Switching from Ferdi to Ferdium: pre-existing users will "lose" their config

[vraravam]

With the merge of PR #2 , we now have a kind of broken system. Pre-existing users of Ferdi would have had their profiles in different location (for eg, in macos, the ferdi profile folder is: ~/Library/Application Support/Ferdi. With the new name, it will be ~/Library/Application Support/Ferdium. We might need to either have a page documenting how pre-existing users can move over without losing any data (just needs renaming of this folder) or provide an automated way to move them over. Just logging this bug ticket so that someone can take this up prior to our releasing any versions.

[lheinke]

I tried to migrate from Ferdi to Ferdium on my computer, but was not able to. Since the migration script is for Windows only, I simply copied the contents of ~/.config/Ferdi to ~/.config/Ferdium but this did not work. Any helpful input on what could be the problem? My Ferdi instance is quite old, so the config folder takes up almost 7 GB.

[vraravam]

Thanks for trying out Ferdium @lheinke !

If all you wanted to do was to migrate your local config folder from ferdi to ferdium, please check if these steps work:

1. Open Ferdi.
2. Go to Settings > Advanced and click on Open Profile folder. This should open the file explorer of your OS.

3. Close Ferdi
4. Back in the file explorer of your OS, rename the profile folder from Ferdi to Ferdium
5. Start Ferdium

This should now start with your exact configurations from Ferdi.
Note: If you have any custom services, (not from the in-built services in Ferdium), you might need to edit them manually.

Please confirm if these steps help.

If you are trying to move away from the hosted server that holds your config/preferences, then please use the following guide

[krisrok]

I also copied manually from %appdata%\Ferdi to %appdata%\Ferdium and it also did not work for me. Config is being loaded (at least my GUI settings from Ferdi) but Ferdium only says "Could not load services and user information".

I was able to add my services by exporting my serverless profile with Ferdi and importing with Ferdium (using the web interface on http://localhost:45569). But then my GUI config was left behind. I did not find a way to make it both work.

[lheinke]

Thanks for the quick reply @vraravam! I am indeed trying to do the first thing. What you described corresponds exactly to what I was doing. Similarly to what @krisrok described I also just get the error but none of my workspaces/services were transferred. I am not using any custom services. This is a screenshot of the result:

I ran Ferdium from the terminal to check the output for any meaningful error messages but got nothing besides this unrelated error message:
[455915:0428/153048.878613:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(377)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.

[Cknight70]

This is an issue for me too.

I have also tried importing my ferdi profile to ferdium localhost server while it has a clean local ferdium profile. I get the error request entity too large

[theretohere]

This is an issue for me too.

I have also tried importing my ferdi profile to ferdium localhost server while it has a clean local ferdium profile. I get the error request entity too large

I have the same issue:
I'm getting this error on import of a Ferdi backup into [Ferdium-linux-6.0.0-nightly.92-amd64.deb].

http://localhost:46569/transfer
request entity too large

[vraravam]

As debugged with a sample file from another user, I noticed that the settings entry inside each of the services was a raw JSON (as opposed to a stringified representation of JSON). Changing that to stringified worked for me to upload a previously exported backup file.

Sample file that works:

Can someone else please confirm this? If so, then that's the bug that needs to be logged and solved

[real-or-random]

I just used the UNIX migration script on Linux (which essentially renames ~/.config/Ferdi to ~/.config/Ferdium and only got "Could not load services and user information" in Ferdium as others.

For me this did the trick:

If you want to switch to an offline account, just go to Settings > Logout/Exit Session > Use Ferdium without an account.

(from @SpecialAro in #249 (comment))

But I swear I had an offline account already in Ferdi. (I've just double-checked by restoring ~/.config/Ferdi from my backups and checking in Ferdi). So after the migration, Ferdium apparently assumed for some reason assumed that I have a Ferdi account but I don't.

People are just using the Server option without knowing...

(again @SpecialAro in #249)

I think this really may be due to the migration script not being perfect.

[SpecialAro]

But I swear I had an offline account already in Ferdi.

Did you checked the Ferdi > Config > settings.json file if you had "server": "You are using Ferdi without a server" ?

I can see where the problem may be... this is probably because we changed Ferdi to Ferdium... and that's why it tries to connect to some non existent server.

[real-or-random]

I checked the settings.json from my the Ferdi directory in my backup and it has this line, yes...

So I assume

ferdium-app/src/api/apiBase.ts

Lines 73 to 75 in fa1a703

	export function serverName(): string {
	const serverType = (window as any).ferdium.stores.settings.all.app.server;
	const noServer = 'You are using Ferdium without a server';

is responsible here. It checks for the exact string with "Ferdium". Using the same string as UI string and as config options seems not ideal anyway. But I guess the quickfix is to accept the old string and also return No in that case.

[vraravam]

@real-or-random - we implemented a fix the above comment and it is in the 6.0.0-nightly.99 nightly. Please test with this new version if possible. TIA

[theretohere]

It looks like there may be 2 separate issues here, but I'm still getting this error on import of a local Ferdi non-server backup into [Ferdium-linux-6.0.0-nightly.99-amd64.deb].

http://localhost:46569/transfer
request entity too large

[SpecialAro]

It looks like there may be 2 separate issues here, but I'm still getting this error on import of a local Ferdi non-server backup into [Ferdium-linux-6.0.0-nightly.99-amd64.deb].

http://localhost:46569/transfer
request entity too large

That is another issue.. actually, there is already on opened here in GH (can't search right now).

[SpecialAro]

@theretohere is your file bigger than 50mb?

[theretohere]

@theretohere is your file bigger than 80mb?

47kB

[vraravam]

I was debugging with an exported file from another user - and found 1 issue: Can you please confirm if the settings key within each services array - can you please confirm if this is a JSON or a stringified JSON?
This file works for eg:

If this key's value is a JSON - then this error has been verified to occur.

[theretohere]

I saw that, but my export.ferdi-data looks different in vim. Not formatted at all, just a string of text with escape characters all over. What are you using to view the file?

[vraravam]

I use visual studio code - and apply JSON formatting to make sense of the exported data.

[theretohere]

I use visual studio code - and apply JSON formatting to make sense of the exported data.

Okay, VSC installed, formatting selected. All my fields look like your example, except for the settings. That is just a jumble of escaped characters. I tried to convert to string, but nothing I found online works.

[vraravam]

Okay, VSC installed, formatting selected. All my fields look like your example, except for the settings. That is just a jumble of escaped characters. I tried to convert to string, but nothing I found online works.

would you mind sharing your settings key here for at least 1 of the services?

[theretohere]

I just noticed the first 7 services have settings fields which are escaped text, and the last 4 services have settings fields which are readable strings.

I tried to stringify within VSC using 2 plugins: "JSON Parse & Stringify", and "Fix JSON", but neither worked. What are you using to fix these strings?

Can I DM a settings string to you?

[vraravam]

sure - you can send it to me 1x1 in our discord chat

[cino]

@vraravam Can we close this as well now 6.0.0 has been released or is this still an issue we need to solve?

[real-or-random]

@vraravam Can we close this as well now 6.0.0 has been released or is this still an issue we need to solve?

The problem with the different config strings still unresolved, see #473 (comment).