kmail IMAP groupware functionality no longer working

[Troy Carpenter]

Binary package hint: kmail

Version information:
from kmail: KMail Version 1.9.6 (enterprise 0.20070907.709405)
installed package: (kmail 4:3.5.7enterprise20070907-0ubuntu2)

Until a recent upgrade, kmail IMAP groupware functionality was working just fine. However, now kmail isn't identifying the groupware folders properly and therefore no items are transferred to their respective applications from the IMAP account. I know this was working previously with kmail 3.5.7enterprise20070904-0ubuntu1 because I used it to test bug #135790.

In the account that has the IMAP resources, none of the folders have their corresponding groupware icons, as if kmail doesn't recognize them. I verified that all my settings are still the same as they were when everything worked. I have tried to delete and re-add the IMAP resource account, disable/re-enable IMAP groupware settings, restart quit and restart kmail (via kontact) and system reboot, none of which worked.

[Luka Renko (lure)]

Is this still the problem with current version of kdepim in gutsy?

[Troy Carpenter (troy-carpenter)]

Yes. I updated this morning and saw a few new KDE components, but not a new kmail. Anyway, after applying all the latest updates in gutsy the problem still exists.

[Troy Carpenter (troy-carpenter)]

Updated this morning (18-Sept-07) to new kmail package and still not working.

New versions:
from KMail 1.9.6 (enterprise 0.20070907.709405) - same as before
installed package: 4:3.5.7enterprise20070907-0ubuntu3

[Luis Silva (lacsilva)]

I confirm this bug. The IMAP groupware folders I have are seen in kmail as mail folders. As opposite to the previous version it is impossible to configure a folder as Contacts, Notes, etc. Neither korganizer nor kaddressbook recognise data from the kmail imap folders.

[Sebastian Jeworutzki (sjewo)]

I can confirm this bug too.
KMail 1.9.6 (enterprise 0.20070907.709405)
installed package: 4:3.5.7enterprise20070907-0ubuntu3

[Luka Renko (lure)]

Thanks for confirmation. Will try to discuss with developers in #kontact IRC channel.

[Luka Renko (lure)]

Troy, Luis, Sebastian: I am in contact with upstream authors and they are trying to nail down this regression.

Since this report was done first on enterprise version 20070907, we would like to be sure if any previous version of enterprise kdepim has actually work for you. This is particularly interesting for Troy, as you have reported this regression first. For reference, you can see complete list of kdepim version in gutsy here: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdepim

Upstream would also like you to check your $HOME/.kde/share/config/kmailrc file:
- is there "TheIMAPResourceAccount" entry?
- if yes, does any of your [Account X] Id fields matches the above?

For more info, I am including IRC discussion with upstream:
 [13:49] <tokoe> Lure: the only commit which could affect the groupware functionality prevents a crash on a buggy setup
[13:50] <tokoe> Lure: could you ask the bug reporters whether they have an entry TheIMAPResourceAccount entry in their $HOME/.kde/share/config/kmailrc ?
[13:51] <Lure> Will add this to bug report. anything else to check?
[13:52] <tokoe> Lure: and whether there exists an group [Account X] which has an entry Id=Y where X is an abritary number and Y the same value as TheIMAPResourceAccount has
[13:53] <tokoe> Lure: in other words: there must be an account with the same id as given in TheIMAPResourceAccount
[13:54] <tokoe> Lure: if TheIMAPResourceAccount is empty or 0, the groupware functionality is disabled
[13:54] <tokoe> Lure: in the previous versions, kmail just crashed in this case ;)
[13:55] <Lure> tokoe: so how they can re-enable if they need?
[13:55] <tokoe> Lure: that constallation only appears if you have removed an imap account manually which was marked as a groupware account
[13:56] <tokoe> Lure: they just have to set TheIMAPResourceAccount entry to the same id as the id entry of the [Account X] group, which is marked as the groupware resource
[13:57] <tokoe> Lure: but that's only my assumption...
[13:57] <tokoe> Lure: let's see what the reporters will say about their kmailrc

[Troy Carpenter (troy-carpenter)]

On Wednesday 26 September 2007 08:01:34 am Luka Renko wrote:
> Troy, Luis, Sebastian: I am in contact with upstream authors and they
> are trying to nail down this regression.
>
> Since this report was done first on enterprise version 20070907, we
> would like to be sure if any previous version of enterprise kdepim has
> actually work for you. This is particularly interesting for Troy, as you
> have reported this regression first. For reference, you can see complete
> list of kdepim version in gutsy here:
> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdepim

As reported in my original post, I am confident this worked with kmail
3.5.7enterprise20070904-0ubuntu1, but I do not recall what the internal kmail
version of that package is. The link you posted showed a new upstream
snapshot in the next package, which is when I first noticed and reported the
problem.

>
> Upstream would also like you to check your $HOME/.kde/share/config/kmailrc
> file: - is there "TheIMAPResourceAccount" entry?
> - if yes, does any of your [Account X] Id fields matches the above?

I did "grep -i IMAPResourceAccount .kde/share/config/kmailrc" and nothing
came up. I went back into kmail to ensure everything was still provisioned
correctly with respect to groupware functionality, and it was.

So no, there is no TheIMAPResourceAccount entry in my kmailrc file.

[Sebastian Jeworutzki (sjewo)]

> Since this report was done first on enterprise version 20070907, we would like to be sure if any previous version of enterprise kdepim has actually work for you.

I upgraded to gutsy yesterday and started with package 4:3.5.7enterprise20070907-0ubuntu3

> Upstream would also like you to check your $HOME/.kde/share/config/kmailrc file:
> - is there "TheIMAPResourceAccount" entry?

The entry is not present. Adding the entry with correct id manually doesn't solve the problem.

[Sebastian Jeworutzki (sjewo)]

I have to correct my prior comment. Adding this entry solves the problem, I had to turn the groupware functionality on and off.

[Luka Renko (lure)]

Did any of you use kolabwizard to configure IMAP groupware - it looks like configuration in KMail might not be enough to do it properly.

Recent discussion on IRC:
[15:24] <tokoe> Lure: if he hasn't a TheIMAPResourceAccount in his kmailrc file at all, his config is really broken
[15:25] <tokoe> Lure: could you ask him whether he had setup his configuration with kolabwizard?
[15:52] <Lure> tokoe: isn't just enabling it in KMail -> Configuration -> Misc -> Groupware enough?
[16:09] <tokoe> Lure: no, unfortunately not
[16:09] <tokoe> Lure: you have to tell which account is the groupware account as well
[16:10] <tokoe> till: ^^^ what is the proposed way to enable groupware accounts?
[16:10] <tokoe> till: using kolabwizard or the checkbox in kmail config?
[16:10] <till> kolabwizard
[16:12] <tokoe> till: so wouldn't it make sense to hide the enableGroupware checkbox in the gui?
[16:12] <till> tokoe: No, why?
[16:12] <till> It's usable, just easier to use the wizard.
[16:13] <tokoe> till: it isn't usable, because if you just enable the it with the checkbox, there is no TheIMAPResourceAccount set in kmailrc
[16:13] <tokoe> till: so groupware functionality won't work

Troy: if you can come to IRC (freenode) into #kontact channel you could discuss this with developers directly. Since I do not know much about IMAP groupware, I cannot do much more than forward info around.

[Troy Carpenter (troy-carpenter)]

I actually loaded my kmailrc file into an editor and I did find this entry:

[IMAP Resource]
HideGroupwareFolders=false
TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true
TheIMAPResourceFolderParent=910815151

That FolderParent number matches the number on the account entry where the groupware folders are kept.

BUT, that variable you had us search on is NOT there.

I just checked my kmailrc file that is on another non-kubuntu (it's gentoo), non-enterprise (as in standard KDE distribution) kmail install that DOES work and that entry is not there either.

[Troy Carpenter (troy-carpenter)]

Ok, following a few hints in your email and something I saw in the IRC group, I quit kmail and ran the groupware wizard. I set it up as a version 1 kolab server. The wizard created two bogus accounts in kmail, which I deleted. I then went into the kmail groupware setup and selected the correct account where my folders are kept. When I hit "ok", all the folders were recognized and all the data was imported into the correct applications (contacts, calendar data, etc).

[Sebastian Jeworutzki (sjewo)]

I just looked into the source of the kmail configure dialog and it seem, that th entry “TheIMAPResourceAccount” should be written to kmailrc. I'm not a programmer, so ignore if I'm wrong.

Code:
KDE/kdepim/kmail/configuredialog.cpp?revision=712553

void MiscPage::GroupwareTab::save()
{
  KConfigGroup groupware( KMKernel::config(), "Groupware" );

  // Write the groupware config
 [..............]
    // Inbox folder of the selected account
    KMAccount* acct = mAccountCombo->currentAccount();
    if ( acct ) {
      folderId = QString( ".%1.directory/INBOX" ).arg( acct->id() );
      GlobalSettings::self()->setTheIMAPResourceAccount( acct->id() );
    }
  }
[.........]

[Luis Silva (lacsilva)]

I can confirm the manual solution. I actually had the TheIMAPResourceAccount entry set to a non existing ID. I also tried something else. I created a new imap account on the same server. remade all the configurations inside kmail and restarted it. I then checked the entries. This is what I get:

[IMAP Resource]
TheIMAPResourceAccount=1499579679
TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true
TheIMAPResourceFolderParent=1969275262

TheIMAPResourceFolderParent was updated but not the TheIMAPResourceAccount.

By the way. I don't get an option to configure an imap account on the GroupwareWizard.

[Sebastian Jeworutzki (sjewo)]

> By the way. I don't get an option to configure an imap account on the GroupwareWizard.

You have to choose "Kolab"

[Roland Bless (roland-bless)]

I can confirm this bug for kmail 1.9.6. enterprise 0.20070907.709405 (ubuntu package:
4:3.5.7enterprise20070907-0ubuntu3). Adding manually
TheIMAPResourceAccount=<Id>
to kmailrc fixes the problem as workaround indeed.

[Re Persina (r99990)]

Here is my scenario: I have two machines, both were running Edgy with kmail 1.9.6, and both were configured for groupware folders/imap resources. I have upgraded only one machine to Gutsy, now using kmail 1.9.6 (enterprise 0.20070907.709405). After the upgrade the Gutsy machine has the problem described in this bug.

One point of interest, before attempting the workaround here, I compared kmailrc on the Edgy machine and the Gutsy machine, and the [IMAP Resource] sections were exactly the same (except for the account ID's of course):

[IMAP Resource]
TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true
TheIMAPResourceFolderParent=.1869991014.directory/INBOX

In Edgy, the groupware folders still work fine, without a "TheIMAPResourceAccount=" line.

On the Gutsy machine I tried the workaround; manually adding the TheIMAPResourceAccount=<accountid>
After restarting kontact/kmail, I get the following prompt:
"KMail will now create the required groupware folders as subfolders of INBOX; if you do not want this, cancel and the IMAP resource will be disabled"

If I say yes/Continue, then the empty Contacts, Cal folders etc. show up in the [cached/disconnected] IMAP acct with the icons indicating they are associated with Contacts, etc. BUT when I try to sync the cached IMAP acct with the server, it fails (Error while uploading folder Could not make the folder **** on the server...) because the folders already exist on the server (and are full of data) so it cannot create them again, and so it will not sync the existing data either.

If I say Cancel to the "Kmail will now create the required groupware folders" prompt, then, as it promised, it disables the groupware functionality and unsets "TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true" in kmailrc. If I manually reset this value in kmailrc and restart kontact, it gives me the same "KMail will now create the required groupware folders...." prompt.

So the workaround does not work here.

[Elan Ruusamäe (glen666)]

i can confirm that the problem exists in KDE 3.5.8-RELEASE too. i hade KDE 3.5.7 installed and my section was:

[IMAP Resource]
Enabled=false
HideGroupwareFolders=false
TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true
TheIMAPResourceFolderParent=.1709087027.directory/INBOX

i had to add manually there:
TheIMAPResourceAccount=1709087027

and folders were recognized as IMAP resource.

i did disable Groupware checkbox in kmail config, and re-enabled, but that still didn't make the TheIMAPResourceAccount option to appear.

[raif (rollflick)]

I have just updated to KDE 3.5.8 and Gutsy Gibbon, so I experienced the same problem. The workaround does fix the problem but creates a new one for me: none of my IMAP mail folders for the IMAP account in which my groupware folders are visible in kmail, just the local folders and those of another IMAP account show up now.

So at present I can either look at my IMAP resources or my IMAP mail and have to manually change the settings in the resource file and restart Kontact to switch between. I was really getting into Kontact let alone making a Mac using colleague jealous with features such as dragging emails into the to-do list.

[IMAP Resource]
ShowOnlyGroupwareFoldersForGroupwareAccount=true
TheIMAPResourceAccount=#
TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true
TheIMAPResourceFolderParent=.#.directory/.INBOX.directory/calendar

[where # is the number kontact gives to the IMAP account]

[Yuriy Kozlov (yuriy-kozlov)]

I have the same problem on two gutsy installations. One of them was upgraded from Feisty, where this worked correctly. I set up the groupware functionality through settings in kmail and not throught the wizard.

Exiting kontact, adding TheIMAPResourceAccount=1 to kmailrc, and starting up kontact fixed it for me.

[Rafal Kwasny (mag)]

Problem persists in hardy, but after adding
TheIMAPResourceAccount=....

kontact crashes with sig 11

[Michael Mikowski (kfocus)]

CONFIRMED in Hardy.

I am trying to set up an IMAP resource to company mandated Exchange 2003 server. Unfortunately, I bet more than a few of us have the problem :( It would be good if the groupwarewizard were updated to handle this as well.

RESOLUTION

0. Make sure Kontact and Korganizer Reminder Daemon (in the system tray) are shutdown

1. Edit Edit ~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc

2. Copy the the IMAP account ID from early in the file. In the example below, we see Id=7134808189

[Account 1]
...
Folder=7134808189
Id=7134808189
...
Type=cachedimap
...

3. Change the IMAP resource section as below:

[IMAP Resource]
Enabled=true
Folder Language=0
HideGroupwareFolders=false
TheIMAPResourceAccount=7134808189
TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true
TheIMAPResourceFolderParent=7134808189
TheIMAPResourceStorageFormat=IcalVcard

4. (optional) Adjust the location of the Groupware folders through the Kmail GUI: Kmail Settings -> Misc -> Groupware.
By default, they we be under the root IMAP folder (which is fine with me).

METHODOLOGY
This solution was determined by setting up a bogus Kolab 1 account using the groupwarewizard, and then diff-ing the kmailrc file to the original.

OTHER NOTES
Once set up, the calendar works nicely, although I use it as a read-only resource since Exchange historically does not play well with Kontact for setting appointments.
I might test for read-write in a bit.

[alistair (alistair-tyeurgain)]

In Hardy, using Settings>Configure Kmail... then, under Misc/Groupware to set up the groupware function almost works. It just misses the line

TheIMAPResourceAccount=...</code>

from kmailrc. Therefore, I suggest a slightly easier workaround than z_mikowski's is to use the setup dialog to do most of the work then add the missing line manually.

Since we know the problem and the solution, is is strange that this bug ins hanging around for so long.

A

[Danielstefanmader (danielstefanmader)]

It is no longer possible to enable IMAP groupware functionality without manual completion of ~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc:

[IMAP Resource]
Enabled=true
Folder Language=0
HideGroupwareFolders=false
TheIMAPResourceAccount=1506805398
TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true
TheIMAPResourceFolderParent=1506805398
TheIMAPResourceStorageFormat=IcalVcard

After that, it basically works. Annoyingly, the UTF8 encoded Contacts are not displayed properly. All umlauts are displayed as two squares. Calender entries with umlauts aus properly displayed, so it seems that a different encoding is used for the contact entries...

[Ctrippe (ctrippe)]

Still present in GM.

[Danielstefanmader (danielstefanmader)]

Mid-air collision, Christian :)

Seems to not openSUSE specific but a known upstream problem:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=586702
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdepim/+bug/139433

[Rainer Sabelka (sabelka)]

> [...] manual completion of ~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc:

actually it's ~/.kde4/share/config/kmailrc

[Rainer Sabelka (sabelka)]

Sorry my last comment is a bit wrong here - I didn't notice this report was for KDE3.
But the same bug exists also for KDE4

[Danielstefanmader (danielstefanmader)]

Actually, the following in ~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc is enough for me to regain the groupware functionality:

[IMAP Resource]
HideGroupwareFolders=false
TheIMAPResourceAccount=<accoundID for cachedIMAP>
TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true
TheIMAPResourceFolderParent=<accoundID for cachedIMAP>

Previously, the following has worked fine for me:

[IMAP Resource]
TheIMAPResourceEnabled=true
TheIMAPResourceFolderParent=<accoundID for cachedIMAP>

Unfortunately, the encoding issue is still persistent: Contacts are shown with a wrong 8bit encoding (two rectangles for each Umlaut etc.)

It would be nice to at least get a workaround for this, until the issue is fully fixed!

[Danielstefanmader (danielstefanmader)]

Increasing priority. Hopefully it will find some attention, then. This bug also affects the upcoming SLE version, in my opinion! Working groupware is vital there!

[Wstephenson-novell (wstephenson-novell)]

*** Bug 356520 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Wstephenson-novell (wstephenson-novell)]

Fixed upstream, will integrate in our packages. (KDE:KDE3 in the OBS will have it soone

[Danielstefanmader (danielstefanmader)]

Thank you and the upstream KDE people for the fix!

Will there be an official online update or do I have to add the KDE repo?

Also: does the fix also fix the encoding issue or just the setup of the resource?

[Wstephenson-novell (wstephenson-novell)]

There will be an official online update but I will probably delay it pending any other kdepim3 fixes I can do.

I didn't read the paragraph about the encoding until now; it has not been fixed - I've tested it. Please open another bug for that.

[shinyblue (shinyblue)]

Dear maintainers: **Why isn't this fixed in Hardy?** I've just upgraded to Hardy and it was a real PITA. Please do fix it. I use it so that my thunderbird and kmail can share contacts (tbird via synckolab).

Dear Alistair: Thanks! Got it working.

[matthias (mfuchs)]

Adding the "TheIMAPResourceAccount=..." line to kmailrc does not work for my Hardy system.
After adding the line, I got kmail/kontact crash as Rafal stated above.

I tried adding the line manually and also used the kolabwizard to see if it makes any difference.

[alistair (alistair-tyeurgain)]

The bug is still there in KMail Version 1.10.0 as distributed with the Kubuntu KDE 4.1 packages! Fortunately, the same fix still works.

A

[Loïc Guitaut (flink-belfalas)]

Same here with Hardy and KDE 4.1. The problem is still there and trying the workaround just make kmail crash at startup. So no solution works for me :(

[Michael Mikowski (kfocus)]

I had this problem for a while for 4.1 too. See my note above (z_mikowski wrote on 2008-05-24) for 3.5.x set-up. I proceeded much like outlined in that note (adjusting .kde to .kde4). But still no relief. After much digging (thank you Google), this seemed to do the trick on my office workstation:

/usr/lib/kde4/bin/kcmshell4 kresources

And then specified the resources. Maybe this has something to do with the new resource framework.

The solution seems very obscure. My PATH hadn't been set up for this bin, so kcmshell4 wasn't even found. I'll probably fix that ...

I plan to convert my current kde3.5.10 email to 4.1 on my laptop soon, so perhaps I can give a step-by-step when I go through it again.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Invalidating unused Debian upstream task.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Is this still a problem in KDE 4.3?

[matthias (mfuchs)]

> Is this still a problem in KDE 4.3?
>
Yes, it seems so. But I recheck in the next days again.

Matthias

[alistair (alistair-tyeurgain)]

I have been living with this bug for years, but I have avoided it by simply copying complete config files (?mail*rc from one context to another over several distro releases and several kde versions.

Just today, I needed to set up a new account on a KUbuntu Karmic and a SUSE 11.2 (that is, brand new) clients. That meant I had no config files to copy, and had to do it the "proper" way. Bugger me, but the sodding bug is still there, well over two years since it was first reported, and the same manual fix I reported years ago is still the only way to sort it.

I do fix bugs in open source software. (I even had two lines of code in the kernel for a while, back in the 2.4 days. :) However, I know that there is a hell of a long lead time to get into a new project. This seems to be such a trivial problem that someone who is up to speed should be able to sort it with a few minutes' work, whereas I would need a while to track down the source of the problem a while sort it, and then weeks of endless hassle to get my fix accepted into the main source tree: so I am just not going down that route!

A

[Murz (murznn)]

Seems that bug is solved in Lucid KDE 4.4. I can normally add disconnected IMAP and enable groupware functionality.

[Wstephenson-novell (wstephenson-novell)]

I've left this too late for KDE 3.