Fixing dropbox 100% CPU starting Ubuntu 2016

Uninstalled and reinstalled dropbox using followed instructions here:

https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/246

Specifically:

Add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dropbox.list
(Replace trusty with your build's name below.)

deb http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu trusty main 
 
To import our GPG keys into your apt repository, perform the following command from your terminal shell:

$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 1C61A2656FB57B7E4DE0F4C1FC918B335044912E


"Removed" user installed dropboxd using followed instructions here:

mv ~/.dropbox-dist ~/.dropbox-dist_old

Ask dropbox to reinstall the dropboxd in the userspace

dropbox start -i


Now things are working!

Install XBMC PPA on Ubuntu

The XBMC version 11.0 is released and available from the team-xbmc PPA for Ubuntu (tested for Ubuntu 11.10)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc

After install, here's how I got my environment set up:

• Setup -> Skin -> Subtitles Addon -> Install XBMC Subtitles Addon

Add new user on Ubuntu/Linux command line

useradd -m -s /bin/bash userName
passwd userName

distutils/setuptools python setup.py install -> automatic .deb generation

I used the python-stdeb in the ubuntu 10.04 repo to install itself using the
newest version from the git repo:

http://github.com/astraw/stdeb.git

Steps:

1) Add the following to ~/.pydistutils.cfg:

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
[global]
command-packages: stdeb.command
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

2) If necessary, edit a stdeb.cfg file which contains the options for debian/control.
The stdeb git repo already has a sensible stdeb.cfg file, but for another project,
the following might be appropriate:

[DEFAULT]
Depends: python-numpy
XS-Python-Version: >= 2.6
Provides: python-myproject


3) python setup.py bdist_deb

4) dpkg -i deb_dist/python-stdeb_0.6.0+git-1_all.deb

NB: comparing that .deb
with the one in the
apt cache:
/var/cache/apt/archives/python-stdeb_0.5.1-1_all.deb

Shows similar install paths ... so I think everythings ok

NB:
Another possibility would be:
$ sudo checkinstall --install=no python setup.py install

But I suppose stdeb is more savvy in its pythonic ways ...

MySQL server on Ubuntu or debian

To setup a mysql server on my ubuntu 9.10 box, I followed this guide:

http://library.linode.com/databases/mysql/ubuntu-9.10-karmic

But connecting from another host gave me the following error:

$ mysql -u mysqluser -p --host=myhost.com

ERROR 2003 (HY000): Can't connect to MySQL server on 'myhost.com' (111)

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/access-denied.html

The above link indicates this is a network error.

http://www.aboutdebian.com/database.htm

Referring to the above link, I found to enable access I needed to edit /etc/mysql/my.cnf, specifically, change the bind-address from 127.0.0.1:

#bind-address = 127.0.0.1
bind-address = myhost.com

and restart mysqld:

$ /etc/init.d/mysql restart


Other useful MySQL links:

Adding users, etc.

MYSQL Docs - Access Privilege System

MySQL and SSL

Solution: Ubuntu upgrade 9.04->9.10 recovery after USB keyboard and mouse lost during package reconfig interaction

This is the most elegant and satisfying fix I experience to avoid a potentially serious problem ...

During the upgrade process from Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 to Karmic 9.10, The update-manager usually wants to interact with the user to configure packages. At some point during this process, my USB subsystem stopped working, and I could not interact with the dialogs via keyboard or mouse (tried, but PS/2 keyboard did not help. They are generally not hot pluggable). Perhaps one could reboot and resume the process, but this could also leave the system in a bad state. I could get ssh access no problem. Could I get control of the dialogs remotely?

The answer is NX, and the answer is a resounding YES!

I already had a NX server running on the box, so I merely had to follow this HOWTO to enable "desktop shadowing". After editing /usr/NX/etc/server.cfg, enabling Shadowing and restarting the NX server

$ /etc/init.d/nxserver restart

I was able to use the NX client to regain control of the update process. Viola!

For those of you who do not have NX installed already, here is a nice guide. One might have trouble installing the NX server with dpkg, as there would be a dpkg already running due to the upgrade process. In this case, one could install from source.

Another option would be to try and revive the USB subsystem, but this worked so quickly, I didn't need to go down that road.