How to send files over the network on Linux with Warpinator

Need to send a file to another Linux PC on your network but don’t want to fuss? Check out Warpinator! It can automatically detect computers on the network and allow you to send and receive files with ease.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to install Warpinator on your Linux PC and how to use it too. To get started, ensure you have both PCs turned on and connected to the network. Then, follow along with the instructions in the tutorial.

Installing Warpinator on Linux

Warpinator is an excellent program, but it doesn’t come pre-installed on any major Linux operating systems. For this reason, we will need to go over how to get it set up on your computer before continuing with this guide.

There are a few ways to install the Warpinator app on Linux. Arguably the best way to set it up is via Flatpak. If you cannot use Flatpak, it is possible to build from source or install via the Arch Linux AUR.

To start the installation of Warpinator on your Linux PC, launch a terminal window. Once the terminal window is open, follow the command-line installation instructions outlined below.

Flatpak

Everyone should try to install Warpinator via Flatpak from the Flathub app store if possible. The reason? There’s no need to compile any source code or anything like that. Just run a command or two and done.

To start the installation of Warpinator via Flatpak, you must have the Flatpak runtime configured on your PC. To configure it, follow this guide on the subject. Once Flatpak is set up, run the two commands below to install Warpinator on your computer.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

flatpak install flathub org.x.Warpinator

Arch Linux

If you’re an Arch Linux user, you will be able to quickly build and install Warpinator as a native Pacman package thanks to the Arch Linux AUR. To start the process, use the Pacman command to install both the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages.

sudo pacman -S git base-devel

After setting up the two packages, use the commands below to install the Trizen AUR helper tool. Trizen will automate and simplify the installation of AUR packages, and it is highly recommended, especially when installing Warpinator.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git

cd trizen

makepkg -sri

With Trizen installed, you can quickly install the Warpinator application on your computer with the following trizen -S command.

trizen -S warpinator-git

Ubuntu/Debian source

While we suggest Ubuntu and Debian users install the Warpinator app via Flatpak, it is also possible to build the code from source and install it that way. Here’s how to do it.

First, install all the required dependency files.

sudo apt install python3-grpc-tools python3-grpcio git build-essential make meson python3-pip

sudo pip3 install zeroconf

Next, download the source code to your computer using the Git tool.

git clone https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator.git

Move into the code folder using cd.

cd warpinator

Grab the appropriate Git branch.

git checkout 1.0.6

Build the source code and install it to your Linux PC using the meson and ninja commands.

meson builddir --prefix=/usr

ninja -C builddir

sudo ninja -C builddir install

Send files over the network with Warpinator

Sending files from one PC to another using Warpinator is refreshingly simple. Here’s how to do it. First, launch the app on both computers. Once the app is open on both machines, Warpinator will try to detect the computers.

Allow Warpinator to discover computers on the network that are also running the app. This may take a few minutes if your network is slow, so wait a bit. When you see connections in the Warpinator app, click on a connection with the mouse.

After selecting a remote PC in the Warpinator UI, you’ll get an overview of the remote PC in Warpinator. From here, look for the “Send files” button, and click on it. By selecting “Send files,” a menu will appear.

In the “Send files” menu, there are several options to choose from, such as “Favorites,” “Recent,” and “Browse.” Select the “Browse” button. Upon selecting the “Browse” button, a pop-up window will appear on the screen.

Using the pop-up window, browse for the file or folder you wish to send over the network. Keep in mind that you can queue up multiple file transfers.

Once a user has initiated a transfer, the user on the receiving end needs to open up Warpinator, and look through their file transfer requests, and accept the transfer. When the transfer is accepted, Warpinator will download the files to the “Warpinator” folder in the home directory.