Do I have to reinstall Dropbox every time I do a software update on my Linux Fedora 42?

Hi Beatboxer​,

No worries at all and apologies if I wasn't clear (my bad!), I also need the permissions for the ~/.dropbox-dist folder itself. It looks like the permissions there might be messed up, if sudo is needed to run tree in there.

Is this what you want? (Sorry I didn't get back. Been tied up.)

eric@fedora:~$ ls -l ~/.dropbox-dist
total 8
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 eric eric  103 Aug 12 06:45 dropboxd
drwxrwxr-x. 1 eric eric 2856 Aug 13 18:27 dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797
-rw-rw-r--. 1 eric eric   10 Aug 12 06:45 VERSION

Just to review where we are: It seemed to me that after my computer was updated, Dropbox would need to be re-installed. That was often the case, anyway. Just now I wanted to reboot, and Fedora wanted to run updates. After the updates,  I ran 'dropbox start,' and the terminal told me "dropbox is already running." So maybe there's a random flukiness going on, and I just fall back to running 'dropbox start -i' when necessary.

This is what was updated just now:

Thanks.

(PS: I can't remember what was in the other thread and how it could have been on the same topic. It may have been about my difficulty installing the dropbox plugin for Nemo. That seems quite a different topic.)

Hi Beatboxer​,

Just a heads up, we had to spam your other thread as it's about the same issue and our Community Guidelines state that you should only have one post per issue.

If you could get back to me on my last comment, I''ll continue to assist.

Hi Beatboxer​,

If your permissions are 755 the whole way down, could you verify that your account and group are both listed as the owner, as well as the owner of the ~/.dropbox-dist directory itself?

Tree ran without sudo, just now. I think I used sudo because I had the ff result early on, with the "[error opening dir]". Since using sudo gave the second result without the error, I just continued doing it.

The ls command gave me seven-five-five [for some reason the "community" does not allow me to use the numerals] all the way down. I can send that result if you need it.

====
eric@fedora:~$ dropbox start
Starting Dropbox...
The Dropbox daemon is not installed!
Run "dropbox start -i" to install the daemon
eric@fedora:~$ tree -L 2 ~/.dropbox-dist
/home/eric/.dropbox-dist  [error opening dir]

0 directories, 1 file
eric@fedora:~$ sudo tree -L 2 ~/.dropbox-dist
[sudo] password for eric: 
/home/eric/.dropbox-dist

0 directories, 0 files
===

Hi Beatboxer​,

Thanks for sharing all of that with us!

Are you running tree with sudo for a reason? If that's necessary, it's possible that your permissions could be messed up there. Could you run:

ls -l ~/.dropbox-dist/*

...and send us the output?

?? Now my terminal printouts have reappeared...?

Anyway, I hope it helps the Dropbox Linux team see what might be happening here. Thanks for the support.

About a half hour ago I replied with a whole bunch of the printouts you requested, but now that reply is not showing here...?

In the meantime I rebooted, so the results are no longer visible in my terminal.

(I was wrong about not needing to re-install after today's update. The little dots showed up in the screen header but I realized they were not responsive. As you'll see below, "dropbox start" returned "The Dropbox daemon is not installed.")

=======

eric@fedora:~$ dropbox start
Starting Dropbox...
The Dropbox daemon is not installed!
Run "dropbox start -i" to install the daemon
eric@fedora:~$ tree -L 2 ~/.dropbox-dist
/home/eric/.dropbox-dist  [error opening dir]

0 directories, 1 file
eric@fedora:~$ sudo tree -L 2 ~/.dropbox-dist
[sudo] password for eric: 
/home/eric/.dropbox-dist

0 directories, 0 files

====
eric@fedora:~$ sudo tree -L 2 ~/.dropbox-dist.backup
/home/eric/.dropbox-dist.backup
├── dropboxd
├── dropbox-lnx.x86_64-229.4.5197
│   ├── ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
│   ├── allocator_metrics.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── apex._apex.abi3.so
│   ├── _cffi_backend.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── cpuid_native.abi3.so
│   ├── cryptography.hazmat.bindings._openssl.abi3.so
│   ├── cryptography.hazmat.bindings._padding.abi3.so
│   ├── dropbox
│   ├── dropboxd
│   ├── fastpath.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── fs_api_python.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── google._upb._message.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── helpers
│   ├── images
│   ├── libatomic.so.1
│   ├── libdropbox_core.so
│   ├── libdropbox_sqlite_ext.so
│   ├── libdropbox_tprt.so
│   ├── libffi.so.7 -> libffi.so.7.1.0
│   ├── libffi.so.7.1.0
│   ├── libicudata.so.42
│   ├── libicui18n.so.42
│   ├── libicuuc.so.42
│   ├── libpython3.8.so.1.0
│   ├── libQt5Core.so.5
│   ├── libQt5DBus.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Gui.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Network.so.5
│   ├── libQt5OpenGL.so.5
│   ├── libQt5PrintSupport.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Qml.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Quick.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Sql.so.5
│   ├── libQt5WebKit.so.5
│   ├── libQt5WebKitWidgets.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Widgets.so.5
│   ├── libQt5XcbQpa.so.5
│   ├── linuxffi_gnu_native.abi3.so
│   ├── linuxffi_pthread_native.abi3.so
│   ├── linuxffi_sys_native.abi3.so
│   ├── linuxinfinite_native.abi3.so
│   ├── nucleus_python.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── plugins
│   ├── posixffi_libc_native.abi3.so
│   ├── psutil._psutil_linux.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── psutil._psutil_posix.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtCore.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtDBus.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtGui.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtNetwork.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtPrintSupport.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtQml.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtWidgets.so
│   ├── PyQt5.sip.so
│   ├── python-packages.zip
│   ├── qt.conf
│   ├── README
│   ├── resources
│   ├── tornado.speedups.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── tprt.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── VERSION
│   ├── wmctrl
│   ├── wrapt._wrappers.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   └── _yappi.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
└── VERSION
=====================================
eric@fedora:~$ dropbox start -i
Starting Dropbox.../usr/bin/dropbox:243: DeprecationWarning: Python 3.14 will, by default, filter extracted tar archives and reject files or modify their metadata. Use the filter argument to control this behavior.
  archive.extract(member, PARENT_DIR)
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._openssl.abi3.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._padding.abi3.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/apex._apex.abi3.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/google._upb._message.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/psutil._psutil_linux.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/psutil._psutil_posix.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
<frozen zipimport>:259: UserWarning: google.protobuf.service module is deprecated. RPC implementations should provide code generator plugins which generate code specific to the RPC implementation. service.py will be removed in Jan 2025
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/tornado.speedups.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/wrapt._wrappers.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
success!
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._openssl.abi3.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._padding.abi3.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/apex._apex.abi3.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/google._upb._message.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/psutil._psutil_linux.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/psutil._psutil_posix.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
<frozen zipimport>:259: UserWarning: google.protobuf.service module is deprecated. RPC implementations should provide code generator plugins which generate code specific to the RPC implementation. service.py will be removed in Jan 2025
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/tornado.speedups.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/eric/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797/wrapt._wrappers.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'

(dropbox:31362): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: 18:27:31.774: About to Show called on an item wihtout submenus.  We're ignoring it.
Done!
=============
eric@fedora:~$ sudo tree -L 2 ~/.dropbox-dist
/home/eric/.dropbox-dist
├── dropboxd
├── dropbox-lnx.x86_64-230.4.8797
│   ├── ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
│   ├── allocator_metrics.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── apex._apex.abi3.so
│   ├── _cffi_backend.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── cpuid_native.abi3.so
│   ├── cryptography.hazmat.bindings._openssl.abi3.so
│   ├── cryptography.hazmat.bindings._padding.abi3.so
│   ├── dropbox
│   ├── dropboxd
│   ├── fastpath.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── fs_api_python.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── google._upb._message.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── helpers
│   ├── images
│   ├── libatomic.so.1
│   ├── libdropbox_core.so
│   ├── libdropbox_sqlite_ext.so
│   ├── libdropbox_tprt.so
│   ├── libffi.so.7 -> libffi.so.7.1.0
│   ├── libffi.so.7.1.0
│   ├── libicudata.so.42
│   ├── libicui18n.so.42
│   ├── libicuuc.so.42
│   ├── libpython3.8.so.1.0
│   ├── libQt5Core.so.5
│   ├── libQt5DBus.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Gui.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Network.so.5
│   ├── libQt5OpenGL.so.5
│   ├── libQt5PrintSupport.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Qml.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Quick.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Sql.so.5
│   ├── libQt5WebKit.so.5
│   ├── libQt5WebKitWidgets.so.5
│   ├── libQt5Widgets.so.5
│   ├── libQt5XcbQpa.so.5
│   ├── linuxffi_gnu_native.abi3.so
│   ├── linuxffi_pthread_native.abi3.so
│   ├── linuxffi_sys_native.abi3.so
│   ├── linuxinfinite_native.abi3.so
│   ├── nucleus_python.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── plugins
│   ├── posixffi_libc_native.abi3.so
│   ├── psutil._psutil_linux.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── psutil._psutil_posix.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtCore.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtDBus.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtGui.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtNetwork.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtPrintSupport.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtQml.so
│   ├── PyQt5.QtWidgets.so
│   ├── PyQt5.sip.so
│   ├── python-packages.zip
│   ├── qt.conf
│   ├── README
│   ├── resources
│   ├── tornado.speedups.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── tprt.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   ├── VERSION
│   ├── wmctrl
│   ├── wrapt._wrappers.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
│   └── _yappi.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
└── VERSION

6 directories, 62 files

Hi Beatboxer​,

Thanks for letting me know! Would it be possible if we could get the contents of ~/.dropbox-dist down to two directory levels? Particularly before and after running dropbox -i and accepting the prompt.

If you have Tree installed you can run:

 tree -L 2 ~/.dropbox-dist