Pinebook (or any arm64) - Linux Mega.nz Howto

As I wrote before, Pinebook is a very interesting machine, both for its hardware and in consequece for its software.

The not very developed arm64 architecture brings a lot of challenges to everyone working on it when it comes to have software for it.

I wanted to exchange some files as easy as I do in all my machines, phones, tablets, etc. However there was nothing available in arm architecture, such as Dropbox, Ubuntu One as far as I see is no longer available, so I had to be creative, and I managed to find that mega had a binary for Raspbian, so from here it was a learning process...

This can also be used to run all the binaries that are made for armhf (raspberry pi an so on) on arm64 machines.

Lets go for the real HOW TO...

1st - it is necessary to download the software from the MEGA website. There is only one option when it comes to arm, so you need to go to https://mega.nz/cmd and download Raspbian 8.0 (Jessie) in 64 bits. The file name should be megacmd-Raspbian_8.0_armhf.deb

2nd - this binary comes for architecture armhf, so we need to activate multi-architecture in Pinebook Ubuntu Xenial so that we have access to all the requested libraries necessary to run. For that you should run:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf
sudo apt update

3rd - we are not there yet, as Mega uses some fancy cryptografic libraries, we need to add a source to the resources list. just run

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

and add this line

deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ trusty main universe

after press control+x and say yes.

now run

sudo apt update

4th - now we have all resources to make the installation, run the instalation in the same folder were the megacmd is located

sudo gdebi megacmd-Raspbian_8.0_armhf.deb

just follow the instructions and reply yes, it might be the case that it ends in error, just ignore.

5th - now you are ready to run mega-cmd from the terminal. you will be asked your username and login, and after login it is similar to a linux terminal. You can also open another terminal and use the scripts mega-ls, mega-cd, etc, etc... just read tru the help... 

Very important is that you can also sync folders which can be very useful, just read the help on mega-sync command, nothing special to do.

BUGS - so far only bug found, and already reported to Mega.nz is that the get function (to download to your computer) does not work with filenames containing spaces. However using the folder syncing it works without any issues using the same files.

Anything that is not working properly, or you would like some explanation just drop a message or contact me in the Pine 64 irc channel.

Linux is Easy....