[Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

rdm · 2012-06-11 19:32:43

Hello.

I installed Dropbox how it's explained in the Wiki, so I installed the dropbox package and, since I have GNOME 3, I also set the compatibility with Nautilus with the nautilus-dropbox package.
Now, that I want to do is to ensure that the program starts at the start-up, and then wait until an Internet connection. When it found that, it connects to the Dropbox server in order to sync the files in my ~/Dropbox directory.

I read the Wiki, so I first followed those instructions. First of all, the program, by default, starts at the start-up, so I didn't need to modify anything. However, the Wiki talks about my problem, I know; just it doesn't work. The Wiki says to edit the dropboxd script, thus I had to set up the Dropbox preferences (in GNOME 3 there's an icon in the hidden bottom notification area), in order to run dropboxd at the start-up (as a daemon, included in /etc/rc.conf) instead of the real dropbox executable (which was an option in the Dropbox preferences window). I did what the Wiki says, but nothing happens. I also checked with ps whether dropboxd was running in the background as a daemon, but it wasn't running at all.

You also can't solve this problem letting the option of the automatic start-up remain, because that starts dropbox, not dropboxd.

Any suggestion?

Last edited by rdm (2012-06-16 18:03:06)

DSpider · 2012-06-11 20:09:55

...because that starts dropbox, not dropboxd.

Running dropboxd will get you a systray icon. I think you want dropbox-cli from the AUR if you want it as a daemon in the background (without a tray icon). But I don't know why you'd want to... Running it from /etc/rc.conf is just silly, IMO. The "Start Dropbox on system startup" checkbox (from the tray Preferences menu) will create/remove a "~/.config/autostart/dropbox.desktop" file.

From my experience, the client will wait until you have an internet connection to start "syncing". For the Faenza icon pack, there's a little gray icon when it's not connected to the Dropbox servers, and that stays up for about 2 seconds or so until it starts spinning ("syncing"). So I'm assuming that's the amount of time before it "pings" the servers. Also, it's a great way to see if your internet is down. Gray dropbox icon, internet is down.

PS: I'm not sure what nautilus-dropbox is even supposed to do. I have Nautilus installed and it opens the Dropbox folder just fine when I left click the tray icon. You don't NEED it for Dropbox to be compatible with Nautilus. Maybe it adds something like a "Send to Dropbox folder" shortcut to the context menu or something; I'm not sure.

rdm · 2012-06-12 08:22:36

You're right, DSpider. The client waits until an Internet connection. Thank you very much!
But I still haven't understood why the Wiki says those things...

DSpider wrote:

You don't NEED it for Dropbox to be compatible with Nautilus.

Yes, yes, I know: it is only used to check while Dropbox is syncing your files (there's a status icon over each folder to sync in the Dropbox directory, which tells you whether Dropbox has finished or is still syncing), and for other activities (like browsing the selected files in the Dropbox website, getting their links, share the selected folders...), for which there's a little menu called "Dropbox" when you right-click a file or folder.

DSpider · 2012-06-12 08:50:26

But I still haven't understood why the Wiki says those things...

Maybe the wiki entry was written when the program was in its earlier stages, like v0.7 or something... It's now at v1.4.8.

Did you see how the script begins?

# Copyright 2008 Evenflow, Inc., 2010 Dropbox
#
# Environment script for the dropbox executable.
...

A lot of things probably changed since then.

https://www.dropbox.com/release_notes

rdm · 2012-06-12 08:56:54

Thus, since the dropbox package in the AUR is up-to-date, it may be a good idea to change the content of the Wiki...

Last edited by rdm (2012-06-12 09:01:52)

DSpider · 2012-06-12 09:18:50

Heh... Seems that /opt/dropbox/dropboxd still has "2010" in there, even in 1.4.8. So that wiki entry could've been written quite recently. In fact, by looking at the wiki history page, the earliest entry for "Checking..." was on 7 September 2011 and the last update on 6 June 2012. I would probably just leave it alone. It may still be relevant (at least to some people).

rdm · 2012-06-12 09:33:16

DSpider wrote:

I would probably just leave it alone. It may still be relevant (at least to some people).

And what about the other peaple, like me? Where should they get the latest information, if not from the Wiki?

DSpider · 2012-06-12 09:47:24

You can find the "latest information" for each project on their own wiki/website. The Arch wiki, while amazingly well put together, is updated by volunteers.

Last edited by DSpider (2012-06-12 09:48:29)

rdm · 2012-06-12 10:13:26

So I cannot be a volunteer who'll add new solutions to some issues, like that one of this topic, because there are some peaple that will search older information? I didn't understand well...

P.S. I'm Italian, and this year I attended the PET course of Cambridge ESOL (Preliminary English Test), so please make me understand well...

DSpider · 2012-06-12 10:27:13

Of course you can volunteer! It's actually encouraged.

You also learn a lot by teaching others. "Be the community" from the article in my sig.

Just create a wiki account and start updating, adding in information, removing stuff that is no longer relevant, etc. And have fun! Just don't be a dick with other people's work or anything like that.

PS: And don't forget to add a short description of what you did so that it shows up in Recent Changes.

Last edited by DSpider (2012-06-12 11:33:04)

rdm · 2012-06-12 10:36:57

Right, but before why did you tell me that you don't need to add these new information to the Wiki?
Perhaps did you want to say that the Wiki page is always, more or less, as it is now since September 2011, and you need someone to update it beyond the updates of 6 days ago, or anything else I didn't understand (maybe because of my English...)?

Last edited by rdm (2012-06-12 10:52:14)

DSpider · 2012-06-12 11:01:40

I said that I (personally) would probably just leave the "Connecting..." wiki entry alone, since it was updated recently (last week or so, on 6 June 2012).

What exactly needs adding? Because, the default "dropboxd" that comes with the dropbox packge is working fine without any editing. But if you feel you have something to contribute, please, go ahead. Try to keep it short and to the point.

Last edited by DSpider (2012-06-12 11:03:07)

rdm · 2012-06-12 11:12:17

Wait a moment... Maybe I didn't watch well the behaviour of dropboxd... Are you telling me that when you run dropboxd, even not as a daemon, it will check every time for an Internet connection as in the daemon in the dropbox-cli package?

DSpider · 2012-06-12 11:30:32

Yes. It will check the connection to the dropbox servers. And since they're always on (they're a business, after all), I even use it as a way to see if my internet connection is down (maybe not a very reliable way, but it's pretty close to it... Meh... It's kind of a moot point anyway, since I can tell right away when I can't refresh any web pages, but still).

Look, install and use faenza-icon-theme from the AUR and you'll see what I'm talking about. There will be a gray icon when it's not connected to the dropbox servers ("/usr/share/icons/Faenza/status/16/dropboxstatus-logo.png").

rdm · 2012-06-12 11:55:52

Ok, thanks. Now all is clear.

rdm · 2012-06-12 15:30:54

Ehm... a little problem: I can't run dropbox at the startup, neither with

dropbox autostart y

nor enabling the option in the Dropbox window.

Furthermore:

[riccardo@server1 riccardo]$ dropbox autostart
dropbox autostart [y/n]

options:
  n  dropbox will not start automatically at login
  y  dropbox will start automatically at login (default)

Note: May only work on current Ubuntu distributions.

Ubuntu? What does it have to do with it?

Last edited by rdm (2012-06-12 16:14:26)

rdm · 2012-06-13 08:31:26

Now... I have enabled the start option in the Dropbox preferences window: before it didn't work at all, and neither now that I have changed the "Exec=/opt/dropbox/dropboxd" line in ~/.config/autostart/dropbox.desktop with "Exec=/usr/bin/dropbox start".

What may be the problem?

Last edited by rdm (2012-06-13 08:40:45)

DSpider · 2012-06-13 08:55:18

That's because you fucked up the "dropboxd" file by editing it. Either reinstall the dropbox package or edit it back the way it was:

/opt/dropbox/dropboxd:

#!/bin/sh

# Copyright 2008 Evenflow, Inc., 2010 Dropbox
#
# Environment script for the dropbox executable.

PAR=$(dirname $(readlink -f $0))
OLD_LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PAR${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:}$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
exec $PAR/dropbox $@

~/.config/autostart/dropbox.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Dropbox
GenericName=Network Storage
Comment=Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily
Exec=/opt/dropbox/dropboxd
Icon=dropbox.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Network;
StartupNotify=false

PS: If you can't follow basic instructions from the Dropbox wiki page, then maybe you should try the Italian version: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dr … taliano%29 And in case you haven't noticed, this is no longer about Dropbox waiting for an internet connection. I suggest you create a new thread if you still have problems.

Take care.

rdm · 2012-06-13 09:28:55

No, no, I had already re-edited that file. Just I forgot the last line...

rdm · 2012-06-13 09:37:21

Well... new results. Now Dropbox starts, but the icon is still grey, while Internet works.

I also tried to create the script /usr/bin/drop.sh, which will do "dropbox start", pointed by /opt/dropbox/dropboxd (I called the original one dropboxd.original). This because the content of ~/.config/autostart/dropbox.desktop is always edited by Dropbox, and I can't do nothing to change the line "Exec=", since it's always "Exec=/opt/dropbox/dropboxd" at every reboot. But neither this method works: the icon is still grey and the program, as also /usr/bin/dropbox says, is "Connecting...".

This is what is running:

[riccardo@server1 ~]$ ps -ef | grep dropbox
riccardo   811     1  0 12:09 ?        00:00:08 /home/riccardo/.dropbox-dist/dropbox
riccardo  1204   939  0 12:28 pts/0    00:00:00 grep dropbox

Last edited by rdm (2012-06-13 10:29:20)

rdm · 2012-06-13 11:30:42

Dspider wrote:

I suggest you create a new thread if you still have problems.

I don't know if that is a good idea, since the new topic would have the same title. Read my last problems above.

hokasch · 2012-06-13 14:43:14

[riccardo@server1 ~]$ ps -ef | grep dropbox
riccardo 811 1 0 12:09 ? 00:00:08 /home/riccardo/.dropbox-dist/dropbox

That is not the dropbox from the AUR package running there... How did it start? Did you check gnome-session-properties if it made an entry there?

btw, use the edit function instead of making multiple posts in a row.

rdm · 2012-06-13 15:11:48

I don't know why it runs the program in ~/.dropbox-dist (it isn't neither in gnome-session-properties), and then look:

[riccardo@server1 ~]$ which dropbox
/usr/bin/dropbox
[riccardo@server1 ~]$ ls -l /usr/bin/dropbox
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 110780 Jun 12 09:57 /usr/bin/dropbox

There is another important thing: when I, the user riccardo, type dropbox start, ps returns what you've seen; if it's root to start Dropbox, instead, then:

[root@server1 riccardo]# ps -ef | grep dropbox
root      1489     1 37 17:09 ?        00:00:06 /opt/dropbox/dropbox
root      1570  1487  0 17:10 pts/0    00:00:00 grep dropbox

Last edited by rdm (2012-06-13 15:15:50)

DSpider · 2012-06-13 15:59:51

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dr … taliano%29

dropbox può essere installato da AUR. Altrimenti è possibile provare dropbox-experimental.
1. Dopo aver installato il pacchetto è possibile avviare Dropbox dal proprio menu applicazioni o eseguendo dropboxd da linea di comando. L'icona del client apparirà nel vassoio di sistema.

...which is exactly the same as the English version:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dropbox

dropbox can be installed from the AUR. Alternatively, dropbox-experimental is also available.
1. After installing the package, you can start Dropbox from your application menu or run dropboxd from the command-line. The client icon will appear in the system tray.

Why is it so hard to follow basic instructions?

Here:

pkill dropb*
sudo pacman -Rnsd dropbox-nautilus dropbox-cli dropbox
sudo rm -rf ~/.dropb*

mkdir ~/builds
cd ~/builds
wget -q https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dr/dropbox/dropbox.tar.gz
tar xf dropbox.tar.gz
rm dropbox.tar.gz
cd dropbox
makepkg -s

sudo pacman -U ~/builds/dropbox/dropbox-1.4.8-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz
dropboxd &

DSpider · 2012-06-13 16:02:55

And remove any dropboxd shit you may have in rc.conf.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-11 19:32:43

[Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#2 2012-06-11 20:09:55

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#3 2012-06-12 08:22:36

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#4 2012-06-12 08:50:26

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#5 2012-06-12 08:56:54

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#6 2012-06-12 09:18:50

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#7 2012-06-12 09:33:16

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#8 2012-06-12 09:47:24

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#9 2012-06-12 10:13:26

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#10 2012-06-12 10:27:13

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#11 2012-06-12 10:36:57

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#12 2012-06-12 11:01:40

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#13 2012-06-12 11:12:17

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#14 2012-06-12 11:30:32

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#15 2012-06-12 11:55:52

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#16 2012-06-12 15:30:54

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#17 2012-06-13 08:31:26

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#18 2012-06-13 08:55:18

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#19 2012-06-13 09:28:55

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#20 2012-06-13 09:37:21

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#21 2012-06-13 11:30:42

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#22 2012-06-13 14:43:14

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#23 2012-06-13 15:11:48

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#24 2012-06-13 15:59:51

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

#25 2012-06-13 16:02:55

Re: [Solved] Dropbox doesn't wait until Internet connection

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