Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

ctrl.blog

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 85 posts

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#61

Post by throwaway2048 »

dhosek wrote: post #51
weinzierl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm afraid the genre is pretty much dead as everyone seems to do email in the browser nowadays. Apart from TUI MUAs like Pine and Mutt - that may not be everyone's cup of tea - I found Sylpheed quite useful for a while. It is not as bloated as Evolution or Thunderbird but still has all the useful features I need and like. Its development seems to have slowed down though, so I don't know if it has any future...

Man, hearing this is a reminder of why I don't use Linux as my desktop OS and likely never will. My default mix of applications has shifted over the last 30+ years, but e-mail has always been one of the most fundamental apps for me, going back to the VM/CMS mail client (and before that VMS's mail program which was comparatively a disaster).

I'm not sure why you think this issue is specific to linux, it isn't.

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#62

Post by OrgNet »

Stierlitz wrote: post #60

I've noticed the same with web-able apps, you spend time typing-up some missive and then it freezes and refreshing the page loses it all. Could linux write everything to a file every 30 seconds. A bit like a keylogger, only you know it is there.

> Could linux write everything to a file every 30 seconds. A bit like a keylogger

yes, but probably not a good idea?

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#63

Post by axaxs »

thedanbob wrote: post #7

Does anyone know of a good Linux email client that isn’t crippled by show-stopping bugs of this sort? I used Mailspring for a while, which has a nice modern interface, but quit after discovering that my drafts were only saved locally, not on the server. This has been an open bug for at least two years. In the end I’ve always fallen back to Thunderbird as the least bad option.

Past security issues aside, Bluemail.

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#64

Post by axaxs »

d2wa wrote: post #28
annoyingnoob wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had the same thought. Did this person consider using different software? Why hurt yourself like that? Its no wonder that it will never be the year of the Linux Desktop.

Person/author here. Yes, I have considered other email clients. Evolution is the least bad of the available options and still sees active development. Most other clients don’t support CardDAV or LDAP so I can’t sync my address book. An email client is mostly useless without the contact details of the people want to contact. Newscommers to the email client market have all been proprietary subscription-based middleware…

Did you open a bug? I've opened 3 Evolution bugs over the past few years, and the devs are always helpful. They even changed some behavior that was annoying to me, which made me wonder if I was in fact the only user...

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#65

Post by Sebb767 »

axaxs wrote: post #64
d2wa wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Person/author here. Yes, I have considered other email clients. Evolution is the least bad of the available options and still sees active development. Most other clients don’t support CardDAV or LDAP so I can’t sync my address book. An email client is mostly useless without the contact details of the people want to contact. Newscommers to the email client market have all been proprietary subscription-based middleware…

Did you open a bug? I've opened 3 Evolution bugs over the past few years, and the devs are always helpful. They even changed some behavior that was annoying to me, which made me wonder if I was in fact the only user...

> which made me wonder if I was in fact the only user...

Nope, there's at least three of us :)

It's by far my favorite client. Not only is the UI nice (for some reason I can't stand Thunderbirds UI), but it works well with integrations and multiple accounts.

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#66

Post by d2wa »

Stierlitz wrote: post #60

I've noticed the same with web-able apps, you spend time typing-up some missive and then it freezes and refreshing the page loses it all. Could linux write everything to a file every 30 seconds. A bit like a keylogger, only you know it is there.

Yeah, but it would require an enormous amount of fast disk space. An actual keylogger would probably be more useful.

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#67

Post by d2wa »

axaxs wrote: post #64
d2wa wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Person/author here. Yes, I have considered other email clients. Evolution is the least bad of the available options and still sees active development. Most other clients don’t support CardDAV or LDAP so I can’t sync my address book. An email client is mostly useless without the contact details of the people want to contact. Newscommers to the email client market have all been proprietary subscription-based middleware…

Did you open a bug? I've opened 3 Evolution bugs over the past few years, and the devs are always helpful. They even changed some behavior that was annoying to me, which made me wonder if I was in fact the only user...

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evolution/-/issues/905

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#68

Post by userbinator »

xfitm3 wrote: post #6
lixtra wrote: post #3

Of course recoverin an email is an innocent disguise. The same approach works for recovering any secret information that people used on a computer that an attacker can access. Of course there are plenty of possibilities. But it’s eye opening to see them in action.

Yes, encryption keys can persist in memory, too. That's why many law enforcement agencies use something like a HotPlug[1] + mouse jiggler to keep machines powered on when executing a search warrant. [1] https://www.cru-inc.com/products/wiebetech/hotplug_field_kit...

If you let an attacker have physical access, it's game over anyway.

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#69

Post by chungy »

cranekam wrote: post #12

> Evolution [..] has a bad data loss bug. It sometimes deletes the email body text in the compose window after changing the signature [..] it has bitten me about twice a month for the last two years. and > I might have been able to partially recover the message from the Draft folder if I’d retained my cool and acted immediately. It had been overwritten by an empty message instead. I must look into versioning my email…

Alternative take: I've been using Evolution as my main email client since 2008-ish, mostly on Arch and Debian systems. I have never encountered this bug, and I'm willing to bet most people have not either.

The bug probably exists, and maybe with the magic set of configuration options, I could make it trigger too. But bugs can be finicky like that -- developers certainly don't like them, and it'll probably vanish pretty fast if they are able to reproduce it.

Re: How I recovered a lost email from my email client’s memory

#70

Post by code_duck »

Stierlitz wrote: post #60

I've noticed the same with web-able apps, you spend time typing-up some missive and then it freezes and refreshing the page loses it all. Could linux write everything to a file every 30 seconds. A bit like a keylogger, only you know it is there.

There used to be a Firefox add-on called Lazarus that did this.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/227948/Firefox.html

From Tom's Hardware:

"Lazarus: Form Recovery is a free downloadable Add-On for the Firefox web browser that automatically saves everything you type into forms of web pages you visit.

With Lazarus: Form Recovery, you will never lose what you write after a crash the browser or other technical problems. In the case when a problem, simply right click and select "recover form" to retrieve data previously typed."

However, that was for web forms, not an email client or other applications.

Post reply on HN