Question: I tried every solution from [How to run Dropbox daemon in background?](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/35624/how-to-run-dropbox-daemon-in-background) and nothing solves my problem:

Basically, I already installed dropbox on my Ubuntu 12.04LTS headless server. I got init.d setup but the problem is that right now I cannot restart the server (other users are using it actively).

So I am trying to start dropbox via SSH which works and dropbox starts to sync, but as soon as I disconnect from SSH dropbox stops runnning. I tried running it on a detached screen, using `($HOME/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd &)&` and they all stop when I log out from SSH. 

I tried doing service start but it seems not to work and I don't know why..?

```
$ sudo service dropbox start
[sudo] password: 
Starting dropbox...
$ dropbox status
Dropbox isn't running!

```

I followed the instructions:

```
sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/dropbox 
sudo update-rc.d dropbox defaults

```

from <http://www.dropboxwiki.com/tips-and-tricks/install-dropbox-in-an-entirely-text-based-linux-environment#debianubuntu> and I got no error messages. Please help. 

I don't care as much about starting the process at server restart, as long as I can launch dropbox via ssh and keep it runnning after i log out.

Thank you

UPDATE & ANSWER: thanks a lot for all your answers. Thanks to user [Nixgrrrl](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/146799/nixgrrrl)'s comment, I realize that it was because I was using ssh -X (the default on my system). As soon as I did normal ssh, trying the humble `dropbox start &` worked :)

Answer: 
Have a look here:

<https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/131973-dropbox-headless-workstation?page=1#entry-6076539>

A user mentioned:

> 
> Just thought I'd mention:
> 
> 
> (a) the latest distributions seem to make this fairly straightfoward,
>  just run `dropbox start` from the command line, BUT (b) watch out for
>  logging in and out with X11 forwarded.
> 
> 
> I've set up a lot of Bash aliases for connecting to various machines,
>  and they all include the `-X` option to forward X11 packets. Because
>  of this, Dropbox kept dying on my on logout, even running it under
>  `screen` and with `nohup`. Apparently, having X11 forwarded was causing
>  Dropbox to connect the dbus process on my local machine rather than on
>  the remote machine; so, when I broke the connection, Dropbox was
>  seeing dbus as having terminated and thus was terminating itself. 
> 
> 
> Just FYI, as this stumped me for a bit. The key was that I was having
>  to press `Ctrl`-`C` even after logging out / running `exit`
>  on the remote machine. Apparently, SSH was keeping the session open, even
>  though I had exited Bash, because of the remaining open connection.
> 
> 
> 

The solution is simple even if one (for some reason) wants to keep ssh-ing with the `-X`: before launching Dropbox you should "break" the forwarding for example doing:

```
$ unset DISPLAY

```

If this is done in a Bash script the forwarding is "broken" just inside the script but once this is executed the 'terminal' is still forwarding.
thanks a lot for all your answers. Thanks to user [Nixgrrrl](https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/146799/nixgrrrl)'s comment, I realize that it was because I was using ssh -X (the default on my system). As soon as I did normal ssh, trying the humble `dropbox start &` worked :)