KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster - SOLVED

[Calgarian]

EDIT: This problem has now existed for close to a week. I have done a complete uninstall and re-install of kontact, kmail, korganizer and kaddressbook. The problem still exists and no one from the kontact or Akonadi groups cares enough to even respond.

I am really frustrated. Ever since Akonadi appeared on the scene it has caused me major problems. I just did a KDE 4.7 upgrade a few days ago when it hit the repositories. My calendar file has completely disappeared. It now appears as an empty calendar with only local holidays noted. I count on that calendar very much.

I tried to find my old calendar and import, but it's gone. I decided to bite the bullet and rebuild, however I can't add an entry. I get a message that there are no calendars found. I checked /settings/sidebar/calendar-manager and it is checked. I looked at Akonadi resource manager and it shows a file at /home/me/.kde/share/apps/kontact/std.ics. I tested the MySql connection and it says it's OK. If there is anyone from the Akonadi group who could offer some advice I would really appreciate it? I'm beginning to panic as I'm missing events.

When I try to create a new, blank calendar why do I get this message? "Unable to create calendar '/home/me/.kde/share/apps/korganizer/test.ics'."

[LinuxRocks]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster I'M BEGINNING TO GET ANGRY

Hi, Calgarian!

I ran into the same issue as you when I upgraded my system to 4.7. However, all I did was re import my cal into a new one.

What I did was remove the existing default and birthday calendars, right click and create a new one. Select Akonodi as the back end (Not by my computer atm, so not sure of the exact syntax.)

Once you have your new cal in place, you can go to file and import. Then import it into the existing cal.

I have learned though the years to always backup everything I can when working with KDE. For some reason, and not saying this to bash KDE, but I never had any problems upgrading other desktop environments, but for some reason, KDE is different and has taught me valuable lessons over the years .

If you still run into issues, you may sudo -i, cd /home, chown yourusername: yourhomedir -R. There may be some screwy permissions in the dir structure that need some attention .

Anyway, I hope this helps you some and prepares you for future upgrades.

Joe

[LinuxRocks]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster I'M BEGINNING TO GET ANGRY

Oh, also, if you still have issues, you can also jump on the IRC freenode.net in #kubuntu or #ubuntu and ask them for help too. Good guys on those chat rooms and lots of help. I was in there last night and there was over a thousand people in there

Ultimately, if you still can't figure it out, fill in a bug report and someone will help you with that.

Thanks!
Joe

[Calgarian]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster I'M BEGINNING TO GET ANGRY

Thanks for the help Joe. I will try those suggestions. My calendar is critical to me and I was really getting frustrated.

[LinuxRocks]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster I'M BEGINNING TO GET ANGRY

Thanks for the help Joe. I will try those suggestions. My calendar is critical to me and I was really getting frustrated.

I hear ya! I am lost without my Wife and my calendar . Every time I make a change to the calendar, I export it just as a back up.

In the past, I have had to install the lightning extension to Thunderbird to view/make changes to my cal when Kontact was broken. This might also be an option for you.

Lightning is in the software repos, just search for it. Its actually called, xul-lightning-ext or something like that, but it will come up if you just search for lightning.

Its nice to have a backup application sometimes too

Take care!
Joe

[oshunluvr]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster I'M BEGINNING TO GET ANGRY

I hear ya! I am lost without my Wife

I can't find that package in the repository.
What version are you on?
Any issues with it?

[Calgarian]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster I'M BEGINNING TO GET ANGRY

I also went looking for "Wife" and couldn't find it , and I sure hope she doesn't see this message.

I assume you meant to delete the birthday and default calendar entries in akonadi configuration. I did that and tried to create a new calendar in akonadi using the iCalendar choice. It appeared to work, but as soon as I try to add an event I get the same message: "No calendars found, the event could not be added." I made sure I did the chown across my whole home folder. Obviously I've got a config file some place all messed up. I'm leery to mess with too many of them as I don't want to break my mail folders and my address book.

Is there some place I'm missing to tell kontact what actual file to use for the calendar? The only place I can find is akonadi.

I'm running Kubuntu 11.04, KDE 4.7, and kontact/calendar 4.4.10.

[LinuxRocks]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster I'M BEGINNING TO GET ANGRY

.....
HAHA! Sadly, version 2 for me... Version 1 left for another "distro" after 12 years.

Version 2 is much better and more robust, doesn't crash at all and lots of eye candy . Its great! HEHE

*Gawd, I'm a geek!

Yes, you are a geek Joe. That post proved it beyond a doubt!

[LinuxRocks]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster I'M BEGINNING TO GET ANGRY

OK, did my reinstall last night and here are the steps I took to get the calendar to work.

Open Kontact, click on the calendar button and right click in the box that has the birthday calendar. Create a new calendar and select Akonodi. Then, on the next screen, change the name of the calendar and at the bottom of the screen, you have to select the item in the box and on the right, check the items you want to store in the calendar - I had the options for todo, journal, and tasks - that is from memory, but sounds about right.

Once you do that, finish the process and then go back to kontact and right click the new calendar you selected and make it default. Then, you can add items. I had no problems with a fresh install.

On a side note, I was also able to connect to my eGroupware WebDAV server and pull my calendar from there. That was a nice feature because now I have a central server for my calendar . You might/should be able to do the same with Google Calendar if you have it.

Anyway, hope this works for you

Talk to you later!
Joe

[Calgarian]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster - SOLVED

OK - it appears to be working. The calendar list was hidden, but I found it. It was empty, thus "no calendars found." Your instructions were very clear on how to correct this. Thanks

[LinuxRocks]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster - SOLVED

OK - it appears to be working. The calendar list was hidden, but I found it. It was empty, thus "no calendars found." Your instructions were very clear on how to correct this. Thanks

Very Cool!

Glad I could help!!!

Talk to you again!
Joe

[Craig100]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster - SOLVED

Hi,

I'm a Kubuntu newbie, (evading Ubuntu's Unity and Gnome 3 nonsense). Just installed 11.04 for the first time and using Akonadi synched my Google calendar to Kontact. It appeared to work. For a few seconds I saw all my events. Then they disappeared. Unfortunately it's ACTUALLY deleted all events from my Google calendar. Can't see them anywhere now, on any device. Has anyone else come across this or is it likely I've done something daft? It makes me extremely nervous to use Kontact again. I normally use Thunderbird with Lightning.

Please advise.

Craig

[LinuxRocks]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster - SOLVED

Good morning!

To be honest with you, keep using Thunderbird and Lightning; those are two great apps!

KDEPim is a great idea and, someday, will be a great PIM suit, but its been plagued with issues for like 5 years. I would even consider waiting for KDEPim 2.0 to be release and try that. I have heard from others who a re testing it that there are some major improvements.

I use KDEPim right now and sync my cal with a WebDAV solution I have on a server sitting next to me, so I don't rely on external servers like Google or Yahoo, and I have not had any problems with it, but I still feel edgy every time I launch Kontact :-D

Thanks!
Joe

[Craig100]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster - SOLVED

Thanks for the advice Joe.

[oshunluvr]

Re: KMail/Akonadi/Calendar - disaster - SOLVED

I can't speak for PIM, I don't use it. However, I switched from Firefox to Google-chrome and love it. It's waaay faster out-of-the-box and has some very cool add-ons like "Incredable Startpage". There's a slight learning curve as the URL par is combined with the search bar.

I highly recommend trying it.