Backport of kdepim/kmail ?

[oygle]

In order to install Debian you need only the disc 1 ISO. The rest are entirely optional. I haven't downloaded them in years. There is also a minimal disc – which fits on one CD or USB stick.

Oh, okay. Thanks

That's very strange to me. I've always felt the reverse – that Ubuntu's documentation was terrible and Debian's was far more helpful. I've always found answers to my problems elsewhere, that is why I come to the Ubuntu forums to share what I have learned.

It was probably just what I was used to, so something different (Debian docs) seemed so different.

You could try reconfiguring Akonadi to use SQLite to see if that has an effect on your resource problem. I did not suggest it sooner because KDE used to classify it as experimental.It may be problematic for you, since KDE only supports MySQL/MariaDB out of the box. I've always felt that was a bad policy, and a black mark on KDE's reputation for configurability..

I don't think I would be comfortable with Akonadi reconfig. Even in the last few days, KMail is displaying entries in folders, but there is actually no mails there, not even visible by Dolphin. So Akonadi 'thinks" there are emails in folders. Why it can't just use the folder and file as the 'real' basis to emails, I don't know. It seems a huge overload and a big mess. lol

[T.J.]

I use Thunderbird presently. I suppose I am "old school" and prefer longer release cycles with better QA.

I don't think I would be comfortable with Akonadi reconfig. Even in the last few days, KMail is displaying entries in folders, but there is actually no mails there, not even visible by Dolphin. So Akonadi 'thinks" there are emails in folders. Why it can't just use the folder and file as the 'real' basis to emails, I don't know. It seems a huge overload and a big mess. lol

Speaking as one who has had some lengthy experience with email servers - plain flat files are the traditional default. Parsing extremely large text files or folders filled to the brim with individual files can be problematic. A database offers a reasonable compromise between speed and ease of implementing search/spam algorithms. The problem - as with most of Linux, Windows or Mac - is that the documentation of the software and format is - well it is CRAP. Programmers are slovenly documenters. I should know. I am one. If it weren't, you would be able to configure a different backend without difficulty.

I'd gather that you have run across one of Kmail's many bugs. At that point, I either restart each account individually and then reset Kmail or recreate them. I stopped using Kmail because longstanding bugs never seem to get any attention, and to be quite honest, I saw no point in trying to fix them. KDE completely switches base libraries and frameworks every few years. The last time I downloaded and compiled the release versions of their apps from source - some of them crashed outright and were entirely unusable. By the time the latest version of KDE becomes usable, the KDE Project has moved on to creating an entirely new mess.

I have a similar opinion of Gnome's antics. Rather than run the hamster wheel, I washed my hands of it and went over to XFCE. If I dabble with KDE again, it will only be from Debian Stable. The last time I tried installing KDE on Ubuntu - kaccounts dependencies trashed the package consistency.

[oygle]

Programmers are slovenly documenters. I should know. I am one.

I so totally agree with you there. Having spent about 40 years writing software, it was always more important to get it up and running. Function before form. In reality, whilst the function part/s usually worked well, the form (how it looked) and especially the documentation was very sadly lacking.

Sorry to hear your experiences with the KDE side of things (and hard work) have not been too favourable. I may still try Thunderbird if the KMail backport doesn't address all the 'annoying' bugs.

I hadn't heard of XFCE The last release was Feb 2015.

The other day I 'finally' said my last good-bye to Windows, by reformatting a Win XP pro partition. The off grid power data only comes for Windows though, so we make the decision to not have that data. Not everything that runs under win is also flavoured in *nix somewhere, unfortunately. The best email client I ever used was pegasus Mail, and it's a shame the author never ported to Unix flavours at all.

[T.J.]

I hadn't heard of XFCE The last release was Feb 2015.

That's the point. They do not release until it is tested, unlike some others. While XFCE is not perfect and I have encountered the annoying bug or two, it very stable; and generally sane and consistent. I highly recommend it if you are "old school" as I am. It can interop between KDE and Gnome by spawning their services in session.

The off grid power data only comes for Windows though, so we make the decision to not have that data. Not everything that runs under win is also flavoured in *nix somewhere, unfortunately.

I solved that problem by using KVM. I run Windows 7 under virtualization. XP can be made to function by the same process. In this way, you can run whatever version of Windows indefinitely regardless of your hardware upgrades, while isolating it so security holes do not take down the whole system. Since you are backing up an image file of the hard disk, restores are a breeze. Believe me, I have never been so happy coding as the day I decided that Windows was nothing more than legacy middleware.

The best email client I ever used was pegasus Mail, and it's a shame the author never ported to Unix flavours at all.

Pegasus was good. Thunderbird buried it, because the authors did not adapt to open source. Terrible shame that. It is still alive though - if significantly diminished (http://www.pmail.com/). I do not expect it to survive much longer. Older versions of Windows are going to disappear now that Microsoft no longer sells 7 or 8 to vendors, and will no longer certify drivers for new processors for anything other than Windows 10. Once the existing stockpiles of Windows 7 and 8 are gone, that's all done. The fact that Pegasus still has not made the jump toward 64 bit is not a good sign either. There has been considerable talk even in the world of dropping support for the 32 bit code base among application developers (except for embedded).

[oygle]

That's the point. They do not release until it is tested, unlike some others. While XFCE is not perfect and I have encountered the annoying bug or two, it very stable; and generally sane and consistent. I highly recommend it if you are "old school" as I am. It can interop between KDE and Gnome by spawning their services in session.

Yes I'm old school. Started IT in 1972 when we used paper tape, punch cards, magnetic tape reels for master files, and it took 2 Honeywell engineers to carry in 32 Mb of memory. lol

Stable is better than buggy and unstable, so XFCE would be good for that reason.

I solved that problem by using KVM. I run Windows 7 under virtualization. XP can be made to function by the same process. In this way, you can run whatever version of Windows indefinitely regardless of your hardware upgrades, while isolating it so security holes do not take down the whole system. Since you are backing up an image file of the hard disk, restores are a breeze. Believe me, I have never been so happy coding as the day I decided that Windows was nothing more than legacy middleware.

I do have windows 8 or 9 somewhere on a CD; it came with the laptop. Have hesitated to run that laptop as dual boot (Kubuntu - primary and Win as secondary) because I saw so many posts where a Windows install wants to 'take over' and be primary partition. But you are talking KVM. I have no experience with that, but if it can completely 'isolate' the Windows OS, that would be great. We don't _really_ need the stats from the inverter, but it would be great to match watts produced to watts used, etc. The people who supply the software don't want to make it available in Linux.

Regards Pegasus. This doc is over 11 years old now - http://www.pmail.com/sundry/pmlinux.htm

Thanks

[T.J.]

I do have windows 8 or 9 somewhere on a CD; it came with the laptop. Have hesitated to run that laptop as dual boot (Kubuntu - primary and Win as secondary) because I saw so many posts where a Windows install wants to 'take over' and be primary partition. But you are talking KVM. I have no experience with that, but if it can completely 'isolate' the Windows OS, that would be great. We don't _really_ need the stats from the inverter, but it would be great to match watts produced to watts used, etc. The people who supply the software don't want to make it available in Linux.

A copy of Windows sold with a computer is normally OEM licensed, and can't be used for virtualization without breach of contract. That said, it is very helpful. The hardware itself has been capable of running multiple OS's since the late 80's. It creates a virtual computer where the OS can be installed. It cannot touch data on the host system unless you allow it. Since the guest OS is actually running on virtual hardware, you can change the actual physical hardware and it will not know the difference. So Windows will work indefinitely.

[oygle]

We will hopefully have an updated version of kmail in the kubuntu backports ppa in the next few weeks.

Packaging and testing of backports got a little sidelined with work on the release of Yakkety, but I hope things can now catch up somewhat.

Can you please advise the status of the KMail backport ?

A copy of Windows sold with a computer is normally OEM licensed, and can't be used for virtualization without breach of contract. That said, it is very helpful. The hardware itself has been capable of running multiple OS's since the late 80's. It creates a virtual computer where the OS can be installed. It cannot touch data on the host system unless you allow it. Since the guest OS is actually running on virtual hardware, you can change the actual physical hardware and it will not know the difference. So Windows will work indefinitely.

I didn't receive any media with the laptop, just Win 8 preloaded. So, I later purchased from Dell - "Windows 8.1 OEM - Deployment Solution Media Kit - OM Kit-DVD". Does that still indicate I can't use that Win 8.1 for KVM ?

[acheronuk]

Can you please advise the status of the KMail backport ?

For Xenial 16.04 LTS, a backport of kmail from 15.12.3 to 16.04.3 (5.2.3) is currently in our landing ppa for testing.

This is part of a backport of all the KDE applications, plus an updated Qt (5.6.1) and Plasma (5.8.4); so with all that being updated we are just being a bit cautious with testing before we let that go to the backports ppa itself.

[oygle]

For Xenial 16.04 LTS, a backport of kmail from 15.12.3 to 16.04.3 (5.2.3) is currently in our landing ppa for testing.

This is part of a backport of all the KDE applications, plus an updated Qt (5.6.1) and Plasma (5.8.4); so with all that being updated we are just being a bit cautious with testing before we let that go to the backports ppa itself.

Okay thanks for the update. Does that mean when it is released I will have to update my sources to get KMail from the backport ppa, or will the backport eventually flow back into the official updates for Xenial 16.04 ?

Interesting that there is a Plasma update also. Plasma crashes many times each day on this 16.04.1

[oygle]

A copy of Windows sold with a computer is normally OEM licensed, and can't be used for virtualization without breach of contract.

Can you please view my post and provide some clarification and feedback ?