[GNC] Gnucash on Dropbox

[Walt Haas]

I have GnuCash installed on two Linux computers, with the account files 
and logs in a Dropbox folder.  In both cases GnuCash was installed from 
the repo.  It has worked fine for years on one computer.  When I start 
GnuCash on the other, I get the message "GnuCash could not obtain the 
lock for ...gnucash".  Checking the account directory there is NO file 
*.LCK.  When I open anyway and try to save a change, I get the message 
"Could not write backup file..."  Testing the file permissions, I do 
indeed have write privilege for the account directory and can create and 
edit some random file in that directory.

When I look at the account directory with command line tools, I notice 
that no updated file has been written.  For some context, I see that 
there is NO file $HOME/.gnucash.  There is a $HOME/.config/gnucash 
directory but it is empty.  Could either of these play a role in telling 
GnuCash that the account is being edited by another user?  For more 
context, when I started GnuCash on the second computer I declined all 
offers to teach me.

Are there any directories involved?  I don't see any hidden directories 
in the accounts folder.

Thanks in advance for any help  -- Walt