Re: [Evolution] Migrating evolution to a new PC

[Rick Bilonick <rab nauticom net>]

I put a new hard drive in my laptop. Before doing this, I copied my home
directory to a usb hard drive. After setting up FC6 on the new hard
drive, I created my user id (same as the old drive) and then copied the
hidden directory .evolution to my new home directory before starting
evolution. When I started evolution for the first time, all my old
e-mails were intact as was the contact address book. The only thing I
had to re-do was setting up the e-mail server info. Everything worked
perfectly - evolution has never crashed (in fact it seems to work better
in FC6 than it did in FC4).

Rick B.


On Thu, 2006-12-28 at 14:32 +0800, LnxGnome wrote:
> (new) Subject: Hacking gconf in 24 quick and easy steps ;)
> 
> This method "worked for me" to migrate address books, which is the
> only thing I really cared about.  I make no warranty or guarantees
> about how well this will work on your system and/or how well it will
> eat all of your data.  Make backups...often.
> 
> My system is openSuSE 10.2 x86_64 with:
> evolution-2.8.2-4
> evolution-data-server-1.8.2-5
> evolution-data-server-32bit-1.8.2-5
> evolution-exchange-2.8.2-4
> evolution-pilot-2.8.2-4
> evolution-sharp-0.12.0-5
> evolution-webcal-2.8.0-26
> 
> Assuming your evo is brand spanking new (has no data in it), and
> you've copied your old home directory from the other PC to somewhere
> (OLDHOMEDIR) on the new PC.
> 
> 1) Open evo
> 2) Goto Contacts (whoever said GoTo statements were not useful?)
> 3) Create a new address book
> 4) Quit evo
> 5) run `evolution --force-shutdown`
> 6) cp -apv \
> OLDHOMEDIR/.evolution/addressbook/local/[0-9]* \
> $HOME/.evolution/addressbook/local/
> 
> 7)   Make note of the directory names that are copied, for example:
> 1163057417 6976 21 oldhost
> 1163057446 6976 23 oldhost
> 1163667777 25716 0 oldhost
> 
> 8) cd $HOME/.evolution/addressbook/local/ ; rename oldhost hostname *.oldhost
> 9) open gedit (or your favorite editor)
> 10) run gconf-editor
> 11) select /apps /evolution /addressbook
> 12) double click `sources` (right pane) and a new window opens
> 13) edit the entry that says "On This Computer"
> 14) copy (ctrl-c or whatever) the text over to your editor
> 15) in your editor, hack and slice as follow....
> 
> Example XML
> 
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <group uid="1167202093 18438 17 hostname" name="On This Computer"
> base_uri="file:///home/username/.evolution/addressbook/local"
> readonly="no">
> <source uid="1167202093 18438 18 hostname" name="Personal"
> uri="file:///home/username/.evolution/addressbook/local/system"
> relative_uri="system">
> <properties>
> <property name="completion" value="true"/>
> </properties>
> </source>
> <source uid="1167283481 8720 0 hostname" name="newab"
> relative_uri="1167283481 8720 0 hostname"/>
> </group>
> 
> Notice the <source> for the new address book you created.  We're going
> to play with it.
> 
> Copy the newab <source> once for each address book you want to migrate.
> 
> <source uid="1167283481 8720 0 hostname" name="newab"
> relative_uri="1167283481 8720 0 hostname"/>
> <source uid="1167283481 8720 0 hostname" name="newab"
> relative_uri="1167283481 8720 0 hostname"/>
> <source uid="1167283481 8720 0 hostname" name="newab"
> relative_uri="1167283481 8720 0 hostname"/>
> 
> 16) Replace the uid and relative_uri with our new directory names
> 17) Change newab to whatever you want to call the folder.
> 
> !!! DON'T JUST COPY AND PASTE MY EXAMPLE. !!!  Your system will have
> different directory and hostnames.
> 
> <source uid="1163057417 6976 21 hostname" name="Work"
> relative_uri="1163057417 6976 21 hostname"/>
> <source uid="1163057446 6976 23 hostname" name="Friends"
> relative_uri="1163057446 6976 23 hostname"/>
> <source uid="1163667777 25716 0 hostname" name="Enemies"
> relative_uri="1163667777 25716 0 hostname"/>
> 
> 18) Condense it back into one line. (this is for sanities sake,
> because I don't know if it matters or not to gconf and/or evo)
> 
> <?xml version="1.0"?><group uid="1167202093 18438 17 hostname"
> name="On This Computer"
> base_uri="file:///home/username/.evolution/addressbook/local"
> readonly="no"><source uid="1167202093 18438 18 hostname"
> name="Personal"
> uri="file:///home/username/.evolution/addressbook/local/system"
> relative_uri="system"><properties><property name="completion"
> value="true"/></properties></source><source
> uid="1167283481 8720 0 hostname" name="newab"
> relative_uri="1167283481 8720 0 hostname"/><source
> uid="1163057417 6976 21 hostname" name="Work"
> relative_uri="1163057417 6976 21 hostname"/><source
> uid="1163057446 6976 23 hostname" name="Friends"
> relative_uri="1163057446 6976 23 hostname"/><source
> uid="1163667777 25716 0 hostname" name="Enemies"
> relative_uri="1163667777 25716 0 hostname"/></group>
> 
> Note: The above XML section is one long line!
> 
> 19) Copy/Paste your new entry back into the "Edit List Entry" you
> copied it out of.  Be sure to KEEP the `null` character at the end of
> the original entry (it looks like a box with funny characters in it on
> my system... again, this is for sanities sake, because I don't know if
> it matters or not to gconf and/or evo, but I'd bet it does :) )
> 
> 20) click OK  (closing Edit List Entry)
> 21) click OK  (closing Edit Key window)
> 22) quick gconf-editor
> 23) Open evo
> 24) check your handywork.
> 
> Note well: The first time I exited evo after doing this, evo crashed.
> It was ok after restarting it again.
> 
> There are probably some nifty gconf tools to do the same work, but I'm
> a gconf lightweight (and generally don't like gconf), so this was my
> quick fix.
> 
> A similar method may work for migrating other parts of evo, but I have
> not attempted anything else.
> 
> Peace, Love, Freedom & OpenSource
> --Keith
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