Fixing the Dropbox start-up problem with Fedora Linux

I noticed Fedora 15 takes a longer time to connect to the internet than my last Linux operating system, Ubuntu. This causes problems for Dropbox when it is set to automatically start with your computer. When Dropbox starts up and it cannot find an internet connection, it will get stuck at connecting and won't sync your Dropbox folder contents.

The simple solution is to delay Dropbox from starting start up. Okay. First we have to stop Dropbox from starting up. Bring up the Dropbox preferences and uncheck "Start Dropbox at system startup".

Click picture for a larger image

Next we have to bring up the start-up manager. Click Alt + F2 to bring up the  run command dialogue and type in "gnome-session-properties", and click enter.

From the "Startup Application Preferences" GUI  select "Add".

In the field name, type in "Dropbox" and in the field command type in the following command:


bash -c "sleep 30s && dropbox start -i"

Don't forget to click Save.

This will delay Dropbox from starting up for 30 seconds which should allow your computer to connect to he internet before Dropbox launches. If you need a longer period of delay you can use the following commands:

45 seconds: bash -c "sleep 45s && dropbox start -i"
1 minute:  bash -c "sleep 1m && dropbox start -i"

Reboot. Dropbox should now be working fine.