Desktop Search issue

[LinuxRocks]

Hey Kubuntu folks

I have reinstalled my Kubuntu 12.04 desktop after testing Ubuntu 12.10 (Its a wonder they are still alive...) and I have a problem with desktop search.

When I go to Dolphin and search for files I know exist, it shows no results... I can drop to a terminal and do a find -name <Bla> and every instance of Bla shows up.

During the first boot, The Nepomuk icon in the tray showed that it was caching all my files and ran for several hours. It is now idle and shows it has indexed 9,720 files, however, I have well over 60k files in my home directory (68,451 to be exact.)

In the Nepomuk/Strigi setup in System Properties, I have my whole home dir checked for indexing.

Is there a way to cache the rest of the files so I can search for anything?

My Wife has the same disto and KDE version (4.9.2) and her desktop search works fine... Although we have the same software, I am on an AMD Phenom II X6 desktop and she has an Intel Core 2 DUO Asus laptop... Is this an AMD issue (Ok, that was a poke at AMD :-D).

Anyway, any help would be great...

Some things I tried was... Copied over my home dir and started fresh with a new one, then copied back over all my music, pics, docs, etc... While I did this, I deleted all evidence in /var/tmp and /tmp that had my name on it.

Thanks!
Joe

[LinuxRocks]

As a side note, this also affects kmail search too... I do have index mail checked in Nepomuk/Strigi setup in System Properties too...

[dmeyer]

As a rule of thumb (well my rule of thumb), caches/indexes/databases etc. are not compatible between major versions of Nepomuk/Strigi even though they should be (eg. 4.8.x -> 4.9.x). This doesn't affect all people but to me the easiest fix (probably most other kde issues too) has always been nuking .config .cache .kde (or .kde4). This unfortunately kills all your careful tweaking and already built up indexes etc as well as all your akonadi and kde settings. Plasma, everything basically resets to stock!

It sucks but it fixes the problem most of the time. Alternatively, if you need a more powerful tool (read as for advanced users), look at Recoll which has a QT interface, a krunner runner and a few other nice features. Recoll is the king of searches but nepomuk/strigi are usually good enough for 90% of use cases. A lot of the members swear by it and my experience with it was very positive although I decided to stick to stock as it meets all my needs.

Copying over your home folder is sort of where the issue lies, you also probably unwittingly copied over all your configs etc which may be the cause of the problem. By the way in the Desktop Search KCM have you enabled Nepomuk Semantic Desktop and Nepomuk Desktop File Indexer?

[dmeyer]

During the first boot, The Nepomuk icon in the tray showed that it was caching all my files and ran for several hours. It is now idle and shows it has indexed 9,720 files, however, I have well over 60k files in my home directory (68,451 to be exact.)

By defaults Nepomuk/Strigi ignores many file types as well as many of the config and settings folders in your home directory which probably form the majority of your home files.

Is there a way to cache the rest of the files so I can search for anything?

"Desktop Search > Desktop Query > Customize Index Folders" should give you as much configuration as you could ever want. Be careful not to miss it as its a piece of underlined text.

[vinnywright]

I cant help with your Nepomuk/Strigi setup But I can suggest a diferent search tool that some of us hear are using ,,,, Recoll (it's in the repo's)is a fast lite search app that after it's first indexing will give you quite satisfactory results.

if you check it out, the first time you launch it stop/suspend indexing immediately then go to it's settings and set the indexing to just what you really need indexed and relaunch indexing , after it's done test a search ,,,,,you should be impressed

VINNY

OOPS I see @dmeyer beet me to it wile I was typing

[LinuxRocks]

As a rule of thumb (well my rule of thumb), caches/indexes/databases etc. are not compatible between major versions of Nepomuk/Strigi even though they should be (eg. 4.8.x -> 4.9.x). This doesn't affect all people but to me the easiest fix (probably most other kde issues too) has always been nuking .config .cache .kde (or .kde4). This unfortunately kills all your careful tweaking and already built up indexes etc as well as all your akonadi and kde settings. Plasma, everything basically resets to stock!

It sucks but it fixes the problem most of the time. Alternatively, if you need a more powerful tool (read as for advanced users), look at Recoll which has a QT interface, a krunner runner and a few other nice features. Recoll is the king of searches but nepomuk/strigi are usually good enough for 90% of use cases. A lot of the members swear by it and my experience with it was very positive although I decided to stick to stock as it meets all my needs.

Copying over your home folder is sort of where the issue lies, you also probably unwittingly copied over all your configs etc which may be the cause of the problem. By the way in the Desktop Search KCM have you enabled Nepomuk Semantic Desktop and Nepomuk Desktop File Indexer?

Thanks for the reply!

When I copied over my old files, I simply copied over the folders that pertained to the data... For example... Documents, Music, Movies, etc... I didn't copy over any of the dot folders at all.

I do have the Semantic Desktop and Nepomuk Desktop File Indexer enabled... It looks like it indexed some of my files, but not all of them. Maybe I have a file it is stuck on and can't continue? Had this problem once with Outlook e-mail (Had a message that was borked up somehow and kept crashing Outlook :-D)

Funny thing is, when I disable Semantic Desktop and log out and back in, my search in Dolphin starts to work fine... However, kmail still does not because it complains about the Semantic Desktop not being started.

I will give some of the other applications you mentioned a try as well, but I always like to use the "Built-In" tools. I know they work because my Wife's install works fine... It's more than likely a file that I have that its choking on... Any idea how to check the cache of files or where its stopping at? Maybe I can rename or remove the file if that's the case?

Thanks!
Joe

[LinuxRocks]

I cant help with your Nepomuk/Strigi setup But I can suggest a diferent search tool that some of us hear are using ,,,, Recoll (it's in the repo's)is a fast lite search app that after it's first indexing will give you quite satisfactory results.

if you check it out, the first time you launch it stop/suspend indexing immediately then go to it's settings and set the indexing to just what you really need indexed and relaunch indexing , after it's done test a search ,,,,,you should be impressed

VINNY

OOPS I see @dmeyer beet me to it wile I was typing

Yeah, thanks guys for the tips!!!

If I try Recoll, should I disable the Semantic Desktop and Nepomuk Desktop File Indexer? Will Recoll integrate with tools that KDE needs to operate?

Thanks!
Joe

[dmeyer]

Yeah, thanks guys for the tips!!!

If I try Recoll, should I disable the Semantic Desktop and Nepomuk Desktop File Indexer? Will Recoll integrate with tools that KDE needs to operate?

Thanks!
Joe

No. It does not intergate with dolphin or any of the normal KDE search tools (Kfind does not use Nepomuk/Strigi) although it does have its own Krunner runner. You don't have to disable them but it would be doing the same job twice and wasting resources. Your system probably won't see the added load though because it really is negligible.

[vinnywright]

I have Nepomuk Desktop File Indexer disabled , as to Recoll integrating ,,,, what exactly do you mean?
it works fine dosent cause any problems and it's previews and such work fine.

VINNY

[LinuxRocks]

I have Nepomuk Desktop File Indexer disabled , as to Recoll integrating ,,,, what exactly do you mean?
it works fine dosent cause any problems and it's previews and such work fine.

VINNY

As far as integration goes, when I launch Kmail and start a new message, I get this giant error box in the middle of the message telling me that I don't have the Semantic desktop enabled and a list of features that are disabled because of this... Dolphin has lost the ability to search history and other features that appear on the left pane, and some other apps complain too.

If I use Recoll, will these features return or can they be configured for Recoll?

Thanks!
Joe

[Thiudans]

To clean out the DB, you can try this:

qdbus org.kde.NepomukServer /nepomukserver org.kde.NepomukServer.quit
rm -rf ~/.kde/share/apps/nepomuk
rm -rf ~/.kde4/share/apps/nepomuk

Restart the machine.

This will wipe out any customizations, tags etc.

http://userbase.kde.org/Akonadi_4.4/Troubleshooting

It worked for me, FWIW.

[vinnywright]

As far as integration goes, when I launch Kmail and start a new message, I get this giant error box in the middle of the message telling me that I don't have the Semantic desktop enabled and a list of features that are disabled because of this... Dolphin has lost the ability to search history and other features that appear on the left pane, and some other apps complain too.

If I use Recoll, will these features return or can they be configured for Recoll?

Thanks!
Joe

if you go to system settings>desktop search on the basic settings tab you can turn off file indexing (middle check box) and leave mail indexing(bottom check box) and semantic desktop (top check box) on , this should cure your problem as far as mail and other programs complaining ,,,,(at least @hear thats the case)

VINNY

[LinuxRocks]

To clean out the DB, you can try this:

qdbus org.kde.NepomukServer /nepomukserver org.kde.NepomukServer.quit
rm -rf ~/.kde/share/apps/nepomuk
rm -rf ~/.kde4/share/apps/nepomuk

Restart the machine.

This will wipe out any customizations, tags etc.

http://userbase.kde.org/Akonadi_4.4/Troubleshooting

It worked for me, FWIW.

Thanks for this! I will give it a go and see how it works!

if you go to system settings>desktop search on the basic settings tab you can turn off file indexing (middle check box) and leave mail indexing(bottom check box) and semantic desktop (top check box) on , this should cure your problem as far as mail and other programs complaining ,,,,(at least @hear thats the case)

VINNY

OK, I see what you are referring too. Let me try this other option and then, if it still fails, I will do this.

Thanks all!

Joe