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Dropbox software needs installation on every startup

I am running Ubuntu 18.04 and on this computer every time I turn on the computer comes another request to install the proprietary software. This is annoying as it should know that the latest version already exists.

This morning I saw 2 Dropbox icons on the status bar, so perhaps it is the second instance which is causing problems? I looked on the computer and I have 3 progarms:

/usr/bin/dropbox

/usr/share/lintian/overrides/nautilus-dropbox

/usr/share/vrms/reasons/nautilus-dropbox

There is also

/var/lib/update-notifier/user.d/dropbox-start-required

Do I need both dropbox and nautilus-dropbox (in 2 locations)?

If I don't what is the proper way to dump the excess baggage?

Thanks,

Ilan

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Jay

Thanks for the info, I’ve forwarded this to our team for them to look into this matter further!

All comments

Jay

Hi Ilan, if you’re getting two status icons, it’s possible that it reinstalled itself twice.

Could you try an advanced reinstall to see if this helps?

ilan1

Hi Jay,

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the situation is worse than before.

Not only does it constantly ask to install the Dropbox software, it can even say that there is trouble connecting.

Still I think the basic idea in the advanced setup is good - clean out all the history.

You have 2 lines which need to be fixed:

rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox

rm /etc/apt/source.d/dropbox

Both of these require sudo to work as you are trying to change things in the Linux partition.

I noticed your download file is from 2015. It could be that it just isn't working for 18.04.

I've been looking around trying to fix this problem and others recommend using

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install nautilus-dropbox

One of the several sources for this is

(websiteforstudents.com/install-dropbox-on-ubuntu-18-04-Its-desktop)

(It won't let me post the actual link.)

It seems that others too have problems with the official software.

What I may try is use the purge part of the commands and then simply do the install nautilus-dropbox.

What do you think?

Thanks,

Ilan

ilan1

I just did the purge part of the advanced setup - again clean out any history.

Instead of install part I used

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install nautilus-dropbox

It is much simpler and so far looks good.

It has to reindex all my files, so it will take some time.

When it has finished I will see if the situation is finally fixed.

Another nice thing is all the instructions appear in the terminal:

Unpacking nautilus-dropbox (2015.10.28-1ubuntu2) ...
Setting up nautilus-dropbox (2015.10.28-1ubuntu2) ...
Please restart all running instances of Nautilus, or you will experience problems. i.e. nautilus --quit
Dropbox installation successfully completed! You can start Dropbox from your applications menu.

This problem of the official installation seems to affect many Linux users.

The above work around seems a lot better.

Ilan

Jay

Keep me posted with any updates!

ilan1

Hi Jay,

I am back to my original problem: Dropbox Installation comes up on each boot.

There is a message: python-gpgme is not installed, we will not be able to verify binary signatures.

Maybe this is the problem?

I looked in synaptic and there is no such thing as python-gpgme. There is python-gpg and it is installed.

Maybe there was once such a thing as python-gpgme and it no longer exists?

I don't really know if this is the problem or not. It just doesn't seem to know that the program already exists.

On Installation use:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install nautilus-dropbox

This really is a better option compared to what is written in the Linux instructions. In the purge, there is:

sudo apt-get remove nautilus-dropbox

The remove nautilus-dropbox reported that there was no nautilus dropbox, which means the suggested method fails to install it. Clearly the alternate method does indeed install it. Since the alternate method is also simpler, I see no advantage in what is written in the Linux instructions.

I could use the checkbox not to show the message again, but that seems a very poor solution. If you hide the problem, then the problem doesn't exist? Not in my opinion.

The upside of this is that dropbox still does its job. It is annoying, but it works.

I don't have any more ideas to try at the moment. If you can think of something, please let me know.

Ilan

ilan1

Hi Jay,

I decided it could be a timing problem.

The dialog about installing the dropbox software comes up at the same time as the status bar icon.

Last time, I followed instructions and installed the software.

THEN, I got 2 icons, like I have 2 instances.

This time I decided to press Cancel. I thought it might get stuck at the starting phase, which is fairly long.

After about 30 sec -> 1 min, dropbox came up as up to date.

So it seems like it is prematurely firing off the dialog to update the software, before it has discovered that the software is in place.

In any case, I will now start to hit the Cancel button and ignore the nonsense. It is a bug which needs to be fixed.

Ilan

Jay

Thanks for the info, I’ve forwarded this to our team for them to look into this matter further!

aaronkthomas

I'm having this problem too, fyi

Fiona

Hey @aaronkthomas. Thanks for adding up to this discussion!

Have you tried all the steps offered here?

Have you created a ticket about this already? If so, please provide me wit the ticket number and I will take over to help. Thank you!

Stephane30

Hi there,
has there been any progress on this issue? I have had that problem of Dropbox coming up with the installation message for the last year or so. I'm now on Ubuntu 20.04 and nothing has changed. I have also installed the latest version of Dropbox. After cancelling the notification Dropbox is starting and working fine. It's just really annoying. It seems that the routine to check if there is an installation present is not working properly.
Any advise?
Cheers, Stephane

delmersteh

Thanks for the detail answer guide i have the same issue

ilan1

Lately dropbox has been acting much better. Still on my laptop, this morning, I saw the problem again.

To play fair, we have to consider that dropbox is using system services, and the system may not be up to date. So to play fair use:

sudo apt autoremove
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Take special notice of the 0 not upgraded. If this number is > 0, give dropbox a level playing field and use

sudo apt dist-upgrade

Afterwards you can try autoremove again to see that all is clean. This should help with dropbox as well.