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Radicale is a simple calendar server written in python. It has a number of advantages:

  • no special dependencies, it relies on python and python only
  • it can be used behind mod_wsgi
  • it does calendar and calendar only (I was not looking for a huge and complex email/calendar/contact solution)

I discovered about it recently and I finally took the time to make it running. So there is a small tutorial to make it running on Fedora or RHEL.

Recompile the src.rpm

I started to make a rpm for Radicale, I did not submit it for review yet but the source rpm is available from my fedorapeople space.

So just grab it

wget http://pingou.fedorapeople.org/RPMs/Radicale-0.6.3-1.fc16.src.rpm

And recompile it:

rpmbuild --rebuild Radicale-0.6.3-1.fc16.src.rpm

Install Radicale rpm

Once recompiled, just install it:

yum install /path/to/Radicale-0.6.3-1.fc16.noarch.rpm

Create the htpasswd file

We will rely on apache for the authentication because:

  1. I don't think you want to give access to your calendar to everyone
  2. I don't think you want to give to everyone the rights to use your server for their calendar
  3. It is advised on Radicale's configuration to use apache if using apache authentication

So let's create the password file:

cd /var/www
mkdir htpass
cd htpass
htpasswd -d -c calpass <username>

Edit Radicale's configuration

The configuration files for Radicale are:

/etc/radicale/config
/etc/radicale/logging
/etc/httpd/conf.d/radicale.conf

First let's edit the apache configuration:

vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/radicale.conf

De-comment the commented lines.

Change ServerName to your own domain

ServerName cal.example.org

Change the path to the file containing the user and their password

AuthUserFile /var/www/htpass/calpass

Then let's edit Radicale's configuration itself:

vim /etc/radicale/config

Change the folder from

folder = /var/lib/radicale/calendars

to something located under /var/www/ (this will make SELinux happy) like:

folder = /var/www/calendars

Note that if you did not use the -d option while creating the htpasswd file, you might have to change the htpasswd_encryption key.

Create the log file

By default Radicale does not come with its own log file which is located (see /etc/radicale/logging) in:

/var/log/radicale

Since this file is not create apache would have to create it but does not have the rights to do so.

The solution is then simply:

touch /var/log/radicale
chown apache:apache /var/log/radicale

This way Radicale will be able to fill its log.

Restart apache

This is the last step (and the most important! ;-))

service httpd restart

Use Radicale

Your calendar server will be located on http://cal.example.org (the ServerName set on the apache configuration file). If you go there, you will be asked for authentication (if you don't there is a problem) and then see an empty page just saying Radicale works!.



Set up Radicale with Evolution:

  • go to the calendar view
  • File > New > Calendar

Then it'll look something like this: AddCalendar.png

Do notice that the url is like

http://<server name>/<user name>/<calender name>

The <user name> bits is important.

And that's it, it should work ! :-)

In case something goes wrong you can check the following file to get some insight:

/var/log/httpd/error_log
/var/log/radicale
/var/log/audit/audit.log