can run Python scripts on files in Google Drive, but these scripts need to be continuously running so they need to live on a server. To get this working, we needed to mount our Google Drive folder onto the Ubuntu machine and it was not as straightforward as I hoped. To set up the Google Drive API, these are the steps we took.
~/googledrive foldergoogle-drive-ocamlfuse
is a command-line client for interacting with Google Drive in Ubuntu.
First, add the repository to apt:
utility@ds06:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alessandro-strada/ppa
[sudo] password for utility:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for utility:
Mount Google Drive on Ubuntu (via FUSE)
More info: https://launchpad.net/~alessandro-strada/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmpasgt1i04/secring.gpg' created
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmpasgt1i04/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: requesting key F639B041 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: /tmp/tmpasgt1i04/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key F639B041: public key "Launchpad PPA for Alessandro Strada" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)
OK
Then, update apt and install google-drive-ocamlfuse
utility@ds06:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install google-drive-ocamlfuse
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Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
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26 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
google-drive-ocamlfuse
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 26 not upgraded.
Need to get 904 kB of archives.
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Selecting previously unselected package google-drive-ocamlfuse.
(Reading database ... 253806 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../google-drive-ocamlfuse_0.6.21-0ubuntu1~ubuntu16.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking google-drive-ocamlfuse (0.6.21-0ubuntu1~ubuntu16.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up google-drive-ocamlfuse (0.6.21-0ubuntu1~ubuntu16.04.1) ...
~/googledrive directorygoogle-drive-ocamlfuse needs the mounted directory to already exist, so let’s make it:
(base)
✘ Tue 29 Oct - 15:02 ~/data_lg/czbiohub-reference/gencode/mouse/vM21
olga@ndnd mkdir ~/googledrive
If you try to run google-drive-ocamlfuse on a headless machine that has no
$DISPLAY variable, you’ll get an error.
utility@ds06:~$ google-drive-ocamlfuse
/usr/bin/xdg-open: line 771: www-browser: command not found
/usr/bin/xdg-open: line 771: links2: command not found
/usr/bin/xdg-open: line 771: elinks: command not found
/usr/bin/xdg-open: line 771: links: command not found
/usr/bin/xdg-open: line 771: lynx: command not found
/usr/bin/xdg-open: line 771: w3m: command not found
xdg-open: no method available for opening 'https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?REDACTED'
Error: GDK_BACKEND does not match available displays
/bin/sh: google-chrome: command not found
Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console
Cannot retrieve auth tokens.
Failure("Error opening URL:https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?REDACTED")
If you run with headless then you need to specify the Client ID and Secret in
the command line:
utility@ds06:~$ google-drive-ocamlfuse ~/googledrive -headless
Error: In headless mode, you should specify a client id and a client secret
Follow the instructions here to use the wizard to create Google API credentials. Thanks to Foad Green who found these instructions in the sea of tips about Google OAuth setup. I’ve copied them below. There’s a weird step where you’re supposed to “Cancel” instead of press ‘OK’ so pay attention!
client_secret.json.➜ dobby git:(master) scp ~/Downloads/client_secret_1234asdf.apps.googleusercontent.com.json utility@ds06:~/client_secret.json
client_secret_1234asdf.apps.googleusercontent.com.json 100% 441 558.6KB/s 00:00
Now you have the proper authorizations on the computer, but you haven’t allowed
that key to use Google Drive specifically yet. If you tried to continue setting
up google-drive-ocamlfuse as per the instructions, it’s likely you’ll get an
error when you try to see the files: ls: cannot access 'googledrive':
Input/output error
utility@ds06:~$ ll
ls: cannot access 'googledrive': Input/output error
total 144
drwxr-xr-x 20 utility utility 4096 Aug 18 12:39 ./
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Aug 9 11:52 ../
drwxrwxr-x 2 utility utility 4096 Aug 9 14:16 .aws/
-rw------- 1 utility utility 14191 Aug 18 12:14 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 utility utility 220 Aug 9 11:52 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 utility utility 3771 Aug 9 11:52 .bashrc
drwx------ 7 utility utility 4096 Aug 12 13:11 .cache/
-rw-r--r-- 1 utility utility 441 Aug 18 12:39 client_secret.json
drwxr-xr-x 10 utility utility 4096 Aug 13 12:57 .config/
drwx------ 3 utility utility 4096 Aug 9 11:54 .dbus/
drwxrwxr-x 2 utility utility 4096 Aug 9 11:54 Desktop/
drwx------ 3 utility utility 4096 Aug 14 17:40 .emacs.d/
-rw-r--r-- 1 utility utility 8980 Aug 9 11:52 examples.desktop
drwx------ 2 utility utility 4096 Aug 9 12:30 .gconf/
drwx------ 3 utility utility 4096 Aug 18 12:20 .gdfuse/
drwx------ 3 utility utility 4096 Aug 9 12:29 .gnupg/
d????????? ? ? ? ? ? googledrive/
-rw------- 1 utility utility 362 Aug 9 12:29 .ICEauthority
drwxrwxr-x 5 utility utility 4096 Aug 12 13:12 .local/
drwx------ 3 utility utility 4096 Aug 18 12:20 .mozilla/
drwxrwxr-x 2 utility utility 4096 Aug 12 13:56 .nano/
-rw-r--r-- 1 utility utility 655 Aug 9 11:52 .profile
-rw-rw-r-- 1 utility utility 66 Aug 12 13:56 .selected_editor
drwxrwxr-x 2 utility utility 4096 Aug 14 17:44 setup_stuff/
drwxrwxr-x 2 utility utility 4096 Aug 16 10:45 .ssh/
-rw-r--r-- 1 utility utility 0 Aug 9 14:12 .sudo_as_admin_successful
drwxrwxr-x 2 utility utility 4096 Aug 16 12:30 testing_dir/
-rw------- 1 utility utility 720 Aug 10 11:43 .viminfo
drwx------ 2 utility utility 4096 Aug 9 11:54 .vnc/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 utility utility 895 Aug 18 12:00 watch_flexo.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 utility utility 1600 Aug 9 11:52 .Xdefaults
-rw-r--r-- 1 utility utility 14 Aug 9 11:52 .xscreensaver
-rw------- 1 utility utility 0 Aug 9 12:27 .xsession-errors
Use your Client ID and Secret provided from the authentication before to authenticate in -headless mode for google-drive-ocamlfuse:
(py3) dobby@ds05:~/dobby$ google-drive-ocamlfuse ~/googledrive -headless -id 1234-asdf.apps.googleusercontent.com -secret asdfasdfasdf
Please, open the following URL in a web browser: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?client_id=REDACTED
Please enter the verification code: REDACTED
Access token retrieved correctly.