to fix my Akonadi Server. I didn't
even know I had one. There's more
information about Akonadi server here:
Akonadi Server
Here's a post that helps me with some
of my misconceptions about Akonadi Server:
Akonadi misconception #1:
where is my data?
Wondering what happened to my data is a scary thing.
I had this image that my data had been first, swallowed,
and second, corrupted by Akonadi Server.
The above post clears up my misconception. Since
Akonadi Server appears to be just a front end to the
data itself, it can't really swallow the data, it can
only access it.
Perhaps a good way to look at Akonadi server is that
it provides access methods to the data but does not
store the data itself.
In keeping with the Unix philosophy, there seems to
be a clear division of responsibilities. Akonadi
provides a quick way to access data by building tables,
indexes, etc. However, the data has its own separate
and distinct existence apart from Akonadi. This is
the impression I'm getting upon first glance.
Since your personal data and Akonadi server are distinct
entities, it should be possible to rebuild Akonadi tables
and indexes as long as the data remains intact. This is
what this post seems to be implying:
Akonadi 1.2.1 - some issues
Update: January 10, 2012
I wonder if this guy is having the same problem I've been
having:
Kmail: Address Book Not Working
OK. I just did what he did. I went to:
system settings > advanced > KDE Resources
I then chose Akonadi for contacts and sychronized
it. It seems to have done something (I think).
However, I really don't know what I'm doing.
I'll come back to this problem later. Right
now, my address book is sort of working and
sort of limping along. I don't have the control
I want because I don't understand it and I
don't understand Akonadi.
Update: January 15, 2012
Still working on the same Akonadi problem and
getting nowwhere fast.
Here's a command that I find helpful:
akonadictl --help
This command will tell you how to start
and stop the Akonadi Server as well as
giving you the means to find out what
the status of the Akonadi Server is.
OK. I've just discovered this post
conerning the relationship of Akonadi
Server and MySQL:
Akonadi Mysql Does Not Have MySQL Database
I'll try this fix later when I have time.
Update: January 17, 2012
Yesterday, I installed mysql client
using the following command:
aptitude show mysql-client-5.1
Looks like I'm going to need mysql client
5.1 to investigate MySQL 5.1, the
mysqul version it appears that Akonadi Server
is currently interacting with.
I typed the following command at the command
line:
man mysql
The man page above describes mysql as
mysql - the MySQL command-line tool.
The same man page describes the -S option
this way:
--socket=path, -S path For connections to localhost, the Unix socket file to use, or, on Windows, the name of the named pipe to use.
Now I'll try to do just what the person who says
that they do not have a mysql database did. I'll
start working with the MySQL command-line tool to
find out what is going on.
Some time later . . .
I've just returned after finding a socket file under
this directory:
~/.local/share/akonadi
I was not able to connect to the socket using
mysql -S. I think I'll try erasing all
Akonadi data (it is only used for indexing my
address book) and see if it will rebuild itself
properly on startup. Maybe it will and maybe
it won't.
Some time later . . .
I've been doing some reading. Here's a blog
by one of the KDE developers. Maybe I'l get
some insight by reading his blog:
KAddressBook and Akonadi in KDE 4.4
Update: January 19, 2012
I keep coming back to the problem of Akonadi
Server not working. Someday, I'm going to get
it working properly!
I've just discovered a way to see if MySQL server
is running. I found a command on this blog
post that gives this information:
How Do I Restart MySQL Server?
Someone who posts to the blog suggests the
following command while logged in as root:
ps ax | grep mysql
The output for the above command is as follows:
root@edabbott:/home/ined# ps ax | grep mysql 1931 ? Sl 0:01 /usr/sbin/mysqld --defaults-file=/home/ined/.local/share/akonadi//mysql.conf --datadir=/home/ined/.local/share/akonadi/db_data/ --socket=/home/ined/.local/share/akonadi/socket-edabbott/mysql.socket 2429 pts/1 S+ 0:00 grep mysql
Update: January 17, 2012
My kmail address book just died. All I did was
change the name of the folder where I'm putting
new addressees.
Now my kmail address book will not launch at all.
It seems that the relationship between Akonadi
Server and Kaddressbook is deeply deeply flawed.
Changing the name of the folder that a particular
address book resides in is something I found on
the menu. This seems to trigger problems.
As I recall, Kaddressbook died after I followed
the following steps:
- Open up Kaddressbook as a separate application
- Right click on the address book called Personal Contacts
- Click on folder propertries
- Change the name of the folder from Personal
Contacts to New Addresses
The above steps are as best as I recall. Since
Kaddressbook is no longer successfully launching,
I cannot verify the above steps.
I'm completely befuddled by Kaddressbook. I'm beginning
to think that my next step is to either not use an
address book at all or to learn how to erase all my
Kaddressbook information and start all over again.
Looks like I need to study this web page very
carefully:
Akonadi and AddressBook
It's a web page that says it is provided by
Tobias Koenig. There's one piece of information
on this page that seems to be vital. The vital
information appears to me to be that there is only
one folder for address book data in the new format,
regardless of how many address books you have:
$HOME/.local/share/contacts
The writer of this page refers to this particular
address book as Personal Contacts. It's
almost as if the name Personal Contacts is
hard coded.
Therefore, when I changed the name of the folder
from Personal Contacts to New Address Book,
Kaddressbook died because the name Personal Contacts
is hard coded. That's my theory based on the results I"m
getting.
I'll keep theorizing until I get it right and I
get Kaddressbook working. Right now, I've very
confused.
OK. I've just rebooted and now my Kaddressbook
successfully launches again. However, the name
New Address Book has been changed back to
Personal Contacts.
This lends strength to the idea that the name
Personal Contacts is somehow hard coded.
I'm using the term hard coded in a lose
way. I mean the name is probably stored somewhere
and cannot be changed just by changing the name
of a folder.
That's why when I change the folder name from
Personal Contacts to New Address Book,
Kaddressbook refused to launch. In some sense,
the changing of the folder name is hard coded
and cannot be changed. That's what I mean when
I say hard coded.
In fact, I find no folder named either Personal
Contacts or New Address Book. The
only folder I find with new address book data in
it is this:
$HOME/.local/share/contacts
Two thoughts on the above folder:
- The name of this folder is going
to be contacts, regardless of
what you ask Kaddressbook to call the
folder - While the name of the folder is
contacts, Kaddressbook does a
head fake and calls the folder Personal
Contacts, regardless.
Weird! No wonder this thing is so
confusing! The separation between
appearances and underlying reality
is quite large here. When Kaddressbook
suggests that you can change the
name of the folder that the address
book resides in, it's just simply not
true. The only thing that changing
the name of the addressbook seems to
do is crash Kaddressbook until you
reboot again.
Upon reboot, whatever you changed the
name to has reverted back to Personal
Contacts.
I'm still not understanding this but I'll
keep working on it.
Ed Abbott
