[Solved] How can I change the user that btsync runs under 2.3 (Ubuntu 14.04)

[AnnHashaway]

I'm pulling my hair out here.

I updated to 2.3.3 to use the new encrypted folders. The set up is quite a bit different, since it doesn't appear to have the dpkg option where you can select the user it runs under.

I can get it to launch as user btsync, but cannot for the life of me get the btsync user to access the second hdd on my computer. I have added btsync to my user group that has access, added read/write privileges, everything. It won't even drill past /media/USER/ when trying to add a folder from the web gui, and manually entering a directory says it doesn't have write privileges.

I have tried editing the init.d/btsync file to run as my primary user, but it wont start.

I have also editied the btsync.service file in /lib/systemd/system to show my primary user, but it still runs under btsync user.

I have already spent way to long on this. What am I missing?

What do I need to change in order to make it run as a different user from btsync?

Edit - I followed these instructions after completely wiping all the previous BTSync files from my computer - https://blog.getsync.com/2016/02/18/official-linux-packages-for-sync-now-available/

[RomanZ]

@AnnHashaway If you'd have the Ubuntu 15.04 and newer, you could just ask systemd to run it under your current user account. Though, this option is not supported for system v init. The only workaround here is to not to use the package and just start the btsync binary manually from your current user.

[AnnHashaway]

Thank you @RomanZ! That pointed me in the right direction to get it working.

For anyone else looking at this, here is what I did:

Disclaimer - I'm not a linux expert, so use at your own risk.

1. Removed /etc/init.d/btsync to prevent auto-start

2. Created .btsync folder in user home folder

3. Created storage_path folder in .btsync folder

4. Copied /etc/btsync/user_config.json and /var/run/btsync/btsync.pid to .btsync folder

5. Edited user_config.json as follows:

{
    "listening_port" : 0,
    "storage_path" : "/home/USER/.btsync/storage_path/",
    "pid_file" : "/home/USER/.btsync/btsync.pid",
    "agree_to_EULA": "yes",

    "webui" :
    {
        "listen" : "127.0.0.1:8888"
    }
}

6. Created a crontab entry to run a script that launches btsync using the newly created user_config.json file at boot. You could skip the script and just put the following entry into the USER's crontab to start on boot:

@reboot bash /usr/bin/btsync --config /home/USER/.btsync/user_config.json

7. Finally, I removed the BTSync PPA from Settings > Software & Updates > Other Software so I can control any changes in the future.

Enjoy!

 

Edited March 9, 2016 by AnnHashaway
Added a step

[MrsAngelD]

On 3/9/2016 at 4:14 PM, AnnHashaway said:

Thank you @RomanZ! That pointed me in the right direction to get it working.

For anyone else looking at this, here is what I did:

Disclaimer - I'm not a linux expert, so use at your own risk.

1. Removed /etc/init.d/btsync to prevent auto-start

2. Created .btsync folder in user home folder

3. Created storage_path folder in .btsync folder

4. Copied /etc/btsync/user_config.json and /var/run/btsync/btsync.pid to .btsync folder

5. Edited user_config.json as follows:

{
    "listening_port" : 0,
    "storage_path" : "/home/USER/.btsync/storage_path/",
    "pid_file" : "/home/USER/.btsync/btsync.pid",
    "agree_to_EULA": "yes",

    "webui" :
    {
        "listen" : "127.0.0.1:8888"
    }
}

6. Created a crontab entry to run a script that launches btsync using the newly created user_config.json file at boot. You could skip the script and just put the following entry into the USER's crontab to start on boot:

@reboot bash /usr/bin/btsync --config /home/USER/.btsync/user_config.json

7. Finally, I removed the BTSync PPA from Settings > Software & Updates > Other Software so I can control any changes in the future.

Enjoy!

 

This helped me out on Ubuntu 16.04 but I also had to remove the file

/lib/systemd/system/btsync.service

everything else worked fine.

Also instead of completely removing the ppa, I just put a hold on the package so I could at least see when updates happened

sudo apt-mark hold btsync

 

[nickfox]

I have had a slightly better result by just changing the user in /etc/init.d/resilio-sync in ubuntu 14 to my current user

I also had to change the ownership (chown -R) of

/var/lib/resilio-sync

/etc/resilio-sync

restarted with

sudo service resilio-sync start

and it seems to have worked