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Leeon's avatar
Leeon
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago

Dropbox on OpenSUSE Leap 15 (Linux) unlinks after restart

I am using Dropbox 50.4.71 on OpenSUSE Leap 15, just downloaded the app into home folder, on Leap there is still no Dropbox package. App works well, however after restart (sometimes after few resta...
desktop
Dropbox Basic
Linux
Setting up the apps
grawity's avatar
grawity
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago

Leeon, can you check if the output of this command keeps changing across reboots:

stat -f -c %i ~/.dropbox/instance_db

(Keep the output secret, just check whether it changes or remains the same.)

 

This shows the statvfs().f_fsid, which Dropbox on Linux uses as part of the config encryption key. The developers apparently thought it is persistent, but it really isn't. For example, on XFS partitions, the fsid can change if partitions are moved around, it can change if you boot with a USB stick connected, it can even change randomly on every reboot. Every time it changes, Dropbox becomes unable to decode its configuration and just deletes it.

 

(I really wish they had used something more stable, but I don't even know where to submit a bug report about it.)

Leeon's avatar
Leeon
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago

grawity Yes! You are right. When Dropbox starts normally, that ID is same as in previous boot, however when it disconnects, ID is different:

fe0300000000
fe0400000000

I need to say, that I'm not moving partitions nor connecting any USB drives etc. It just drifts by itself.

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