ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'gi'

Question

Upon trying to start dropbox, it prompts

$ dropbox start
Starting Dropbox...
The Dropbox daemon is not installed!
Run "dropbox start -i" to install the daemon

Following the instructions,

$ dropbox start -i
Starting Dropbox...Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/dropbox", line 1443, in start
    download()
  File "/usr/bin/dropbox", line 294, in download
    import gi
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'gi'

Then tried to install gi

$ pip install gi
Collecting gi
  Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement gi (from versions: )
No matching distribution found for gi

The version:

$ lsb_release  -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 19.04
Release:        19.04
Codename:       disco

Please edit your question and add which version of Ubuntu you are using, how you installed it, and which partition type /usr/bin/dropbox is set on. — graham, Jun 21 '19 at 06:17
Try sudo apt-get install python-gi or sudo apt-get install python3-gi — Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy, Jun 22 '19 at 06:01

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 25 '19 at 15:09

6

Make sure you don't have a conda environment enabled, including the root one, and run it as "sudo dropbox start -i"

answered Nov 25 '19 at 15:09

Andrew Wagner

416
6
15

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 28 '20 at 11:45

6

You can skip the GTK interface which will avoid loading this gi module. Run the dropbox script:

$ DISPLAY='' dropbox start -i

And you will get the messages in your console instead of GTK windows.

answered Nov 28 '20 at 11:45

marcaurele

161

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'gi'

2 Answers2