Desktop calendar interaction w.TB/Google calendars question

[r_avital]

Hello all,

New to the forum, not new to KDE -- I used it back on Mandriva Free 2007, then on Debian, then tried gnome, liked it, then gnome3 came around, so now you can consider me a gnome3/unity refugee, looking for a long-term support, viable, stable alternative. Good memories of KDE are coming back to me.

Currently just testing Kubuntu on a USB stick with 4GB Permanent file system (which is the maximum the Startup Disk Creator will allow). The particulars:

Asus MB sabertooth x58
Intel Core i7-950 (Quad-core)
8 GB RAM
Graphics: nVidia GT-640
Kubuntu 13.04

What I'd like to find out: My other computer is running Ubutnu Lucid LTS with gnome2. It has a panel date/time applet, with a calendar that interfaces with evolution. I do not use evolution for email, but strictly to show events in that panel applet. And Thunderbird, using an extension that mirrors the evolution calendar, allows me to manage calendar events that are immediately reflected in that same applet.

Is there anything similar in Kubuntu? With or without evolution? I haven't yet been able to find it.

My preference would be for bypassing evolution completely if possile, and I would need to display/manage, on such a widget (if that's the correct term) both a local TB calendar (or several such), and a private Google calendar, which is also, currently showing in my TB calendars.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, and apologies in advance if anyting this specific has already been addressed - I searched, but couldn't find anything useful.

TIA

[oshunluvr]

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but KOrganizer syncs with my Google calendars and as a bonus the events show up in the Digital Clock/Calendar in the panel.

[r_avital]

Thanks, oshunluvr,

I was able to run korganizer, and link a google calendar to it fairly easily. Problems/questions:

1. Since it was the first time I ran korganizer (at least I'm guessing that's the reason), akonadi ran a bunch of tests, skpped some, and reported errors on two:

Test 12: 
--------
Nepomuk search service not registered at D-Bus.
Details: The Nepomuk search service is not registered at D-Bus which typically means it was not started or encountered a fatal error during startup.

{snip}

Test 15:  ERROR
--------
Current Akonadi server error log found.
Details: The Akonadi server reported errors during its current startup. The log can be found in (etc...)

Found the akonadi error long, stating simply

Nepomuk Query Server not available

Does this have anything to do with the fact that I'm running kubuntu off a USB drive?

Other:
1. My digital clock/calendar in the bottom panel does not show the events in the calendar (korganizer does).
2. Korganizer shows the events, but making a change in an event is not reflected in the google calendar on google. Is that supposed to work? I did not make the calendar read-only.
3. In korganizer, while viewing the calendar I linked, do you have to specify the timezone for each and every event? Because they're all there, but 4 hours too late (I'm on U.S. Eastern Daylight time, all the events are on UTC). I did specify "America/New York" as my timezone both in korganizer and on the digital clock.
4. Is it possible to add a calendar to korganizer from Thunderbird/Lightning?

I know, lots of questions. Any ideas, I'll be really grateful. And I'm continuing to plug at it on my end.

[oshunluvr]

There's a setting in the digital clock to "Display Events" under calendar settings. Under time zones, tick "Clock defaults to local." If you are still are having time-zone issues, look at the other threads in the forum on how to fix those. Here, all my events sync to google and vice-versa without delay. I don't know if you need to be logged into your google account or not (I am). I select a calendar (I have 6), enter an event, it appears on my google calendar almost instantly and on my digital clock calendar.

I don't use Thunderbird, so I can't help you there.

[r_avital]

Hi again,

Well thanks, that was more than enough -- I did see the threads regarding timme-zone issues, just haven't gotten around to trying that dpkg-reconfigure option yet. And I'll give your other recommendations a try as well.

I'll mark this solved for now (if I can ever figure out how, the "thread tools" dropdown doesn't have that option).

I'll start a separate thread on the akonadi issue (If I can't find any answers first).

However, if anyone has any knowledge on how to enable Thunderbird/Lightning calendars within the digital clock of KOrganizer, I would love to hear it.

Thanks again

[woodsmoke]

as ocean lover said, one does have to have Akonadai, etc. running but it interacts with the panel clock flawlessly for moi.

woodsmoke

[r_avital]

Thanks so much, everybody, but it's still not working for me:

1. Right-clicked on digital clock in bottom-panel, selected "digital clock settings" then "calendar" and put a check-mark on "display events" - no events are displayed. I did manage (see above) to link my Google calendar in KOrganizer.

2. Ignoring Goggle calendar, back in KOrganizer, entered a new event in the LOCAL (personal) calendar, UN-checked the Google calendar, checked the local calendar, still not displaying in the calendar.

3. Deleted my Google calendar, re-added it in KOrganizer (used the "Akonadi Google Calendar Resources" option, not the "Google Calendar" option which never registered anything for me). Still nothing in the digital-clock calendar.

Related to different troubleshooting I'm doing, I entered "kdesudo systemsettings" in konsole (based on another thread here). This confirmed that my timezone was set as "America/New York", yet looking at the digital-clock settings, it still defaults to ETC/UTC. The last line in the konsole output was: QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /root/.config/ibus/bus

Forgive my ignorance, but whenever I see references to ibus/dbus, I keep remembering that this is all running of a USB stick, and Kubuntu is not really installed on the system. Could this have anything to do with any of the above?

This issue of the panel clock/calendar synching or not with any calendar, local or google, is not a "deal-breaker" for me, it's just one of the (many) reasons I'm trying to move away from the current incarnation of gnome. All I'm trying to do is get a good idea of what to expect if/when I finally do install it. This brings back memories of having a difficult time with setting up correct time/timezone/calendar settings even back in KDE3 when I was using it years ago.

Thanks!

[r_avital]

Not sure how the problem was resolved, but it is. I had to make a new install of Kubuntu 13.04 on a USB disk (not using the startup disk creator, but an actual installation on a usb disk formatted as ext4 and with bootloader). At this point, re-adding my google calendar shows events in the widget on the task bar. However, I found out that doubld-clicking on a date in the clock/calendar does not have any effect, I actually need to run the calendar in KOrganizer, then everything syncs correctly with google.

Thanks everyone for all your help!