MPE always asks to install mpe-addin.xpi (Linux)

[Gast]

I'm trying to install MPE on my Ubuntu-box.

On my laptop everything worked as expected.
I installed both MPE and Thunderbird in wine, and the sync worked after reading some guides on this forum.

Later I wanted to install it on my desktop-computer instead. I followed the same guides, and I'm now facing a problem I never had on my laptop.

When entering the sync options, I click Advanced on Contacts -> Thunderbird, and MPE asks to install mpe-addin.xpi. I click OK, and the extension window appears. I click "Install", and everything seems OK. Then, after about 10 seconds I get the following error:
"Folder structure from Thunderbird could not be listed!"

I press OK, Cancel, and click Advanced again. Then MPE says that the extension is not installed or too old. This happens every time, and I can't figure out why.

I read a post on the forum that it could be because the database-url had special characters, and therefore i changed the db-folder to c:\mpeprofile, even though my username didn't contain any special characters. Unfortunately, this didn't work either.

In Thunderbird, the extension shows as installed.

Does anyone know how to troubleshoot this?
I've only seen commands on checking the calendar output via mpe-addin, but I don't have Lightning installed.

mpe v1.6.1wine & v1.7.0b (not at the same time, but both gives the same result)
mpe-addin.xpi v0.9.52
thunderbird v2.0.0.16
ubuntu v8.04.1

[FJ]

Thunderbird-Sync doesn't work under wine

[Gast]

That's strange, because I got it working once on my laptop.

I got it working with wine 1.0.0, tb 2.0.0.16, mpe 1.6.1wine.

I installed TB as normal (via Synaptic) in Ubuntu. Then I installed MPE-wine and TB (windows version) under wine. In the TB-linux-profile-folder, I created a symbolic link for "abook.mab" to the TB-wine-profile folder.

At least that worked for me, but after re-install I face the problem with the mpe-extension not being correctly installed.

Are there any commands I can try to send TB, to check if the extension is working correctly? I don't think I can use the calendar-commands mentioned on this forum as I don't have Lightning installed.

Any ideas why MPE doesn't register that the extension is installed?

[FJ]

The basic problem with TB-Sync in Wine is that MPE calls a Windows-Path to call the addon, and the Addon calls a Windows-Path back to inform MyPhoneExplorer. This is the reason why its impossible that the TB-Sync can work in wine

[Gast]

I don't want to be rude or anything, but did you read my entire post about installing the windows version of TB?

Long story short:
- I've always used Windows with TB and MPE (great program by the way!)
- I switched to Linux this summer, and gave Evolution and Multisync a try
- This messed up the whole addressbook on my phone because og ISO/UTF-encoding, and the attempt to fix this resulted in an empty phonebook
- No more Evolution and Multisync after that
- I installed wine, and also MPE v1.6.1wine and TB (windows version), just to give it a try

Result: All my contacts in TB (I had a backup of the old abook.mab from Windows), got correctly transfered to my phone.

Editing and syncing worked just like in windows. The only thing that didn't work as I expected was that birthdays in TB didn't transfer to the phone. Could that be because I was using "Stable connection" in MPE? MoreFunctionsForAddressBook extension was installed, just like it was earlier in Windows.

The problem is that I had to re-install Ubuntu (for various reasons), and after that the extension won't install correctly in TB. At least that's my guess, since MPE always asks to install the extension.

I can't agree that it's impossible to sync with TB under Linux, and I would really like some input on how to troubleshoot the extension-problem. Please?

[FJ]

Hmm - i still not understand how the Sync could work....

MyPhoneExplorer opens the file extensions.rdf in your Thunderbird-Profile. the file is in XML-Format. Maybe the MSXML-Runtimes are missing in your Wine-Environment. Try the xml-Export and Import for contacts. If this works then MSXM;L is installed and we have to search on other places.

[NP]

Well FJ, the trick is that TB here is the Windows-version, not the Linux-version - this could work... but has never been tested by me.

[T0mmy]

Thanks alot FJ and NP!

Everything is now up and running.
If I get the time I will write a HowTo for this later this week.

I can now sync my phone with TB via MPE, and it seems that Google Calendar sync is OK too.

Again thanks, FJ!
Great program, and great tip regarding the msxml/rdf issue. Nice work with the 1.7.0 version which works without much trouble on Ubuntu.

Could "Stable connection" be the reason why birthdays aren't synced to my phone?

T0mmy

[T0mmy]

Forget about the birthdays.
After the re-install all the contacts were replaced, and then the birthdays got copied.

Great app, FJ!

[T0mmy]

I use this thread, since it might be related.

Sometimes MPE has trouble writing settings to settings.dat.
When changing which Lightning calendars to sync, the settings aren't always saved.
When marking which Google Calendars to sync, the settings aren't saved at all.
Sync exceptions aren't saved either.

If I close MPE and manually edit the settings.dat-file, everything works ok, at least with Lightning.

Any suggestions as to why the settings aren't saved?

MPE v1.7.0beta
TB v2.0.0.16
Both are running under wine v1.0.0.

I have only installed msxml3, not v4 or v6. Could this be the problem?

[FJ]

This has nothing to do with msxml. The settings.dat is a normal ini-File and its written throught the WinAPIs WritePrivateProfileString and WritePrivateProfileSection . Pleas emake sure that MPE has full access to the da´tafolder. maybe it helps to move it on another place (take a look at menu-File-Options-Advanged)

[T0mmy]

I tried to move the folder, with no luck.

Regarding which Lightning-calendars to sync:
- Works partially, but the first calendar, moz-profile-calendar://, normally gets unmarked.
- The others, moz-profile-calendar://?id=2 etc., can be marked and unmarked without any problems
- If I manually put the calendars in settings.dat, and don't edit them in MPE, everthing work fine during several syncs.

Regarding Google Calendar:
- The marked calendars are never saved, and therefore sync is not possible
- I don't know how they are listed in settings.dat, so I can't tell if manual input works the same way as with Lightning

Regarding sync exceptions with contacts:
- During sync, the exception function works as skip; during next sync you will be asked again.
- Manual editing via File -> Options -> Sync -> Advanced -> Exceptions never saves anything
- Manual input in settings.dat works only during the first sync. After that the you will be asked again
- It seems like the whole [ThunderbirdContactExeptions]-block gets removed every time MPE tries to save something in that block

All other settings works fine, i.e. connection, alarms, multisync-options, etc.

Any ideas?

Does the mpe-addin save anything in the Thunderbird profile-folder, other than the necessary entries in extensions.ini and extensions.rdf?

[NP]

The MPE-Addin has a preference setting for selecting a birthday category. This should have nothing to do with your problem; settings dat is written by MPE.

[weinbi]

Just by the way, T0mmy:
You tried v1.7.0beta with wine - any problems with the notes-sync?

[T0mmy]

weinbi: I did a few tests now, and it seems that everything works ok. Tried to add a new note both places, did some editing and deleting. Everything worked as expected.