Evolution on PClinuxOs64 and Enlightenment

[aljones]

Okay, Iḿ gradually making the switch from Windows to Linux (if I can get the international part of this keyboard to stop putting "'"'s where they don't belong)
I've been looking at mail clients and evolution seems to be the best available - read "Most similar to Outlook".
What I'm running into, though, is that everything I try to do seems to crash evolution. For example:
Internet -> Mail settings -> Add Account and it goes away without doing anything or giving an error.
Internet -> Evolution -> Edit Preferences and it goes ... ditto
I've completely uninstalled Evolution via Synaptic and reinstalled it ... same thing.
Comments, suggestions, *HELP!*
//al

[Rudge]

Okay, Iḿ gradually making the switch from Windows to Linux (if I can get the international part of this keyboard to stop putting "'"'s where they don't belong)
I've been looking at mail clients and evolution seems to be the best available - read "Most similar to Outlook".
What I'm running into, though, is that everything I try to do seems to crash evolution. For example:
Internet -> Mail settings -> Add Account and it goes away without doing anything or giving an error.
Internet -> Evolution -> Edit Preferences and it goes ... ditto
I've completely uninstalled Evolution via Synaptic and reinstalled it ... same thing.
Comments, suggestions, *HELP!*
//al

Just a guess here, based on the tittle of the thread... are you using the 64 bit version of PCLinuxOS?

[aljones]

LOL, well, I'd say that's a pretty good guess.  Yes, I am.
32 bit app giving me fits on a 64 bit system??

[Rudge]

Maybe I missed it so I could be wrong but I don't think that version has been released yet 

Good luck.

[kjpetrie]

If you're on 64-bit that's a beta system still in testing. It isn't yet complete. Supported pclos is 32-bit at present.

Let's find out for sure. What do you get if you open a terminal and type uname -a?

[aljones]

Rudge, you're right, it's not yet.  I'm trying to remember where I found it - probably somewhere on the PCLos site or a reference from there - but I was looking for an x64 to play with and I do like PCLos!

kjpetrie, I know, but it's such a sweet system *most* of the time.  and I'm on the wrong box at the moment, I'll answer your question later when I bring the linux box back on line.

Just wondering if anyone knew why if "disappears" "so quickly and if there was a work around for it. (( "It" being evolutions odd behaviour. ))

[aljones]

If you're on 64-bit that's a beta system still in testing. It isn't yet complete. Supported pclos is 32-bit at present.

Let's find out for sure. What do you get if you open a terminal and type uname -a?

Linux localhost 3.2.18-pclos2.bfs #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu May 24 12:11:06 CEST 2012 X84_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Is what it says, now want to tell me what it means???

[kjpetrie]

It confirms you have an x86_64 (64-bit) kernel and you are indeed using the test system. It's not supported on the forum, unfortunately, because some things don't work. But you're right, most of the time it works well. I'm using it now, as it happens.

How knowledgeable are you about Linux? If you would like to become a tester and report on what does and doesn't work and test new packages as they come out, you could sign up as a tester. There's a thread in the announcements section. If you could learn to package and help fix things that need doing, even better.

However, it looks as if your current choices are: install 32-bit where everything should work, or use a different mail client.

You need to be aware there's no guarantee on anything, but especially on 64-bit if your data gets lost on what is still regarded as experimental. You use it even more at your own risk (if that makes sense - I know it doesn't really) than the 32-bit (which, like all Linux, is AYOR).

[aljones]

I've looked at becoming a tester, but - in my mind - I'm not that well versed in Linux.  I only have something like 40 years experience on computers, everything from IBM-360 down to the lowly PC (which has more power and disk space then the mainframes I've worked on! LOL!)
I have pclinux64 installed on a separate box so ( unless it decides to cross partition boundaries ) I'm comfortable with it there.  I also have it installed on my laptop, again in it's own partition.  I'm on my dedicated windows box at the moment (( yes, I actually do have four!! computers on my desk! one that never gets used - *OLD* box! ))
I'm not upset that it doesn't work - I know I'm pushing the limits there, but that doesn't stop me from wishing that it had.
I'll bring up the linux box again and see if I can find the thread about becoming a tester - and take it from there.

[Rudge]

*SNIP* - ..IBM-360 down to the lowly PC.. */SNIP*

MVS,, JCL,, jes2,, TSO,, LOL..  

[yonnie]

Hi aljones,
I was looking for a 64-bit version yesterday under the get pclinuxos tab.  An article I read elsewhere written in 2010 alluded to such an OS existing.  I use PCLinuxOS LXDE as my main system for everything, it's not perfect but plenty good enough for me (reasonably stable) and was hoping to upgrade.  

Doesn't matter which OS you use, Evolution stinks, needs a lot of attention.  Thunderbird has addons available that do calendaring pretty good.  Already has a very good address book and handles multiple email accounts better than most.  If you remember the Gecko or Netscape, you'll like TB.

aljones, I've got a few computers here too.  40 years?  East coast or west coast?  I used to work at PARC, 40 years ago, how about you?  Got my feet wet with Unix and the arpanet there, long before Al Gore invented it, ~20 years?

Stay in touch

[aljones]

Mid Coast mostly; the first few years were using APL in service, then FORTRAN; got out of service at the end of the VietNam 'conflict' and did some time in Syracuse - decided that I did *not* like cold weather so moved to Houston and got into the oil field as a programmer in COBOL (and RPG and ... whatever)
The current x64 iso ( I just picked the first depository ) can be found at http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/live-cd/ but all the other mirrors should have it as well.
I'll have to take a look at T-Bird, the last time I looked at it - a few years back, probably - I didn't like it at all.  But that was back when Opera was beating the pants off Firefox and I've used FF now for a few years.
I've played with various unix's but when MS came out with Win 8 I decided it was long past time to take a look at a serious alternative.  I've had PCLinux on a few boxes but since most of my "work" (I'm retired) now revolves around the web dependence on a particular os is nowhere near as critical.

[yonnie]

For me, I settled down with a family in San Jose after 'nam'.  Worked in the early computer and silicon foundries, then got the hell out of there.  I love the reference to "the gallium-arsinide mines" in Galaxy Quest, sends me into hysterics almost. 

There is a whole plethora of good Linux distro's available.  This one is the only decent 'rolling' distro I've seen that also is close to bleeding-edge but not so close you get bit often.  The rest(other distro's) are still in the habit of major upgrades every year or so, which is a real pita as just about the time you're getting used to where everything is you have to start all over, never mind the hassle of moving all the personal & business files.  I had been using the LTS distro's for a while until I suddenly found myself staring at Unity going oh brown nuggets what now brown cow!  That was when unity was still broke and being shoved up users behinds.  Well, it's still broke IMHO, but what do you expect from someone who has grown used to a different convention that has been used for 4 decades?

The other things you may like are the virtually huge libraries of every programming language you could think of in several days being available in the repositories and even more online.  Lot's of tutorials available to learn the Linux way of doing things and friendly forums to ask questions.

[johnmart]

Hey aljones - welcome

I assume you are running the KDE desktop which is the default desktop for official iso's.
Evolution is designed to run on a different desktop - Gnome.
PCLinuxOS is designed to install the necessary Gnome libraries to run on KDE. But it is really out of it's native environment.
I suspect your evolution issues are a result of a Gnome app running in a KDE evironment on a testing version OS.
  
As a test you could install the Gnome desktop to see how evolution responds. And give Gnome a spin while you are at it.
From synaptic (up-to-date) install task-gnome. Reboot.
Then at the login screen choose gnome.
Or......you could try a few email clients native to kde. 

[kjpetrie]

Kmail 2 is notoriously bad. I would stay well away from that too.

The problem is almost certainly that you're using the 64-bit test. Packagers are supposed to test their packages on both 64 and 32-bit, but I suspect many don't judging by the number of broken packages in the 64-bit repo. There are a lot of testers too, but few of us have the time to test as much as we would like to do. That means these errors don't get picked up. When they are picked up, who's going to put it right if the original packager got it wrong? Remember, the packagers are volunteers, so if someone leans on them too hard they'll just go away.

Neal and O-P have to manage all this, and it's an awful lot to maintain a Linux distro and develop a second at the same time, so 64-bit is not ready and progress is slow, and if you're testing it you have to accept it's only partially working. That's why it's in testing.