BirdieSync under wine on linux

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pastim
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Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2020 5:25 pm

BirdieSync under wine on linux

Post by pastim »

Having had problems with other solutions to syncing my Android (10) and Thunderbird 78 on Ubuntu 20.10, I tried BirdieSync under wine. I tried two methods, one of which almost worked.

Running both Thunderbird and BirdieSync under wine (5.5) I got too many crashes, and much confusion over what address books and calendars were displayed. I have several address books and 2 calendars. BirdieSync displayed address books where there should have been event calendars, and always only displayed one address book, no matter how I configured it. I should point out that using this method, the Thunderbird databases under wine are linked to the version running under linux (this worked with my previous syncing tools).

I wondered if it would work directly with Thunderbird under linux. So I copied the xpi to that, and somewhat to my surprise that installed OK and almost worked. The main remaining problem was that BirdieSync only displayed one address book on the main configuration page. When I went to the detailed setup, all the address books were correctly displayed, and I could select the ones I wanted on the mobile and thunderbird, but when I went back to the summary they were still not displayed correctly.

If anyone else has successfully run it under wine I'd be grateful to find out how.

For now I have had to get my dual-booted laptop into action, running BirdieSync on the almost-never-used windows partition. This works correctly, so I'm happy to have a working solution, but it would be much simpler to have it running on one PC instead of two!

Birdy
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Re: BirdieSync under wine on linux

Post by Birdy »

Hello Pastim,

Some efforts were done in the past to make BirdieSync compatible with Wine. Wine doesn't fully support all Windows API calls, and cannot replicate the exact behavior of these APIs. Anyway, it was possible to run BirdieSync on Wine after some tweaks and specific internal adaptations.
You should not use a Thunderbird instance installed in Wine, but rather the usual installation on Linux.

Thunderbird 78 has changed the way third-party add-ons are loaded inside Thunderbird. With versions of BirdieSync compatible with Thunderbird 68, it' was possible to automatically load BirdieSync add-on in Linux Thunderbird. But since Thunderbird 78 on Linux, it's necessary to install it manually (contrary to Windows). So as you did, it is necessary to install BirdieSync xpi manually inside Linux Thunderbird. It's possible to find this xpi file in "Thunderbird" directory inside BirdieSync installation directory.
The main remaining problem was that BirdieSync only displayed one address book on the main configuration page. When I went to the detailed setup, all the address books were correctly displayed, and I could select the ones I wanted on the mobile and thunderbird, but when I went back to the summary they were still not displayed correctly.
Sorry what do you call "Main configuration page" and "detailed setup" ?
Do you mean "Configuration" view that you select pressing the "Configuration" button, and then the configuration that you can get with the assistant ? (menu "Assistant/Configure synchronization...")

Thanks.
Birdy

pastim
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Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2020 5:25 pm

Re: BirdieSync under wine on linux

Post by pastim »

Thanks.

Apologies for not being clear. The configuration screen that is displayed when I select the Configuration icon at the top of the screen shows just one address book in the Thunderbird source in the right hand panel, instead of all of them. Similarly it shows only one on my mobile.

When I went into the detailed manual setup using Assistant I could see all of them, but couldn't configure them to work.

Birdy
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Re: BirdieSync under wine on linux

Post by Birdy »

I made some tests under Linux, running BirdieSync with Wine. I could successfully display all address books in "Configuration" view.

If you don't see all your address books, that may because "Filter" button is enabled. By default, empty calendars with no matching calendar enabled in other sources are hidden. This filter is useful to reduce the number of address books displayed on Android devices for instance when you may have a lot of empty contact groups, one for each Android account. If you've just created empty address books in Thunderbird and this filter is enabled, you may not see them in address book list in "Configuration" view.

So could you check if the "Filter" button (with the funnel icon) present above the address book list is enabled ? If yes, uncheck it. You should then see your additional address books.
Birdy

pastim
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Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2020 5:25 pm

Re: BirdieSync under wine on linux

Post by pastim »

Thanks.

I have several address books. Looking at the Configuration Icon display for the Thunderbird source, with no filters, I see:

Contacts - One of my address books
Events - another one of my address books
Tasks - another one of my address books
Mails - yet another one of my address books

I don't see my calendars or tasks at all.

For my mobile, it shows one address book and one event calendar using the Thunderbird names, not the mobile names.

I can go through the Assistant configuration and all seems well, but the display shown when the Configuration Icon screen is displayed is still as above, and I cannot see the configured address books and events.

I'm running Thunderbird 78.3.2 on ubuntu 20.10.

Birdy
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Re: BirdieSync under wine on linux

Post by Birdy »

I made tests on an older version of Ubuntu (18.04). I checked and the event and task calendars were properly displayed.

So you mean that you see the name of an address book among the calendar list of events and tasks ?

Can you confirm that Thunderbird is connected to BirdieSync server ? (you should see a "plugged" icon displayed at the bottom left of Thunderbird icon in "Sources" column, and Thunderbird source should be displayed in "Synchronization" view with progress bars for contacts, events, tasks and mails).

After you press the Refresh button (above the address book/calendar list in "Configuration" view) while Thunderbird is connected, does the displayed address books/calendars remain the same ?
Are the missing address books native address books (not created thanks to another add-on) ?
Are the missing calendars local calendars or remote ones ?

Could you please build a log archive with BirdieSync menu "Help/Archive logs..." and send it to support(at)birdiesync.com ?
Could you also send a snapshot of the address book list, event calendar list and task calendar list in BirdieSync "Configuration" view ? (Alt - Print screen to copy the selected window, then paste it in a mail)

Thanks.
Birdy

pastim
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2020 5:25 pm

Re: BirdieSync under wine on linux

Post by pastim »

Many thanks to Birdy for solving my problem running BirdieSync under wine (version 5.5 wine-development on ubuntu 20.10) by quickly providing a beta version with a fix. It makes it a lot easier to keep my mobile in sync with Thunderbird.

I'm aware that as new versions of wine come along more problems may arise, but I'm happy that it's all working for now.

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