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Cannot install Dropbox on Ubuntu 2204-3 LTS

I have tried numerous methods to install dropbox. This includes through snap, the choices on the dropbox page, and nautilus-dropbox. There is no toolbar icon for syncing with the web site. The daemon (dropboxd) will not start. The systemctl unit command will not even show it as a unit file. I have been working on this for 3 days but to no avail. Dropbox tech support wanted me to do an advanced install but that did not work either.

It is running perfect on Ubuntu 20.04-2 LTS.

All of this happened after I upgraded from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

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Здравко

Hi @skybird182,

First of all, Dropbox application is NOT designed to work as a system service (this is not a part of the application install - not supported at least). It's a regular client application and can be run as such (the only supported way). Of course you (or some other third party provider) can extend this functionality and realize system services way of work, but it's not something desirable by Dropbox and not supported; it's your responsibility. Really strange why such feature (way of work) is not supported! 🤷 But, it's so.

I suppose you are running (or trying at least) the official release in official way. To be able somebody helps you, provide some details. How exactly have you installed the application? What happened in a terminal (application output) when you are running it there? etc...

skybird182

I cleaned my drive of all dropbox except the dropbox folder with my files in it.

What do you think is the best way to clean install dropbox? Nautilus, snap, wget ?

I have tried multiple ways to install dropbox.

Здравко

Without proper diagnostics becomes difficult to say what exactly is going on. Supported ways to install the application are shown here. On Ubuntu (and similar distributions) the classic way is to use deb package (if you are using 64-bit distribution download it from here).

Better uninstall whatever you have installed before, so to start on clear (data folder is not mandatory, but all configuration folders should be wiped out). It's good idea (after uninstall everything installed) to start with a command like following in terminal:

rm -rf .dropbox*

Next install the downloaded package using (correct exact text if you are using 32-bit distribution):

dpkg -i dropbox_2020.03.04_amd64.deb

Above step is actually preinstall. To finish the install process and run application, execute following command:

dropbox start -i

You may omit the "-i" ending on all following starts (the application install would be complete). You will need to link (login) application anew. Now is the application running properly? 🧐 If not, can you post all application output in the terminal? There should be diagnostic information why.

Hope this gives direction.

skybird182

Here is some command lines text. Not sure what this means.

$ ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._openssl.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._padding.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/psutil._psutil_linux.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/psutil._psutil_posix.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/apex._apex.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/tornado.speedups.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/wrapt._wrappers.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/PyQt5.QtCore.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/PyQt5.QtGui.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/PyQt5.QtWidgets.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/don/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-156.4.4908/PyQt5.QtDBus.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'

wrishel

Thanks. I'm not sure how to relate that manifest to the steps for installing, but I did find that this worked.

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

Thanks.

The list that you provided shows up as the output when you execute dropboxd