Strigi Desktop Search

[Tynach]

Ok, this is going to sound really weird...

I initially could not get Strigi file indexing to work. I now have it working, though... But not really.

Here was my initial problem:

So, I went into systemsettings and enabled Nepomuk and Strigi. Strigi, however, came up with this error:
Strigi service failed to initialize, most likely due to an installation problem.

Ok. So, after some googling, I found some packages I might need, namely Java. I installed it all, and retried. Still does not work.

I remember suddenly that Strigi worked when I first installed Kubuntu 9.10, however it stopped working when I installed the full KDE desktop. So, I looked throughout ~/.kde/ for a config file for strigi to no avail. Alright. So, I start to type in HERE what my problem is, to see if there is a solution... While also looking up how to USE nepomuk search.

I put "nepomuksearch:Blender" into an Alt+F2 line...

And BAM. It started searching! I cancelled the search, and... Noticed that it was taking up 100% CPU resources AFTER canceling (well, 50%, but I go dual-core). So, I kill it... And, guess what? A plasma pop-up shows that it is... Indexing files!

But...

After several folders that I knew had content... I saw that it indexed... 0 files. Hmm... Well, guess not. So, I looked in systemsettings again, and disabled Strigi, then tried to enable it again. Same problem as initially... Failed to start.

Hmm...

Typing in "nepomuksearch:" into KRunner (Alt+F2) just comes up with:
The file or folder nepomuksearch:// does not exist.

Ideas? Help? How can I get it to work? And, how do I get it to work properly?

[Telengard]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

Sorry I can't help at all with Strigi. In my experience file indexing services are a complete waste of cycles and disk space. I always disabled indexing on Windows too. So how do I find files?

Alt+F2 -> konsole, and then:

find /PATH/TO/SEARCH/ -iname "PATTERN"

find can do much more than simply search by file name. To learn more:

info find

and

man find

Good luck with Strigi. Last time I tried to make it work was a total fail.

[Tynach]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

Well, it worked by DEFAULT in Kubuntu. Impressed me.

And, I would totally agree with you, except that a small bit of me wants to show off Linux to all my friends and that it too can index files like Mac OS X and Windows. So, I would like to get EVERYTHING working.

Besides, I got Strigi working... Sort of. I hope to get it working 100%.

[Tynach]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

Where IS the strigi config file?

Edit: Nevermind, found it and purged it. Did me no good. The files are:

~/.kde/share/config/nepomukstrigirc
~/.config/akonadi/agent_config_akonadi_strigi_feeder

[Tynach]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

Strigi is STILL not working... And now I can't get it to work at all.

[Telengard]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

A quick search of the forums turned up the thread strigi fubar and a host of others complaining about the uselessness of Strigi. Be sure to read the threads linked from that one.

I don't know whether anyone has gotten it to work or not. If you are seriously determined to make it work, then I suggest moving down the food chain:

• http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/inde...t-1071376.html
• http://strigi.sourceforge.net/

If you finally give up on Strigi, you may wish to try Beagle, which seems to be relatively popular among Kubuntu-ers.

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

Sorry I can't help at all with Strigi. In my experience file indexing services are a complete waste of cycles and disk space. I always disabled indexing on Windows too. So how do I find files?

Ditto and Amen. And with a little organization and good file naming, even find is rarely required. I really think all this indexing is for the marketeers - those who want our data statistics so they can make a profit. That would explain why they have made the likes of nepomuk nearly impossible to remove. The thing behaves like a virus! This is all becoming a little too Windows-like IMO.

[Telengard]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

I forgot to mention: if you do manage to get Strigi to do anything useful, then please write up a HowTo to share the goodness with the rest of the community. I'd be very happy to have my views on it properly rebutted.

[Tynach]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

Well, my reason for wanting Strigi is that it will index the contents of a file... So I can search for files by content fast. Can't do that with find, I don't think. I might be wrong.

[Telengard]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

Well, my reason for wanting Strigi is that it will index the contents of a file... So I can search for files by content fast. Can't do that with find, I don't think. I might be wrong.

cd /path/to/search/from && grep -R 'text I want to find' *

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

You might also want to add "-i" to that grep command so it's not case-sensitive. eg

grep -Ri 'text I want to find' *

Also, the file manager Krusader (sudo apt-get install krusader) has a great search tool under Tools|Search. It can search by both filenames and contents of files.

And here's a guide on regular expressions. They look complicated, but really aren't once you get to know them, and can make your searches more powerful (far more than Strigi can provide).
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/x16608.html

With these methods you don't need your computer wasting its resources on constantly indexing files. Similar to the anti-virus programs in Windows, indexing can make a computer laggy. Personally I prefer a quick computer and waiting for a few seconds when I do want to have it search.

But to each his own - just pointing out some options. I've got nothing against Strigi as long as they let me disable and remove it easily (which they don't).

[Rog131]

Re: Strigi Desktop Search

Here the strigi is working quite nicely . With the Jaunty and with the Karmic you will need a working Java + Sesame2 backend + a symlink to the java (or java.conf file). More > Topic: Nepomuk&Strigi, enable and use.

The future > Topic: Strigi