Upgraded to kmail2--mostly successful but that unpleasant
Michael Hirsch
mdhirsch at gmail.com
Wed Oct 10 14:59:29 UTC 2012
On Tue, Oct 9, 2012 at 2:52 AM, O. Sinclair <o.sinclair at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 08/10/2012 20:04, Michael Hirsch wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 12:05 AM, O. Sinclair <o.sinclair at gmail.com
>> <mailto:o.sinclair at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> On 23/09/2012 04:37, Michael Hirsch wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Sep 15, 2012 1:22 AM, "O. Sinclair" <o.sinclair at gmail.com
>> <mailto:o.sinclair at gmail.com>
>> <mailto:o.sinclair at gmail.com <mailto:o.sinclair at gmail.com>>**>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > On 14/09/2012 08:15, Michael Hirsch wrote:
>> >>
>> >> So I finally upgraded kubuntu this week. I went from 11.04
>> to 11.10 to
>> >> 12.04. In the middle I only booted long enough to start
>> the upgrade--I
>> >> didn't test to see if everything worked.
>> >>
>> >> It seems to have gone fairly smoothly, except for kmail.
>> kmail wouldn't
>> >> start, and would tell me to run the upgrader interactively,
>> but when I
>> >> ran it it would say it had already run. I
>> >> deleted ~/.kde4/share/config/kmail-__**migratorrc and it
>> ran,
>>
>> supposedly
>> >> successfully, but then kmail would not run.
>> >>
>> >> Following some internet sleuthing, I deleted
>> ~/.kde/share/apps/akonadi
>> >> and ~/.config/akonadi and my .kmail2rc and it finally ran,
>> and even
>> >> figured out some of my email accounts. But all my mail is
>> missing!
>> >>
>> >> There is a File->Import Messages menu item that looks
>> promising. Maybe
>> >> I can import all my emails and then I will be able to read
>> them. There
>> >> is a likely sounding "Import KMail Maildirs and Folder
>> Structure" item
>> >> in a drop-down. Of course, it warns me not to import
>> ~/Mail, which is
>> >> where my mail is, but I think it is just confused. Why
>> should it worry
>> >> about infinitely looping on importing mail when kmail now
>> stores my mail
>> >> in a mysql database?
>> >>
>> >> There is a funny warning that I don't really understand:
>> "Since it is
>> >> possible to recreate the folder structure, the folders will
>> be stored
>> >> under: "KMail-Import" in your local folder." Should that
>> be "Since it
>> >> is impossible..."? I still don't understand, but oh well.
>> I'll try it.
>> >>
>> >> So I click the button below "Please select the folder to
>> import to" and
>> >> choose to import to a subfolder in my local email.
>> >>
>> >> The next part is a disaster. I have hundreds of email
>> folders, and the
>> >> dialog makes me start over for each one. So I have to pick
>> where to
>> >> import to, then navigate to a folder and select it.
>> Ultimately I find
>> >> that I can multi-select all my mbox folders at once and do
>> a big import.
>> >> They get imported into folders named MBOX-oldname. Why
>> they developer
>> >> thinks I care that they used to be in mbox format I can't
>> imagine. Now
>> >> I have to go rename them all, but at least they loaded
>> quickly.
>> >>
>> >> Now I still have lots of slightly newer maildir folders to
>> import. It
>> >> takes me a long time to realize that if never actually lets
>> me select a
>> >> maildir folder and say okay. If I select a folder the
>> dialog enters
>> >> that folder showing the sub-folders. Finally, I just give
>> up and I
>> >> click "okay" when I've entered the folder in question with
>> nothing
>> >> inside selected. Wow, it actually starts importing all my
>> folders.
>> >>
>> >> Moronically, it is putting every folder into a KMail-import
>> folder, but
>> >> I guess I was warned. I still don't understand why it
>> would do that.
>> >>
>> >> So, I guess the upshot is that it worked, mostly. I still
>> get the
>> >> heebie-jeebies at the thought of keeping all my mail in
>> mysql instead of
>> >> easily to read mbox and maildir folders, and I have all my
>> folders named
>> >> stupidly, but it looks like I haven't lost my mail. That's
>> good.
>> >>
>> >> This has probably been the worst upgrade experience I've
>> had in my
>> >> almost 20 years of running Linux. I can't believe that
>> anyone thought
>> >> this was a good idea, or that it was ready to use. Since I
>> got past the
>> >> kmail crashing instantly it has only crashed twice--but
>> I've only been
>> >> running it a couple of hours.
>> >>
>> >> Let's hope that no more big changes are coming.
>> >>
>> >> Michael
>> >>
>> >>
>> > Well, did you read the - by now old - kubuntu advise to not
>> upgrade
>> but do a "move/backup your email, set up new kmail and then
>> import your
>> stuff" advise?
>> >
>>
>> Yes, I did see that advise, but I trends to like to sees things
>> for
>> myself. Maybe not the smartest approach, sometimes.
>>
>> > I tried "migrate" at least twice and then gave up. Moved my
>> mails
>> away, created fresh KMail and imported mails. Worked way better
>> though I
>> also had to move all folders from "KMail-imported" to where I
>> wanted
>> them in "Local Folders".
>> >
>> > And yes, though 4.9 is the best KMail2 this far it still
>> unstable if
>> you ask me. Accidentally moved a folder with subfolders to another
>> folder (hate clickpads, give me touchpad with clickbuttons any
>> day) and
>> moving it back caused some sort of database total hickup. I
>> eventually
>> sorted it, though it took me literally hours and CPU nearly
>> burnt out.
>> >
>> > But this is why my wife use Thunderbird and not KMail - she
>> would
>> just have sat there and "where the h..l did all the mails
>> disappear to"?
>>
>> I think your wife I'd right. I'm going to switch to thunderbird
>> as soon
>> as I figure out how to import my maildir folders.
>>
>> Well, it was not meant as an advise to migrate to Thunderbird, not
>> at all. I consider KMail far better but at times wonder why the ...
>> the decision to migrate to Akonadi was made when the app clearly was
>> not, and in some ways still is not, ready for that move.
>>
>> The other part to complain about is that the whole chain of
>> Nepomuk-Akonadi-MySQL and the connection to physical mailfolders is,
>> put mildly, poorly documented so if (when) the shit hits the fan you
>> are in the dark.
>>
>> I use Thunderbird for mailing lists and some other stuff but I am
>> considering migrating almost all of that to KMail actually.. not the
>> other way around.
>>
>> Now what you can do is to create new subfolders in mbox format, move
>> your mails to these and then you are ready to import these to
>> Thunderbird no problems.
>>
>>
>> So does kmail still use filesystem files and folders? I thought
>> everything is now in mysql. Is mysql only used to index the searching
>> and the physical files are still on the HD? I would feel a lot better
>> if that were true.
>>
>>
> This blog posting is very clear on this issue:
> http://blogs.kde.org/node/4503
> title: Akonadi misconception #1: where is my data?
>
Ah, thank you. That is very helpful. Maybe I'll give kmail another try.
I should have known that it wouldn't put all my data in a DB, but I guess I
felt that the KDE team has made so many bad decisions lately, I had lost a
lot of my faith that they woldn't do something truly stupid like that. I'm
glad to hear I was wrong.
Michael
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