Ubuntu
evolution package

How to transfer backup to newer version of evolution.

Asked by David Rahrer

http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2005/12/03/how-to-backup-evolution/

I have successfully used this procedure to backup and restore Evolution 2.8.1 on Ubuntu 6.10, however I haven't found any information on how safe this is to use between different versions of Evolution. I have installed Ubuntu 7.04 on a separate partition (I don't like to upgrade an existing install) and I want to move my existing Evolution 2.8.1 data to the new Evolution 2.10.1. Would this same procedure be safe between versions? How will it cope with new or changed features? Does the gconf merge handle this?

Thanks!

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Thomas Templin
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Thomas Templin (coastgnu) said : 		#1

Hi David
On Mon, 21. May 2007 05:44:09 David Rahrer wrote:
> New question #6945 on evolution in ubuntu:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+question/6945
>
> http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2005/12/03/how-to-backup-evolution/
>
> I have successfully used this procedure to backup and restore Evolution
> 2.8.1 on Ubuntu 6.10, however I haven't found any information on how safe
> this is to use between different versions of Evolution. I have installed
> Ubuntu 7.04 on a separate partition (I don't like to upgrade an existing
> install) and I want to move my existing Evolution 2.8.1 data to the new
> Evolution 2.10.1. Would this same procedure be safe between versions? How
> will it cope with new or changed features? Does the gconf merge handle
> this?

I have a seperate disk with is mounted as /home partition.
I have this disk since warty and in the past I did a fresh installation of the
nev version of ubuntu and mounted the /home disk afterwards.
So I always set up the new system first without the /home disk and then added
the /home disk. And I never run into problems doing so.

So the old /home had an ~/.evolution directory which is used by a newer
evolution version. And it worked from warty to dapper, from dapper to edgy
and from edgy to feisty. All new ubuntu version came along with a new
evolution version and had no problem to use the old ~/.evolution directory of
a user account.

You should start the system via a live cd and copy your bakup data to the
7.04 /home. After this a reboot of feisty should work as expected.

regards,
thomas

Revision history for this message
David Rahrer (david-rahrer) said : 		#2

Thank you for your prompt response Thomas. So you are saying that there is no need to merge settings using gconf as described in the link and your accounts and settings are picked up from just the home/.evolution contents? I was using the other procedure because I understood that there are other settings on which Evolution depends to recreate the accounts automatically. If I am understanding you correctly, this is much like changing Thunderbird installs, just moving the data profile over. Is this correct?

Revision history for this message
Best Thomas Templin (coastgnu) said : 		#3

On Mon, 21. May 2007 08:09:09 David Rahrer wrote:
> Question #6945 on evolution in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+question/6945
>
> Status: Answered => Open
>
> David Rahrer is still having a problem:
> Thank you for your prompt response Thomas. So you are saying that there
> is no need to merge settings using gconf as described in the link and
> your accounts and settings are picked up from just the home/.evolution
> contents? I was using the other procedure because I understood that
> there are other settings on which Evolution depends to recreate the
> accounts automatically. If I am understanding you correctly, this is
> much like changing Thunderbird installs, just moving the data profile
> over. Is this correct?

I would say that it should work without stopping and restarting gconf-tool if
you are not running the system which helds the evolution data.
That's why I mentioned to restore your backup from a running live cd session.
By doing so no running gconf-tool has it's eyes on the files you want to
restore.
The procedure mentioned at ubuntu.wordpress is a way to restore the evolution
data and settings from whithin a running session.

But it would be a good idea also to restore your date in .gconf/apps/evolution
and .gnome2_private/Evolution.

The way I did my upgrades differs from yours in the way that I used all my old
settings and data because I had them all on a seperate disk.
So what may be causing problems is that you don't restore your whole /home
directory but only the evolution stuff. So if you would use a backup of your
complete /home this would be quite the same what I did.
But I wouldn't do this restore from a running ubuntu system, I would use a
live-cd session. (Doing a 'hot restore' (in a running system) is always
tricky and may cause unexpected results)

regards,
thomas

Revision history for this message
David Rahrer (david-rahrer) said : 		#4

Thanks coastgnu, that solved my question.