no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

MisterEwok · 2014-12-11 20:24:09

I have a new (starting yesterday) arch installation on my laptop. I'm using gnome. I installed dropbox and set it as a startup application. It runs fine in the background and syncs my files, but in the notification tray the dropbox logo is not there. Just a square that lights up when the mouse hovers over it. Right-clicking provides the dropbox menu. So all that's missing is the image. Why is there no icon?

Thanks.

ackt1c · 2014-12-12 10:41:19

AIO Package

Last edited by ackt1c (2022-11-05 13:03:04)

grubenm · 2014-12-12 12:04:26

Maybe the color of the dropbox icon matches the color of the surrounding notification bar? If I recall correctly, the icon's black now

HMW · 2014-12-12 12:52:24

MisterEwok wrote:

but in the notification tray the dropbox logo is not there. Just a square that lights up when the mouse hovers over it. Right-clicking provides the dropbox menu. So all that's missing is the image. Why is there no icon?

At least you got *something*. In my xfce-panel, there is nothing at all where I would expect to see the Dropbox icon/menu.

I did follow these steps from the wiki:

Arch Wiki wrote:

If you want to have tray support, create /etc/systemd/system/dropbox@.service to override the provided service file and specify the environment variable DISPLAY:
/etc/systemd/system/dropbox@.service

.include /usr/lib/systemd/system/dropbox@.service
[Service]
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
Finally, to enable the daemon for your user, so that it will start at login:
# systemctl enable dropbox@<user>

Still no tray icon though.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

System:
Linux arch 3.17.6-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Dec 7 23:58:19 UTC 2014 i686 GNU/Linux
Xfce 4.10 (distributed by Arch Linux)

clfarron4 · 2014-12-12 13:19:58

I've seen some reports one various social media outlets that they no longer have the notification/system tray icon with the latest version of Dropbox on Arch.

I run the dropbox-experimental package and I only started getting the icon to show with Dropbox 3...

HMW · 2014-12-12 13:26:20

clfarron4 wrote:

I've seen some reports one various social media outlets that they no longer have the notification/system tray icon with the latest version of Dropbox on Arch.
I run the dropbox-experimental package and I only started getting the icon to show with Dropbox 3...

Hi!

Ok. At least it's good to know I'm not the only one suffering from this. I'll let this issue rest for now. There are tons of people smarter than I, they will probably figure this out.

But, you say there IS an icon when you run dropbox-experimental? Maybe I ought to give that a go then.
Oh, and for the record, this issue started with the latest Dropbox (version 3.0.3-1).

Thanks for your reply, appreciate it!

philotomy · 2014-12-12 13:51:57

Multiple comments and some discussion of this issue on the dropbox AUR page.

(I get no icon, either -- just the placeholder for one, which I can still right-click to get the dropbox menu, et cetera.)

HMW · 2014-12-12 15:32:17

philotomy wrote:

Multiple comments and some discussion of this issue on the dropbox AUR page.

Ah... thanks!

HMW · 2014-12-13 10:09:25

Oddly enough, after I reinstalled today, the icon and menu is back! We'll see if it stays this way...

Edit: The icon disappeared. Again. :-/

Last edited by HMW (2014-12-13 10:15:20)

Pumpino · 2014-12-13 20:03:51

Dropbox is running for me too, but I have no icon or ability to even right-click in the system tray. This occurs with Mate and XFCE, so it's not just Gnome. I now have the issue with both v2.10.51 and v3.0. It also occurs in Fedora, so it's not specific to Arch. I'm wondering whether me upgrading to v3 in Windows (which syncs the same NTFS partition) has somehow caused this.

Last edited by Pumpino (2014-12-13 20:04:35)

HMW · 2014-12-14 13:37:45

What makes this issue even weirder is that on my Debian box (Linux debian7 3.2.0-4-686-pae), also running Xfce - albeit version 4.8 - I have had the Dropbox icon visible all the time since the update to 3.03, but it looks absolute sh*te:

As you can see, the icon in the systray has a white background. It does not help to change icon either, as soon as Dropbox starts, that white background is visible - even without icons (I know, because I tried to run without any icons at all!)

Edit: I gave up and did what a lot of other users have done: downgraded to version 2.10.52. I followed this guide.

Last edited by HMW (2014-12-14 14:51:21)

Pumpino · 2014-12-14 22:18:50

At least you have it working, even if the icon is ugly.

I tried downgrading to v2 in Arch, and it didn't resolve it, so I'm not even sure the disappearing icon was caused by upgrading to v3. I'm wondering whether it might be something to do with kernel 3.17.6, or another package update. Strange that the problem appeared in Fedora at the same time.

Has anyone installed Dropbox from the tarball on the Dropbox website?

Pumpino · 2014-12-14 23:46:34

Google turned up the following solution (although I'm not at home to try it right now). It's for Ubuntu Unity, but might work in Arch (obviously under a different category in dconf-editor):

Use dconf-editor to add an entry for Dropbox into the "whitelist" for the Unity panel as follows:

desktop -> unity -> panel

Add an entry 'Dropbox' into the systray-whitelist value field (before the closing bracket, and preceded by a comma).

Log out and in again and you should have your icon back.

Carl Karl · 2014-12-15 05:19:48

@Pumpino:
That old "trick ubuntu" thing won't work of course.

The reason the dropbox icon disappears is a bug in dropbox version 3.0.x (at least for x<=3).
So the momentary best solution is to downgrade to 2.10.52.

To do so, make the following steps:
1. Download the AUR package: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dr/d … box.tar.gz
2. Extract it and replace in the PKGBUILD 3.0.3 with 2.10.52 and save the file.
3. Run makepkg -g in the same directory where PKGBUILD is in order to get the new hashsums and place them in the PKGBUILD and save it again.
4. Run makepkg -f in the same directory where PKGBUILD is in order to get the new installation package.
5. Install that new package e.g. by pacman -U *.pkg.tar.xz
6. Prevent Dropbox autoupdate (it likes to install itself in the user directory in ~/.dropbox-dist!) by:
rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist
install -dm0 ~/.dropbox-dist
7. Prevent repository updates. Edit /etc/pacman.conf to include IgnorePkg = dropbox
8. Run dropbox. You have got version 2.10.52 and it can't autoaupdate itself again.

Last edited by Carl Karl (2014-12-15 05:29:33)

Pumpino · 2014-12-15 08:32:26

Thanks for that. It didn't resolve the issue until I removed ~/.dropbox-dist. I might look at downgrading it in Windows too.

Pumpino · 2014-12-15 09:05:45

Arggg. Now after I log in, I'm getting an error message. "Couldn't start Dropbox. This is usually because of a permissions error. Storing your home folder on a network share can also cause an error. /tmp/dropbox_errorQYU2La.txt."

My Dropbox folder is on an NTFS partition that I access from both linux and Windows, but it's never been a problem in the past.

Any suggestions?

HMW · 2014-12-15 09:20:07

I suggest y’all follow what Carl Karl said. It is quite likely the best solution to this bug (even though I choose to install in /opt, with a direct download from the Dropbox servers).

Last edited by HMW (2014-12-15 09:20:23)

Pumpino · 2014-12-15 09:34:36

Deleting .dropbox and setting it up again resolved my issue. It's all good now.

Carl Karl · 2014-12-15 13:37:03

@HMW:
The AUR package installs in /opt, too.
(But I understand why you copy it directly...)

Pumpino · 2014-12-15 20:53:59

My icon is appearing at boot and then disappearing again, even with 2.10.52 and after deleting .dropbox. I might look at a different service such as Spideroak or copy.com if this continues.

Last edited by Pumpino (2014-12-16 00:39:30)

JB26 · 2014-12-19 17:17:14

The missing trayicon seems to be a bug in qt5:
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-31762

I also found a workaround for the missing icon (dropbox 3), try starting dropbox with strace:

strace dropboxd &> /dev/zero

I have no idea why that is working. My theory is that strace slows down the start of dropbox. Because I don't have the missing icon problem on my older, slower machine.

clfarron4 · 2014-12-19 21:00:50

Ok, so I'm back, this time with the dropbox package installed, and on Cinnamon, the icon still shows. I can't comment on GNOME3, because it refuses to run on my more than capable hardware.

JB26 · 2014-12-20 01:43:03

I just found out that this bug only happens with certain graphic card drivers:
Compositor deactivated
all drivers --> icon working
Compositor activated
nvidia-340xx --> icon working
nouveau --> icon not working
intel --> icon not working

If you have a notebook with a hybrid graphic card even

optirun dropboxd

gives you a working icon (driver: nvidia-340xx).

strace dropboxd

gives you a working icon under both nouveau and intel.

Last edited by JB26 (2014-12-20 01:47:12)

jmontleon · 2014-12-22 07:30:47

JB26 wrote:

I just found out that this bug only happens with certain graphic card drivers:
Compositor deactivated
all drivers --> icon working
Compositor activated
nvidia-340xx --> icon working
nouveau --> icon not working
intel --> icon not working
If you have a notebook with a hybrid graphic card even
optirun dropboxd
gives you a working icon (driver: nvidia-340xx).
strace dropboxd
gives you a working icon under both nouveau and intel.

Thank you. This is dead on. In my case my systems are running Fedora 21 with Xfce, but turning off compositor everywhere fixed this for me, so I figured I would share my results. My intel/optimus is covered by your chart above. On the other two:
Compositor deactivated
nvidia-343xx --> icon working
radeon --> icon working
(so 'all drivers --> icon working' remains accurate)
Compositor activated
radeon --> icon not working
nvidia-343xx --> icon working, but black background

GordonGR · 2014-12-22 11:26:59

Intel here, and no compositor of any kind, and the icon does not appear.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-12-11 20:24:09

no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#2 2014-12-12 10:41:19

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#3 2014-12-12 12:04:26

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#4 2014-12-12 12:52:24

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#5 2014-12-12 13:19:58

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#6 2014-12-12 13:26:20

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#7 2014-12-12 13:51:57

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#8 2014-12-12 15:32:17

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#9 2014-12-13 10:09:25

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#10 2014-12-13 20:03:51

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#11 2014-12-14 13:37:45

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#12 2014-12-14 22:18:50

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#13 2014-12-14 23:46:34

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#14 2014-12-15 05:19:48

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#15 2014-12-15 08:32:26

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#16 2014-12-15 09:05:45

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#17 2014-12-15 09:20:07

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#18 2014-12-15 09:34:36

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#19 2014-12-15 13:37:03

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#20 2014-12-15 20:53:59

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#21 2014-12-19 17:17:14

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#22 2014-12-19 21:00:50

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#23 2014-12-20 01:43:03

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#24 2014-12-22 07:30:47

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

#25 2014-12-22 11:26:59

Re: no dropbox icon in gnome-shell

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