Dropbox daemon not starting SOLVED

[mike acker]

this seems to be a recent malady....

on system start-up my Dropbox daemon doesn't start

i can go in with command line

Code: Select all

dropbox stop dropboxd
dropbox start dropboxd

-- that starts it -- but -- I shouldn't need to do this: it's in the startup list

***this problem has only been happening recently -- 10 days about ***

[kopper]

0) How did you install Dropbox? You didn't use the .deb for Ubuntu, did you?
1) What did you do when the problems started? Did you upgrade anything? Use this to find out:

Code: Select all

less /var/log/apt/history.log

2)What are you using? Stable/testing/unstable, Stretch/Jessie/Lenny/Older/Something else than Debian?

Code: Select all

cat /etc/debian_version 
OR 
Ask appropriate forum if you're using something else than Debian

3) Have you checked logs on startup? Any errors?

Code: Select all

dmesg 
OR
journalctl 

4) How have you configured auto-start? Gnome/KDE/cron/systemd service/sysvinit script/what?

These should help to narrow down the problem. Dropbox doesn't seem to have fully supported desktop client for any other distro than Ubuntu, although they have some command-line tools which can be used with any Linux distro, apparently. Quote from the page:

The Nautilus installer source code has been released under an MIT license, and people have reported building from source on different versions of Gentoo, Arch Linux, OpenSUSE, and Debian. Your results may vary.

Asking Dropbox might be the best channel for help on the issue.

[mike acker]

hmmm ...

1. this is a Debian 9.4 Dist.

2. Dropbox was installed from the Synaptic Package Manager

it could be that the icon just doesn't appear in the tray: if I issue

Code: Select all

dropbox start dropboxd

i get a message stating dropbox already running. loading a test file it appears this may be the case: the upload looks OK; i'll check the download after a bit.

[kopper]

i get a message stating dropbox already running.

You could have checked whether the process is running with top or whatever GUI process manager / system monitor you are using.

Dropbox doesn't seem to have fully supported desktop client for any other distro than Ubuntu

There seems to be package to integrate Dropbox at least with Nautilus, Mate and Thunar. I don't have experience on any of those, so someone else needs to provide some first hand knowledge. You still didn't mention, how have you installed Dropbox. You didn't mention what did you install. Which packages, from where? Synaptic can install packages both from repositories and deb-files, and result can be very different. If you have used .deb intended for Ubuntu, odd behaviour is not unexpected.

it could be that the icon just doesn't appear in the tray: if I issue...

If you use Nautilus and have installed nautilus-dropbox (from repositories), then you might be interested to browse the reported issues in Github. Sounds a lot like this one.

Your problem is challenging to address, since you are hiding some crucial details (like what desktop environment or file manager you are using). That, and your problem changed to something totally different between the two posts.

[mike acker]

thanks for helping

1. this system is Debian 9.4 / Cinamon. built from the Debian+non-free .iso I generally apply maintenance to it using apt update/upgrade sequence, weekly.

2. the File Manager is Nemo

3. Dropbox was installed from the graphic synaptic package manager. on reviewing that entry I note it states Dropbox for Nautilus. This Dist. is using Nemo.

I may just do a partial removal and let the Dropbox webpage do the install.

as far as the problem changing -- it more just discovery of additional information. with the try icon missing one might think the daemon is not running. aftr all that's why the tray icon is presented.

4. the pmr you linked on Git does seem to describe this issue.

[mike acker]

Follow up:

1. using terminal i did a

Code: Select all

dropbox stop dropboxd

the daemon reported as stopped

2. using the graphic synaptic package manager i did a partial package remove of dropbox

3. logging onto the Dropbox web-page I took the install option and accepted the download of the 64 bit .deb even though this is marked for Ubuntu users

4. I used a

Code: Select all

dpkg -i *.deb

to install their deb

at completion the install displayed a messag that I could launch the daemon from the program menu. this worked. also the graphics monitor of the start programs option showed dropbox as an auto start. i set it to a delay of 1 and re-started the system. Dropbox started just fine.

i would note the Dropbox webpage provides instructions for downloading the sources and then doing a make to compile and link the program. if i have further trouble i may look into what it takes to get through that method.

[mike acker]

SOLVED: The process described in the previous post seems to have fixed the issue.

HOWEVER: If I'm going to maintain the Dropbox Daemon in this manner I need to remove it from the normal apt update/upgrade process.

maybe i can figure out how to do that. hopefully they have an ignore list someplace.

Not Hard:

Code: Select all

mike@Office1:~$ dpkg -l "drop*"
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                         Version             Architecture        Description
+++-============================-===================-===================-=============================================================
ii  dropbox                      2015.10.28          amd64               cloud synchronization engine - CLI and Nautilus extension
mike@Office1:~$ sudo apt-mark hold dropbox
[sudo] password for mike: 
dropbox set on hold.
mike@Office1:~$