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Dropbox requires sudo
Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 5:19 pm
by phoenix455
Hey,
I have strange problem with dropbox applet in Linux Mint Cinammon. When I start dropbox by clicking menu icon the applet in the tray is not clickable and does not have a tooltip. When I start dropbox from terminal typing "sudo dropbox start" it behaves normally (it has tooltip and menu pops out on right click on icon). I didn't have such problem on other computers so I have no idea how I can solve this. Please help.
Re: Dropbox requires sudo
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:07 am
by wholockedat221b
I am having the same issue. I have tried uninstalling and re-installing using both the cinnamon software center and the official dropbox website directly - i have deleted my dropbox config files from my home folder each time. No soap.
$dropbox stop
#sudo dropbox start
works for me as well for a temporary fix.
Anyone have an idea how to permanently fix this?
Re: Dropbox requires sudo
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:11 pm
by jmg
wholockedat221b wrote:works for me as well for a temporary fix.
Anyone have an idea how to permanently fix this?
It looks like recent Dropbox bugs (not clickable tray icon, or in other cases no tray icon at all), so we need to wait until they get fixed by an update. I think it's good to use this permissions workaround for both bugs until then, but not permanently. For example, I have now a
"dropboxicon.sh" text file with the executable property, containing this shell script:
Code: Select all
#!/bin/bash
dropbox stop
sudo dropbox start
It's on my desktop these days, and when I open my computer, if the bug is not yet fixed, I get back again the Dropbox tray icon with:
Right mouse button > Actions > Run In Konsole. (This for Linux Mint KDE).
Of course, to previously set the executable property, for example:
Right mouse button > Properties > Permissions > [X] Is executable > OK.
Or, you know, if you prefer, you can set and run that executable file from the command line, maybe with a shorter file name.
Re: Dropbox requires sudo
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 7:54 pm
by jmg
There are additional details on this and current related bugs and the temporary workaround (which also works on other Linux distros such as Xubuntu), and also
important details on files affected by
sudo, at:
Dropbox icon is not working Xubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 - Ask Ubuntu
Re: Dropbox requires sudo
Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 5:44 pm
by jmg
A more recent and
much better workaround, without the file ownership recovery inconvenience of the sudo (root) one:
Code: Select all
dropbox stop && dbus-launch dropbox start