Vnote: Notes will not sort

[skyblue002]

OS Version (操作系统): Linux

VNote Version (Help - About VNote - Version: )(VNote版本): 2.7.2

Symptoms (表现): Notes will not sort.

How to Repro (如何复现): Right-click in the Notes area in the sidebar, select Sort from the menu, select a note in the popup window, then choose Top, Up, Down, or Bottom. The Notes will not reorder.

Note: I saw that there was an issue opened a while ago about sorting. I'm not sure if this version was supposed to have that feature implemented yet or not. In case this is a bug, I wanted to open this issue up so it has an opportunity to be addressed. Let me know if you need any other information.

[tamlok]

Hi,

You need to VIEW it by the configuration file to see your notes in sorted order.

[skyblue002]

Hi,

"View By Configuration File" was already selected. That didn't make any difference.

When I right-click and select "Sort" from the menu, it brings up the Sort Notes dialog. When I select a note from there and press "Up" or "Down" or any of the other buttons, the notes don't move. The order will not change.

[tamlok]

Are you using Arch or buliding VNote from source yourself? Could you try the AppImage file provided by VNote to have a test? I am afraid you are using a VNote built from newer version of Qt, which has some compatibility issues.

[skyblue002]

I tried every option I could. Here are the results:

• vnote package in the Arch repository, prebuilt, does not use an AppImage file -- sorting does not work, low memory use
• vnote-bin package in the Arch repository, uses an AppImage file -- sorting does work, but the app uses 3-4x as much memory
• download from github, uses an AppImage file -- sorting does work, but the app uses 3-4x as much memory
• vnote-git package in the Arch repository, compiles from source -- sorting does not work, low memory use

I have both qt4 and qt5-base installed. If VNote does use an older version of Qt, I'm not sure why it's not detecting and using it when compiling from source (with the vnote-git package). Is there a flag that I could set when compiling it? I'd really prefer not to use an AppImage file, since they use so much more memory to run.

[tamlok]

VNote works fine with Qt 5.9. You could install Qt 5.9 to compile VNote. BTW, you could use Qt's *.run install file to install Qt 5.9 to your home folder, which will leave your system clean.

[skyblue002]

The most recent version of Qt available in the repositories is 5.13.1. I don't see anything above that, even in -git packages, which are usually newer. Is there any compatibility with the Qt 5 versions other than 5.9? I may just have to use another app or deal with not being able to sort anything.

[tamlok]

Hi,

Qt 5.9 is a LTS version of Qt 5. The timeline is 5.9, 5.10. 5.11, 5.12, and then latest 5.13. Qt always breaks things between versions. You could download Qt 5.9 installable file here.

[skyblue002]

Thanks for the link. I installed Qt 5.9. I went through ccmake, but first hoedown was missing from the source, then after manually adding hoedown, I did go through the make process, but there was no resulting executable that I could find. Even after I set the target directory. I'm really just guessing, though. There were no instructions on how to compile the source in the archive I downloaded from github. It's ccmake and then make, right? Am I missing something?

[tamlok]

You need to git submodule update --init to fetch all the modules at first clone.

Please refer to the doc to check out how to build VNote from source. (use qmake and then make).

[skyblue002]

Thank you. That helped with getting the vnote source in full. But, since I had to install Qt manually, it's not detecting version 5.9.8. When I run qmake and then make, it's using the other version of Qt on my computer, the later version which leaves VNote unable to sort anything. Do you know how to manually set the version of Qt when building it?

[tamlok]

Try adding the bin folding of Qt 5.9 to the PATH env or just call /home/path/to/qt59/bin/qmake instead of qmake.

[skyblue002]

I called qmake directly, in the Qt 5.9.8 installation. The Makefile seemed to list all the directories correctly and referenced Qt 5.9.8 instead of the other installation. However, after make was finished and I executed the VNote executable, it still had the same problem of not being able to sort.

[tamlok]

Strange! Then I do not have any idea for this :(

[skyblue002]

I really appreciate you trying. Thank you for your help! I will fiddle around with it when I have a chance, and see if I can get it working. I will update this thread if I manage to get any positive results. :crossed_fingers:

[skyblue002]

I figured out what happened.

The peg-highlight and hoedown parts of the program refer to makefiles that get resources from the /usr/lib/qt directory, but that is where the later version of Qt is installed. If I edit those makefiles, they are re-created during the make process, overwriting any changes I made.

Calling qmake from the 5.9.8 directory does change the Makefile in the main vnote directory, but it does not result in changes to the Makefile in the hoedown or peg-highlight directories.

I'm not sure if knowing this helps, but it's something, at least.

[skyblue002]

Great news! I got it to work. :smile:

For whatever reason, attempting all of this from the terminal would backfire because both peg-highlight and hoedown would end up using the default installation of Qt. However, when I edited the Build file in pamac-manager for the vnote package (side note: it looks like it _does_ build that package, my mistake), it ended up compiling vnote with only Qt 5.9.8, including both peg-highlight and hoedown. When testing the app, the sorting feature _does_ work.

I changed this part of the Build file: (these aren't the only lines, just the relevant ones)

build() {
  cd "$pkgname/build"
  qmake ../VNote.pro     # change the path to qmake here, so it goes to 5.9
  make
}

I notified the person who maintains the package about the issue. I'm not sure what they can do, seeing as Arch has 5.13.1 in the repository now. But, at least they'll be informed of the issue.

Thank you for all of your help! I hope that this can help another user if they have this same problem.

Solution Summary

1. Install Qt 5.9.8, by downloading it here: Qt 5.9.8, executing the .run file and checking: Qt 5.9.8 > Desktop gcc 64-bit, Qt 5.9.8 > Qt WebEngine, and Developer and Designer Tools (Make a note of _where_ you installed it, you will need that for step 2.)
2. Open pamac-manager and find the vnote package. Click on the vnote package, then click on Build files. Change the line mentioned above to point to Qt 5.9.8 instead of your default installation. The qmake executable will be in ...5.9.8/gcc_64/bin/qmake, so if you installed Qt 5.9.8 into /opt/Qt5.9.8, you would change qmake in the original file to: /opt/Qt5.9.8/5.9.8/gcc_64/bin/qmake
3. Click Build and then click Apply. The package will now be built with Qt 5.9.8 instead of your default installation.
4. When pamac-manager is done, you should now be able to use VNote and have sorting capabilities.

Edit Note: Added more detail to solution summary.