An appointment calendar that works

I have installed Gnome Calendar which I hate and can’t seem to delete it. Please advise.

I have installed Osmo, Calcurse,calcure, Evolution,khal and and every one I could find. None of them worked. Calcurse came closest to working except it would not accept the "r" command. I don't mind using a graphical application but as I am running XFCE every one I have tried requires me to install tons of added Gnome or KDE software to run one application. I don't like this kind of complication. I don't want to install anything using snap, another level of complication. Sorry to be so difficult. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. 

Better formatted post.

I have installed Gnome Calendar which I hate and can’t seem to delete it. Please advise.

I have installed Osmo, Calcurse,Evolution,khal and and every one I could find. None of them worked. Calcurse came closest to working except it would react to “r” command. I don’t mind using a graphical application but as I am running XFCE every one I have tried requires me to install tons of added software to run one application. I don’t like this kind of complication. Any advice will be appreciated.

You can edit posts after posting, or cancel before posting, no need to write another post.

Yes I was trying to edit but my text contained something that was confusing the editor.

The evolution calendar only works with the Evolution email client AFAIK, which requires Gnome Keyring (for security) and other Gnome related stuff, possibly even “Gnome Evolution Server” for it’s underlying database” and the entire gnome DE subsystem. Did you try KDE’s calendar app? There are so many of them, and you can’t find one that works?

It’s highly unlikely they all don’t work, and there’s more to the story specific to your setup or how you handle installing and dealing with dependencies, (All the extra stuff you need to install, which is about modularity and stuff many other packages may also use as dependencies), and since you said you cannot “delete” them, rather than “uninstall” them, added to all the above, I have to lean toward thinking you are new to Linux, let alone using Arch Linux, and don’t understand package management in enough detail to do it right.

Even I have trouble with it when something goes south, but so far it’s always been easy to find the answers to fix it, and easy to do so once you have the answer, but it sure helps to understand the very basics on package management in Linux.

I am not your best bet for more detailed help, I was just curious as a long time evolution user because so far it’s the only email client that doesn’t cram several email accounts (a few private ones, more business accounts, burner accounts…) all sharing the same folder structure as as one big account, and one default reply address…, but Gnome was made for business in the first place and that a very long time ago, and it can keep them separate, as I need them to be, and it’s data base I can share across the network on all computers, and even with LibreOffice and then some, so that’s cool too. I do agree with you on the calendar and don’t like it either, but I also don’t need reminders and all that but once in a blue moon, so I can live with it.

First, I need to know what you’re looking for in a calendar.

Are you looking for a calendar that’s part of an office suite with network capabilities for synchronizing with other devices?

Or a standalone application, with or without integration of Google, Yahoo, etc.?

Or simply a calendar applet like Orage, which is offered by the XFCE desktop?

Many people probably also use cloud providers like Nextcloud.

I use Thunderbird and its integrated calendar, which also synchronizes my Google Calendar from my phone.

So, please describe exactly what you’re looking for, and we can help you.

It does, but needs some patience to learn how to use it. You have to stand on the appointment and date you want to repeat.
Sometimes it is easier to use c(opy) and p(aste).

Thanks for your response. I am looking for a standalone calendar that starts at boot up and tells me the appointments of the day. Not linked to any other software (E-mail, database, etc.), not linked to “the cloud”. I was not aware of Orage but trying it now. My biggest challenge is to convert the large data file generated from my previous software (pal) which is no longer supported to whatever new software I switch to.

[ion@ion-desk ~]$ sudo pacman -S kdecalendar
[sudo] password for ion: 
error: target not found: kdecalendar
[ion@ion-desk ~]$ 

For KDE:

“korganizer” or “merkuro”

korganizer is more complete, merkuro is looking more modern

if you want to integrate your appointments into the KDE taskbar calendar you should additionally install “kdepim-addons”

I am truly surprised. Orage started and without my help found a .ics file generated by calcurse. I think you have given me the simplest solution. Many thanks!

I imported the data and it shows all my appointments. But I can’t seem to save the data, and I need to import it again on the next start. Any suggestions?

Well when I type “:help r” it shows usage instructions, then when I type :r the response is “No such command: r”

Your imagination how it should work is different from the present code. See FAQ

How do I create recurring appointments?
Create a normal appointment, then use the repeat key binding (defaults to r) to convert it into a recurring item.

or edit an existing item and then make it recurring

“KDE’s calendar app”: I didn’t give you the name, I just know KDE have a few, and they make really good apps.

[ion@ion-desk ~]$ sudo pacman -S kdecalendar

This will not work, because you are giving it a direct command to an app that doesn’t exist by that name, and pacman will not just run a search, interpret, correct, or change erroneous entries… for you, you need to use the right syntax for it to do a search, which I don’t know because I don’t use pacman, but I do use yay. If I type: yay appname it will present a numbered list of all it finds, which will be of differing versions and installers, but a general search for yay calendar will give you a very long list of anything with the word in the repos, which will be very hard to get through. At the bottom you can type in the number/s of your choices and hit [enter] and the install routine commences.

I found it much easier, and much more informative to just look online for software, read up on the apps you find to get better information to narrow down your selection, get the apps lower case terminal designation that will work, then install the ones that sound usable for you, try them, uninstall the ones you don’t, and keep the one you do like.

If you prefer GUI apps, or have difficulties with the command line which you seam to, just like me, then there is Pamac, Manjaro’s GUI for pacman which has a search function, but it would work better with “calendar”, then “calandar kde” rather than “kde calendar” (may or may not be case sensitive). It would be a very good app if it weren’t so flaky as to breaking often, having so many separate versions for package format combos…, rather than just one installer with package formats as choices on install or in the installed app where it could just install the dependencies for the ones you chose on choosing. It also breaks often, but is great when everything works.

Thanks to all of you for your assistance.

Since my data file was the most difficult to re-create, I wrote a compiled Basic language program to do exactly what I want. I frequently find that available software does much more than I want and by the time I navigate different menus I have wasted time. My program starts with a single CLI command and produces a single response immediately on the screen. I apologize for the disruption I have caused. My excuse is that I am 81 years old, and time is running out. Thanks to all.