Kmail - Could not compose message: Inappropriate ioctl for device

Catalin

Catalin

Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2022
Messages
33
Reaction score
17
Credits
445
Hello Linux community!

I am running Manjaro KDE Plasma and I have set up Kmail for two accounts: 1) my Microsoft institutional e-mail and 2) and my personal Gmail one.

Kmail works fine regarding receiving e-mails, but I cannot send e-mails at all and I receive this error and I don't know what this is about: "Could not compose message: Inappropriate ioctl for device".
Image


I was not able to find information about this on web or on this forum.
I tried Thunderbird and I don't like it. I also tried Trojitá but it has many errors. I like Kmail because has many options and it has a nice Plasma integration.

Any piece of help will be greatly appreciated and please provide some baby steps as I am new to Linux in general.
Thank you.

My specs are:
Operating System: Manjaro Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 5.24.2
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.91.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.15.25-1-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 6 × Intel® Core™ i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz
Memory: 15,6 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650/PCIe/SSE2
 


As a search term, use kmail ioctl

Kmial appears to have its dramas.....it only rates 2.9 stars out of 5

You may not 'like' thunderbird, but it works.

I have used for the last 10 years without drama that could not be overcome easily.

if you are really going to persist with kmail, their bug reporting page is HERE
 
I know little about Arch, but Inappropriate ioctl for device seems to be a catch all for two or more programs not talking to each other, my only suggestion is have you tried to uninstall Kmail and then re-installing in case it didn't install properly in the first instant.
 
Thanks for replying :)
I appreciate the info @Condobloke. I don't know what to say.. It seems like it's Thunderbird and that's it, nothing else works.
What other KDE good e-mail clients do you recommend?
Condobloke said:
their bug reporting page is HERE
Click to expand...
Unfortunately this issue is not in their list and I also used the advanced search - proof
brickwizard said:
uninstall Kmail and then re-installing
Click to expand...
I tried this two times already, also by reinstalling other components.
Does anyone have other ideas about this? ..
 
Alright guys, I found the solution. There might have also been an issue at stake but.. I don't know which one it was #LOL
Before I go through this I have to mention that I have set up my emails in IMAP version.

Basically it's about:
1. going to KDE wallet in KDE Plasma settings and then
2. press Launch Wallet Manager
3. press change password
4. when pop-up appears, don't write anything, just press okay.
5. you need to have/install Kmail, Kontact and Akonadi installed. (the last two of them might already be installed in KDE or come automatically installed via Kmail)
6. Also you have to allow all accesses to proposed by KDE Wallet.

So for Microsoft 365 / Outlook explanation can be found here - Link. Although I do not recommend the EWS Exchange one as it is buggy. IMAP is the better option.

For Gmail it is needed to use the App Password feature which can be found in: 1) Gmail Account tab 2) then Security 3) then App passwords. Here you enter Kmail and generate a password which will be used for you [email protected] (it won't work with your normal gmail password! - at least for me it didn't). IMAP/POP3 server options can be found on internet.
I found two nice Youtube videos her: Video 1 ; Video 2

Also in Kmail - Identity - Advanced - be sure to check correctly where the Sent and Draft e-mails are going to go (on the emails servers similar folders, not locally on hard drive)

Thanks for the replies guys! This time I got through it myself, cheers! :cool:

Edit: It seems that the Gmail exported filters cannot be imported into Kmail for some reason. The option is there but it doesn't work for now.
 
Last edited:
I had this same issue and since this was my only good search result I figure I'll add my solution. I had to switch the pinentry program to pinentry-qt by creating ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf with:
Code: 
pinentry-program /usr/bin/pinentry-qt

Hope this saves someone else some headache!

(Sorry about bumping the long dead thread ^^')
 
I've run KDE in various Distros for a long time and have to say I never liked KMail and have just used Thunderbird as my e-mail client. So never really tried to fix Kmail. But congratulations on doing it.
 
kc1di said:
I've run KDE in various Distros for a long time and have to say I never liked KMail and have just used Thunderbird as my e-mail client. So never really tried to fix Kmail. But congratulations on doing it.
Click to expand...
Will Thunderbird play nice with Proton Mail?
 
Beer will probably be required
 
Alexzee said:
Will Thunderbird play nice with Proton Mail?
Click to expand...
Not unless you have Proton's paid version. It's not possible to use their free version and download Mail from their servers on Linux as far as I know. So have never tried it on Thunderbird, I just use their web access. I've just never had much success with KMail. But then haven't tried it in ages either.
 
kc1di said:
Not unless you have Proton's paid version. It's not possible to use their free version and download Mail from their servers on Linux as far as I know. So have never tried it on Thunderbird, I just use their web access. I've just never had much success with KMail. But then haven't tried it in ages either.
Click to expand...
Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 879 (members: 5, guests: 874)

Latest posts

Top