Take Your Search Game to the Next Level with Dropbox Dash  🚀✨ Curious how it works? Ask us here! 

Forum Discussion

Fifis's avatar
Fifis
Helpful | Level 6
5 years ago
Solved

Tray icon not showing on Arch+Cinnamon after trying all other recipes from these forums

Dear all,

I am a Dropbox Plus user working on Arch Linux with Cinnamon 4.4.8 desktop and all latest updates (ext4 file system), and I have tried many solutions to make the darndest tray icon appear for months. Without it, managing synchronisation is hellishly inefficient; I can’t possibly keep the names of all folers to synchronise in the head, and having no tray icon complicates life a lot. Here are the steps I tried to fix it.

Dropbox daemon version: 97.3.460
Dropbox command-line interface version: 2020.03.04

1. From this thread:
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-installs-integrations/Systray-menu-Cinnamon/td-p/130030
Stopping and starting Dropbox again via command line (`dropbox-cli stop` and `dropbox-cli start`) did not work.
2. Enabling and disabling support for indicators in the Cinnamon ‘General’ settings (with reboots in between) and trying to stop and restart Dropbox did not work.
3. Doing it through `dropbox stop; dbus-launch dropbox start` did not do anything.
4. Deleted Dropbox via `sudo pacman -Rncs dropbox`, deleted all the hidden dot directories from `~`, did a clean install from scratch. Still did not work.
5. Installing the optional packages `sudo pacman -S ufw-extras perl-file-mimeinfo libappindicator-gtk3` did nothing.
6. From the Arch Wiki page (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/dropbox😞 enabling `sudo systemctl enable dropbox@avk` and adding
```
[Service]
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
```
to `systemctl edit dropbox@avk` and rebooting did nothing.
7. The solution from this comment: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dropbox/?setlang=cs&comments=all#comment-726182 — did nothing: `sudo systemctl edit dropbox@` and adding
```
[Service]
# Fix successful start not detected
SuccessExitStatus=SIGKILL
# Fix stopping and detection of running status and main process
Type=forking
PIDFile=%h/.local/share/dropbox/dropbox.pid
```
Again, starting and stopping dropbox@avk won’t help. Creating an empty `.dropbox-dist` in `~` did not change anything.

Just running `dropbox` from the command line gives:

```
dropbox: locating interpreter
dropbox: logging to /tmp/dropbox-antifreeze-2DCxPl
dropbox: initializing
dropbox: initializing python 3.7.5
dropbox: setting program path '/opt/dropbox/dropbox'
dropbox: setting python path '/opt/dropbox:/opt/dropbox/python-packages.zip'
dropbox: python initialized
dropbox: running dropbox
dropbox: setting args
dropbox: applying overrides
dropbox: running main script
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._constant_time.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._openssl.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._padding.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/psutil._psutil_linux.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/psutil._psutil_posix.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/apex._apex.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/tornado.speedups.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/PyQt5.QtWidgets.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/PyQt5.QtCore.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/PyQt5.QtGui.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/PyQt5.QtNetwork.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/opt/dropbox/PyQt5.QtDBus.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
```

And then, it stops and does nothing (no return to the command prompt, as if it were freezing).

What information can I send you in order to diagnose the long-lasting trouble that eludes existing solutions?

Yours sincerely,
Vladimir.

  • Hello again.

    I managed to find the solution. It was very easy. The problem was, the ‘XApp Status Applet’ (xapp-status) was not enabled. Cinnamon is using XApp.StatusIcon (replacing the deprecated Gtk.StatusIcon in GNOME 3.26+) to pass information through dbus in multiple desktop environments. Linux Mint is warning users that it should be added upon the first launch via MintReport, but not Arch.

    After adding it to the applet panel, the Dropbox icon appeared after restarting the dæmon.

    I updated the Arch Wiki page as well.

    Thank you for the involvement and support, now the ticket can be closed.

7 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hey Fifis, thanks the descriptive post and for the troubleshooting you've carried out so far - great work!

     

    Just to make sure that we can have a better look into this, could you also try running the current stable version of the desktop app (96.4.172)? 

     

    To do this, you'll have to first go to your General tab from the website and make sure that Early Releases aren't checked. 

     

    If this doesn't work out for you, could you check your support options for contacting our team from here

     

    Let me know of any updates - cheers!

    • Fifis's avatar
      Fifis
      Helpful | Level 6

      Dear Lucil,

      Thank you for your prompt reply.

      In brief: your suggestion to downgrade to 96.4.172 did not work, the icon did not appear. However, a different error message appeared not.

      Not so in brief: I unchecked the ‘Early release’ option, as you told me to, purged everything (including .dropbox and .dropbox-dist), installed it anew, and witnessed this strange behaviour. It is syncing:

      ~ > dropbox-cli status
      Syncing 2,336 files • 35 mins
      Uploading 1 file...
      Downloading 2,335 files (9,891 KB/sec, 35 mins)

      However, the version number won’t appear if asked for:

      ~ > dropbox-cli version
      Dropbox daemon version: Not installed
      Dropbox command-line interface version: 2020.03.04

      When invoked not via `dropbox-cli version` but rather via `dropbox --version`, it threw an error message about permissions and asked me to show it to the tech support—but at least it reports the version number:

      bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
      bn.VERSION: 96.4.172
      bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 37
      bn.is_frozen: True
      machine_id: 4c041ec0-71fc-43bc-a215-a51041f2499e
      pid: 2042
      ppid: 1438
      ppid exe: '/usr/bin/zsh'
      uid: 1000
      user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='avk', pw_passwd='x', pw_uid=1000, pw_gid=1000, pw_gecos='', pw_dir='/home/avk', pw_shell='/bin/zsh')
      effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='avk', pw_passwd='x', pw_uid=1000, pw_gid=1000, pw_gecos='', pw_dir='/home/avk', pw_shell='/bin/zsh')
      euid: 1000
      gid: 1000
      egid: 1000
      group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='avk', gr_passwd='x', gr_gid=1000, gr_mem=[])
      effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='avk', gr_passwd='x', gr_gid=1000, gr_mem=[])
      LD_LIBRARY_PATH: None
      cwd: '/home/avk'
      real_path='/home/avk'
      mode=0o40755 uid=1000 gid=1000
      parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
      HOME: '/home/avk'
      appdata: '/home/avk/.dropbox'
      real_path='/home/avk/.dropbox'
      mode=0o40755 uid=1000 gid=1000
      parent mode=0o40755 uid=1000 gid=1000
      dropbox_path: None
      not found
      parent not found
      sys_executable: '/opt/dropbox/dropbox'
      real_path='/opt/dropbox/dropbox'
      mode=0o100755 uid=0 gid=0
      parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
      trace.__file__: '/opt/dropbox/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
      real_path='/opt/dropbox/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
      not found
      parent not found
      tempdir: '/tmp'
      real_path='/tmp'
      mode=0o41777 uid=0 gid=0
      parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
      Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 8145, in main_startup
      File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 3287, in run
      File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 1553, in startup_low
      File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 1392, in _parse_command_line_flags
      File "getopt.pyc", line 93, in getopt
      File "getopt.pyc", line 157, in do_longs
      File "getopt.pyc", line 174, in long_has_args
      getopt.GetoptError: option --version not recognized

      This is all very strange since while the error message says it is indeed `bn.VERSION: 96.4.172`, it fails to detect `/home/avk/Dropbox ` as the home directory.

      The bottom line is, the tray icon is nowhere to be seen.

      I went to the support page, and there were 3 options: Live chat, Email, and Community. This is how I ended up here contacting you—are you suggesting changing it to Email or Live chat to get further assistance?

      • Lusil's avatar
        Lusil
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Thanks for the additional info, Fifis

         

        You could try an advanced reinstall to see if that does the trick. 

         

        If it doesn't, I'd recommend sending a ticket to our team due to account-specific info that may be needed, so that they can have a better look into this for you.

         

        In this case, you can also let me know the ID (eg. #1234567) that'll be created so that I can pass your comments along on the ticket. 

         

        Let me know how it goes. Cheers!

         

        PS. For any other users reading this, who are facing the same issue, please note that if you're on a Basic (free) account, there's a three device limit and you'll have to make sure that you've got less than three devices connected to proceed.

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!