Hi,

I am in the process of upgrading from kubuntu 11.04 to kubuntu 11.10 "oneiric". My PC is arranged so that there is a separate data partition mounted on "/dat". The data partition, including the mail directory, has been shared by several distros on my PC over a period of several years. In particular, Mail is also shared by symbolic links pointing to a common Mail directory that has been used since 2004. For instance, in my kubuntu 11.04 partition the symbolic link is

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~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/mail -> /dat/Mail


The name of the mail directory ("Mail") is indicative how old my mail collection is; this system has served me well. Whenever a new distro with a new kmail was installed, all it was necessary to do was to change one symbolic link. The continuity of the mail record was ensured by a simple external backup of the /dat/Mail directory via

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rsync -av /dat/Mail/  /media/external_diskname/


I have the impression that nothing as simple, transparent and robust is no longer possible with kmail 4.7.2. - all data is somewhere deep inside a dbase of the Aconadi PIM system. I have read the excellent description of kmail2 migration procedure in
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OneiricOcelot/F ... ntu/Kmail2
which confirms the conclusions about the complexity of the new setup, yet I still hold a slim home that it may be possible to place data in a separate partition and link with symbolic links. Can you help?

It seems to me that the Akonadi or Akonadi like system is somewhat similar to the MSWindows "registry", with similar advantages and disadvantages that will make it very awkward to multiboot to different distros from one PC.

I would greatly appreciate if someone confirmed or rejected my conclusions.

OldAl.

I would greatly appreciate if someone confirmed or rejected my conclusions.

I can't offer any official or technical confirmation. But ... yes,
I now find my mail is stored in at least two different locations,
my traditional ~/.kde4/share/apps/kmail/mail and also - in
a rather cryptic way - in ~/.local/share/akonadi/file_db_data

This makes it impossible to synch the local mail of two computers
running kmail - because (apparently) akonadi does not simply
read the mail from these locations but performs some complex
database operations on them

I also find that if I, for example, copy mail (in kmail) from one
subfolder to another then *sometimes* the mail is copied
in ~/.kde4/share/apps/kmail/mail and other times is copied
into the file_db_data

I have heard that in the by-and-by all mail will be stored via
akonadi. I have come to doubt that (a) this will happen in my
lifetime and (2) it will improve kmail

So I switched to thunderbird, where I find that synching between
computers is trivial (all mail in one location), mail filters acually
work, mail search doesn't mysteriously miss some messages,
opening, closing and all operations are much faster than in
kmail, etc. Also, I can run thunderbird over an ssh link from
anywhere whereas the new kmail is unbelievably slow over
ssh plus things mess up over the network with akonadi.

On the other hand, because of the mess that the
akonadi stuff made of my mail, migrating mail to thunderbird
was a little time consuming.

So I switched to thunderbird, where I find that synching between
computers is trivial (all mail in one location),

Thank you for your reply with a confirmation. It would help me if I knew that "one location". Could you post it here or just send it to one of my email addresses, pleae: algis.kabaila@gmail.com

Your willingness to share your experience is greatly appreciated. Sharing is the real value of forums such as this.

Sincerely,

OldAl.

It would help me if I knew that "one location".

my thunderbird mail is all in

~/.thunderbird/xxx.default/Mail

(where "xxx" is a code sequence that thunderbird generates
which is unique for each user)

wes33 wrote:

~/.thunderbird/xxx.default/Mail
(where "xxx" is a code sequence that thunderbird generates
which is unique for each user)

Thank you. It does not look too onerous.

I have already downloaded 'Thunderbird" via synaptic. Unfortunately I will not be able to test Thunderbird just now as an oneiric (kubuntu) update "killed" my KDE desktop... I will describe it in a separate thread, which I intend to call

"kubuntu update killed KDE4.7.1 GUI"

Thenk you again,

OldAl.

Hello OldAl,

I had a similar nightmare upgrading from 11.04 to 11.10. On first boot it was obvious that so many things were broken on my system that I didn't even bother to try Kontact (couldn't connect to the Internet) so I bit the bullet and did a fresh install. As long as you check - and double-check - you have backed up all your PIM data you should be ok.

There's some useful info here:
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/OneiricOcelot/ ... ntu/Kmail2

and here:
http://userbase.kde.org/KMail/FAQs_Hint ... machine.29

On my system I had to search around for my contacts as std.vcf was empty (search for a bunch of .vcf files and make sure they are backed up, I think there were in a folder under either .kde or .local).

I'd also recommend you add the kubuntu-ppa repository and complete the update from 4.7.1 to 4.7.2 before you first run Kontact/Kmail:
http://www.kubuntu.org/news/kde-platfor ... ations-472

Once your system is up and running and you've got an account set-up in Kontact you can import all your contacts, calender and e-mails. Take your time and if there's anything you are uncertain about drop me a note here and I'll see if I can help (if you are willing to give it another go).

I'm really impressed with 11.10 and with Kmail2, unfortunately (in my opinion) there were failings in both the Kubuntu 11.04 to 11.10 migration script and the Kmail to Kmail2 migration script. If my experience is anything to go by I reckon they'll lose quite a few users over this mess as the more casual user won't have a cat-in-hells chance.

NickElliott wrote:Hello OldAl,
I had a similar nightmare upgrading from 11.04 to 11.10.

Hello Nick,

This is just to say thank you - it is a bit late down under where I live and during the day I spent too much effort in the garden with spring chores - I am wrecked...

Yes, I will give it another go - I am not of the giving up kind. Thank you for the brilliant references. I've read the first one allready yesterday and just glanced at the others now. Others look equally brilliant.

Also, a huge thank you for offering to contact you. I will take advantage of your kind offer!

Sincerely,

OldAl.

NickElliott wrote:Hello OldAl, <snip..>

Nick, I did post a message of my current state, which is slightly moved forward, thanks for your help - topic:
kubuntu 11.10 update killed KDE 4.7.1 GUI
ref viewtopic.php?f=20&t=97404

Perhaps we can meet again on the new thread? I would like that very much.

OldAl.

OldAl wrote:Perhaps we can meet again on the new thread? I would like that very much.

OldAl.

Certainly, I keep an eye on the KDE forums that are of relevance and will chip in if I can offer any assistance.

Nick

NickElliott wrote:Certainly, I keep an eye on the KDE forums that are of relevance and will chip in if I can offer any assistance.

Nick

Thank you, Nick. You were an inspiration to me!

OldAl.