Can't complete dropbox installation from behind proxy

Question

Problem:

My PC on campus sits behind a proxy (requiring authentication) and I can't setup Dropbox. I am convinced that this is a proxy issue as I can't setup Ubuntu one either (but I don't use Ubuntu One so that is not a problem). I have looked at the Ubuntu One fix but it seems to be to modify settings explicitly related to Ubuntu One. I can install the nautilus-dropbox package (compiled from source and from .deb package from website and from software centre) but once I click OK from the "Dropbox Installation" dialog box (prompting me to download the proprietary daemon) the installation just freezes with the OK button pressed. When I look at its process in System Monitor its waiting channel is inet_wait_for_connect.

I have set the following proxy directives thus far:

1. Added mj22:**@proxy.waikato.ac.nz:80 information to network proxy settings under network in settings.
2. Added http_host and http_port variables under gconf-editor->system->proxy
3. Added 'host', 'authentication_password' 'authentication_user' and ticked 'user authentication' and 'use_http_proxy' under gconf-editor->system->http_proxy
4. Added export http_proxy="http://mj22:**@proxy.waikato.ac.nz:80/" to /etc/bash.bashrc
5. Added Acquire::http::proxy "http://mj22:**@proxy.waikato.ac.nz:80/"; to /etc/apt/apt.conf (which is what I imagine is letting Software Center retrieve packages).

(where ** is my password)

I have also added the equivalent ftp and https lines for the above entries. I get the internet fine and Software Centre can download packages but thats it.

Related issues:

1. The software centre can't fetch reviews (but can download packages).
2. When trying to add an online account in Gnome 3 a dialog pop up appears with "Error getting a Request Token: Cannot connect to proxy (proxy.waikato.ac.nz)"

---

Updates:

After some time (10mins ish) Dropbox shows an error dialog box that reads:

Trouble connecting to Dropbox servers. Maybe your internet connection is down, or you need to set you http_proxy environment variable.

Is there a way I can see what environment variables are currently set?

Solution 1

sudo https_proxy="https://username:password@your_proxy:proxy_port" dropbox start -i

You have to run the deamon as root, and thus, you have to configure the proxy as root. Setting the httpS_proxy root env variable on invocation should be enough.

Solution 2

What is still missing is the installation of the Dropbox daemon. You can download and install it manually; this is documented at https://www.dropbox.com/install?os=lnx

32-bit:

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -

64-bit:

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -

Next, run the Dropbox daemon from the newly created .dropbox-dist folder.

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

Solution 3

In case it helps anyone, I had an issue with the proxy settings and although I had them set they weren't enabled:

You can see if they are enabled like this:

gsettings get org.gnome.system.proxy.http enabled

And enable them if they aren't like this:

gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.http enabled true

Solution 4

In case someone uses proxy that requires authentication:

sudo http_proxy=http://username:password@proxyhost:proxy_port dropbox start -i

worked for me!

View more solutions

Comments

[kikixx]

Running env in terminal should show you environment variables. Is http_proxy set there? If not you could try adding it with export http_proxy="mj22:**@proxy.waikato.ac.nz:80/"

[Mark Jones]

@kikixx. Yes. env shows both http_proxy=mj22:**@proxy.waikato.ac.nz:80/ and ftp_proxy=mj22:**@proxy.waikato.ac.nz:80/ are set. Should they appear with quotation marks as shown by env?

[kikixx]

Sorry Mark, it looks like the proxy settings are in a bit of a state in 11.10. After "applying system wide" can you check /etc/environment and confirm it is in there also? Last suggestion from me is to add the http_proxy variables to /system/proxy and /system/http_proxy in case it is checking legacy values.

[zipizap]

This didnt work for me... but Ingo Karkat solution did it :)

[RajaRaviVarma]

As of Feb-2014, http_proxy doesn't works, since the binary is expected to be downloaded from a secured web server. So https_proxy should be the right variable to use.

[Alessandro Cuttin]

sudo is not needed

[x__x]

Finally worked! Thanks also to RajaRaviVarma for the https info.

[horaceT]

@IngoKarkat This no longer works.

[Yixing]

Tested it without sudo and it works. I would prefer to do it without sudo since Dropbox puts the files in $HOME/.dropbox-dist, which shall be owned by the current user rather than root.