Dropbox

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Dropbox is a closed source file synchronization and cloud service utility built from open and closed source software.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for net-misc/dropbox Dropbox daemon (pretends to be GUI-less)

X	Add support for X11
selinux	!!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-11-13 01:24 More information about USE flags

Emerge

Before you emerge, you must accept the license. To do this, create the file /etc/portage/package.license if it isn’t already present and add the following line

CODE Adding licensing for Dropbox

net-misc/dropbox CC-BY-ND-3.0 dropbox

Alternative: if the directory /etc/portage/package.license exists then, create a text-file using your favorite text editor and add the above line. Then:

root #emerge --ask net-misc/dropbox

Configuration

Set the DROPBOX_USERS variable to the regular user name in /etc/conf.d/dropbox

root #nano -w /etc/conf.d/dropbox

DROPBOX_USERS="user_name"

Adding to runlevel

OpenRC

OpenRC users can add the Dropbox init script to the default runlevel with the following:

root #rc-update add dropbox default

Systemd

systemd users have to pass a username as the instance identifier to enable it:

root #systemctl enable dropbox@<user_name>

Be sure to replace <user_name> in the example above with the appropriate local machine user name.

To display a tray-icon you have to define which display to use:

root #systemctl edit dropbox@<user_name>

CODE Adding display for DropBox

[Service]
Environment=DISPLAY=:0

service

Now as a regular user run the command line shown below:

user $dropbox start

Which will create these directories in the user's directory:

• Dropbox/
• .dropbox-dist/
• .dropbox/

Note
The command line above will also launch the Dropbox login window. Enter credentials or register an existing account to finish up the installation.

Note
The instructions shown above will not result in a GUI launcher for Dropbox being integrated into the window manager or desktop environment, so it seems. At least, some users have reported with XFCE4. A Dropbox launcher may need to be created for each desktop environment.

Xfce

Launcher

To create a Dropbox launcher for Xfce with the command as dropbox start,

Download an icon and copy it into the /opt/dropbox/images/hicolor/16x16/ directory.

KDE

KDE4

Adding Dropbox ServiceMenu to Dolphin, which allows easy access to most of Dropbox features. It uses Dropbox CLI to generate a public url, and pyndexer to allow sharing directories in public folder.

Download scripts and unzip it.

user $tar xvzf *DropboxServiceMenu*.tar.gz

Then you can use install script, which generates all files that are required.

user $./install-it.sh

After installing, you must edit script because the original script-set no longer is in development (but it still works).

user $nano ~/.kde4/share/kde4/services/ServiceMenus/dropbox-scripts/dropbox_menu.sh

Find 37 line

dropbox_path=`${SCRIPTS_PATH}get_dropbox_folder.sh`

And change it to:

dropbox_path="$HOME/Dropbox"

Don't forget to add dropbox-daemon to autorun in systemsettings.

KDE Plasma 5

KDE Plasma removed support for the legacy Xembed-based systray applications. In order for the systray icon to appear, Plasma needs to be built with legacy systray support. Please refer to the Plasma 5 page for details. Dropbox integration with Dolphin is provided by kde-apps/dolphin-plugins-dropbox when the dropbox USE flag is enabled:

USE flags for kde-apps/dolphin-plugins-dropbox Dolphin plugin for Dropbox service integration

debug

Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-11-07 19:07 More information about USE flags

root #emerge --ask kde-apps/dolphin-plugins-dropbox

Troubleshooting

Dropbox says it's an old version

When you start dropbox and return the error of it's an old version of dropbox, you can have some problems, between their version to some problems of dropbox, follow the following steps to help you to solve the problem:

Step 1: Unmasking the later version

unmask the latest version for your architecture, you can found the information in net-misc/dropbox

x86

root #echo -e "net-misc/dropbox ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords

amd64

root #echo -e "net-misc/dropbox ~amd64" >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords

Step 2: Dropbox not create the .dropbox-dist

Another problem is that dropbox does not install the dropboxd daemon, it's on .dropbox-dist folder of their user's home, for force to Dropbox to install it you must install the CLI version (don't uninstall nothing) and force the installation of the daemon.

root #emerge --ask net-misc/dropbox-cli

Creating the daemon's folder:

user $dropbox-cli start -i

Starting Dropbox:

user $dropbox start

if it continues to not start, follow the next step:

Step 3: Dropbox does not start now

At this time, you have a problem between the GL library installed by dropbox called libGL.so.1, it conflicts with the already installed X driver, to solve the problem, remove it, its inside ~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.{Dropbox's version}/.

user $ rm ~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-3.10.11/libGL.so.1

user $ dropbox start

Sometimes it is also necessary to remove the DRM library from ~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.{Dropbox's version}/, continue to remove it aswell.

user $ rm ~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-3.10.11/libdrm.so.2

user $ dropbox start

Crash with nvidia-drivers

When trying to launch Dropbox on a system with nVidia proprietary drivers (x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers) Dropbox wouldn't start. It turns out that the problem is related to a bundled libGL.so.1 library inside the Dropbox installation.

In order to fix this it is necessary to remove this library and let Dropbox use the system-provided version. This is already done by the ebuild, however Dropbox is automatically updating itself into ~/.dropbox-dist/ so it is necessary to also remove the library from there.

user $rm ~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-3.8.8/libGL.so

Don't show Dropbox icon on KDE/Plasma's systray

 As of 2019-10-18, the information in this section is probably outdated. You can help the Gentoo community by verifying and updating this section.

Make sure that you have added the "legacy-systray" support and understand all issues mentioned in Plasma 5 page

Resume of adding legacy-systray support for KDE/Plasma:

root #echo "kde-plasma/plasma-desktop legacy-systray gtk2 gtk3 qt4" >> /etc/portage/package.use

root #emerge --ask dev-libs/sni-qt libappindicator:2 libappindicator:3

root #emerge --ask --update --deep --verbose --tree --newuse kde-plasma/plasma-desktop

If it does not work for you, make sure that you are on the latest version (~x86, ~amd64,...) and, have stopped the service, remove the following files and restart dropbox from the user's bash.

Stopping Dropbox:

root #rc-service dropbox stop

Deleting some files (make sure that your adding your Dropbox's Version on {Dropbox's Version}) and restarting Dropbox:

user $rm .dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.{Dropbox's Version}/libQt5*

user $rm .dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.{Dropbox's Version}/qt.conf

user $rm .dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.{Dropbox's Version}/plugins/platforms/libqxcb.so

user $dropbox

ImportError: libffi.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

If you tried to start Dropbox after installing it and got the followingː

user $dropbox start

dropbox: locating interpreter
dropbox: logging to /tmp/dropbox-antifreeze-qeteiz
dropbox: initializing
dropbox: initializing python 3.5.4
dropbox: setting program path '/opt/dropbox/dropbox'
dropbox: setting home path '/opt/dropbox'
dropbox: setting python path '/opt/dropbox:/opt/dropbox/python-packages-35.zip'
dropbox: python initialized
dropbox: running dropbox
dropbox: setting args
dropbox: applying overrides
dropbox: running main script
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._constant_time.cpython-35m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "dropbox/__init__.pyc", line 8, in <module>
  File "dropbox/overrides.pyc", line 517, in <module>
  File "dropbox/overrides.pyc", line 418, in __ssl_wrap_socket_internal_ca_certs
  File "dropbox/ssl/revoked_certs.pyc", line 9, in <module>
  File "cryptography/x509/__init__.pyc", line 9, in <module>
  File "cryptography/x509/base.pyc", line 16, in <module>
  File "cryptography/x509/extensions.pyc", line 18, in <module>
  File "cryptography/hazmat/primitives/constant_time.pyc", line 9, in <module>
  File "<_bootstrap_overrides>", line 153, in load_module
ImportError: libffi.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
!! dropbox: fatal python exception:
['Traceback (most recent call last):\n', '  File "dropbox/__init__.pyc", line 8, in <module>\n', '  File "dropbox/overrides.pyc", line 517, in <module>\n', '  File "dropbox/overrides.pyc", line 418, in __ssl_wrap_socket_internal_ca_certs\n', '  File "dropbox/ssl/revoked_certs.pyc", line 9, in <module>\n', '  
File "cryptography/x509/__init__.pyc", line 9, in <module>\n', '  File "cryptography/x509/base.pyc", line 16, in <module>\n', '  File "cryptography/x509/extensions.pyc", line 18, in <module>\n', '  File "cryptography/hazmat/primitives/constant_time.pyc", line 9, in <module>\n', '  File 
"<_bootstrap_overrides>", line 153, in load_module\n', 'ImportError: libffi.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory\n'] (error 3)
Aborted

Install the net-misc/dropbox-58.3.88-r1 and above which does not have this problem:

root #emerge --ask '>=net-misc/dropbox-58.3.88-r1'

See also

• SparkleShare — a cross platform, free, open source, Dropbox-like, git-based collaboration and file sharing tool.
• Owncloud — a free, open source, Dropbox-like file synchronization and cloud service.