Kontact not working due to PIM/akonodi /mariaDB glitch

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1

I’ve used Kontact with Mint 19 for many years without problems. In June 2024 I did a fresh installation on linux mint 22, 64 bit, cinnamon. I installed Kontact using the Software Manager. The new installation of Kontact worked for 4 months.

On November 15, I opened Kontact, but it failed to operate, giving the message: “The Akonadi Personal information management service is not operational.”

I tried restoring from a restore point, prior to the failure, but got the same result. “The Akonadi Personal information management service is not operational.”

Troubleshooting showed that Akonadi was not running. It could not be started from terminal. MariaDB was also implicated. All repair attempts, and help attempts through Linux Mint Forums, failed. I finally wiped my disk, and did a new fresh installation. I then installed Kontact again, and got the same result.

I removed Kontact and tried installing only Korganizer and Kaddressbook. Same result. “The Akonadi Personal information management service is not operational.”

I know I cannot be the only one experiencing this. What’s the fix?

2

You could try running akonadi start in a shell and see if this gives you additional hints.

Sometimes Ubuntu based distributions run into issues related to AppArmor not allowing Akonadi Server to start its database.

Usually the package for the server installs AppArmor rules/exceptions to make that work but if a system package changes the overall rules these exceptions might no longer be good enough.

You can also run sudo journalctl -xfe in a second shell to check if there are any AppArmor log messages when you are trying to start Akonadi

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3

Thanks krake. When I tried akonadi start, and akonadictl, that’s when MariaDB was implicated.

AppArmor is new to me. Nothing about it in my log files. I’ll investigate further. Currently, I do not have Kontact, or any of it’s components, installed. I’m not thrilled with the idea of retracing old steps. I’m looking for a new path. Are there people running Kontact on linux mint 22, without problems? How did they get there?

4

I am using KDE Neon, which is also Ubuntu based, and I have run into an AppArmor problem on a new install.

Apparently Neon switched the default backend for Akonadi to sqlite and either forgot to add the AppArmor rules or did not test them properly for the mysql/mariadb backend to work.

Fortunately I had a working installation on a different computer and could copy its /etc/apparmor.d/ directory.

Unfortunately I don’t know which setting/files is the actual to solution.

But that is why I was suspecting AppArmor to be the problem, the description sounded similar to what I had faced

5

coincidentally I helped someone solve a similar problem this morning.
please see 499554 – PIM service is not operational

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6

Winterz, I believe you’re on the right track. I just did a fresh installation of Kontact, using Software Manager. I do not have either /usr/lib64/qt6/plugins/sqldrivers/libqsqlmysql.so or /lib64/libmariadb.so.

I’m using Linux Mint 22. It’s not exactly Kubuntu. I’m unfamiliar with your wildcard recommendation, qt6*, and mariadb*. Can you provide instructions?

7

I am on KDE Neon but since Mint is also a Debian based distribution the package names might be the same or similar.

I have akonadi-backend-mysql installed which has these packages as dependencies (so they should be automatically installed together with the backend package)

mariadb-client-core
mariadb-server-core
qt6-base
8

I found the following folders:
/usr/share/doc/akonadi-backend-mysql
/usr/share/doc/mariadb-client-core
/usr/share/doc/mariadb-server-core

These files:
/usr/share/lintian/overrides/akonadi-backend-mysql
/usr/share/lintian/overrides/mariadb-server-core

and the following files:
/var/lib/dpkg/info/akonadi-backend-mysql.prerm
/var/lib/dpkg/info/akonadi-backend-mysql.conffiles
/var/lib/dpkg/info/akonadi-backend-mysql.postinst
/var/lib/dpkg/info/akonadi-backend-mysql.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/akonadi-backend-mysql.preinst
/var/lib/dpkg/info/akonadi-backend-mysql.postrm
/var/lib/dpkg/info/akonadi-backend-mysql.md5sums

There is no qt6* on my computer.

So now the big question. How do I get everything installed in the right place?

9

winterz, any suggestions?

10

Installed files don’t necessarily match package names.

Check if

sudo apt install akonadi-backend-mysql mariadb-client-core mariadb-server-core qt6-base

has to download anything new.

11

Thanks krake. An interesting result:

mint@mint-Latitude-E6430:~$ sudo apt install akonadi-backend-mysql mariadb-client-core mariadb-server-core qt6-base
[sudo] password for mint:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
E: Unable to locate package qt6-base
mint@mint-Latitude-E6430:~$

Apparently, the qt6 dependency for akonadi is missing. What’s the next step?

12

Maybe Mint calls the package differently.

In either case it should have been installed automatically as a dependency in apt’s usual behavior.

I guess you will have to check on a distribution specific help channel.

13

I got help in the linux mint forum. Kontact is now running. Please help me get my data from the restored backup of my Home directory. Where do I look? What process do I follow?

14

I am afraid that will depend on what has changed.

Usually the data is picked up automatically because the restored config points to the restored data.

But if you have a different config now it might require you to reconfigure accounts/storage locations.

What kind of accounts did you have configured before?