Desktop Search

[deep_dive]

Hi all.

I have been using Kubuntu as my main machine since last year,
after finally getting rid of my XP box. So far, so good. Actually,
I was even able to convince three people to switch to (K)ubuntu
since then.

Well, despite the overall pleasant experience, using Beagle
has been quite awful. I have several PDB/MP3 files and
looking for them is mostly a pain. It is hard to ignore the fact
that my XP box and iMac had Google Search and Spotlight,
respectively, and they were great performers.

I did the same test on all three boxes : I selected only a few folders,
built the library and set the search to be done as often as possible.
Then, I just added a single file and try the search. Both Google and Spotlight
found the file right away but not Beagle. Sometimes Beagle did well,
sometimes not. This lack of consistency has bothered me
because part of my work depends on finding the right files asap.

Does someone know if there are alternatives to Beagle (Kat is
dead, AFAIK) ?

Thanks,

D.

[Goeroeboeroe]

Re: Desktop Search

Not an answer, I'm afraid, but I should like such a program too.
I've been trying to work with Beagle for days and days, looked everywhere for help, did the strangest things: it refused to index every file that was a bit bigger than about 100 K, because of using 'too much memory'. On Windows i used Copernic: worked fabulous.
I've tried Kat too: never seen a program that crashed so often! And I saw on internet lots of people have problems with Kat.
So I think there just isn't such a program, at the moment...

Peter

[deep_dive]

Re: Desktop Search

Hi Goeroeboeroe,

I just found out that my issue with Beagle was not an isolated
complain...Despite the fact this forum looks to be dead (I got much
more suggestions/feedback from a Mac (!) forum), I decided to
post here the solution just in case someone else get the same
problem :

Do I need to run inotify ? No, but it is strongly recommended. Without it, reliable change notification throughout your entire home directory is impossible, meaning that files that are created, modified, or deleted aren't reflected in your index immediately. Features like live queries won't work in many cases. If you're just trying out beagle, don't worry about building an inotify kernel, but if you plan on running it on a regular basis, you really should.

[Goeroeboeroe]

Re: Desktop Search

Thanks for taking the trouble to give this information. But in my case inotify is running (or implemented or started or whatever it's called . The stupid thing just refuses to index big files. It does notice changes right away.
So I'm gonna file a bug, but I don't know where I should do that. Thre's a new version of beagle, so if I file a bug at Beagle they'll probably say I have to compile the new version. Tried that, much too much dependencies that are missing, conflicting versions, etc.
And in the repository of Kubuntu is the old version I have, but I think it's a beagle-bug, so if I file the bug there I think it's not the right place.
Does anybody know where I should file this bug?
And by the way: I don't think this forum is dead. I think nobody knew how to answer this.

Peter