Change:
<del> { mkDerivation, stdenv, lib, fetchurl, makeDesktopItem , makeWrapper, patchelf , dbus_libs, fontconfig, freetype, gcc, glib , libdrm, libffi, libICE, libSM , libX11, libXcomposite, libXext, libXmu, libXrender, libxcb , libxml2, libxslt, ncurses, zlib , qtbase, qtdeclarative, qtwebkit, wmctrl }: </del> <ins> { stdenv, lib, buildFHSUserEnv, writeScript, makeDesktopItem }: </ins> <del> # this package contains the daemon version of dropbox # it's unfortunately closed source # # note: the resulting program has to be invoced as # 'dropbox' because the internal python engine takes # uses the name of the program as starting point. </del> <ins> let platforms = [ "i686-linux" "x86_64-linux" ]; in </ins> <del> # Dropbox ships with its own copies of some libraries. # Unfortunately, upstream makes changes to the source of # some libraries, rendering them incompatible with the # open-source versions. Wherever possible, we must try # to make the bundled libraries work, rather than replacing # them with our own. </del> <ins> assert lib.elem stdenv.system platforms; # Dropbox client to bootstrap installation. # The client is self-updating, so the actual version may be newer. </ins> let <del> ## Prefetch commands to run after update, from this directory: ## e.g. with Emacs: C-u M-x shell-command # nix-prefetch-url ../../../../ -A dropbox.src # nix-prefetch-url ../../../../ -A pkgsi686Linux.dropbox.src # NOTE: When updating, please also update in current stable, # as older versions stop working version = "37.4.29"; sha256 = { "x86_64-linux" = "0ymy8gb57bjq2mq35n52q2viww6am7wy0vskyvypliicggga8iaj"; "i686-linux"   = "0a7zir6x7z3ad71fj1iljc2l6x09f4wi40jfaiinf8ykx85cldw6"; }."${stdenv.system}" or (throw "system ${stdenv.system} not supported"); </del> <ins> version = "38.4.27"; </ins> arch = { "x86_64-linux" = "x86_64"; "i686-linux"   = "x86"; <del> }."${stdenv.system}" or (throw "system ${stdenv.system} not supported"); # relative location where the dropbox libraries are stored appdir = "opt/dropbox"; </del> <ins> }.${stdenv.system}; </ins> <del> libs = [ dbus_libs fontconfig freetype gcc.cc glib libdrm libffi libICE libSM libX11 libXcomposite libXext libXmu libXrender libxcb libxml2 libxslt ncurses zlib qtbase qtdeclarative qtwebkit ]; ldpath = stdenv.lib.makeLibraryPath libs; </del> <ins> installer = "https://clientupdates.dropboxstatic.com/dbx-releng/client/dropbox-lnx.${arch}-${version}.tar.gz"; in let </ins> desktopItem = makeDesktopItem { name = "dropbox"; exec = "dropbox";

Discussion:
When running Dropbox, it crashes immediately. The log reports: System: Nix version: Nixpkgs version: Git revision
There were some recent fixes in master, we should probably backport.
That git revision is .
It also says so how are you invoking dropbox?
Oh sorry, see updated steps to reproduce. I have a clone of in home, and I install into my user profile.
Possibly cc
I can't reproduce this, but I am running staging. That suggests there's some impurity in the package, I think. I don't think this commit is at fault; is really just a wrapper around , so the change is totally trivial.
Since I can't reproduce this, could you try my version of dropbox at ttuegel/nixpkgs
No dice there either I'm afraid :(
Ok, I found the problem, I seem to have a directory which contains binaries. If I nuke that, everything works again. I wonder if there's anything we can do about this...
Turns out I didn't find the problem, just made progress. If I remove dropbox does launch, sync, and then crashes in the same way as before :(
Yes, it crashes, when it auto updates itself. We need to find a way to disable dropbox auto updates. I just lost my hopes with dropbox, it's ugly piece of software, just run it in docker or something. V čet., 19. maj 2016 11:11 je oseba Oliver Charles napisala:
I was wondering if we might be better using a Steam-like chroot for it.
Unfortunately my laptop is now also unable to run dropbox. I wonder if a GC is enough to cause it to break?
This is still failing to work reliably, but here's a FHS user env for running the binary:
I think we may need to switch to using an FHS user environment for Dropbox in Nixpkgs, because I can't seem to get the latest version working any other way.
I think it's the way to go. I personally think anything that's shipped as a binary should probably go down the FHS path. , Thomas Tuegel <: