Installing and using jUploadr to upload photos on Ubuntu Linux

In a prior post, Quicker Flickr Uploads, I reported on my experiences using a faster photo upload tool recommended by Flickr. This report is about my experiences with that tool, jUploadr, on Ubuntu Linux. I suggest you read that earlier post for some background before continuing.

jUploadr is not in the standard set of Ubuntu packages, so you need to install and configure it yourself. The project web site is juploadr.org. The Linux version is available as a compressed tar file available at jUploadr Downloads. I used the i386 form, currently version 1.1.2.

This version has a long name, so for this post I will refer to it as jUp.tgz. You can download and install it as follows:

$ cd
$ tar xfz jUp.tgz

You can then run it as follows:

$ cd ~/jUp
$ ./jUploadr

Jloader is written in Java, and odds are that when you try to run the program it will report that it needs a Sun JRE version 1.4.x or later to run.

In this case you need to remove any existing Java JRE’s (JRE stands for Java Runtime Environment) and install the Sun JRE. Instructions on how to do this can be found in my post How to install a specific version of Java on Ubuntu.

The first time you run the program it will ask you to “authorize” its use. This involves visiting a web page and taking the suggested action. Once you have done that exit the program and run it again.

Thereafter when you run jUploadr it will open a window on your desktop. You then find the appropriate directory in “Places,” and drag the desired photo files over to the jUploadr window. Once that is done you click on the “Upload” button and the photos will be uploaded, just as is the case with the Windows XP version described in that post.

I found jUploadr as easy to use in Ubuntu as in Windows, once you have the needed version of Java installed. The upload times were comparable, as one would expect, since that speed is governed more by the speed of your internet connection and the code on Flickr’s server.

However, given that you need to install Java just to run this application, the advantages of using jUploadr instead of the standard Flickr web-form update may not be worth the trouble.

You can try it own and make your own call, but I suggest you do so only if you upload ten or more photos at a time.