Newer kdepim in kdenext

[Santa]

Hi,


as you probably knoe already kdepim is a collection of software composed by various programs meant to handle your "personal information": kmail, knotes, akregator, etc.


Akonadi is a database technology which can be used to store the data handled by kdepim programs. It can use various backends: sqlite, mysql and postgresql, being mysql the default recommended by kdepim developers.


Baloo is a technology which can be used to index data for fast searching. It can be used to index your files in your hard disk and can be used also to index akonadi data. It's optional and for hard disk files it can be disabled in systemsettings; for akonadi/kdepim the only way to disable it is uninstalling it (see below).


There are 3 versions of kdepim around right now in siduction/debian/kubuntu:


1) kdepim 4.4.x (based on kde sc 4 libraries without akonadi storaging)
2) kdepim 4.14.x (based on kde sc 4 libraries with akonadi storaging)
3) kdepim 15.08.x (based on the new KDE Frameworks technologies and with akonadi storaging)


Until today, 1)  was provided in kdenext. Debian sid provides 2) and kubuntu wily provides 3)


Today, we are moving from 1) to 2) in kdenext. The reason is that maintaining 1) became unfeasible but this unfortunatley brings some small problems which can be dealt with. We and debian will move soon (meaning soon one of these days in the next few months I presume)


Problem 1. Since kdepim 4.14.x uses akonadi to storage the data baloo is going to index it. I have thousands of mails from several mailing lists so when I configured my mail account baloo tried to index them so my hard disk was being harassed for more than 8 hours (and it didn't finish so I was even afraid my hard disk could be damaged). So I tried to find out how to disable it and found this:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332195
My conclusion is that it can be disabled only uninstalling it:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332195#c13 (Vishesh Handa is the baloo developer)
So tried to find out where the akonadi baloo indexers where provided and they were provided in baloo-utils, toghether with the file indexers, so uninstalling them would mean also that the dolphin search would not work. So according to the baloo developer, we were not packaging the akonadi baloo indexers properly. Great. So I changed the packaging so now the akonadi/kdepim indexers are in a separate package: baloo-pim.
Kmail has 2 ways of searching in mails: the "simple search" which is using the text box above the mail list and the "advanced search" via "edit -> find messages". In my experience, without the baloo-pim package installed the "simple search" works, but the "advanced search" doesn't.


So to sum up, you have to choose between the lesser of 2 evils:
a) don't install baloo-pim and the "advanced search" won't work; however your hard disk won't be harassed
b) install baloo-pim and the "advanced search" will work; however your hard disk may be harassed
The option a) is the default for now; baloo-pim isn't automatically installed by anything, you can install it at your own risk.


Problem 2. While migrating data, kmail doesn't import your old mail filters, so if you have mail filters you have to export them before uprading and import them again after upgrading.


Problem 3. The configuration dialog of kmail is too big. So if it doesn't fit in your screen and you can't press the "Accept" button press and hold the Alt key, and without releasing the Alt key click on any point of the window and move the mouse to move the window s you can see the "Accept" button and click it.


Problem 4 (optional). This is not actually a problem, but ...


In siduction sqlite is the default backend for akonadi. We tried to change it for the installation ISO's some time ago but hit some technical issues so we couldn't; we will try again in future ISO's but we don't know yet if it would be technically feasible.


While the sqlite backend may be fine for small workloads, the mysql backend works faster for me, so if you want to switch from the sqlite backend to the mysql backend, you can do this:


Exit any kdepim program and do:

Code: [Select]

akonadictl stop (with your user account)
apt-get install akonadi-backend-mysql (as root)


Edit ~/.config/akonadi/akonadiserverrc

Code: [Select]

[%General]
Driver=QMYSQL


Then do

Code: [Select]

akonadictl start


I hope the kdepim upgrade goes for you in the less painful way possible.


Regards.

[mylo]

My latest d-u worked fine, also the migration on kmail (whatever that was it closed successfully).

In kmail now just missing is the address auto-completion. I tagged the addres books in kontact. But that did not change  the situation. Do i have to enable soething else somewhere? Or is the completion inactive when not having installed baloo-pim?

Kmail has a setting enabled called "Enable Baloo search for auto completion". I think baloo-pim is necessary for that working or?

[devil]

Yes, and maybe some setting up of Akonadi,


greetz
devil