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why and how to fix: ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd returns KILLED, `~/dropbox.py start` stops running within seconds

Posted September 28, 2016 3.7k views
UbuntuGetting StartedDigitalOcean Articles

followed this tutorial which worked until the end where Dropbox just wouldn’t stay on

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tono
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xMudrii September 28, 2016

Usually Killed signal is when it runs out of memory.
You can verify that by checking syslog files.
It is located at /var/log/syslog which you can open with favorite text editor:

  • nano /var/log/syslog

In this file, search for Out Of Memory killer warnings/errors. If you find any for it, that means your Droplet doesn’t have enough RAM memory to run it.

To fix it you can upgrade your Droplet or add swap as a free variant.

How To Add Swap Space on Ubuntu 16.04
by Justin Ellingwood
One of the easiest way of increasing the responsiveness of your server and guarding against out of memory errors in your applications is to add some swap space. In this guide, we will cover how to add a swap file to an Ubuntu 16.04 server. <$>[warning] [label...
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  • tono September 28, 2016

    I was afraid it might be a memory problem. The syslog file includes many lines like this: Out of memory: Kill process 5535 (dropbox) score 235

    But I wish I didn’t have to add swap or upgrade my droplet. It’s a brand-new droplet, and I wish to sync only a subset of my Dropbox directory — Could my droplet running out of memory because the whole of my Dropbox directory is being copied? Is there a way to configure the ‘Exclude’ list before starting Dropbox? I wouldn’t mind destroying this droplet and trying again from scratch.

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    • xMudrii September 28, 2016

      Sorry, this is field I can’t help you very much, as I never used Dropbox on Droplets.
      You didn’t specified which tutorial you followed, but there is How to setup Dropbox CLI by DigitalOcean.
      Look at Exclude part, you can try stopping service, excluding or even starting and ASAP excluding.
      I hope someone who used this can help you more than I can. ::)

      How To Install Dropbox Client as a Service on Ubuntu 14.04
      by Mitchell Anicas
      In this tutorial, we'll show you how to install the Dropbox client, and configure it to run as a headless service, on an Ubuntu 14.04 server. This will allow your server to connect to Dropbox so that you can keep a copy of your Dropbox files synchronized in the home directory on your server.
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      • tono September 28, 2016

        That’s exactly what i’ll be trying next: Since in order to Exclude directories has to be running, I’ll ASAP exclude with a wildcard that excludes everything before adding the directories I do want to sync. The second thing I’ll try will be to resize my droplet temporarily and see if that helps me manage my selective syncing on Dropbox so that I can resize back down. Thanks for the tip on swap space and syslog.

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