Kmail problem

[wtb32141]

I have been running Kubuntu 14.04, including its version of Kmail, for several weeks. Today I reinstalled Mepis 8 (the current version is Mepis 11) so that I can edit some book files I created with Mepis 8. Kubuntu 14.04's version of Writer lacks the borders to tables and frames that I used in writing some books. I put Mepis 8 on a partition that was holding Mepis 11. I did not mess with the Kubuntu partition. I even left Kubuntu's version of Grub alone.

My home directory is on a partition of its own; so Mepis 8 and Kubuntu access the same home directory.

While in Mepis 8, I did not launch Kmail.

When I finished today with Mepis 8, I rebooted into Kubuntu. Now Kmail will not launch from within Kubuntu. It gives me a fatal error message that says, "Failed to fetch the resource collection." Have you any idea as to what the problem may be and what I can do to get Kmail working again within Kubuntu? Your help will be greatly appreciated.

[claydoh]

More than likely there is huge mismatch in the kde/kdepim/akonadi things between Mepis 8 and Kubuntu 14.04. I do not know what KDE version your Mepis has, assuming updates and all that, but there have been many updates to the kdepim system specifically between 2010 and 2014,. The error sounds like akonadi in Mepis 8 can't understand the akonadi in the newer Kubuntu 14.04. As you shared home folders between the distros, the newer kmail/akonadi saw the older database from Mepis 11 (again, not sure what KDE you had there) and upgraded it, and the older kmail/akonadi doesn't understand the newer stuff.

It is possible to "go back" but in order to do so, you would need to make sure akonadi is not running (akonadictl stop)
Find and remove any file and folder having akoandi as a name found in the hidden folders ~/.config and ~/.local, and possibly found in other folders as well, such as in various places in your ~/.kde.
Once that is done, you should be able to restart kmail, but you will likely have to recreate your mail accounts and things. - the mail should still be there, we only deleted the databases of info about the mail.

Backup is vital of course, especially your mail folders.

[wtb32141]

I backed up my home directory Sunday (the day before I reinstalled Mepis 8). It seems to me that if I knew what to restore, restoration would be the best way to fix my current Kmail problem. Have you any thoughts on this matter?

[wtb32141]

Well, I got Kmail working again. I had backed up my home directory the day before reinstalling Mepis 8. I had edited 10 files after that backup. So I copied the lastest versions of those 10 files to a folder in /tmp. Then I (1) stopped akonadi, (2) restored my home directory, (3) restarted akonadi, and (4) launched Kmail. It's working fine.

Thank you for your information, which helped me greatly in figuring out the best path to a solution.