Kmail

[Keith Sayers]

I have developed a strange problem with Kmail (version 17.12.3 running on Kubuntu 18.04). It may or may not be coincidence but I have just changed my monitor to a Dell P2210 and now when I open Kmail it cramps up into the top left quadrant of the screen. All the appropriate contents are there, albeit similarly cramped. No matter what I do to expand it to full screen it 'closes unexpectedly'. The obvious maximise button at the top right, the small double arrow that appears when I hover over an edge and try to draw that out. I have even been into Program Manager and done a reinstall of Kmail, all to no avail. In order to read a message I have to click on the part of the header I can see and choose Reply - that then opens full screen and I can read what is being said.

Would anyone else have experienced this, please?

[GreyGeek]

mmm... I'm running KMail on Kubuntu 18.04 and my About KMail screen says version 5.7.3
What I am running, which I installed from the repository, works fine.

[Keith Sayers]

Kmail window geometry

mmm... I'm running KMail on Kubuntu 18.04 and my About KMail screen says version 5.7.3
What I am running, which I installed from the repository, works fine.

Yeah, I can well believe that - me getting another of my never heard of before problems.

However I have made some progress. I reasoned that the problem was likely to be a parameter in a system file somewhere so browsed for kmail* and was offered a lengthy list. One of those that looked interesting was kmail2rc. I noted that that was 16.7kb on 17 Mar 18. I have another physically separate hard drive with the same software setup and there found the kmail2rc to be 23.0kb on 4 Nov 18. I copied that on to a usb stick. Back to original drive, renamed the kmail2rc there and parked it out of the way (so I could restore if need be) and in its place put a copy of the usb kmail2rc. Closed down and rebooted. Kmail now again opened in the top left quadrant but the maximise button at top right did allow enlargement to full screen. I could then choose one message and it would open in the frame below. But double clicking on a message header to open to full screen closed the program completely, selecting text in the lower frame caused another unexpected closure and clicking on the HTML column down the left side did nothing.

So I seemed to have achieved something but still have a problem.

All this is way beyond me technically but if anyone reading this is interested I could send copies of both the 25.6Kb and 23.0kb for analysis.

[GreyGeek]

Folks sending your their kmail2rc won't help your problem. You've saved your kmail2rc file as backup but your replacement probably doesn't see ~/.cache/kmail2 and its contents, or ~/ .local/share/kmail2 and its contents.

BTW, the version you are running is listed on "Help --> About KMail".

Perhaps you can purge KMail from your system, delete the files in ~/.cache and ~/.local/share, and do a fresh install from the Bionic repository. And this time don't copy and paste stuff from an old copy or backup of your previous KMail installation.

[Keith Sayers]

I am still struggling :-(

To jump to the latest, I have used Package Manager to remove kmail2 and libkftemplateparser5abi2 (this lit up automagically), deleted the kmail directories in ~/.cache and ~/.local/share, closed down the whole machine (hopefully to delete all transient memory?), waited a few minutes, switched back on, back to the internet, package manager again, installed Kmail and libkftemplateparser5abi2 from scratch, closed package manager, opened Kmail, was surprised to find that it redisplayed all the previously extant messages, tried opening one, I got one or two and then it froze ('Application Kmail2 is not responding'). Closed Kmail, waited awhile, reopened Kmail and as soon as I touched a message to open it, it 'closed unexpectedly'.

I am stumped, and obviously much frustrated at not being able to read my emails - could you suggest anything more, please?

I went online to find this Bionic Repository which gave me instructions on removing the PPA repository - is that what I should be doing? I found no mention of a Kmail repository.

[jlittle]

I haven't been following your problems, but I've just noticed something in your last post.

kmail stores data in akonadi; if you want to get rid of everything and delete all your mail data, you can clear out akonadi. Some users report success using the instructions here. I've needed to do this to reclaim space, because kmail insisted on downloading GB of old emails.

[Keith Sayers]

A sort of progress report -

I tried everything I could think of without success so withdrew my main hard drive and put in an old one which had the same software. I got the same problem. Kmail closing unexpectedly but all other software working just fine. Tried Thunderbird for email and that worked just fine. That suggested the problem was with the monitor, but that worked well with all other software ... Perhaps something to do with the linkage between Kmail and monitor? I have now acquired an HP L1910 monitor, coupled that up, tried other software first, all worked fine, but Kmail again closes unexpectedly although perhaps less quickly than with the DELL P2210. Sometimes it now just suspends and I get a 'terminate application?' message and once it went to black, menu line still across the top but black screen below.

John, thank you for that Akonadi advice, I have downloaded the web page you quote and will follow that line and see what happens. Wish me luck !

[Keith Sayers]

I imagine this will be difficult to believe but the most recent development has been that I purchased a new hard drive - WD Blue - manufactured Sep 2018 so new new, not refurbished. Emptied my tower unit of everything so no risk of cross-contamination, put the new drive into one of the slots and loaded it with Kubuntu 18.04 from my source CD. That went well. Removed CD, booted from hard drive, set it up for internet access and rather diffidently tried Firefox. That worked well. Set up Kmail for internet server connection, tried that, and got the same unexpected closures.

This is beyond any logic I can conceive. I found bugs.kde.org and will try to send a concise report but they ask for a backtrace and the means they quote of getting that daunts me a bit - could anyone here suggest a simpler method?

[Keith Sayers]

I have now submitted a crash report to bugs.kde.org, been allocated report number 402333, but not so far had any response. :-(=

[woodsmoke]

hey...you did a GOOD thing!

woodlikesgoodthingssmoke