It seems that digikam is not compatible with mariadb version 11.7.2.

Michael Miller michael_miller at msn.com
Sat Mar 22 14:42:24 GMT 2025 

Hi Fred,
I’m happy it’s working for you now.  Glad this is resolved.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help.

Cheers,
Mike

On Mar 21, 2025, at 4:56 AM, Fred Engst <fredengst at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Mike,
Good news!
I was able to recover my mariadb 11.2.2 from a backup to my MacBook Pro, and was able to migrate the database to SQLite. Afterwards, I was able to move the collection and the database to the Mac Mini Pro, and it is working fine with Digikam 8.7, the one you did for me.
I will try to migrate once more to Mariadb 11.7.2 and see if the performance make any difference.
I will let you know the differnce in my case.
Thanks so much for being so helpful.
Best,
Fred

P.S. How do you guy support yourself working on an open source project like this?

On Mar 20, 2025, at 15:23, Fred Engst <fredengst at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Mike,
It looks like I was confusing database file with collection file.
If you are asking for the path of the database file, it is as stated in the log:
Internal Server data path: "/Volumes/WD-SSD-2T-Red/.mysql.digikam/db_data”

The full path to one of the collection files is on
/Volumes/WD-SSD-2T-Red/MovedOfflineFiles/Photos/

While the full path to the larger 3T collection files is on another external disk:
/Volumes/WD-HD-4T/NikonLS-5000ScannedPhotos/

Best,
Fred


Begin forwarded message:

From: Fred Engst <fredengst at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: It seems that digikam is not compatible with mariadb version 11.7.2.
Date: March 19, 2025 at 22:11:08 GMT+8
To: Michael Miller <michael_miller at msn.com>

Hi Mike,
The full path to one of the database files is on another external disk:
/Volumes/WD-HD-4T/NikonLS-5000ScannedPhotos/
another collection is on
/Volumes/WD-SSD-2T-Red/MovedOfflineFiles/Photos/

Thanks,
Fred

On Mar 19, 2025, at 21:22, Michael Miller <michael_miller at msn.com> wrote:

Hi Fred,
I looks like MySQL/MariaDB loaded successfully.  Now, it a matter of pointing it to your old database files.

Do you know what directory your database files are in?  Can you tell me the full path to the database files?

Cheers,
Mike

On Mar 19, 2025, at 2:52 AM, Fred Engst <fredengst at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Mike,
I got the file and could install it ok according to your instructions upto this point:
"If the database is loaded, restart digiKam.  If the database didn’t load, then STOP and let’s troubleshoot together”.
It didn’t work, so I create a debug log from the start in the terminal, and this is the name of that attached log file:
"FredEngst-digikamInternalMariadb-debuglog"

I then deleted all digikam once more, and this time I changed the mariadb from the one came with digikam to version 11.7.2 on my computer, but the same thing happened, and here is the name of the attached log file:
"FredEngst-digikamMariadb11.7.2debuglog”

In either case, when I quit digikam, a dialog shows up and says that digikam quit unexpectedly, so I’m sending this log to you, in case there is some useful information. The name of that attached file is:
"FredEngst-AfterQuitingdigikam,there came a crash report.ips”
Best,
Fred




On Mar 18, 2025, at 23:46, Michael Miller <michael_miller at msn.com> wrote:

Hi Fred,
Yes, it got removed in the nightly sweep.  I uploaded a new version.

https://files.kde.org/digikam/digiKam-8.7.0-20250318T140748-Qt6-MacOS-Homebrew-arm64.pkg

It may take a little time to replicate to your region.

Cheers,
Mike



On Mar 18, 2025, at 11:40 AM, Fred Engst <fredengst at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Mike,
I just got back from a trip and when I tried to download it, the server is not avaialbe.
fred

On Mar 17, 2025, at 21:08, Michael Miller <michael_miller at msn.com> wrote:

Hi Fred,
I uploaded a special version just for you.  It can be found at

https://files.kde.org/digikam/digiKam-8.7.0-20250317T003845-Qt6-MacOS-Homebrew-arm64.pkg

Please let me know as soon as you’ve downloaded the file so I can remove it from the download server.

Install steps:

  1.  Install this on an M-series CPU Mac only
  2.  Remove all previous versions of digikam before installing, but make sure your MySQL DB files are safe
  3.  Rename the digikamrc file in ~/Library/Preferences/ directory to digikamrc.save
  4.  Install digiKam from the package you dowloaded.
  5.  Select SQLite during installation.  Do not chose MySQL/MariaDB at install
  6.  After digiKam is installed, go to digiKam->Preferences->Database and change the database to "Mysql Internal”. This will change the DB to MySql/mariaDB
  7.  Chose a new, empty directory to create the new DB
  8.  After the DB change is done, restart digiKam
  9.  After digiKam is restarted, go back to digiKam->Preferences->Database
  10. Browse to the parent directory that contains your existing MySQL DB files.  The digiKam MySQL files are typically stored in a hidden directory called “.mysql.digikam”.  Select the parent of this directory
  11. Click ok.  This should load the existing database.
  12. If the database is loaded, restart digiKam.  If the database didn’t load, then STOP and let’s troubleshoot together
  13. After digiKam has been restarted again, go to Settings->Database Migration
  14. In the right pane, select SQLite
  15. In the right page, select the directory where you want to store the SQLite DB
  16. Click the “Migrate” button in the middle of the screen
  17. After the migration is complete, click close
  18. Go to digiKam->Preferences->Database
  19. Select SQLite from the dropdown
  20. Browse to the directory where you saved the SQLite DB
  21. DO NOT check WAL
  22. Click Ok
  23. Restart digiKam
  24. If all looks good, then go to digiKam->Preferences->Database
  25. Enable WAL mode for the databases
  26. Restart digiKam
  27. If you are of age and prefer, have a beer.  You’re done.





On Mar 16, 2025, at 8:32 PM, Fred Engst <fredengst at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Mike,
No, my database is on external disks. The photos are on a 4T hard disk, and the mariadb database folder is on a 2T SSD. So I can asscess digikam on either computer, if mariadb works with digikam.
I prefer to work with the new M4 Mac, for sure. And, once I converted the database to sqlit, I should be able to access them on my MacBook pro if need be.
Thank!
Fred


On Mar 17, 2025, at 07:41, Michael Miller <michael_miller at msn.com> wrote:

Hi Fred,
Unfortunately I can only do a Mac ARM64 special build.  Is the database on the M4 Mac?

Cheers,
Mike

On Mar 16, 2025, at 7:19 PM, Fred Engst <fredengst at gmail.com> wrote:

Thank so much Mike!
My collection is way over 100k, on a removeable hard disk with about 3T in size and growing, while my mariadb folder is on an external SSD with 12G in size.
I don’t think sqlit will work any better than mariadb internal in my case, but I’m willing to give it a try.
My MacBook pro is the 2018 model, before the M-series, and the new Mac Mini is M4 Pro.
Thanks so much once again!
Fred

On Mar 16, 2025, at 22:33, Michael Miller <michael_miller at msn.com> wrote:

Hi Fred,
How big is your collection?  SQLite can handle collections over 100,000 images, especially if you turn on Write Ahead Logging (WAL) on the database setup page.

As for moving from MariaDB to SQLite, we first need to get MariaDB working again so we can get the data out of the database.  Since you are using Homebrew, I’m going to build a special version of digiKam for you that will help.

I see you are using a Mac with an M series chip (ARM64), correct?

Cheers,
Mike

On Mar 16, 2025, at 9:56 AM, Fred Engst <fredengst at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Mike,
Thanks for asking.
I thought mysql internal was better for large collection of photos on hard disks, as recommended by the documentation.
In the old days, I did use sqlit, but as my collection gets larger, it slowed down quite a bit. Once I converted to mysql internal, it worked much faster.
If in the future I can put my collection on SSD, sqlit might be better. My question then is how to convert back from mysql to sqlit.
Fred

On Mar 16, 2025, at 20:55, Michael Miller <michael_miller at msn.com> wrote:

Hi Fred,
I know this isn’t a “fix”, but what is the reason for using MySql/MariaDB instead of SQLite?

I used to think that MariaDB was somehow better, but after extensive testing and joining the dev team, I found out that SQLite is faster and mode stable than MySql/MariaDB for digiKam.  The only reasons to use MySql/MariaDB is if you are running the DB on a remote server for a multi-computer installation.

It sounds like you’re using a MariaDB install on the same computer as digiKam, correct?

Cheers,
Mike

On Mar 15, 2025, at 11:16 PM, Fred Engst <fredengst at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Gilles or Maik,
It seems that digikam is not compatible with mariadb version 11.7.2 for mysql internal.

On my MacBook pro, I had mariadb 11.2.1 before, and it worked fine with digikam 8.5.

But when I tried to run digikam on my new Mac Mini M4 Pro with the only mariadb version 11.7.2 that I was able to install, it gives me an error message: "Could not start database initializer.”

I also donwloaded the latest
"digiKam-8.7.0-20250315T120428-Qt6-MacOS-arm64”, or
"digiKam-8.6.0-Qt6-MacOS-arm64”,
on the Mac Mini, and it gives the same error message.

I then upgraded mariadb on my MacBook Pro to 11.7.2 by mistake, and now I can’t make digikam work on my MacBook Pro with mysql internal running digikam 8.5 or 8.6! The same error message as in Mac Mini.


The error log from my Macbook Pro running digikam 8.6 is attached:

Fred

> On Mar 9, 2025, at 15:15, Maik Qualmann <metzpinguin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Please create a debug log from the start in the terminal, as described here
> for macOS:
>
> https://www.digikam.org/contribute/#macos-host
>
> Maik
>
> Am Sonntag, 9. März 2025, 06:23:22 Mitteleuropäische Normalzeit schrieb Fred
> Engst:
>> Dear digikam team,
>> I have just purchased a Mac Mini M4 Pro and download all file that are
>> needed for digikam, but I’m not able to start it.
>>
>> Here is the error I get using digitkam 8.5.0 at startup:
>> ————————————————————————————————————
>> An error occurred during the internal server start.
>> Details: Could not start database initializer.
>> Executable: /Applications/digiKam.org/digikam.app/Contents/lib/mariadb/
>> <http://digikam.app/Contents/lib/mariadb/> bin/mariadb-install-db
>> Arguments: --defaults-file=/Applications/digiKam.org/digikam.app/
>> <http://digikam.app/>Contents/Resources/digikam/database/mysql-global.conf,
>> --basedir=/ Applications/digiKam.org/digikam.app/Contents//lib/mariadb/
>> <http://digikam.app/Contents//lib/mariadb/>,
>> --datadir=/Users/chief/Pictures/.mysql.digikam/db_data Process error:
>> Unknown error
>> Please check the database settings in this dialog.
>> ————————————————————————————————————
>>
>> I then successively installing mariadb 11.7.2 with my admin account (chief),
>> and here is the log:
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -------------------- Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or
>> \g.
>> Your MariaDB connection id is 75
>> Server version: 11.7.2-MariaDB Homebrew
>>
>> Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
>>
>> Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input
>> statement.
>>
>> MariaDB [(none)]> quit
>> Bye
>> chief at 192 ~ % MySQL.server start
>> Starting MariaDB
>> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/mariadb/11.7.2/bin/mysqld_safe: Deprecated program
>> name. It will be removed in a future release, use 'mariadbd-safe' instead
>> 250308 08:34:43 mysqld_safe Logging to
>> '/opt/homebrew/var/mysql/192.168.0.109.err'. SUCCESS!  chief at 192 ~ % 250308
>> 08:34:43 mysqld_safe Starting mariadbd daemon with databases from
>> /opt/homebrew/var/mysql chief at 192 ~ %
>> ————————————————————————————————————
>>
>>
>> I then downloaded digikam 8.6.0, and here is the error I get:
>> ————————————————————————————————————
>> An error occurred during the internal server start.
>> Details: Could not start database initializer.
>> Executable: /opt/homebrew/Cellar/mariadb/11.7.2/scripts/mariadb-install-db
>> Arguments: --defaults-file=/Applications/digiKam-8.6.org/
>> <http://digikam-8.6.org/>digikam.app/Contents/Resources/digikam/database/my
>> sql-global.conf
>> <http://digikam.app/Contents/Resources/digikam/database/mysql-global.conf>,
>> --basedir= Applications/digiKam.org/digikam.app/<http://digikam.app/>
>> Contents//lib/mariadb/, --datadir=/Users/chief/
>> Pictures/.mysql.digikam/db_data
>> Process error: Unknown error
>> ————————————————————————————————————


<FredEngst'sMacbookPro_digikam8.6-ErrorLog.txt>











<FredEngst-digikamMariadb11.7.2debuglog><FredEngst-digikamInternalMariadb-debuglog.rtf><FredEngst-AfterQuitingdigikam,there came a crash report.ips>




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