Tuesday, May 10. 2005
[Preview Release] Sunbird 0.2+ snapshot for Debian ... finally arrived!
A while ago I took over the ITP #266824 to package sunbird for debian. Finally, I am happy to announce a first preview package for all of you eagerly awaiting a mozilla based calendar. Though, sunbird is still not ready to go in the debian archives I will provide regular snapshot builds from now on in my experimental archive (be aware that this is nothing for production use; for serious things don’t use packages in there).
I posted some screenshots here. If you want to provide feeback, just post a comment.
Anyone, who wants to help test sunbird is welcome to do so now. Just point your apt sources.list to the following line:
to get access to my preview sunbird package. To install sunbird, run
$ apt-get install sunbird
After that, you can launch thunderbird by invoking
from the command line.
Getting Started Note: You need to create an initial calendar on your own. In order to do so, select File -> New Calendar File … when first starting sunbird. After a restart you are ready to use your new calendar application 
.
Have fun!
Thanks for packaging this.
Any chance of getting a Ubuntu version?
I get version conflicts when I try to install it.
Ross
No, I have no ubuntu system installed. If you find someone who is willing to build an ubuntu package, I can send him the diff, so he can actually build an ubuntu package.
– asacsunbird works for me in ubuntu, first i had a problrm to store my events, bu now sunbird works fine. thanks alot for this package. christian orjeda
Did an installation on a sarge-installation (hmm I guess some packages were out of date, but anyway …) – I did get an error message when I installed:
Successful preinstSetting up sunbird (0.2.0cvs050509-1) ...
Returned debconf: 10 sunbird/integration doesn’t exist
Updating sunbird chrome registry…mv: cannot stat `/usr/lib/sunbird/extensions/Extensions.rdf’: No such file or catalog
But the installation worked – missing Norwegian translations, but I guess someone has to do them first …
Finn, the error message you observe is due to my lazyness to not clean up the update-sunbird-chrome script properly. It is just a really minor problem, since it appears to have no effect on the usability of this package.
I did an apt-get sunbird on my sarge system on which I also have my own compiled version. A few observations:
1. Although both claim to be version 0.2 they look rather different, e.g. in the new event dialog.
2. The Debian package doesn’t seem to store calendar files in .ics files, rather my newly created calendar ended up in some binary .rdf file. My interest in sunbird is due to its compatibility with Apple’s iCal format.
3. I also fail to import my old calendars.
4. Global settings (like storing dates in UTC) are not saved between runs.
For the moment I have removed the debian package again and continue to use my compiled version.
The version I build is from the CVS head. The version is 0.2+ ... so differences in appearence are OK.
Does your own built store .ics files? Maybe try to use a remote calendar?
My version stores .ics files. In fact I was hoping to see them when I ran the packaged version, as both binaries store files in the same .mozilla/sunbird directory. When I couldn’t see my calendars I created one, created an event with some unique text in it and did a "find .mozilla/sunbird -exec grep … {} ;"
That’s how I found out where my new calendar was stored.
I haven’t tried to use remote calendars so far.
When it comes to appearance, my version seems to agree with the screenshots on sunbird’s homepage, are you saying they might be out of date?
When it comes to appearance, my version seems to agree with the screenshots on sunbirds homepage, are you saying they might be out of date?
I can’t tell … I don’t see any linux screenshots there. I just find windows and mac OSX screens. Maybe my build looks a bit different compared to yours, because it uses gtk2, while the default upstream build options are still gtk. Note: 0.2 gtk2 support was broken (segfaulted on startup) ... just gtk.
Thats how I found out where my new calendar was stored.
What’s the filename you found?
The (binary) file that contained the name of my calendar and event was .mozilla/sunbird/2tcls5i4.default/storage.sdb
My "create event" dialog looks like the one at
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/images/Calendar_Classic_New_Event.png
OK, the storage stuff might be an intermediate solution. Sunbirds backend is currently migrated to use sqllite instead of .xml file operations. So maybe they stuffed all calendar info in the database and don’t generate an .ics file for local files anymore.
maybe .ics files will come back when the migration is done … but don’t hope too much.
My "create event" dialog looks like the one at ...
OK, I uploaded a screenshot for the new ‘new event’ dialog. Seems like there has been some work happining since 0.2 was released.
i installed sunbird (os ubuntu), sunbird installed without problems. But i can’t store an event in sunbird.
Thanks for testing sunbird. Did you follow the "Getting Started Note" mentioned at the bottom of my news?
Preconfiguring packages …
Selecting previously deselected package sunbird.
(Reading database … 60152 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking sunbird (from …/sunbird_0.2.0cvs050509-1_i386.deb) ...
.
Successful preinst
Setting up sunbird (0.2.0cvs050509-1) ...
Returned debconf: 10 sunbird/integration doesn’t exist
Updating sunbird chrome registry…mv: cannot stat `/usr/lib/sunbird/extensions/Extensions.rdf’: Nosuch file or directory
uname -a
Linux xxx 2.6.8xxx
Debian testing, hope it will be useful.
The error message is known and has been discussed a few threads above. Anyway, thanks for providing feedback on my preview package.
Just did an install following the instructions on my Debian system (unstable). These are the results of the install:
Unpacking sunbird (from …/sunbird_0.2.0cvs050713-1_i386.deb) ....Successful preinst
Setting up sunbird (0.2.0cvs050713-1) ...
Returned debconf: 10 sunbird/integration doesn’t exist
Updating sunbird chrome registry…mv: cannot stat `/usr/lib/sunbird/extensions/Extensions.rdf’: No such file or directory
I can then start Sunbird, but after entering one event it disappears from the screen.
Hmmm … this package is outdated. Please try the latest. The announcement is here: http://www.asoftsite.org/s9y/archives/90-Preview-Release-Sunbird-0.3-alpha-package-for-debian.html. The build is for sarge right now. I will push a new build for unstable soon. Anyway, maybe you can get this install and run on your unstable box too. Just give it a try … and maybe report back.
hey this is a test i was just trying to post the comments but it was not posting.
Thank you for giving such a great snapshot, it works just great and I think it is also better for other projects. Thanks again.
/me on Identi.ca
asac: what a feeling, all builders empty! https://edge.launchpad.net/builders - #maverick #betafreeze
asac: insane that there are so many power plug types; surely countries suffer from heavy NIH here
asac: found myself answering questions on #ubuntu IRC channel; #sunday fnu
asac: omg ... you might remember that I really didn't like dallas. Now it seems I have to go there again :/
asac: submitted #clutk merge request to directly link against gl/glew - http://bit.ly/cTqix2
asac: getting started on my typical high dose of daily calls now ;)
asac: contuing ... one more #maverick respin for libclutter-perl_1.002-1.0build1
