NOTICE: Temporary bug in Radicale

Summary

The FreedomBox team has identified a bug in the Radicale calendar/contact storage app which stops the app from running. We have already patched the bug, but the patch will not reach your FreedomBox for about two days. You can make the patch reach your FreedomBox sooner if you follow the instructions in the “Immediate Solution” section.

Problem Description

The Radicale app does not run if it is installed on a FreedomBox running the stable image (i.e. “Buster”) which was installed on or after June 13, 2019.

Who is affected?

The bug entered Buster and, by extension, the FreedomBox system on June 13, 2019. Thus, users are affected by this bug only if their FreedomBox was installed on or after June 13, 2019.

Who is not affected?

Users are NOT affected by this bug if their FreedomBox was installed on or after June 13, 2019. In other words, if you didn’t install Radicale on your FreedomBox within the past two months–and instead installed it earlier than two months ago–then you are probably NOT affected by this bug. That being said, it still won’t hurt to follow the steps in the workaround below.

Immediate Solution

To solve the problem immediately, upgrade FreedomBox by following these steps.

If (1) Radicale is already installed on your FreedomBox and (2) your FreedomBox was installed on or after June 13, 2019, then please disable Radicale before following these steps and re-enable it after you have followed these steps:

  1. Go to the “System” menu
  2. Click on the “Updates” app
  3. Click on “Manual Update”
  4. Click on “Update now.” This will trigger an upgrade which should apply the patch.

If you don’t want to follow these steps, simply wait a day or two and let FreedomBox upgrade itself.

After FreedomBox has been upgraded, install Radicale as normal. This will fix the problem and get radicale working properly.

Long-Term Solution

The problem is resolved in the latest version of FreedomBox. Once that upgrade has been applied to your device, the bug will be gone. Even without user intervention, we expect that the bug will be patched within the next few days by the automatic upgrade process.