Dropbox daemon downloader freezes at 90+% on fresh Linux Mint 21.1

[Fifis]

Good afternoon!

I cannot install Dropbox on the freshly installation of Linux Mint 21.1 because the downloading of the daemon freezes after 91% or 93%. The download becomes unresponsive, and a python3 process takes 100% of one core. I have to kill it manually. Sometimes, it hangs the entire system. There is no .dropbox or .dropbox-dist folder in the home yet.

On the same machine, on the same Linux Mint 21.1 (that I have been upgrading from 18.3 gradually), it was working without a hindrance.

Console log:

Starting Dropbox.../usr/bin/dropbox:303: PyGIDeprecationWarning: Since version 3.11, calling threads_init is no longer needed. See: https://wiki.gnome.org/PyGObject/Threading
  GObject.threads_init()
/usr/bin/dropbox:453: PyGTKDeprecationWarning: Stock items are deprecated. Please use: Gtk.Button.new_with_mnemonic(label)
  self.ok = ok = Gtk.Button(stock=Gtk.STOCK_OK)
/usr/bin/dropbox:458: PyGTKDeprecationWarning: Stock items are deprecated. Please use: Gtk.Button.new_with_mnemonic(label)
  cancel = Gtk.Button(stock=Gtk.STOCK_CANCEL)
/usr/bin/dropbox:348: DeprecationWarning: setDaemon() is deprecated, set the daemon attribute instead
  t.setDaemon(True)
/usr/bin/dropbox:334: PyGIDeprecationWarning: GObject.idle_add is deprecated; use GLib.idle_add instead
  GObject.idle_add(self.loop_callback, *ret)
	Killed

System information:

  Kernel: 5.15.0-67-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.7
    tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy

How can I proceed with the installation of Dropbox?

Yours sincerely,

Andrew.

[Здравко]

Hi @Fifis,

Try following command:

cd ~ && curl -L https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64 | tar xzf - && dropbox start

Is it working now? 🤔

Hope this helps.

[Fifis · Accepted solution]

Hello!

Frankly, it must have been a heisenbug. I rebooted many times, downloaded the headless version, came home, retried... and the good old `dropbox_2020.03.04_amd64.deb` worked and is now syncing perfectly. It shall remain a mystery forever why it was not working... sorry for not being able to reproduce the problem, so it is solved now.

Maybe in the future, one may need to do something about the 'deprecated' warnings:

Starting Dropbox.../usr/bin/dropbox:303: PyGIDeprecationWarning: Since version 3.11, calling threads_init is no longer needed. See: https://wiki.gnome.org/PyGObject/Threading
  GObject.threads_init()
/usr/bin/dropbox:453: PyGTKDeprecationWarning: Stock items are deprecated. Please use: Gtk.Button.new_with_mnemonic(label)
  self.ok = ok = Gtk.Button(stock=Gtk.STOCK_OK)
/usr/bin/dropbox:458: PyGTKDeprecationWarning: Stock items are deprecated. Please use: Gtk.Button.new_with_mnemonic(label)
  cancel = Gtk.Button(stock=Gtk.STOCK_CANCEL)
/usr/bin/dropbox:348: DeprecationWarning: setDaemon() is deprecated, set the daemon attribute instead
  t.setDaemon(True)
/usr/bin/dropbox:334: PyGIDeprecationWarning: GObject.idle_add is deprecated; use GLib.idle_add instead
  GObject.idle_add(self.loop_callback, *ret)
/usr/bin/dropbox:344: PyGIDeprecationWarning: GObject.idle_add is deprecated; use GLib.idle_add instead
  GObject.idle_add(self.on_done)

After it reached 100%, it started loading the fq extensions without a hindrance. Thank you for your prompt reply!

Yours sincerely,

Andrew.

[steve m.5]

I had the same problem today, 18th July, and the same solution worked for me.