Hi,

I'm having a problem with searching emails in kmail 5.2.3 (Plasma 5.7.2, KDE Frameworks 5.24.0, Qt 5.6.1, opensuse Tumbleweed). I can enter whatever I want, I won't get any search results.

I've removed all baloo* akonadi* files from .config and .local and restarted akonadi and baloo, which led to a reindexing of all files. I could see the akonadi indexing agent work in akonadiconsole and the file search is working perfectly. Interestingly, .local/share/baloo/ contains only two files: "index" and "index-lock". I think previously, there was a subfolder "files" and from some googling I get the impression that there should be a subfolder "emails". Both are not there.

If I click on the maintenance tab for any folder, kmail says that e.g. 58/58 files are indexed. Sometimes this number is higher, i.e .981 indexed, 979 items in folder.

If I have no search folders and start a search, kmail shows a popup stating that it can't connect to the akonadi service. This happens only once, all subsequent searches just stay empty.

Below is what I get in akonadiconsole debugger when issuing a search:

Code: Select all

kmail2-1186278907 (0x27a52d0) 15 { Command: "FetchTags" Tags: "UID " Attributes: "QSet(TAG)" ID only: "false" }
kmail2-1186278907 (0x27a52d0) 15 { Response: "FetchTags" Error Code: "0" Error Msg: "" ID: "-1" Parent ID: "-1" GID: "" Type: "" Remote ID: "" Attributes: "QMap()" }
kmail2-1186278907 (0x27a52d0) 16 { Command: "FetchCollections" Collections: "UID 1" Depth: "1" Resource: "" Mimetypes: "()" Ancestors Depth: "0" Ancestors Attributes: "QSet()" Enabled: "true" Sync: "false" Display: "false" Index: "false" Status: "false" }
kmail2-1186278907 (0x27a52d0) 16 { Response: "FetchCollections" Error Code: "0" Error Msg: "" ID: "432" Name: "OpenInvitations" Parent ID: "1" Remote ID: "" Remote Revision: "" Resource: "akonadi_search_resource" Mimetypes: "(application/x-vnd.akonadi.calendar.event, application/x-vnd.akonadi.calendar.todo, application/x-vnd.akonadi.calendar.journal)" Statistics: { Count: "-1" Unseen: "-1" Size: "-1" } Search Query: "{ "limit": -1, "negated": false, "rel": 1, "subTerms": [ { "cond": 0, "key": "partstatus", "negated": false, "value": "c.saemann@hw.ac.uk0" }, { "cond": 0, "key": "partstatus", "negated": false, "value": "christian.saemann@gmx.de0" }, { "cond": 0, "key": "partstatus", "negated": false, "value": "csaemann@gmail.com0" } ] } " Search Collections: "QVector(0)" Cache Policy: { Inherit: "true" Interval: "-1" Cache Timeout: "-1" Sync on Demand: "false" Local Parts: "(ALL)" } Ancestors: { } Attributes: "QMap((AccessRights, luD)(ENTITYDISPLAY, ("Offene Einladungen" "" "" ()))(PERSISTENTSEARCH, (QUERYSTRING "{\n \"limit\": -1,\n \"negated\": false,\n \"rel\": 1,\n \"subTerms\": [\n {\n \"cond\": 0,\n \"key\": \"partstatus\",\n \"negated\": false,\n \"value\": \"c.saemann@hw.ac.uk0\"\n },\n {\n \"cond\": 0,\n \"key\": \"partstatus\",\n \"negated\": false,\n \"value\": \"christian.saemann@gmx.de0\"\n },\n {\n \"cond\": 0,\n \"key\": \"partstatus\",\n \"negated\": false,\n \"value\": \"csaemann@gmail.com0\"\n }\n ]\n}\n" QUERYCOLLECTIONS (0))))" Display: "Undefined" Sync: "Undefined" Index: "Undefined" Enabled: "true" Virtual: "true" Referenced: "false" }
kmail2-1186278907 (0x27a52d0) 16 { Response: "FetchCollections" Error Code: "0" Error Msg: "" ID: "433" Name: "DeclinedInvitations" Parent ID: "1" Remote ID: "" Remote Revision: "" Resource: "akonadi_search_resource" Mimetypes: "(application/x-vnd.akonadi.calendar.event, application/x-vnd.akonadi.calendar.todo, application/x-vnd.akonadi.calendar.journal)" Statistics: { Count: "-1" Unseen: "-1" Size: "-1" } Search Query: "{ "limit": -1, "negated": false, "rel": 1, "subTerms": [ { "cond": 0, "key": "partstatus", "negated": false, "value": "c.saemann@hw.ac.uk2" }, { "cond": 0, "key": "partstatus", "negated": false, "value": "christian.saemann@gmx.de2" }, { "cond": 0, "key": "partstatus", "negated": false, "value": "csaemann@gmail.com2" } ] } " Search Collections: "QVector(0)" Cache Policy: { Inherit: "true" Interval: "-1" Cache Timeout: "-1" Sync on Demand: "false" Local Parts: "(ALL)" } Ancestors: { } Attributes: "QMap((AccessRights, luD)(ENTITYDISPLAY, ("Abgelehnte Einladungen" "" "" ()))(PERSISTENTSEARCH, (QUERYSTRING "{\n \"limit\": -1,\n \"negated\": false,\n \"rel\": 1,\n \"subTerms\": [\n {\n \"cond\": 0,\n \"key\": \"partstatus\",\n \"negated\": false,\n \"value\": \"c.saemann@hw.ac.uk2\"\n },\n {\n \"cond\": 0,\n \"key\": \"partstatus\",\n \"negated\": false,\n \"value\": \"christian.saemann@gmx.de2\"\n },\n {\n \"cond\": 0,\n \"key\": \"partstatus\",\n \"negated\": false,\n \"value\": \"csaemann@gmail.com2\"\n }\n ]\n}\n" QUERYCOLLECTIONS (0))))" Display: "Undefined" Sync: "Undefined" Index: "Undefined" Enabled: "true" Virtual: "true" Referenced: "false" }
kmail2-1186278907 (0x27a52d0) 16 { Response: "FetchCollections" Error Code: "0" Error Msg: "" ID: "-1" Name: "" Parent ID: "-1" Remote ID: "" Remote Revision: "" Resource: "" Mimetypes: "()" Statistics: { Count: "-1" Unseen: "-1" Size: "-1" } Search Query: "" Search Collections: "QVector()" Cache Policy: { Inherit: "true" Interval: "-1" Cache Timeout: "-1" Sync on Demand: "false" Local Parts: "()" } Ancestors: { } Attributes: "QMap()" Display: "Undefined" Sync: "Undefined" Index: "Undefined" Enabled: "true" Virtual: "false" Referenced: "false" }
kmail2-1186278907 (0x27a52d0) 17 { Command: "StoreSearch" Name: "Letzte Suche" Query: "{ "limit": -1, "negated": false, "rel": 0, "subTerms": [ { "negated": false, "rel": 1, "subTerms": [ { "cond": 5, "key": "subject", "negated": false, "value": "skype" } ] } ] } " Mimetypes: "(message/rfc822)" Query Collections: "QVector()" Remote: "false" Recursive: "false" }


Any help with this would be very much appreciated.

Are you using locally stored messages (POP3, IMAP with "download messages for offline use") or online-only (IMAP) accounts?

Thanks for your reply. I'm only using pop3 accounts, all the email is in local maildir folders (./local/share/local-mail). I've tried resetting everything by deleting all kontact, kmail and akonadi .config and .local/share folders. This hasn't changed anything concerning the search, but now akonadi-server seems to crash regularly while reading email folders. Also, occasionally, I have to run a killall mysqld after startup to be able to restart akonadi.

There's a file 'akonadiserver.error.old' in .local/share/akonadi, which is updated each time this happens. The content is:
"[\n0: akonadiserver() [0x574fe6]\n1: akonadiserver() [0x575300]\n2: /lib64/libc.so.6(+0x349f0) [0x7ffa5175a9f0]\n3: [0x7ffa20031080]\n]\n"

I've reinstalled all akonadi-related packages as well as glibc for openSUSE Tumbleweed, but no changes.

It seems my setup is quite broken, but I'm not sure what to do beyond deleting all possible .config and .local/share files.

Currently, I'm waiting for the next update to KDE to come to Tumbleweed (should be Thursday or so), and hope that my bugs vanish. Any help would be greatly appreciated, though.

16.08 has been accepted today. Please update and report whether you still have the issue. OTOH, 16.08 should come with a button that allows you to force-reindex a folder.

Thanks for the reply. I've updated to 16.08, restarted the computer to be sure, but searching still yields no results. Also the other problem persists: After starting up, a mysqld daemon is started. Once I open Kontact, I can read emails for 20 secs or so, then it says that akonadi is not running properly and a second mysqld daemon is started. Once I issue a killall mysqld and open akonadiconsole, things work again, except for the search that is.

OK, I can give some more details: What I described in the first post still holds. That is, when I delete all previous search folders, kontact complains after issuing a search request that it can't connect to the akonadi-service (Not quite sure about the terminology, translating from German). This also leads to a second mysqld being spawned. Then kontact can't access any emails until I killall myqld and restart akonadi. All following search requests just lead to no results.

Also, the regular restarting of akonadi (i.e. Kmail goes blank for half a second and all folders/emails are updated) also still happens.

The searching functionality should be disabled by default and hidden to the users until it works.

It will not work for quite some time and it hasn't been working the way it should be since kmail2 has been introduced . many many years ago.

The UI to create searches is inconsistent and the search folders created can't be modified after the first search - which makes them static, inflexibel at best and useless for more refined searches. The designation of features without really adding the feature is a KDE fashion - don't fall for it.

Many bugs reports are open - I do not think anyone is working on them ...

My advice is: forget about searching in Kmail2 - it won't be easy to fix and I would not recommend on relying on it in any meaningful way.

p.

The UI to create searches is inconsistent and the search folders created can't be modified after the first search - which makes them static, inflexibel at best and useless for more refined searches.

This is, IIRC, at least been partially fixed. I don't use search folders often because the quick search is usually good enough.

That would be really good news!

Though I tested with the latest updates and in contrast to the "what's new" release notes I could not find any improvement. But you are right about the quick search - this has improved in reliability but for anything more complex you should really be able to add or change search criteria after the initial search.

The reason why I am frustrated with the state of the search here is that on the one side thunderbird, opera, evolution (to name a few) do it reliably since 10 years and if I remember correctly this worked in the old kmail without any issues as well. On the other hand it should be clear If you do not want to go back to the ancient concept to filter your mail into a hierarchy of dozens of indvidual folders than dynamic folders are the proven and established way to go.

I really get that things aren't finished - it's open source after all - but I do not get why anyone can think it's a good idea to reveal features to the end user which are not or just partially working. Things like these (unfinished and buggy features which are built in and then neglected for years) are the main reason KDE gets so much criticism - it's one thing (from a user's perspective) to simply miss a feature or to have a feature which is not really usable and trying to make it work and check it out after each and every update of the KDE iteration.

I get that developers as tech focused people are not really inclined to consider social and psychological implications of what they do - but a little social intelligence and empathy for the perspective, struggles and frustrations of regular users could go a long way within the community.

Wise up, KDE!

thanks for reading,
p.