Checkbox to "Start Dropbox on system startup" reverts to unchecked state

[rocinante333]

Issue:

Selecting the checkbox for "Start Dropbox on system startup" reverts back to unchecked state after closing the Preferences window.

Steps to Recreate:

Click the Dropbox icon in the system tray > Preferences
Check the box for "Start Dropbox on system startup"
Click Apply
Click OK
Go back into preferences and the box is unchecked

I've had this issue across the following distributions:

• PopOS 20.10 GNOME
• Manjaro GNOME
• Manjaro Cinnamon
• Manjaro KDE

Right now running Manjaro KDE with the following:

Operating System: Manjaro Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 5.20.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.76.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.8.18-1-MANJARO
OS Type: 64-bit

[wjt]

A workaround is to add a symbolic link yourself:

mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
ln -s /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications/com.dropbox.Client.desktop .config/autostart

I once tried to work out what that checkbox tries to do, with limited success. Ideally it would be wired up to org.freedesktop.portal.Background.RequestBackground.

[wjt]

I tried to hack around this by just calling RequestBackground from the launcher script in this repo. It fails because GNOME Shell only allows the foreground app to make that request.

Someone braver than me could work out how to:

1. monitor whatever the (closed-source) Dropbox app does when you check that checkbox; and
2. work out the XID (or Wayland equiv – does it work on Wayland?) of the Dropbox app window; then
3. call RequestBackground in response to that event, passing the window ID