Dropbox not working (New Linux User)

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1

Hello, Linux noob here, just installed Manjaro as my first distro a week ago, and loving it so far. I’m having trouble getting DropBox working properly though–could anybody help?

I did a headless install first, using the instructions on the Dropbox install webpage.
This actually did work, resulting in my entire Dropbox folder being cloned on my harddrive. However, it is not syncing at all, and I don’t have the dropbox icon in my menubar. When I search my system for Dropbox, the only result is a file called dropbox_2020.03.04_amd64.deb – so it seems the dropbox app is not actually installed on my system (I guess this is what a “headless install” means?) If there is a terminal command to initiate the sync, I could do that, but would better if it would sync automatically like it did when I ran MacOS.

I also tried installing properly from the AUR using the instructions from the Linux Hint website (an article named Install Dropbox Arch Linux)
Cloning from the git repository resulted in a second Dropbox folder being added to my home folder (I now have a “Dropbox” and a “dropbox” folder). However, the folder cloned from git is missing some of the files shown on that tutorial website (check_ver.sh, namcap-dropbox.patch, dropbox.desktop, dropbox.png) and when I run “makepkg -s” as the next step, I get an error message saying it “can’t find the fakeroot binary”

in case it makes a difference, I’m running a 2011 MacBook Air with the following Manjaro install:

Kernel 5.8.18-1-MANJARO
OS Type 64 bit
KDE Plasma 5.20.2
KDE Frameworks 5.75
QT version 5.15.1

Any ideas on how I can fix this? Thanks in advance!

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Use the AUR to install dropbox with the command pamac build dropbox make sure you follow the pinned comment here

Try to revert everything you did so far.

Or do as @sawdoctor says :point_down:

3

I know its not the solution but the flatpak version of Dropbox works perfectly. It does save a lot of hassle which is why I used it

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This is super, thanks for the quick replies! I’ll give it a shot and report back if there are any issues.

Yeah, I realize in retrospect I kind of rushed to install Dropbox when I first got this computer loaded with Manjaro. I didn’t even realize that I should be using Pamac in fact, and have been using Pacman all along. >.< Taking some time to read the user manual this week before loading anything else.

Thanks again!

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And it worked! Thanks again. :slight_smile:

1 Like
6

Using pacman is preferred but dropbox is an AUR package and cant be installed with pacman. For AUR packages use pamac or an AUR helper.