Cosmetic issue with Dropbox, possibly related to libdbusmenu-glib4

[kjkrum]

Dropbox does not display its menu correctly on Pop! OS 22.04. It does display correctly on vanilla Ubuntu 22.04. A warning message that appears in the console suggests that the difference may be in libdbusmenu-glib4. The warning suggests that Dropbox is doing something wrong. But perhaps libdbusmenu-glib4 should be more tolerant.

(dropbox:5713): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: 16:53:26.397: About to Show called on an item wihtout submenus. We're ignoring it.

Package version is libdbusmenu-glib4:amd64 16.04.1+18.10.20180917-0ubuntu8. But this came from jammy, so maybe the issue is in another package that uses it.

[n3m0-22]

I installed Dropbox using the .deb on their site https://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/ubuntu/dropbox_2020.03.04_amd64.deb. It is working fine for me.

My version of libdbusmenu-glib4 is the same as yours. I do see a message in the logs very similar to yours but without LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING ** in it.

Can you share a screenshot of how the menu is displaying incorrectly, and the output of apt policy dropbox.

[kjkrum]

I'm unable to attach a screenshot in png or jpg format. I keep getting an error message, "Something went really wrong, and we can't process that file."

The Dropbox menu on Pop! is missing a few items that are present on vanilla Ubuntu, including "Pause Syncing." Is that present in your menu, @n3m0-22? Also, the status displayed on Pop! is permanently stuck on Connecting... even though Dropbox is actually working.

[kjkrum]

$ apt policy nautilus-dropbox
nautilus-dropbox:
  Installed: 2019.02.14-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2019.02.14-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2019.02.14-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[kjkrum]

I uninstalled nautilus-dropbox, deleted my ~/.dropbox-dist, and installed the .deb from the Dropbox site. It made no difference. The .deb is just an installer for the proprietary daemon.

[n3m0-22]

Thanks for the added info. I believe am seeing the same thing as you.

Menu on Pop!_OS 22.04:

Menu on Ubuntu 22.04:

When starting from the terminal I am seeing the same output on both Pop!_OS and Ubuntu.

Starting Dropbox...dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._openssl.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._padding.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/apex._apex.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/psutil._psutil_linux.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/psutil._psutil_posix.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/tornado.speedups.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/wrapt._wrappers.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/PyQt5.QtCore.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/PyQt5.QtGui.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/PyQt5.QtWidgets.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
Dropbox isn't running!
Done!
user@user-Gazelle:~ $ dropbox: load fq extension '/home/user/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-166.4.2920/PyQt5.QtDBus.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'

(dropbox:8705): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: 14:00:53.805: About to Show called on an item wihtout submenus.  We're ignoring it.

The one place I see something different in the logs is a few lines like this in Pop.

Feb 07 12:19:47 pop-os ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.com[2905]: unable to update icon for dropbox-client-13784

If I run sudo dropbox start on occasion I see a slightly different menu, but noting on it can be clicked. Also it will only show up once.

I am still able to add and remove files and directories from Nautilus, so it is connected to Dropbox. I'm going to check with some older versions of Pop to see if I can track down the origin of this issue. @kjkrum do you happen to know when you first saw this so I can narrow down my search?

[kjkrum]

22.04 is the first version of Pop! I've used. Searching for the warning message (including the misspelling), I found references going back to 2018. Other popular software affected included Steam in 2020.

To reiterate, I think this is a Dropbox bug. I'm trying to work it from both ends. But it's odd that vanilla Ubuntu is more tolerant. I think it should be tolerant, because sloppy use of DBUS menus is apparently a widespread problem.

[dadoomer]

Contributing with another data point displaying the same behavior in the tray menu. Synching works fine.

I restarted dropbox after randomly clicking around the tray menu, and it now displays the snoozed notification state. So, it looks like clicking on buttons does do stuff.

[CarlosGrohmann]

A few months late to the topic, but just to say that I have the same issue with pop 22.04. No "pause", status always at "connecting". Also had the full pop-up menu with vanilla ubuntu.

[AleHD]

I am facing the same issues on Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS (always at "connecting" stage).

[mrfreen]

I'm having exactly this issue too. I'm on Pop!_OS 22.04, but I'm running the cinnamon desktop.
So maybe it is a bug with dropbox?
Not a show stopper, but annoying.

[leoheck]

I could manage to fix this on my machine for Ubuntu 22.04 by installing some gnome extensions. It was working fine after upgrading it to 22.10. Now it is not working again on 23.04 after a system upgrade.

This was my solution...
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Create-upload-and-share/Solved-Ubuntu-22-04-Dropbox-is-always-quot-Connecting-quot/m-p/600636/highlight/true#M53561

[keithfancher]

I could manage to fix this on my machine for Ubuntu 22.04 by installing some gnome extensions. It was working fine after upgrading it to 22.10. Now it is not working again on 23.04 after a system upgrade.

FWIW, I tried your workaround (the suggested gnome extension(s)), and did not solve the problem. Pop OS 22.04, fresh install.

I installed Dropbox via the deb on their site.

$ apt policy dropbox 
dropbox:
  Installed: 2020.03.04
  Candidate: 2020.03.04
  Version table:
 *** 2020.03.04 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[leoheck]

Yeah, sad, on Ubuntu 23.04 it is not working either.

This is my current version, by the way.

➜ apt policy dropbox 
dropbox:
  Installed: 2022.12.05
  Candidate: 2022.12.05
  Version table:
 *** 2022.12.05 500
        500 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu kinetic/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[kjkrum]

Being broken on vanilla Ubuntu might be a good thing. Dropbox has so far refused to acknowledge the problem because it worked on Ubuntu.

[leoheck]

I am afraid that Dropbox is not giving a single fuck for their users that use Linux/Gnome. This shit is like this for ages already.

[leviport]

I understand the frustration when something isn't working right, but please go easy on the profanity.

[mmstick]

Sometimes you need to show them (Dropbox) that you care about Linux by creating support tickets or emailing. Especially if you're paying for it.

[leoheck]

I understand the frustration when something isn't working right,

@leviport It is not that is not working fine. It is not working fine for ages, even for the users that pay for this thing. And they also don´t help us to fix the issue ourselves.

but please go easy on the profanity.

Why? Your religion is against profanity? You deal with the words the way you prefer. You should not be affected by words and you definitely should not be affected by words that are not for you. This is my kind advice.

Sometimes you need to show them (Dropbox) that you care about Linux by creating support tickets or emailing. Especially if you're paying for it.

@mmstick right, please, go there and check how many people did that and do that every day, and then we can continue the discussion here on how to fix this thing ourselves because they are not even trying to fix it.

[leviport]

Why? Your religion is against profanity? You deal with the words the way you prefer. You should not be affected by words and you definitely should not be affected by words that are not for you. This is my kind advice.

Because we have a code of conduct. I'm not personally offended at all. I'm a pretty profane person when I'm not in a professional setting. But this is a professional setting, and there are rules. Thank you for the advice, though.

[mmstick]

@leoheck If you think it's pointless to submit a complaint to Dropbox, then it's even more pointless to complain about it here. We aren't Dropbox's development team, so there's nothing we can do about issues in their software. Your only choice is to file a complaint with them.

[leoheck]

@mmstick what? I told you that there are tons of people (including me) doing this every time/day. I invite you to do the same if you haven't yet.

[kjkrum]

Let's keep the focus here on making DBUS menus more tolerant. Dropbox obviously sucks, but their app is not the only one with this kind of issue.