Creation of mail/contact/calendar accounts impossible

[Wolf Rogner]

If one wants to use Gnome Calendar or Gnome Contacts one has to create accounts to access the server. Gnome control centre provides prepared account templates for common public providers.

There is an IMAP template that is broken (does not allow to connect to inhouse mail servers).
Also adding Calendar or Contact connection is not possible.

In Gnome Calendar adding new calendars is impossible (there is a workaround by temporarily installing California but that is very unstable).

There needs to be a way to install DAV connectors to CALDav and CARDDav as is possible in Thunderbird.

Possible workaround (which is not stable):

Under ~/.config/evolution one can add a text file containing the configuration to the required service.

As there is no refresh function in Calendar or Contacts, this is a fragile solution though (requires constant session creation aka logout/login)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: gnome-control-center 1:3.26.1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-15.16-generic 4.13.4
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-15-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Oct 10 08:11:26 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-09-05 (34 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Alpha amd64 (20170902)
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, you list different issues there

- configuring imap online account doesn't work ... what provider do you try to use?

- "In Gnome Calendar adding new calendars is impossible", could you describe what you try and the error you get?

- dav improvements requests

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

How do you add a calendar in GNOME calendar?

I tried:
Calendar Settings -> Add from Web -> entered my CalDAV calendar URL -> The Add button remains disabled

It should be enabled and a control file should be created in ~/.config/evolution/sources.

This does not happen.

Without Evolution or text fiddling, it is not possible to attach to a calendar other than the predefined (Google, Yahoo, etc.).

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

As a workaround:

in ~/.config/evolution/sources create a file calendar.source

$ touch calendar.source

edit it:

[Data Source]
DisplayName=<Calendar>
Enabled=true
Parent=webcal-stub

[WebDAV Backend]
AvoidIfmatch=false
CalendarAutoSchedule=false
DisplayName=
EmailAddress=
ResourcePath=</Enter/your/CalDAV/URL/here>
ResourceQuery=
SslTrust=

[Offline]
StaySynchronized=true

[Calendar]
BackendName=caldav
Color=#6666CC
Selected=true

[Authentication]
Host=<your.mailhost.com>
Method=plain/password
Port=80
ProxyUid=system-proxy
RememberPassword=true
User=<YourUserName>
CredentialName=

[Security]
Method=none

[Refresh]
Enabled=true
IntervalMinutes=1

<can be substituted to suit your requirements>

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Wolf, part of why this bug was closed is because you have combined several different issues into one bug, which makes it difficult for the bug to be triaged and for a developer to fix issues.

Could you try to split this bug into separate bugs? Calendar support is different than Contacts support. And IMAP seems something different too.

As a workaround, install Evolution.
Run Evolution.
Open Edit > Accounts.
Click the dropdown arrow next to New. Click either Address Book or Calendar.
Click the Type dropdown and choose either CalDAV or CardDAV.
Finish entering your account details.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

It's still unclear chat error you get if you try to add your calendar through the online account settings, could you describe the exact steps you are using and the error you get?

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

There is no error message it just does not work or allow the creation of calendars.

Try to install SOGo and connect to a user calendar. You will see that you cannot even enter the parameters.

I found a workaround and currently use Thunderbird.

A solution would be to install Evolution, create the calendar entries and then delete Evolution again. This works as well (and creates the config file mentioned above).

I cannot add any more information to this. Sorry

However, have a merry Christmas

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

What is SOGo and what do you mean 'connect to a user calendar'? If you go to settings -> online account and add e.g your google account the calendar should automatically be available in the application

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

I want to connect to an IMAP and SMTP service.
I have to enter the email address (which is something other than the login name).
Do I give the login name, I cannot forward, do I give the email address, I can forward but the login into the server fails.
"Error connecting to IMAP server
Invalid certificate."
Ignoring brings me to SMTP
"Error connecting to SMTP server
Could not connect to <myserver>:
Connection refused"

I can use Encryption: None, STARTTLS after connecting or SSL on a dedicated port (where I cannot specify the port)
Here I can press Try Again as long as I want.

No config file is generated, I can Cancel the process and have no way to access CAL or CARDs

There are some providers (mostly cloud services) hard coded but a general connection option is not available (as is in Thunderbird).

If this does not work, Gnome Calendar, Addressbook, Geary and related applications are extremly limited in the usefulness.

I first filed this with Ubuntu 17.10, then tested with Budgy 17.10, then 18.04 and now with 18.10.

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

@Sebastian:

I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank, you too