In the Windows world there's FreeRapid, JDownloader, etc. to download files from file hosting sites like RapidShare, Megaupload and so on. Does anyone know of a Linux program that'll do the same thing? Thanks.

As JDownloader is written in Java you can use it in Linux, if you have a JRE installed. Just download it from their website and start it with If you use the install-script from their site, the path will be /home/$USER/.jd
I use it and it works fine.

Tried that. I'm running the latest Ubuntu and I get the following error message: The file '/home/jacatone/Desktop/Save/JDownloader.jar' is not marked as executable. If this was downloaded or copied from an untrusted source,it may be dangerous to run.

That's true, it may be dangerous to run. But if you trust it, you can assign executable using chmod. Try 'man chmod' for more info.

I got it to work, but if I close the Terminal, it closes the program. Also, seems to lockup my terminal with just this program. If I add a tab to the terminal it just shows the java launch for JDownloader. In the past, I just had to right click the .jar file and select "Run with Java Runtime".

I can't address the issue of "I want to right-click it", since I don't use Ubuntu and so do not know much about their launcher configurations, but.. Maybe if you run the thing from the terminal using `nohup` and an & sign at the end (the & may be optional when using nohup) then it will keep running when the terminal is closed. Example:

Just edit the java command to whatever it is you're actually using.

You may find that either one or the other alone, solves the closed-terminal-kills-it problem, but there'll be no harm in trying them each or both together.

Good luck!

If you want to run something in the background on a terminal, you can follow it with an ampersand
That is helpful for starting a daemon process once. If you want to make sure JDownloader runs when your system reboots, you need to add it to your startup queue somewhere.

I'm not at all familiar with either JDownloader or configuring Ubuntu's GUI. I'm not sure what you mean by 'in the past' but it sounds like you might be referring to your windows machine's right click context menu? Does Ubuntu even have a right-click context menu?

How does the ampersand with "prompt% command args &"? work?. Yeah, in older versions of Ubuntu, you could just right click and select "Run with Java Runtime". That option still exists in the latest Ubuntu, but get the error message instead.

Again, does anyone know of a similar program to JDownloader or FreeRapid that is meant for Linux?

The ampersand, placed at the end of any command entered into a terminal, causes the launched process to 'fork' into the background, freeing it from the terminal you launched it from, thereby giving you back the usage of the terminal. It detaches the launched process.

As for the downloader.. Is there some specific set of features or functionality required of a downloader for use with the download sites you mention? I mean, is it anything more than a "download manager"?

If it helps any, I just use the FlashGot extension for Firefox, or occasionally Kget (yes, that's a KDE application, and you probably don't want to install a few hundred MB of libraries just to use one KDE application).

Sorry I cannot help further with the download thing!

Programs like FreeRapid and JDownloader are specifically made for file hosting sites like Rapidshare, Megaupload and Uploader. Regular download managers don't seem to work that well with these sites for some reason.

Tried the ampersand. Didn't work.

Did you try `nohup` with the ampersand (or without it?)

"didn't work" is hardly descriptive enough to determine the problem. Can you be more specific?