Maybe you want to keep a record of some emails/letters in your inbox or sent item, for spritual or legal reasons. Your personal evolution files are stored in your Home folder- mine is /home/james. The folder is a hidden file called, .evolution. Before my re-installation I backed up this folder.

When I tried to recover my Mail system it did not work. I could read files but not send any mail or save any mail. This was probably because not ALL of the configuration files are contained in .evolution and also there may be complications if you NOW have a more updated version of Evolution. Some configuration files are also contained in .gnome2 and .gnome2_private which also need to be backed up.

But the most safest method I use now after my problem of restoration to back up files is this:

1. Highlight and select all your Inbox mail then click “File” and “Save as”. This will save all your Inbox mail as ONE file.
2. Do this for your Sent items and any other folder items. Then you have one file for each item. Then you can put these files into a dated Evolution backup file.

You can also do this if for the mail in an Evolution system that is corrupt and that you can not use, like in my case.

Then after you have re-installed your updated Evolution system… all you have to do is drag each of the backup files into their relevant folders.

For instance the mail file you have saved and backed up- just take this and drag it into your “Inbox” and suddenly all your mail starts to appear magically. I find that it is a more simple and risk free way of backing up Mail. It also enables you to better manage backup files so you can organize them by date or folders.

But finally… why do you want to keep old Mail and old stuff anyway? After restoring my Mail I decided to delete everything! It is nice to get rid of all old and stagnated stuff. It is like tidying up your house and getting rid of all junk and clutter. I just kept a few technical and spiritual emails that I may wish to refer to again for instructions and technical info etc. But this technique may save you a lot of trouble that was caused for me on this occasion.

After installation of Open Suse 11.1, my sound did NOT work. An error flashed up. It worked before on previous installations, but not now!

I did a speaker test by typing the following into my terminal and it worked. You should hear a ladies voice coming out of your speakers-

speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav

So then I updated the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) and it miraculously cured the problem.

You can update the ALSA by going to the Open Suse ALSA update page and then go to your version of Linux or your Kernal version and proceed to copy and past 3 command lines.

One of these adds a repository, the next installs/updates the ALSA and the 3rd disconnects from the repository.

Problem Solved

If that does not work you might want to have a look at the following link-

Open Suse Audio Trouble Shooting Sound Problems

If you want to format your entire computer for whatever reason, you have to make sure you delete/ format ALL partitions- including the primary or recovery partitions! Once you have a working system it is probably best just to leave it that way!

The Toshiba Windows/System Recovery disk can create some funny partitions on your computer. These include the main Windows partition, a recovery partition and an empty partition where the language files were stored and deleted temporary during recovery. You could probably merge some of these or delete the recovery partition. The best professional Open Source software for messing around with partitions is “GParted”. You can down load and burn this to DVD for free.

There is a small bug to do with OpenSuse 11.1, whereby it sometimes does not work out of the box. For some unknown reason you have to manually set it up to boot from the Master Boot Record (the first part of the hard disk that is read when the BIOS boots your hard drive). This usually points to a bootloader for whatever operating system you are using like GRUB (the bootloader for Linux). If you have some funny partitions on your system or for whatever other reason the boot loader may become set up to boot from a partition or file other than the Master Boot Record. The following GRUB boot error occurred during my installation of Suse 11.1-

Error Occurred While Installing GRUB
Minimal BASH- like line editing is supported. For the first word. TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere esle TAB lists the possible completions of a divice/filename]

grub > setup–stage2= /boot/grub/stage2–force-iba (hd0,3)(hd0,5)
Checking if “/boot/grub/stage1″ exists… yes
Checking if “/boot/grub/stage2″ exists… yes
Checking if “/boot/grub/e2fs-stage1-5″ exists… yes
Running “embeded/boot/grub/e2fs-stage1-5 (hd0,3)”… failed (this is not fatal)
Running “intall–force-iba-stage2= /boot/grub/stage2/boot/grub/stage2/boot/grub/stage1 (hd0,3 /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/menue.1st”… failed

Error 22: No such Partition

grub > quite

The following quote from, OpenSuse Boot Forum solves the problem when you are in the boot “loader section management” via the system repair tool or within Yast-

"go to Yast --> System --> Boot Loader. The Grub configuration screen comes up with the Tab "Section Management" activated. In the lower right is a drop-down selector labelled "Other". Select from "Other" the option "Propose New Configuration" and then wait for Grub to analyse your partitions and display a new configuration. This may take a while. Important: When that finishes, activate the tab labelled "Boot Loader Installation" and select to "Boot from the Master Boot Record". [Yast will often default to booting from the root or boot partition rather than from the MBR but that's for experts only -- always choose the MBR.] Then click Finish to save the changes and install the reconfigured Grub into the hard drive's MBR. If you get a message that "The bootloader boot sector will be written to a floppy disk ......... don't bother with the floppy -- just click OK to proceed and install to the MBR. Reboot and you should be able to boot to openSUSE using the Grub menu screen........"

This completely 100% fixes the problem. Opensuse forums are the best and the ONLY place to go if you have an Open Suse system related problem. I wasted a lot of time asking OTHER forums that were NOT any good and I did not find the help I needed. Then when I went onto this forum I found everything instantly.

Since I came back from holiday it has been complete festival of illusions.

My laptop became clogged up with dust and started overheating. So I sent my laptop off for repair and got the fan cleaned. It then started running like it was brand new. I bought the latest version of OpenSuse 11.1. Nothing would work.

I had massive problems with installation errors and the Toshiba recovery did not work. The laptop went away again. So I upgraded the RAM to 3 Gigabytes. Now I have a top quality machine- it runs like brand new and it is very fast and powerful- especially with the new RAM. And now I solved all errors and problems.

So all of my problems, frustrations and headaches actually made me and my computer more strong and powerful. I also have a greater knowledge of the Linux system now, boot loaders an partitions.

Not only that, whilst in the illusions there was a misunderstanding with my web host regarding payment so my site got shut down and was suspended for at least 24 hours- this was while I did not have any computer system. My anxiety hit the roof! I lost complete control of my website. Luckily Google turned a blind eye on this occasion and nothing was affected in the Google index.

The Jesus avadute energy had a role to play in all of this- reminding me that God is the boss- that it is all about God and Love- not Linux or anything else, and that our priority needs to be God and Love. So my priority now is to do a more useful and spiritually friendly work/jobs- to work hard and be successful in the material world as much as the spiritual. To put ALL my efforts in to succeeding and creating freedom, love and happiness in my life and in the world. To be stronger than all obstacles.

Jesus wants people to become active in the world and a source of Love- for each one of us to spoil THOUSANDS of people with Love, flowers, financial support, emotional support, expertise, healing and professional help- in all aspects of life- creating happiness, love and freedom in the world for the benefit of mankind. The real enlightenment and happiness is spoiling thousands of people with Love in every way- like my divine friend Sri Kaleshwar does, and having that in mind is a worthy goal in itself- the goal and purpose of Love. So after a good kicking from the Jesus energy I am now ready to put my efforts into sincere work for happiness, Love and freedom.

What I am currently giving/offering is not enough- you could call it stinginess. Some gurus are so selfless and giving that they work 24 hours a day. It is difficult to comprehend the Love that is there. All efforts should be put in to creating freedom and a loving work in life- to put that on the priority list. Hard work doing something simple, useful and loving- contributing towards the needs of everyone.