When I log into my user account on Ubuntu 10.10, there is a unsatisfying delay before my system becomes usable. Even launching a terminal, I have to wait a few seconds before the bash prompt appears. During this start-up period, the top process seems to be dropbox. I'm not sure what it's doing exactly (functionality is still fine as far as I can see), but I do know it really doesn't need to be doing it while I'm waiting for desktop to appear. (This is the standard Ubuntu with Gnome desktop, by the way.)
What I would like to do is to be able to have a static or even dependency-based delay for dropbox to start. It would be nice if it waited for, e.g., 10 minutes, or for my browser tabs to load and a typing pause. Then it could churn away on file status or cache-chewing, and I would be happy.
Is there a way to do this? Thanks!
Best Answer
First, disable Dropbox from starting on login.
Open up the DropBox preferences and uncheck Start Dropbox on system startup:
Now we will manually add Dropbox to the list of applications that run on login.
Open up System ➜ Preferences ➜ Startup Applications and click on Add to add a new entry.
Use
Dropbox
for the name andbash -c "sleep 10m && dropbox start -i"
for the command, and then click Add to save it.That's it, now Dropbox won't start until 10 minutes after you have logged in.