How to Change Dropbox’s Status Icons [HOWTO]

May 19, 2010

Ever since the release of Dropbox’s 8.0 and above experiemental builds, users have had the ability to change the application indicator icons. This is particularly handy when trying to match the new Lucid themes. Nothing is more annoying than a monochrome application indicator icons with a blue Dropbox icon in the mix. If you haven’t updated Dropbox to the latest experimental build via dbupdate, please see this post. Below is a list of icons taken from OMGUbuntu!.

Application Indicator Icons Sets for Dropbox

1. Ubuntu Dark by Incognitus

Download

2. Ubuntu Light by Incognitus

Download

3. Ubuntu Mono Dark Set 1 by nevon

Download

4. Ubuntu Mono Dark Set 2 by nevon

Download

5. Dropbox Ubuntu Mono by invernizzi

Download

6. Dropbox Notification Icons Dark by Charles Anderson

Download

7. Dropbox Notification Icons Light by Charles Anderson

Download

8. Dropbox Monochrome Dark by Joern

Download

9. Dropbox Monochrome Light by Joern

Download

How to install the icons.

There are a few ways to download and install the Dropbox icons.

Option 1: Manually download and install the icons.

1. Download the compressed archive to your home directory.

wget <archive URL> -O ~/icons.tar.gz

2. Stop Dropbox.

/usr/bin/dropbox stop

3. Backup the original Dropbox icons in the ~/.dropbox-dist/icons directory.

mkdir ~/.dropbox-dist/icons/Backup
cp ~/.dropbox-dist/icons/*.png ~/.dropbox-dist/icons/Backup/

4. Extract the compressed archive and place the icons in your ~/.dropbox-dist/icons directory.

tar xvf ~/icons.tar.gz

5. Browse to the extracted directory and manually copy the icons to the ~/.dropbox-dist/icons directory.

6. Start Dropbox

/usr/bin/dropbox start

Option 2: Download and run the install_dropbox_icons script.

install_dropbox is a bash script that downloads and installs custom notification icons for Dropbox. The current supported icon sets are:

Ubuntu Dark by Incognitus
Ubuntu Light by Incognitus
Ubuntu Mono Dark Set 1 by nevon
Ubuntu Mono Dark Set 2 by nevon
Ubuntu Mono Elementary by invernizzi
Dropbox Notification Icons Dark by Charles Anderson
Dropbox Notification Icons Light by Charles Anderson
Dropbox Monochrome Dark by Joern
Dropbox Monochrome Light by Joern

1. Download the script.

wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16428/scripts/install_dropbox_icons.tar.gz -O ~/install_dropbox_icons.tar.gz

2. Extract the script.

tar xvf ~/install_dropbox_icons.tar.gz

3. Make the script executable.

chmod +x ~/install_dropbox_icons

4. Run the script.

~/./install_dropbox_icons

Optional: Remove the script and archive from the home directory.

rm ~/install_dropbox_icons*

The install_dropbox_icons script can be downloaded here.

Update: install_dropbox_icons has been updated to version 0.2.

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7 Comments

sbmalev permalink

Wow, this is ~much~ needed.

Reply
OzK permalink

Not working. Neither the script. It just changes the icons in folder, but do not change in Dropbox. Dropbox is always showing the default icons.

Reply
- Voltron43 permalink
  
  I think the .dropbox-dist folder now needs sudo rights to be written to. You can try changing the script to “sudo tar …” instead of just tar. Let me know how it works.
  
  Reply
wilo108 permalink

Hi – just found this post. I’ve just posted this over at WebUpd8 (http://www.webupd8.org/2010/07/script-to-install-9-different-dropbox.html), but I thought I should add it here in case you don’t see it.

Thanks for making the change I suggested for v0.2. However, I don’t mean to be picky (sorry!), but I have a couple more suggestions:

the `sudo`s really shouldn’t be needed if you have the correct home folder (and assume that the user actually *has* sudo rights…) – it would be *much* better to take them out.

plus you actually do the extraction and/or the moving of the images differently for each icon-set, and often don’t even use the $sIconDir variable… e.g., line 296 (in “Ubuntu Dark by Incognitus”):
```
sudo tar xvf $sTmpDir/icons.tar.gz -C ~/.dropbox-dist &> /dev/null
```
is using shell-expansion to get the home-folder (‘~’). Lines 335 and 336 (in “Ubuntu Light by Incognitus”):
```
sudo tar xvf $sTmpDir/icons.tar.gz -C $sTmpDir &> /dev/null
mv $sTmpDir/icons-light/*.png $sIconDir
```
use the variables. (these are just the first two – it seems it’s never done twice the same way).

This is why, in v.0.1, it might have failed for some people with some themes, but not with others.

(also, you’re not doing the version check or the backup of the original files under `_incognitusdark()` for some reason).

you might consider refactoring the script to use a single function to effect the installation, and just calling it with a different url or tar file.

just $.02 – hope it’s helpful!

p.s. – thanks for writing and sharing this script. I hope (I’m sure) you had fun writing it, but it’s a real service to the community to share it in this way.

Reply
Rick permalink

This doesn’t work at all with the Ubuntu Lucid nautilus-dropbox that’s supplied in the repository.

R.
==

Reply
- Voltron43 permalink
  
  Rick, the icons only work with the latest forum builds.
  
  http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=23621&replies=23
  
  They just recently changed how the icons are handled so I have to modify the script anyway.
  
  http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/08/dropbox-icons-now-respect-your-global.html
  
  Reply
l e . n o x permalink

Hi,

This is an quickly update for this Script :
v0.2.1 – 10/24/2010
– support Dropbox version 0.8.10x

Instructions:

1. Download the script.
wget http://ordiboy.free.fr/open/Linux/install_dropbox_icons.tar.gz -O ~/install_dropbox_icons.tar.gz

2. Extract the script.
tar xvf ~/install_dropbox_icons.tar.gz

3. Make the script executable.
chmod +x ~/install_dropbox_icons

4. Run the script.
~/./install_dropbox_icons

Have good day ;o)

Optional: Remove the script and archive from the home directory.
rm ~/install_dropbox_icons*

Thks Mr Voltron43

Reply