Box Client for Linux
Box Client for Linux
Box might’ve left Linux users behind, but we haven’t. It’s 2023 and ExpanDrive is still the most powerful Box client for Linux that supports a full range of powerful Box features. It runs on Ubuntu, Red Hat, Linux Mint, CentOS, Debian and most other popular distributions. ExpanDrive is currently shipping a a desktop app and a server edition.
Released April 10th, 2023
ExpanDrive runs similarly to Box Drive. Your content is available on-demand. No need to eat valuable disk space, time or bandwidth downloading things you’ll never touch. ExpanDrive can be configured to mount the root of your Box account, or mapped it to a specific folder. In addition to a Linux client, ExpanDrive also runs on Mac and Windows and supports customization and enterprise distribution to help you deploy into large organizations.
Advantages over sync
Sync clients eat up large amounts of storage, keeping copies of all the files you might have access to locally rather than leaving them in the cloud and only downloading them on-demand. If you’re on the road with limited storage on your laptop, this takes up valuable space and bandwidth – often for files you don’t need.
Additionally, this method of access scales poorly as your organization grows in headcount and filecount. Using ExpanDrive as a native client to map a network drive to Box lets you have the best of both worlds.
Getting started – Download ExpanDrive
Desktop based installations
ExpanDrive ships primarily as a desktop app with a user interface for advanced configuration and management. We also have a server edition that runs headless for Windows and Linux Servers.
Debian and Ubuntu based desktop distributions
For Debian and Ubuntu based distributions the easiest way to get started is to download and install the latest .deb package (64 bit), either through the graphical installer or via the command-line with the following command.
sudo apt install ./ExpanDrive_2023.4.1_amd64.debInstalling the .deb will also automatically install the apt repository and code signing key to enable easy update using the system package manager.
You can install the repository and key manually with the following script
curl https://packages.expandrive.com/keys/expandrive.asc | gpg -- dearmor > packages.expandrive.gpg
sudo install -o root -g root -m 644 packages.expandrive.gpg /usr/share/keyrings/
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/packages.expandrive.gpg] https://packages.expandrive.com/expandrive stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/expandrive.list'
Then you update the package cache and install ExpanDrive using:
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install expandriveRHEL, Fedora, and CentOS based desktop distributions
Download our latest .rpm package (64-bit) and use yum to install ExpanDrive and the required dependencies.
sudo yum localinstall ./ExpanDrive-2023.4.1.x86_64.rpmInstalling the .rpm will also automatically configure the yum repository and code signing key to enable easy update using the system package manager.
You can install the yum repo manually using the following script:
sudo rpm --import https://packages.expandrive.com/keys/expandrive.asc
sudo sh -c 'echo -e "[expandrive]\nname=expandrive\nbaseurl=https://packages.expandrive.com/rpm\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://packages.expandrive.com/keys/expandrive.asc" > /etc/yum.repos.d/expandrive.repo'Then update your package cache and install Expandrive using dnf (Fedora 22 and above):
sudo dnf check-update
sudo dnf install expandriveor using yum
yum check-update
sudo yum install expandriveServer/Headless Edition
Head over to our ExpanDrive Server Edition page for instructions and packages for Windows and Linux servers. ExpanDrive Server edition is designed to run unattended, at boot [versus login], and provides drives that can even be re-shared on the network.
Box WebDAV is deprecated
One alternative you might’ve looked into is connecting to Box via WebDAV. WebDAV is a standard protocol with implementations on many operating systems. It doesn’t fully support the range of Box features and has somewhat questionable reliability as a permanent solution accessing your account, with poor speed and reconnection characteristics.
In the past the only way to get a native connection to Box on Linux was via WebDAV. Box announced in early 2010 support for this method of access will be going away in the near future, with all organizations encouraged to move to alternate methods of access.
Amazing Reviews
“ExpanDrive lets you mount remote sftp drives and it actually works! I.e. no long delays or dropped connection in the middle of a save.”
Allan Odgaard, TextMate
“My first impression after reading ExpanDrive’s promotional description last week was that it sounded too good to be true. One week later, I’m pretty sure it actually is that good.”
John Gruber, Daring Fireball
Box Network Drive
ExpanDrive for Linux has a full featured file explorer as well as a fast network drive client. This builds support for Box into every application in your environment, including terminal apps and the file explorer.