Nixpkgs: Dropbox crashes some time after syncing files

[fikovnik]

Issue description

Dropbox crashes some time after it synced files with the following error message:

IOError: zipimport: can not open file /home/krikava/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-39.4.49/python-packages-27.zip

Steps to reproduce

1. Install dropbox (used the version in master because of #31741)
2. Link your account
3. Wait for it to crash

Technical details

$ nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 4.9.63, NixOS, 17.09.2138.48bf1f43cd (Hummingbird)`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 1.11.15`
 - channels(krikava): `"unstable-18.03pre120540.b8f7027360"`
 - channels(root): `"nixos-17.09.2138.48bf1f43cd"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs`

[chekoopa]

Same.

[user@ckopo-nix:~]$ nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 4.9.65, NixOS, 18.03pre121253.2f1a818d00 (Impala)`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 1.11.15`
 - channels(root): `"nixos-18.03pre121253.2f1a818d00"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs`

[league]

Same/similar? I'll include some of my log. Looks like it's trying to download its own versions of dependencies. I nuked the ~/.dropbox and ~/.dropbox-dist right before this, to see if I could reset it. No luck.

Dec 10 16:41:08 ananke dropbox[15698]: Please visit XXXXXXX to link this device.
Dec 10 16:41:09 ananke dropbox[15698]: This computer is now linked to Dropbox. Welcome Christopher
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: locating interpreter
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: logging to /tmp/dropbox-antifreeze-hEryEx
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: initializing
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: running python 2.7.11
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: setting program path '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/dropbox'
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: setting home path '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46'
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: setting python path '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46:/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/python-packages-27.zip'
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: python initialized
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: running dropbox
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: setting args
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: applying overrides
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: running main script
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._constant_time.so'
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._openssl.so'
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._padding.so'
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/psutil._psutil_linux.so'
Dec 10 16:41:30 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/psutil._psutil_posix.so'
Dec 10 16:41:31 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/linuxffi.pthread._linuxffi_pthread.so'
Dec 10 16:41:31 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/tornado.speedups.so'
Dec 10 16:41:31 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/cpuid.compiled._cpuid.so'
Dec 10 16:41:31 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/linuxffi.resolv.compiled._linuxffi_resolv.so'
Dec 10 16:41:31 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/posixffi.libc._posixffi_libc.so'
Dec 10 16:41:31 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/librsyncffi.compiled._librsyncffi.so'
Dec 10 16:41:31 ananke dropbox[15698]: dropbox: load fq extension '/tmp/.dropbox-dist-new-w1MLg7/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-40.4.46/linuxffi.sys.compiled._linuxffi_sys.so'
Dec 10 16:41:33 ananke dropbox[15698]: /bin/sh: /home/league/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd: No such file or directory
Dec 10 16:41:33 ananke systemd[1]: dropbox.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Dec 10 16:41:33 ananke systemd[1]: dropbox.service: Unit entered failed state.
Dec 10 16:41:33 ananke systemd[1]: dropbox.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

[league]

I may have a workaround. One previous version that was working for me was 38.4.27. According to reports here, 39.4.49 and 40.4.46 may be broken. (The version listed in the nixpkgs tree is not reliable, because the system auto-updates using your ~/.dropbox-dist directory).

If you can get the working version installed in your ~/.dropbox-dist, you can prevent the auto-update by removing write permission. I actually did sudo chown -R root ~/.dropbox-dist, but maybe just a chmod -w would be the same.

It seems that if it can't write to that directory, it will avoid the auto-update. However, you do need some version installed in that directory or it won't start. Yuck.

The idea came from this thread: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox/Disable-automatic-updates/idi-p/2835

[jchapuis]

Same issue here:

 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 4.9.78, NixOS, 18.03pre126729.2e4aded3669 (Impala)`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 1.11.16`
 - channels(root): `"nixos-18.03pre126729.2e4aded3669"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs`

[olejorgenb]

Rant follows (sorry): Dropbox have really been a pita on linux and especially on NixOS. Can't blame dropbox for all the problems on NixOS, but it doesn't exactly help to update the client 10+ times a year, killing links to old versions and refuse to talk to more than a couple of version old clients... Extra frustrating when the client from a user perspective have stayed the same for many years(?) Regularly consuming 500MB+ doesn't help either..

Anyone found a decent replacement? I've toyed with hubic (semi-working nix file) and so far it seems ok, but the linux client is still beta and haven't had an update in years :/

[fikovnik]

I used Dropbox via docker. That worked well although no docker icon in a taskbar and no file manager integration.

[league]

Yeah. I just switched dropbox over to docker the other day too. This software is just too much headache for NixOS. If anyone wants details, I'm using this image: https://hub.docker.com/r/janeczku/dropbox/

and I have these aliases:

alias dropbox="docker exec -it dropbox dropbox"
alias dropbox-start="docker run -d --restart=always --name=dropbox \
  -v /home/league/Dropbox:/dbox/Dropbox \
  -v /home/league/.dropbox:/dbox/.dropbox \
  -e DBOX_UID=1000 -e DBOX_GID=100 janeczku/dropbox"

The container seems to survive suspending (and rebooting?) though one time it seemed to not be able to find its way back onto the network, so it stopped syncing. I just did docker stop dropbox and then reran dropbox-start.

[va1entin]

@league Thanks for your comment. The "native" dropbox client is just unusable.
I've put your aliases into my configuration.nix but I am unable to install the actual dropbox daemon inside the container. When I run docker exec -it dropbox dropbox start it tells me that it needs to download the dropbox daemon first but the container restarts every 10 seconds or so, so I am unable to actually finish this process.

EDIT:
I found the issue myself. ~/Dropbox and ~/.dropbox must not be present, when starting the container with the alias above. Otherwise dropbox will continously crash and thus restart the container.

The error (logged to /tmp/dropbox_error*.txt inside the container) says:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6364, in main_startup
  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 2456, in run
  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 1461, in startup_low
  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 1044, in safe_makedirs
  File "os.pyc", line 150, in makedirs
  File "os.pyc", line 150, in makedirs
  File "os.pyc", line 157, in makedirs
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/val'

[wedens]

I can confirm that nothing have improved in latest versions.

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