Installing old Gramps 3.0.x

Hi,

I found an old Gramps database file that I would like to recover. The file is from about 2006 and should correspond to Gramps V2 with the BSDDB format. The instructions say to import the database with an installation of Gramps v3.0.x and that I should be able to convert it from there.

So, I wanted to ask, can I find a binary release of Gramps v3.0.x somewhere, possibly that includes dependencies?

I found the old version on sourceforge, but it doesn’t include dependencies. The portableapps.com release works on Windows, but it’s version 3.4.9 and does not include support for BSDDB.

Best regards,

Luca

Welcome!

The version 3.4.9 should ONLY support BSDDB. (BSDDB was the default, and for a long time, the only DB engine from version 2.0.0 until the 5.0.0 version. XML was storage for version 1 and was the archival format after that. SQLite became an option in 5.0.0 and then the default in the 5.1.0 version.)

However, you probably want to install a version of Gramps that corresponds to the versions around that period (version 2.0.10 released on 2006-02-27 to 2.2.10 released on 2008-01-13). The last version (2.2.10 would be the best download).
(Look at the “Install” webpage from that era.)

You should not need any add-ons if you are simply archiving the database file to a backup (XML) file.
The version 2 PDF manual discusses Exporting to compressed XML starting on page 19. (preferably, the Gramps package format. It will include the media as well.)

If you have the XML file (*.gramps) the current versions of Gramps should open it. I’m pretty sure that the current versions 5.1.x can also open a BSDDB file set from that time frame (although you should make sure you have a backup before you try it).

Hi,

first of all, thanks for your replies, and thanks for welcoming me!

I was able to import the file with v2.2.10: thank you! Naturally, getting it going wasn’t so simple. I ended up installing an old version of Debian lenny in a virtual machine and installing it there.

Perhaps the error message provided by Gramps could be improved. My file had a “grdb” extension and the file utility identified it as Berkeley DB (Btree, version 9, native byte-order). The error suggested using Gramps v3.0.x to import the file, but that didn’t work; I had to go back to v2.2.10.

Thanks for helping. Best regards,

Luca

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