@elliot1996 @duxnobis not sure if anyone is still following, but I was able to get the automated sync with a work around through cronjob. Step-by-step guide below:
- Create Shell script
First we need to create the script which is actually executed by the cronjob. To do this we open a terminal and type
nano ~/MagicMirror/modules/calendars/vdirsyncer.sh
Within the editor we just write a one-liner:
vdirsyncer -vinfo sync
Close by CTRL+X and save by confirming with Y
- Make script executable.
Within terminal type
chmod +x ~/MagicMirror/modules/calendars/vdirsyncer.sh
- Test the script
Run a test if your script works. Within terminal type
bash ~/MagicMirror/modules/calendars/vdirsyncer.sh
If working as intended you should receive the feedback
Syncing iCloud_to_MagicMirror/YOUR-CALENDAR-UUID
- Checking/Changing the Version of vdirsyncer
This was actually my biggest issue. I could sync successfully when running the script manually but the actual cronjob failed. Looking into Debug-Logs I found that the manual run used Version 0.16.8 of vdirsyncer while the cronjob used 0.16.7. After manually chaning the versioning if worked as inteded. To ensue you are not running into that issue, let’s check the versioning from the get-go. Within Terminal type
sudo nano /usr/bin/vdirsyncer
An editor will show you the following code:
#!/usr/bin/python3
# EASY-INSTALL-ENTRY-SCRIPT: 'vdirsyncer==0.16.7','console_scripts','vdirsyncer'
__requires__ = 'vdirsyncer==0.16.7'
import re
import sys
from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
if __name__ == '__main__':
sys.argv[0] = re.sub(r'(-script\.pyw?|\.exe)?$', '', sys.argv[0])
sys.exit(
load_entry_point('vdirsyncer= q=0.16.7', 'console_scripts', 'vdirsyncer')()
)
Change all three instances of 0.16.7
to 0.16.8
, close via CTRL+X and save with Y.
- Create the Cronjob
Cronjobs are a great thing. It is pre-installed with UNIX based systems, therefore also with our Raspberry Pi. More information about Cronjobs can be found here. To set up a new cronjob, within Terminal type
crontab -e
The result will be the following code:
# Edit this file to introduce tasks to be run by cron.
#
# Each task to run has to be defined through a single line
# indicating with different fields when the task will be run
# and what command to run for the task
#
# To define the time you can provide concrete values for
# minute (m), hour (h), day of month (dom), month (mon),
# and day of week (dow) or use '*' in these fields (for 'any').
#
# Notice that tasks will be started based on the cron's system
# daemon's notion of time and timezones.
#
# Output of the crontab jobs (including errors) is sent through
# email to the user the crontab file belongs to (unless redirected).
#
# For example, you can run a backup of all your user accounts
# at 5 a.m every week with:
# 0 5 * * 1 tar -zcf /var/backups/home.tgz /home/
#
# For more information see the manual pages of crontab(5) and cron(8)
#
# m h dom mon dow command
Type a new line at the bottom with the cron syntax. Here is an overview for the timings:
# ┌───────────── minute (0 - 59)
# │ ┌───────────── hour (0 - 23)
# │ │ ┌───────────── day of the month (1 - 31)
# │ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12)
# │ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of the week (0 - 6) (Sunday to Saturday;
# │ │ │ │ │ 7 is also Sunday on some systems)
# │ │ │ │ │
# │ │ │ │ │
# * * * * * <command to execute>
As for us it makes senst to run vdirsyncer every X minutes (I am going with 5 minutes in my case) the syntax looks as follows:
*/5 * * * *
followed by the script to execute:
bash ~/MagicMirror/modules/calendars/vdirsyncer.sh >> ~/vdirsyncer.log 2>&1
The first part should be familiar to you. What follows after the >>
is a log we are creating. This will be helpful in case anything does not work as inteded. The full cronjob should look as follows:
# Edit this file to introduce tasks to be run by cron.
#
# Each task to run has to be defined through a single line
# indicating with different fields when the task will be run
# and what command to run for the task
#
# To define the time you can provide concrete values for
# minute (m), hour (h), day of month (dom), month (mon),
# and day of week (dow) or use '*' in these fields (for 'any').
#
# Notice that tasks will be started based on the cron's system
# daemon's notion of time and timezones.
#
# Output of the crontab jobs (including errors) is sent through
# email to the user the crontab file belongs to (unless redirected).
#
# For example, you can run a backup of all your user accounts
# at 5 a.m every week with:
# 0 5 * * 1 tar -zcf /var/backups/home.tgz /home/
#
# For more information see the manual pages of crontab(5) and cron(8)
#
# m h dom mon dow command
*/5 * * * * bash ~/MagicMirror/modules/calendars/vdirsyncer.sh >> ~/vdirsyncer.log 2>&1
Close again by CTRL+X. You are now ready and have everything set up. The cronjob will start automatically on every startup and run the sync in the interval you have set it up.