Upgraded to kmail2--mostly successful but that unpleasant

[Michael Hirsch]

On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 12:05 AM, O. Sinclair <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>> 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.

Thanks,

Michael
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