CrashPlan is an awesome backup tool that covers just about every conceivable method of protecting your data.

It is Free to backup to local devices, other computers, and friends computers.

A Paid subscription is required to backup to the CrashPlan cloud with unlimited storage.

Having installed and used CrashPlan on Ubuntu 1204 I was a bit surprised when I ran into issues installing CrashPlan on Mint 16.

Here is my tutorial on getting CrashPlan working.

Tested Environment

Mint 16 64 bit updated to July 2014

Crashplan 3.6.3 for Linux   http://www.code42.com/crashplan/thankyou/?os=linux

CrashPlan Notes
===============

Requires Java

Mint includes the Open Source OpenJDK Java, Oracle (Sun) Java is also supported.
Versions - 1.5; 1.6; 1.7
(Info gleaned from Install Script)

Installing the CrashPlan Linux Client

It is not in the Mint / Ubuntu repositories

Get it here
http://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/Latest/Getting_Started/Installing_CrashPlan

Assumptions
Mint 16 64
CrashPlan Linux 3.6.3
Default OpenJDK Java Installed
Logged in as User

Follow
http://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/Latest/Getting_Started/Installing_CrashPlan

Run the CP 3.6.3 install script
sudo ./install.sh

Here is the output of my install session

What directory do you wish to install CrashPlan to? [/usr/local/crashplan]
/usr/local/crashplan does not exist.  Create /usr/local/crashplan? (y/n) [y]

What directory do you wish to link the CrashPlan executable to? [/usr/local/bin]

What directory do you wish to store backups in? [/usr/local/var/crashplan]
/usr/local/var/crashplan does not exist.  Create /usr/local/var/crashplan? (y/n) [y]

What directory contains your SYSV init scripts? [/etc/init.d]

What directory contains your runlevel init links? [/etc/rc2.d]

Your selections:
CrashPlan will install to: /usr/local/crashplan
And put links to binaries in: /usr/local/bin
And store datas in: /usr/local/var/crashplan
Probably need to change this

Your init.d dir is: /etc/init.d
Your current runlevel directory is: /etc/rc2.d

Is this correct? (y/n) [y]

Unpacking /./CrashPlan_3.6.3.cpi ...
49036 blocks

Your Linux system is currently configured to watch 8192 files in real time.
We recommend using a larger value; see the CrashPlan support site for details

See Note on File Watch Below for details on this

Starting CrashPlan Engine ... Using standard startup
OK

CrashPlan has been installed and the Service has been started automatically.

Press Enter to complete installation.

Important directories:
  Installation:
    /usr/local/crashplan
  Logs:
    /usr/local/crashplan/log
  Default archive location:
    /usr/local/var/crashplan

Start Scripts:
  sudo /usr/local/crashplan/bin/CrashPlanEngine start|stop
  /usr/local/crashplan/bin/CrashPlanDesktop

You can run the CrashPlan Desktop UI locally as your own user or connect
a remote Desktop UI to this Service via port-forwarding and manage it
remotely. Instructions for remote management are in the readme files
placed in your installation directory:
  /usr/local/crashplan/doc

Would you like to start CrashPlanDesktop? (y/n) [y]
/usr/local/crashplan/bin/CrashPlanDesktop: line 8: /usr/local/crashplan/bin/run.conf: Permission denied

To start the Desktop UI:
  /usr/local/bin/CrashPlanDesktop

Installation is complete. Thank you for installing CrashPlan for Linux.

Gui failed to start, it flashed the splash screen and closed

Fix Permission Denied error above
Change permissions on /usr/local/CrashPlan/bin/run.conf > Others - Read-Only

Sudo Open Nemo, in a terminal type gksu nemo
Browse to /usr/local/CrashPlan/bin/run.conf

RIght Click > Properties - Change permissions of Others to Read Only

Run CrashPlan from Command Line
johng@Mint-Dev ~ $ /usr/local/bin/CrashPlanDesktop

No Change - Flashes the splash screen & closes

Search Crashplan support site for "linux"
http:// http://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/Latest/Troubleshooting/CrashPlan_Client_Closes_In_Some_Linux_Installations

Recommended Solution

    Edit the run.conf file in your CrashPlan app installation directory
    Default location: /usr/local/crashplan/bin/
    Navigate to the end of the GUI_JAVA_OPTS section
    Add this line, inside the quotes:
    -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.DefaultType=mozilla
    Example:

SRV_JAVA_OPTS="-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Dapp=CrashPlanService -DappBaseName=CrashPlan -Xms20m -Xmx512m -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Dsun.net.inetaddr.ttl=300 -Dnetworkaddress.cache.ttl=300 -Dsun.net.inetaddr.negative.ttl=0 -Dnetworkaddress.cache.negative.ttl=0 -Dc42.native.md5.enabled=false"
GUI_JAVA_OPTS="-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Dapp=CrashPlanDesktop -DappBaseName=CrashPlan -Xms20m -Xmx512m -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Dsun.net.inetaddr.ttl=300 -Dnetworkaddress.cache.ttl=300 -Dsun.net.inetaddr.negative.ttl=0 -Dnetworkaddress.cache.negative.ttl=0 -Dc42.native.md5.enabled=false -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.DefaultType=mozilla"

    Save the file
    The CrashPlan app should launch properly

Important Note: If you uninstall and reinstall the CrashPlan app, or the app automatically upgrades to a new version, the run.conf file is overwritten, causing this issue to reoccur. Update the run.conf file as described above to correct the issue.

Run from Terminal
johng@Mint-Dev ~ $ /usr/local/bin/CrashPlanDesktop

Now It Works

Check Logs in /usr/local/CrashPlan/Log
ui-johng.log & ui_output.log
More Permissions Errors

[07.05.14 18:21:27.137 WARN    MQ-UI-1              com.backup42.desktop.utils.AppProperties] Unable to save properties /usr/local/crashplan/conf/ui_johng.properties (Permission denied)

Change Permissions on folder /usr/local/crashplan/conf/
Owner - "set this to your User Name" (Not Root)

Restart CrashPlan
Now ui_johng.properties is created.

No Start Menu Item was created (Although the install script attempts this)

Create Start Menu Item
Menu > Right Cick > Configure > Open Menu Editor > New

Start Line =  /usr/local/bin/CrashPlanDesktop
Set Icon = /usr/local/crashplan/skin/icon_app_128x128.png

--------------------------------------------------

RealTime FileWatch
Crashplan monitors files that change in real time and schedules them for backup every 15 minutes (or as configured)
On linux this is done using the inotify API
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inotify
By default inotify will monitor 8192 files, which is rarely sufficient
See https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/Latest/Troubleshooting/Linux_Real-Time_File_Watching_Errors
Checking the CrashPlan Service Log file for Error 28 indicates the scale of the problem
/usr/local/crashplan/log/service.log.n
There were a LOT!

This value can be inspected by cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
A watch consumes ~900 bytes of memory on a 64 bit machine
Unused watches do not
So this setting has significant memory implications
Researching gives a consensus of around 500K files is reasonable which would use up to 500MB ram
That's a lot of memory!

Suggest incrementing max_user_watches in reasonable chunks until the "28" errors disappear
Set the value permanently by sudo editing /etc/sysctl.conf
fs.inotify.max_user_watches=nnnnnnn

I started with 65535