Automatically Start Dropbox at Login
 

Hello... I am trying to figure out how to automatically start Dropbox at login (not startup). I am running Slackware 14 and using bash shell. The command that I use to start Dropbox is:

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

When I issue this command while I'm logged in it works fine.

I tried putting it in my /etc/rc.d/rc.local but when I rebooted it would continually error indicating that an account was not setup.

Is there a way to make it start when I log in?

Add the following to your ~/.bashrc file (if it does not exist, create it):

Hi Tifcg,
Add the entry in ~/.bash_profile, so it will executed after you login.
Just have a look at the following URL
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/10/...d-bash_logout/

Hi Mina86,
If you add it in .bashrc, it will be executed every time if you open a new shell or subshell. So if we want to execute only one time after the user login, add the entry in ~/.bash_profile or .bash_login

PS:- .bash_login will check only if .bash_profile not exist on the user home directory.

Try it without the "~" in rc.local

I don't have a ~/.bash_profile so I created one in my home directory and chmod it to 755. I added the ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd to it and rebooted but it didn't startup. I read the link http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/10/...d-bash_logout/ and it gave an example of the /etc/profile but it looks completely different than mine and I can't see where it would call the .bash_profile file. I am running bash shell though.

I was able to get it to work by creating rc.dropbox and editing rc.local. See the link below for the details. The link didn't mention that you have to chmod 755 the rc.dropbox and that the "username" variable refers to your local account name on the Linux box and not your Dropbox username.

http://henrysnotes.org/?p=589

That's why there's ps and grep which guarantees that the daemon is started unless it's already running.

You don't have to make it executable.

Yeah, it won't start after reboot, but only once you log in.

The file is automatically read by bash.

I understand that.. but why you want to add the entry in bashrc. We need to run that only once after the user login to the system.... not to run every time if the user go to a subshell or new console tab. If you add that in bashrc, it will check that every time, if the user open a tab or new shell. So .bash_profile is the best place for that script.

Why not? Also, it will restart the daemon should it die for whatever reason. Point is, it does not really matter that much.

Why don't you put a script launching the dropboxd daemon OR a .desktop file pointing to it under your ~/.config/autostart directory?
It was designed for these kind of tasks without resorting to other tricks...

Hi Mina86,
Try to understand the concept instead of arguing....I am stopping this. Your method is good, but what I am suggesting is that use the same code in .bash_profile instead of .bashrc.