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As many of you may know, I have a windows machine I use for gaming, but I love linux and have a laptop that primarily runs Ubuntu. On top of that, I have a mac based laptop I use for work, and I play WOW on all three. Syncing the mods and configuration is a pain. After hitting my breaking point a while ago, I started working on a solution to sync mods between computers. Can now change any of my UI settings or update a mod on one computer, and when I log out of WOW it is available on the others without any manual intervention. After some suggestions from a co-worker, I found the best way to do this is using a service called DropBox. They offer a free 2GB account that can be used in all three OSs. In case someone might want to do something like this, I thought I'd make a writeup no how to do it.
I know I'm not the first to think of this. The Curse client can do it, for example. But that's only for the premium client (read: pay money), and only works on PC and MAC.
Step 1: Set up dropbox
Set up Dropbox on each computer using the standard install instructions. To keep things simple, I'll assume that you have it installed using the default settings.
Once your Dropbox folder is set up, figure out which computer has the setup you want to be available for all computers, and manually copy your WTF and AddOns from the WOW folder to the Dropbox folder. These should automatically appear on all of the other machines. Please note to copy just the "AddOns" folder and not the "Interface" folder with "AddOns" in it.
Please, if you sign up for a Dropbox account, feel free to ask me for an invite and we will both get an extra 250MB storage. :)
Step 2: Setup windows based machines.
Setting up windows is the hardest because of its lack of support for Symbolic Links. In windows XP, it will be necessary to set up a script to copy the files into and out of WOW directory.
1. Install cwRsync using the default settings.
2. Create a batch file to copy out of DropBox, launch wow, and copy changed files into dropbox. We will use rsync to speed this up, as it will only copy changed files.
@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET CWRSYNCHOME=%PROGRAMFILES%\CWRSYNC
SET CYGWIN=nontsec
SET HOME=%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%
SET CWOLDPATH=%PATH%
SET PATH=%CWRSYNCHOME%\BIN;%PATH%
rsync -Pa "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/foonix/My Documents/My Dropbox/AddOns/" "/cygdrive/c/Games/World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns/"
rsync -Pa "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/foonix/My Documents/My Dropbox/WTF/" "/cygdrive/c/Games/World of Warcraft/WTF/"
"C:\Games\World of Warcraft\Wow.exe"
rsync -Pa "/cygdrive/c/Games/World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns/" "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/foonix/My Documents/My Dropbox/AddOns/"
rsync -Pa "/cygdrive/c/Games/World of Warcraft/WTF/" "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/foonix/My Documents/My Dropbox/WTF/"
3. Save the script using a text editor such as 'notepad.' Be sure to save with a .bat extension.
4. Copy a shortcut of the new batch file to your start bar or desktop, and use that instead of your normal wow startup link.
Step 3: Mac OSX Setup
Assuming you installed wow the default way, run the following commands in a terminal window (go to Applications, Utilities, Terminal) to link your dropbox folders into wow.
cd /Applications/World\ of\ Warcraft/
mv WTF WTF.orig
ln -s ~/Dropbox/WTF
cd Interface/
mv AddOns AddOns.orig
ln -s ~/Dropbox/AddOns
Open WOW normally, and it will automagically use the Dropbox folder!
Step 4: Linux setup
Linux setup is almost exactly the same as the Mac setup. This varies somewhat depending on where you installed wow. As there is no default place to install wow in linux, finding where you put it is up to you ;)
I put mine in /opt/wow. For some instructions in setting up wine+wow, it may be under ~/.wine.
cd /opt/wow
mv WTF WTF.orig
ln -s ~/Dropbox/WTF
cd Interface/
mv AddOns AddOns.orig
ln -s ~/Dropbox/AddOns
Step 5: Running wow
At this point it should be possible to run wow on any of your computers, change some settings in the interface or update a mod, log out, and run wow on another computer and have those changes reflected automatically. There are a few points to remember:
- Dropbox can take a few minutes after starting your computer to download updated files, especially if you have uploaded a lot of files from another computer recently. The Dropbox icon on your system tray (windows) or top menu (OSX) will have a green check mark when this is complete. You will probably want to wait for this check before starting wow.
- There is a bit of a lag between closing wow and the configurations showing up on the other computers (if they are on).
- Running wow on multiple computers will have the same implications as if running them on the same computer. The one you close last will "dominate" the configurations.
Edit: Windows script added.
I know I'm not the first to think of this. The Curse client can do it, for example. But that's only for the premium client (read: pay money), and only works on PC and MAC.
Step 1: Set up dropbox
Set up Dropbox on each computer using the standard install instructions. To keep things simple, I'll assume that you have it installed using the default settings.
Once your Dropbox folder is set up, figure out which computer has the setup you want to be available for all computers, and manually copy your WTF and AddOns from the WOW folder to the Dropbox folder. These should automatically appear on all of the other machines. Please note to copy just the "AddOns" folder and not the "Interface" folder with "AddOns" in it.
Please, if you sign up for a Dropbox account, feel free to ask me for an invite and we will both get an extra 250MB storage. :)
Step 2: Setup windows based machines.
Setting up windows is the hardest because of its lack of support for Symbolic Links. In windows XP, it will be necessary to set up a script to copy the files into and out of WOW directory.
1. Install cwRsync using the default settings.
2. Create a batch file to copy out of DropBox, launch wow, and copy changed files into dropbox. We will use rsync to speed this up, as it will only copy changed files.
@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET CWRSYNCHOME=%PROGRAMFILES%\CWRSYNC
SET CYGWIN=nontsec
SET HOME=%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%
SET CWOLDPATH=%PATH%
SET PATH=%CWRSYNCHOME%\BIN;%PATH%
rsync -Pa "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/foonix/My Documents/My Dropbox/AddOns/" "/cygdrive/c/Games/World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns/"
rsync -Pa "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/foonix/My Documents/My Dropbox/WTF/" "/cygdrive/c/Games/World of Warcraft/WTF/"
"C:\Games\World of Warcraft\Wow.exe"
rsync -Pa "/cygdrive/c/Games/World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns/" "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/foonix/My Documents/My Dropbox/AddOns/"
rsync -Pa "/cygdrive/c/Games/World of Warcraft/WTF/" "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/foonix/My Documents/My Dropbox/WTF/"
3. Save the script using a text editor such as 'notepad.' Be sure to save with a .bat extension.
4. Copy a shortcut of the new batch file to your start bar or desktop, and use that instead of your normal wow startup link.
Step 3: Mac OSX Setup
Assuming you installed wow the default way, run the following commands in a terminal window (go to Applications, Utilities, Terminal) to link your dropbox folders into wow.
cd /Applications/World\ of\ Warcraft/
mv WTF WTF.orig
ln -s ~/Dropbox/WTF
cd Interface/
mv AddOns AddOns.orig
ln -s ~/Dropbox/AddOns
Open WOW normally, and it will automagically use the Dropbox folder!
Step 4: Linux setup
Linux setup is almost exactly the same as the Mac setup. This varies somewhat depending on where you installed wow. As there is no default place to install wow in linux, finding where you put it is up to you ;)
I put mine in /opt/wow. For some instructions in setting up wine+wow, it may be under ~/.wine.
cd /opt/wow
mv WTF WTF.orig
ln -s ~/Dropbox/WTF
cd Interface/
mv AddOns AddOns.orig
ln -s ~/Dropbox/AddOns
Step 5: Running wow
At this point it should be possible to run wow on any of your computers, change some settings in the interface or update a mod, log out, and run wow on another computer and have those changes reflected automatically. There are a few points to remember:
- Dropbox can take a few minutes after starting your computer to download updated files, especially if you have uploaded a lot of files from another computer recently. The Dropbox icon on your system tray (windows) or top menu (OSX) will have a green check mark when this is complete. You will probably want to wait for this check before starting wow.
- There is a bit of a lag between closing wow and the configurations showing up on the other computers (if they are on).
- Running wow on multiple computers will have the same implications as if running them on the same computer. The one you close last will "dominate" the configurations.
Edit: Windows script added.