MyPhoneExplorer and Thunderbird under Linux

[mexx_]

Apart from some troubles: good job!

without reading the past 6 pages..

The line "Mark "vb6run" (MyPhoneExplorer won't start without it) and "msxml3" (Google- and Thunderbird-sync won't work without it), and click OK " in the HowTo doesn't match with the window's options in winetricks.sh

Please update this, thanks

~~mexx_

[FJ]

Please update this, thanks

I do not use Wine or Linux. Please quote which part of the HowTo should be replaced and which text should be inserted instead.

[The EYE]

The idea with the Ical files is very nice but it's not possible to synch contacts like that. I'll try to make it work with the up to date versions - we'll see!

Greetings
Max

[Scheuler]

Hello,
I want to use MyPhoneExplorer under Ubuntu with the USB-cable with a Samsung Phone.

I tried (mars 2014) your topic until N°5 Set up the USB-cable connection.

You say "Manually type in Com1..., and chec "Stable connection" (Without stable connection, your phone cannot be identified)
But there is no more "Stable connection" button on MyPhoneExplorer version 1.8.4

May you help me ? Thank you very much

Please excuse my English. I'm French.

[FJ]

This tip is for Non-Android phones. For Android i don't think you will be able to install the needed ADB-Drivers in Wine. Use WiFi instead.

[Pastim]

This tip is for Non-Android phones. For Android i don't think you will be able to install the needed ADB-Drivers in Wine. Use WiFi instead.

I have managed to use adb, but it's complex. wifi is much, much, easier.

[Kicker]

I't great MPE runs quite well under wine, but the requirement for windows version of thunderbird under wine is quite strong for me, almost a showstopper. So I was wondering, how is the connection between MPE exe and thunderbrd add-on working? The add-on is platform independent, as far as I can tell, so it's running fine in linux TB. So what's preventing wine MPE to connect to Linux TB?
I had a look at the extension, and it seems it's trying to execute MPE, looking for the path in registry. Fine, that should be fixable to start wine/MPE process instead. However, I do not think this is activated when the synchronization is triggered by MPE. And MPE still does not offer TB for synchronization. So, how is the communication implemented?
@FJ, Would it be feasible to modify MPE to work with Linux TB directly, without wine/TB in the middle? I am willing to help with testing/coding/whatever, if there is any interest. And I will donate again if this works .

[Pastim]

I't great MPE runs quite well under wine, but the requirement for windows version of thunderbird under wine is quite strong for me, almost a showstopper.

I assume you are aware that the installation of the Windows Thunderbird is just to allow access to the Linux version via a few (ln) links? I have only ever had to update the Windows version very occasionally, and never (ever) log on to any account using it.

[Kicker]

I assume you are aware that the installation of the Windows Thunderbird is just to allow access to the Linux version via a few (ln) links? I have only ever had to update the Windows version very occasionally, and never (ever) log on to any account using it.

I admit I was not aware of this. And I agree that this makes this less important.
However, I still think that this would be worth considering, as I think it should be easy enough to do (but I may be wrong, of course, as I don't know how it is implemented in MPE), and it would make MPE more "wine friendly" and easier to install in linux, which would be, IMHO, very good thing.

[Pastim]

I assume you are aware that the installation of the Windows Thunderbird is just to allow access to the Linux version via a few (ln) links? I have only ever had to update the Windows version very occasionally, and never (ever) log on to any account using it.

I admit I was not aware of this. And I agree that this makes this less important.
However, I still think that this would be worth considering, as I think it should be easy enough to do (but I may be wrong, of course, as I don't know how it is implemented in MPE), and it would make MPE more "wine friendly" and easier to install in linux, which would be, IMHO, very good thing.

In principle I agree, but I believe the user base is quite small, so I don't expect much more help for us. There are various sets of instructions around, some being quite old, and it would help if they were pulled together and cleaned up. I don't quite know enough to do this myself.

See http://www.fjsoft.at/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5835 for the instructions I started with.

[Kicker]

So now after I spent some more time playing with this, I think it is still almost unusable for me . You are right that the TBWine install is just for few symlinks, however the executable still gets started by MPE. And the fact that both linux TB and TBWine should not be running at the same time is a major complication for me alone. And there are more, like latest TB crashing due to some functions being not implemented in wine etc.
I think that in the time it took me to play with this, I would be able to implement some kind of cross-plaform interprocess communication (e.g. TCP socket) between the plugin and wine MPE without much problems . Pitty MPE is not open-source...
Well, I suppose I will have to keep booting to windows for MPE, or find some other solution .

[Pastim]

So now after I spent some more time playing with this, I think it is still almost unusable for me . You are right that the TBWine install is just for few symlinks, however the executable still gets started by MPE. And the fact that both linux TB and TBWine should not be running at the same time is a major complication for me alone. And there are more, like latest TB crashing due to some functions being not implemented in wine etc.
I think that in the time it took me to play with this, I would be able to implement some kind of cross-plaform interprocess communication (e.g. TCP socket) between the plugin and wine MPE without much problems . Pitty MPE is not open-source...
Well, I suppose I will have to keep booting to windows for MPE, or find some other solution .

I have not noticed TBWine being run, and never had any problems with that. Nor have I had TB (or TBWine) crashing. I'm on ubuntu 14.04 84 bit with wine 1.7.16, running mpe 1.8.6 (as of today).

I did have mpe crashes for a while but it seems to have settled now. However, I do understand your frustration. It took me quite a lot of effort to get it all stable.

[Kicker]

Well, it's not the difficulty of the setup, what is frustrating me. I got worse things running . It's the fact that even after all the work spent on it, there is almost no chance to get it run as good and simple as I would like it to (and as it is running on windows). And the fact that with few changes, everything could be much simpler.
Well, I will see if I can get some alternative solution working, if not, maybe I'll be back . Anyway, thanks for your support.

[FJ]

Regarding MyPhoneExplorer with Linux-Version of Thunderbird:

As i wrote, i don't have Linux so i am very limited in testing. I'll tell you how the communication works basicly:
- MPE writes some settings for sync in the registry
- MPE launches thunderbird.exe with commandline parameters
- the MPE Addon does catch the commandline, reads the Registry for the settings (f.e. where to create the file with exported data and which calendars to read)
- the MPE Addon launches MyPhoneExplorer.exe with a commandline and the second instance notifies the first instance that the action has be finished

If this can be done between Linux Thunderbird and MyPhoneExplorer in Wine-Sandbox then we have a chance to adapt MyPhoneExplorer.

[Inkadue]

Hi Tommy,

I followed your advice with
Ubuntu 15.10
Wine 1.6
My Phone Explorer 1.8.7

Nearly everthing worked fine (Thanks) except see the bolded quote.

...
[

Code: Alles auswählen

*]Navigate into the folder that contains you phone-name
[*]Edit settings.dat
[list][*]Near the bottom, you will find "[ThunderbirdFolders]"
[b][*]Below it you will see strings like "moz-profile-calendar://" or "moz-profile-calendar://?id=x"[/b]
[*]These are the names of the calendars selected to be synced. You can find the names by right-xxx the calendars in TB, and choose "Properties" (see "Location")
[*]Type in the calendars you want to sync (one on each line)

In my case My Phone Explorer doesn't create the expected "moz-entries" but a long code for each calender created within TBWine. (see quote of the settings.dat below). If I try to add the calendars of TB with the "moz-entries" nothing happens.

Also I am astonished that I change the calendar entries in TBWine without any effect on TB. Shouldn't they both write in the same "abook", "storage" and "local.sqlite"?


Any idea is appreciated.

Quote from settings.dat:

Code: Alles auswählen

[ThunderbirdFolders]
moz-profile-calendar://Alltag
moz-profile-calendar://?id=Arbeit
[b]59ba7675-5206-4d22-bef9-efcbbdd7da9b
ebfc6f57-d7e3-4c69-882d-f4f517aec71e[/b]

[gobers]

HI,

I observed the same issue: In TBWine, the calendar can be updated and will synch via MPE, however, there is no change in TB. To work around this I did the following.

*** Be very careful not to loose any Mail-Date ***

- Find the profile of TB (usually ~/.thunderbird
- copy the entire folder (while keeping the name of it) to TBWine Profile. /c_drive/users/<name>/Application Date/Thunderbird/Profiles
- set the backups and links as in the original thread, i.e. (when in the new TBWine profiles folder:
-- ln -s ~/.thunderbird/profiles/<TB-prof-name>/storage.sdb storage.sdb
-- ln -s ~/.thunderbird/profiles/<TB-prof-name>/abook.mab abook.mab
-- ln -s ~/.thunderbird/profiles/<TB-prof-name>/calendar-data calendar-data (yes, I linked the complete folder)
- copy from the old TBWine profiles/<old-prof-name> folder the extensions folder to the new one.
- edit the profiles.ini-file of TBWine in /c_drive/users/<name>/Application Date/Thunderbird and change the <old-prof-name> to <TB-prof-name>.

That worked for me. Please edit the account settings in TBWine to not update anything, and don't download mail, so you do not screw up your mail accounts.

To me it seems that the sqlite mainains different databases or at least tables for different profiles.

Best regards

Gerald

[matthias]

Hi FJ,

Regarding MyPhoneExplorer with Linux-Version of Thunderbird:

As i wrote, i don't have Linux so i am very limited in testing. I'll tell you how the communication works basicly:
- MPE writes some settings for sync in the registry
- MPE launches thunderbird.exe with commandline parameters
- the MPE Addon does catch the commandline, reads the Registry for the settings (f.e. where to create the file with exported data and which calendars to read)
- the MPE Addon launches MyPhoneExplorer.exe with a commandline and the second instance notifies the first instance that the action has be finished

If this can be done between Linux Thunderbird and MyPhoneExplorer in Wine-Sandbox then we have a chance to adapt MyPhoneExplorer.

I'm interested in getting MPE installed in wine to work with a linux thunderbird as well and therefore I collected some information about that.
According to these informations it is possible to run thunderbird from a windows application:

Code: Alles auswählen

cmd /c start /unix /usr/bin/sh -c "thunderbird"

I successfully tested it on my pc with the wineconsole by using following commands on the linux terminal and the wineconsole:

Code: Alles auswählen

Linux: wineconsole cmd
Wineconsole: start /unix /usr/bin/sh -c "thunderbird"

However, manipulating the wine registry from a linux application is not that easy. Do you need to modify the registry setting from within thunderbird?
Reading them would be possible by exporting them. But I'm not sure if it is possible the other way round by importing a .reg file to modify a setting. (see https://wiki.winehq.org/Regedit and https://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#How_do_I_as ... in_Wine.3F)

As wine does not sandbox the programs this should not be an issue.

Would it be possible to look into this feature? I would be glad to assist you in testing and gathering further information.

Greetings Matthias

[Pastim]

The instructions in the first post on this thread worked for me. Install Wine on linux, and then follow the instructions.

These days I've changed to connect my mobile to my home internet with a fixed IP address, and give MyPhoneExplorer to that address, rather than using USB or Bluetooth.

[matthias]

@Pastim: That may be the case. However I don't want to install a program twice. Moreover you should not have Thunderbird in linux opened, when syncing and thats the main Problem. Thunderbird ist running nearly all the time on my PC and therefore I would like to have a clean solution..

Greetings Matthias

[Pastim]

@Pastim: That may be the case. However I don't want to install a program twice. Moreover you should not have Thunderbird in linux opened, when syncing and thats the main Problem. Thunderbird ist running nearly all the time on my PC and therefore I would like to have a clean solution..

Greetings Matthias

The Windows thunderbird never actually runs apart from the very 1st time it is installed. There is no need to set up an account with it. All it does is take up some space, with some links to the real linux thunderbird files. I do not know of any other way to get this to work. It's been fine for several years now, whether or not the linux thunderbird is running or not.