Issues with Kalarm

[megosdog]

Howdy all! Long time, no see, which is thanks to Kubuntu being so awesome and stable! ^_^ Anyhow, I've got a rather annoying problem. I was previously on 22.04, and decided that it's about time to start the upgrade process to 24.04. So, as per usual, the first stop is my sandbox PC. Well, so far, so good, everything's stable and solid, and running great, save one thing. Kalarm keeps crashing with this error:

pa_write() failed while trying to wake up the mainloop: Bad file descriptor

It only happens when it plays the sound file. Now, that being said, it worked fine under 22.04, and I see the issues that are caused by this are fixed in the 25.04 version, but 24.04 only has the 23.05 version. Is there anything I can do that will solve this issue, or do I have to wait until they backport 25.04 to the Universe repo? I tried to find ways to install it stand alone, but couldn't find anything. Suggestions?

PS, I'm really liking some of the improvements in 24.04.

[megosdog]

I've figured out a bit more about this since the last time I posted. Apparently there's a bug in Kalarm, at least the version that currently ships with 24.04 that no longer works with repeating audio alerts without crashing. This, from what I was able to discover, has something to do with how the app handles interactions with the audio system ever since the switch to Pipewire, There is a newer version out there that works perfectly fine with pipewire, but Kubuntu ardently refuses to switch to it. Like, straight up will not. The most they've done since 24.04 released is to recompile the currently shipped version to fix a security bug, but they won't add the newer version because, well, apparently nobody cares about Kalarm, just like they didn't care about the last alarm app that shipped with Kubuntu, which Kalarm replaced.

I'm really getting the feeling that nobody care one lick about calendar and alarm apps anymore as I ran into the same issue in the past with Android where they did include a calendar app, but it's so absolutely unreliable, and total crap, that it's unusable, and absolutely refuse to fix that either because, well, tough peanuts. You're a fringe user so we don't care if your life depends on a reliable calendar and alarm app. That's your problem, not ours. Ugh. Anyhow, I rednecked a solution in the meantime until someone decides that calendar apps are important again.

That'll probably be never, but alas, it is what it is, I guess. So we, who are about to be left alertless, salute you. Oy. *facepalm* And yes, I tried Korganizer and some others, but those DO NOT do what I need. Not by a mile. And why do I need to use the space shuttle just to tell me, "Hey, go for a walk, lard butt"?

[Snowhog]

Anyhow, I rednecked a solution in the meantime

Care to elaborate?

[Snowhog]

Hmm. https://pkgs.org/download/kalarm



Well, maybe not. The version on the site for 24.04 is the same version shipping with Kubuntu 24.04.

[claydoh]

Ubuntu/Kubuntu generally didn't see version upgrades between releases. It has always been this way.
In some cases there may be point-relases added on LTS, but the thing is here that KDE Gear 23.08.05 is the last of its line before Qt 6/Plasma 6 and KDE Gear 24.02. I think. I'm not 100% sure on how much KDE gear is tied to Qt versions.

But anyway
AKA no more updates to the KDE Gear 23.08 line from KDE and no theoretical /potential/experimental updgrades from Kubuntu via PPA until 24.10 reached EOL (next month), which would require upgrading to Plasma 6 anyway

[megosdog]

Care to elaborate?

### 🔔 **1. Alarm Script (with timeout)**

Create a script called `morning_alarm.sh`:

```bash
#!/bin/bash
# Play alarm for max 5 minutes or until killed
timeout 300 paplay ~/Music/alarm.ogg
```

Make it executable:

```bash
chmod +x ~/Scripts/morning_alarm.sh
```

---

### 🕓 **2. Use `alarm-clock-applet` or XFCE's task scheduler**

Point it to run `~/Scripts/morning_alarm.sh` at the desired time.

---

### 🛌 **3. Snooze/Kill Button**

Make a new script called `kill_alarm.sh`:

```bash
#!/bin/bash
pkill -f "paplay"
```

Then make a `.desktop` file in `~/.local/share/applications/kill-alarm.desktop`:

```ini
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Snooze Alarm
Exec=/home/youruser/Scripts/kill_alarm.sh
Icon=alarm
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Utility;
```

Make it executable:

```bash
chmod +x ~/Scripts/kill_alarm.sh

Ubuntu/Kubuntu generally didn't see version upgrades between releases. It has always been this way.

Oh, I get that. But if an app is obviously horribly broken like Kalarm is, wouldn't that justify an upgrade? And, if that's a massive nope, then at least give *US* the means to do it rather than the cold shoulder.