How to Install DAViCal on Linux Mint

DAViCal is a CalDAV and CardDAV server that allows you to store and share your calendars and contacts. In this tutorial, we will go through the steps of installing DAViCal on Linux Mint.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have the following:

• A Linux Mint system with administrative privileges
• A web server installed on your system. We will be using Apache in this tutorial.
• PHP and its dependencies installed on your system.

Step 1: Install Dependencies

Open a terminal window and run the following command to install the necessary dependencies:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apache2 php libapache2-mod-php php-pgsql postgresql php-mail php-net-curl

Step 2: Download DAViCal

Go to the DAViCal website and download the latest stable version of DAViCal.

wget https://github.com/DAViCal/davical/releases/download/v1.1.9/davical-1.1.9.tar.xz

Extract the downloaded file:

tar -xf davical-1.1.9.tar.xz

Step 3: Configure PostgreSQL

Create a new PostgreSQL database for DAViCal:

sudo -u postgres createdb davical

Configure PostgreSQL to allow connections from the Apache web server:

sudo nano /etc/postgresql/13/main/pg_hba.conf

Add the following line to the bottom of the file:

host  davical  www-data  127.0.0.1/32  md5

Save and close the file.

Step 4: Install DAViCal

Change into the extracted DAViCal directory:

cd davical-1.1.9/

Install DAViCal by running the following command:

sudo ./configure --with-db-driver=pgsql --enable-carddav --enable-calalarmd --prefix=/usr/local/davical && \
sudo make install

Step 5: Configure DAViCal

Rename the DAViCal configuration file:

sudo mv /usr/local/davical/etc/davical.conf.example /usr/local/davical/etc/davical.conf

Open the DAViCal configuration file in a text editor:

sudo nano /usr/local/davical/etc/davical.conf

Change the following lines in the file to match your settings:

SysRoot        "/usr/local/davical"
DatabaseName   "davical"
DatabaseUser   "postgres"
DatabasePassword "your-password"
TimeZone       "your-timezone"

Save and close the file.

Step 6: Set Permissions

Set the ownership and permissions on the DAViCal directory:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/local/davical/
sudo chmod -R 755 /usr/local/davical/

Step 7: Restart Services

Restart PostgreSQL and Apache for the changes to take effect:

sudo systemctl restart postgresql
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 8: Access DAViCal

Open a web browser and go to http://localhost/caldav.php to access DAViCal. You should see a welcome page if everything was set up correctly.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to install DAViCal on Linux Mint. You can now use it to store and share your calendars and contacts.

Note: Please make sure you configure DAViCal properly for production use by following the official documentation: https://wiki.davical.org/w/Quick_Start.

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