Data Sharing Between Ubuntu Evolution and Win XP Evolution

symlinking the firefox bookmarks folder between ubuntu and windows works, as do a few others. You could try the same for evolution, but make sure you back up all your data before doing this. Also, I would suggest linking specific files so that you have reasonable control over what goes where. Im not sure if linking the whole .evolution folder is a good idea - things such as plugins and other platform dependent setting could casue severe issues.

Oh, and to answer your questions :
1. The actual data files probably are. I've never used evolution on windows, so I cant guarantee this though.
2. Yes. It is practical to share files. THere are many cases where a symlink lining to the corresponing file on windows will help solve such issues.
3. Its best to have the file on your windows partition and the symlink on your ubuntu partition (you can make one with ln -s <source> <target>) As far as I know, windows does not have an equivalent of symlinks.

Please do let me know how it goes. :)

Many thanks - that sounds promising. I'm going to try to get my head around "links" a bit better before I start. Then I'm going to fully delete Evo from my XP system and re-install it, so I'm starting off with a clean installation. Then I'll go carefully, step by step, to see what happens following your method.
I will certainly let you know what happens, just give me a couple of days to work on it.
A couple of questions though:
1. re email: Let's assume I have set it up as you recommend; all my data files - my contacts, calendar, email in/out boxes, ..etc.. - are on the XP partition and the links are in each of the relevant directories within ~/.evolution. If I'm working within Ubuntu and I send an email, or add a new calendar event - does the symbolic link then cause this to be added to the file on the XP partition rather than to the file within the ~/.evolution structure. Is this how linking works?
2. re links: What's the difference between a hard link and a symbolic link?

Hi David,

Lets say you have a symbolic link to a file called abcd.txt that resides in /media/windows/docs/ that is called fghd in ubuntu, then whenever you try to open the file fghd, it will automatically redirect you to the abcd.txt file in the windows folder. The same happens if you try wrting to the file. However, in your case, note that you cant have the native ubuntu-evolutions' files as well as the symbolic links to windows. You will have to at least rename your orignal ubuntu files to something else. Remember that everything is a file, and therefore must have a unique name - including symbolic links.

You can find some discussion about symbolic linking vs hard linking here ::

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=310834

Hope this helps

Once again, many thanks for your explanation. I now have a better understanding of what the symlink can achieve, but I'm not yet clear on how to implement it as I'm planning to.

Specifically, I have the following situation. Let's look at Calendars. On Ubuntu I have: ~/.evolution/calendar/local/system/calendar/calendar.ics
On XP I have c:/Documents and Settings/david/.evolution/calendar/local/system/calendar/calendar.ics
Not surprisingly, the same sub-directory structure and same file name within Evolution on both systems. A similar situation exists with Tasks, Email, ..etc.. As you suggested, I want the calendar.ics file within XP to be the actual data file and I want a symlink in Ubuntu pointing to this file, so that when Ubuntu Evolution tries to write to the file it writes to the XP instance of it.
In this situation:
1. Where do I locate the link?
2. Given that the file name is identical in each system, how do I word the link?

In determining the path within XP, another issue arose - the spaces in the directory name. I tried to use Terminal to determine the path but got stuck after /media/hda1/. 'ls' shows the directory Documents and Settings, but no matter what I enter after a 'cd' command I get "No such file or directory". I had to go back into XP to work out what the path was. How, within Linux, do I correctly enter a Windows directory name that contains spaces?

A final complication. Within XP I have two drives, c: and d:. I keep the c: drive for the OS and the d: drive for my working files. Usually when I use Terminal to look into the XP drive, cd /media/hda1 takes me to the c: drive, but occasionally it takes me to the d: drive. How do I specify which drive I go to? This may have some bearing on how the symlink gets worded.

Locate the link in the same folder as the file is supposed to be. For the calender, for example,

cd ~/.evolution/calendar/local/system/calendar/
mv calendar.ics calendar.ics_old
ls -s "/media/hda1/Documents and Settings/david/.evolution/calendar/local/system/calendar/calendar.ics" calendar.ics

please note that you should ensure you have full write access to the calendar.ics file, or your evolution is likely to be unpredictable.

To navigate through folders with spaces, you have two options - either enclose the entire path in quotes as above, which you can do even if there is no space in the path, or you can use the excase characters as such : /media/hda1/Documents\ and\ Settings/

Also, take a look at tab completion. It makes the bash prompt much more fun to use. Type in cd /media/hda1/ and hit tab to see the possible possibilities, The type D and tab again it should fill in the rest of the folder name. This behaviour can be seen in many other contexts as well..

As for different drives showing up as hda1, that should not be happening. You can post the output of "cat /etc/fstab", "cat /etc/mtab", "sudo mount" , and "sudo fdisk -l" if you are sure that is happening.

Thanks Shashank Chintalagiri, that solved my question.

I've developed a new problem with Evolution loading within XP. I'll have to sort this one out before continuing with the file sharing exercise as currently I can only run Evolution from Ubuntu - which maybe isn't a bad thing!

Once I resume, yes, I'll check the write access permissions.

The problem with different drives showing up as hda1 came at an odd time. Several other weird things were happening at the same time - I'd lost my desktop background; selecting Edit -> Preferences within Evolution resulted in Evolution shutting itself down; and a couple of other odd behaviours. I re-booted and all those problems disappeared, and hda1 now shows the c: drive as normal. If it happens again I'll either re-open this thread, or open a new one, and post the outputs you requested.

I've got a heavy work programme for the next week or two so I'll mark this thread as solved.

My grateful thanks for all the advice and tuition; I'll post the results of the file sharing exercise as soon as I sort out the new problem and then have a chance to implement your advice.

Shashank

I've not yet had a chance to look at the file sharing exercise, I'm about to relocate and it's chaos here. I'll get back to it once I move and get settled in to the new location.

However, the problem of the d: drive showing up as hda1 has occurred again. At present I have two thumb drives plugged in (showing as "disk" and "LEXAR" on the toolbar) and an 80GB external drive (showing as "disk-1" on the toolbar).

As per your request on 23 June, the following is the output of "cat /etc/fstab", "cat /etc/mtab", "sudo mount" , and "sudo fdisk -l":

david@david-laptop:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/hda7
UUID=53e6fc67-eb66-4c1f-9275-4d6485d7d70e / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/hda1
UUID=4C54A5A254A58EF0 /media/hda1 ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/hda5
UUID=4C54A5A254A58EF0 /media/hda5 ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/hda6
UUID=c288c1f0-c7c7-4242-b6af-d20f25ee2dc7 none swap sw 0 0
# /dev/hda8
UUID=6032d33e-19d8-4a07-bacf-26fbeaad1515 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

david@david-laptop:~$ cat /etc/mtab
/dev/hda7 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
varrun /var/run tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755 0 0
varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777 0 0
procbususb /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
devshm /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
lrm /lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/volatile tmpfs rw 0 0
/dev/hda5 /media/hda1 ntfs rw,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /media/disk vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077 0 0
/dev/sda /media/disk-1 vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /media/LEXAR vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077 0 0

david@david-laptop:~$ sudo mount
Password:
/dev/hda7 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/hda5 on /media/hda1 type ntfs (rw,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/disk type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077)
/dev/sda on /media/disk-1 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/LEXAR type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077)

david@david-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 1276 4864 28828642+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2168 3442 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6 1276 1397 979902 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda7 3443 4864 11422183+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 1398 2167 6184993+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 ? 119512 153402 272218546+ 20 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 ? 82801 116350 269488144 6b Unknown
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 ? 33551 120595 699181456 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux3
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 * 86812 86813 10668+ 49 Unknown
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 1004 MB, 1004011520 bytes
127 heads, 63 sectors/track, 245 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8001 * 512 = 4096512 bytes

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 246 980448+ 6 FAT16
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(249, 126, 63) logical=(245, 11, 22)

Disk /dev/sdc: 257 MB, 257949696 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 984 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 984 251888 6 FAT16
david@david-laptop:~$

I'll leave it running like this for a couple of days, to give you a chance to respond and in case you want me to run any other commands.

Hi David.

Sorry for getting back to you so late. I've was away from an internet
connection for a couple of weeks and this kindof slipped my mind.

Anyways, I think the problem is in your fstab. both the lines for the
ntfs drives, hda1 and hda5 have the same UUID, which, if i remeber
correctly, means they are pointing to the same partition. If this is
the case, you should be seeing only one of the partitions each time.
If that is indeed the case, then fixing those lines should solve the
problem.

If you are going to keep your ide hard drive more or less in the same
configuration, then i'd suggest you replace the reference by UUID with
the counterparts in /dev , ie, /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda5 . Do let me
know if you continue experiencing difficulties.

On 7/2/07, DavidWFox <email address hidden> wrote:
> Question #8459 on evolution in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+question/8459
>
> Status: Solved => Open
>
> DavidWFox is still having a problem:
> Shashank
>
> I've not yet had a chance to look at the file sharing exercise, I'm
> about to relocate and it's chaos here. I'll get back to it once I move
> and get settled in to the new location.
>
> However, the problem of the d: drive showing up as hda1 has occurred
> again. At present I have two thumb drives plugged in (showing as "disk"
> and "LEXAR" on the toolbar) and an 80GB external drive (showing as
> "disk-1" on the toolbar).
>
> As per your request on 23 June, the following is the output of "cat
> /etc/fstab", "cat /etc/mtab", "sudo mount" , and "sudo fdisk -l":
>
> david@david-laptop:~$ cat /etc/fstab
> # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
> #
> # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
> # /dev/hda7
> UUID=53e6fc67-eb66-4c1f-9275-4d6485d7d70e / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
> # /dev/hda1
> UUID=4C54A5A254A58EF0 /media/hda1 ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
> # /dev/hda5
> UUID=4C54A5A254A58EF0 /media/hda5 ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
> # /dev/hda6
> UUID=c288c1f0-c7c7-4242-b6af-d20f25ee2dc7 none swap sw 0 0
> # /dev/hda8
> UUID=6032d33e-19d8-4a07-bacf-26fbeaad1515 none swap sw 0 0
> /dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
>
> david@david-laptop:~$ cat /etc/mtab
> /dev/hda7 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
> proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
> /sys /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
> varrun /var/run tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755 0 0
> varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777 0 0
> procbususb /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0
> udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
> devshm /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
> devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
> lrm /lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/volatile tmpfs rw 0 0
> /dev/hda5 /media/hda1 ntfs rw,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 0
> binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw 0 0
> /dev/sdc1 /media/disk vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077 0 0
> /dev/sda /media/disk-1 vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077 0 0
> /dev/sdb1 /media/LEXAR vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077 0 0
>
> david@david-laptop:~$ sudo mount
> Password:
> /dev/hda7 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
> proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
> /sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
> varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
> varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
> procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
> udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
> devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
> devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
> lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
> /dev/hda5 on /media/hda1 type ntfs (rw,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46)
> binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
> /dev/sdc1 on /media/disk type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077)
> /dev/sda on /media/disk-1 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077)
> /dev/sdb1 on /media/LEXAR type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077)
>
> david@david-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
> Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/hda1 * 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/hda2 1276 4864 28828642+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/hda5 2168 3442 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/hda6 1276 1397 979902 82 Linux swap / Solaris
> /dev/hda7 3443 4864 11422183+ 83 Linux
> /dev/hda8 1398 2167 6184993+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
>
> Partition table entries are not in disk order
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
> This doesn't look like a partition table
> Probably you selected the wrong device.
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 ? 119512 153402 272218546+ 20 Unknown
> Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
> /dev/sda2 ? 82801 116350 269488144 6b Unknown
> Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
> /dev/sda3 ? 33551 120595 699181456 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux3
> Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
> /dev/sda4 * 86812 86813 10668+ 49 Unknown
> Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
>
> Partition table entries are not in disk order
>
> Disk /dev/sdb: 1004 MB, 1004011520 bytes
> 127 heads, 63 sectors/track, 245 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 8001 * 512 = 4096512 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sdb1 1 246 980448+ 6 FAT16
> Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
> phys=(249, 126, 63) logical=(245, 11, 22)
>
> Disk /dev/sdc: 257 MB, 257949696 bytes
> 16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 984 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sdc1 * 1 984 251888 6 FAT16
> david@david-laptop:~$
>
> I'll leave it running like this for a couple of days, to give you a
> chance to respond and in case you want me to run any other commands.
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

--
________________________________
Chintalagiri Shashank
Sophomore Undergraduate
Departent of Physics
IIT Kanpur

<email address hidden>
<email address hidden>
www.devilsadvocate-chs.blogspot.com
________________________________

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