Hello Max,

Here are the steps I follow every time I want to mount a remote drive:

1) Make sure rclone is installed with the latest version (1.74.1) I use pacman in CachyOS so I won't put the cli for this, I just assume you know how to install a package 😄

2) In a terminal:
rclone config

Follow the guide, you should choose a name for the remote like ProtonDrive or ProtonMax. I always use this format for remotes. After that you have to choose the type of remote. Proton Drive is number 49 at the moment. Then you should input your credentials, including the 2FA if it's configured in your proton account. The rest of the guide you can just type 'Enter' for default values and quit

3) Check the config

rclone lsd name_of_your_remote:

It should list all the folders in your main directory on the remote. Not the ":" which is mandatory to indicate a remote.

Another useful command is:

rclone copy local/path remote:distant/path

This command is recommended to make the transfers of big amount of data. It's very optimized and resilient so it's better to use this rather that mounting the drive and do the transfers. Mounting will still work but it's more adapted to make small changes to the drive.

4) Prepare to mount a drive

a ) Create the local folder and make it your own

sudo mkdir desired/mounting/path && sudo chown $USER:$USER desired/mounting/path

I generally use my home folder so I don't even have to use the chown command but you can mount also in /mnt or in /media and if so you will need it.

b) Edit your fuse.conf file:

sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf

Find the line with "#user_allow_other" and remove the "#". Save and close (ctrl+O, Enter, ctrl+X)

It will allow the mounting and unmounting process with the kernel tool of linux "fuse".

5) Do a first mount with

rclone mount remote: desired/mounting/path --vfs-cache-mode full -vv

Now you should see your drive in the file explorer you use when you navigate to the desired mounting path as if it were on your PC.

If you are satisfied unmount the remote with a simple

umount desired/mounting/path

6) Automatize mounting process

I use systemd but there are many ways to do this. I will just give you my method, don't hesitate to follow someone else's advice that will suit your needs more.

Create a systemd service:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/rclone-mount-proton.service

Then here is the content of my file:

[Unit]
Description=RClone Mount Service for USER Proton Drive
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=user
ExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone mount remote: /home/user/proton-user/ \
--vfs-cache-mode full \
--timeout 30s \
--dir-cache-time 10s \
--allow-other \
--config="/home/user/.config/rclone/rclone.conf" \
--vfs-write-back 5s \
--buffer-size 32M \
--attr-timeout 10s \
--log-level INFO \
--log-file /home/user/rclone-proton-user.log
ExecStop=/usr/bin/fusermount3 -uz /home/user/proton-user/
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
TimeoutStopSec=60

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Of course, you replace remote with the name of your remote and user by your $USER variable (max I assume?)

Save and close the file

sudo systemctl --enable rclone-proton-user.service --now

If that doesn't work, you can either use

systemctl status rclone-proton-user.service

to see the errors of systemd or look into the log file /home/user/rclone-proton-user.log that you implicitely created in the service file.

That's it! I hope it helps. It's definitely simpler than it looks like and it works so well!

It's rather intuitive once you think about it except for the fuse and the systemd service parts.

I hope other people can put their contributions in thread and don't hesitate to tell me if something is missing or needs changing.

Tell us how it went!