Rainlendar is a very easy to use, easy on the eyes calendering program made for both Ubuntu and Windows.
Rainlendar has a free (lite) version and a pay version (15 Euros). The pay version has some improved functionality like Exchange integration but the lite version works very well for me so far. I’ve only had it running for a day or two but I already enjoy it.
Here we’ll talk about how to install it in Ubuntu, create a desktop or taskbar shortcut for it and then add it the programs that start up when your computer does.
First, you’ll need to download it. You can get the compressed file here.
Save it to your desktop. Once it’s downloaded, right click on the tar.bz file and choose Extract Here. This will put a rainlendar2 folder on your desktop.
Go to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal to open up a terminal session and type the following:
cd /Desktop
sudo mv rainlendar2 /opt/
Now we’ve got the program in your /opt directory. Let’s create a launcher for it on your desktop.
Right click anywhere there’s free space on your desktop and choose Create Launcher. It will default to Type: Application, which is fine for us.
Now in the Name: field type Rainlendar2.
In the Command: field, type /opt/rainlendar2/rainlendar2.
Rainlendar2 doesn’t come with a default icon, so click the No Icon button back in the Create Launcher window and choose something you like from the already available icons. 
You can double click on your launcher now to start up Rainlendar2.
To add it to the programs that automatically start up when your computer does, go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions.
Click on the Startup Programs tab and then +Add button. Again type /opt/rainlendar2/rainlendar2. This will now launch your new calendar program each time your system starts up.
To modify the settings, add skins and whatnot, simply right click on the calendar and choose Options.
Technorati Tags: ubuntu, rainlendar2, calendar, free, my what big dates you have
Popularity: 3% [?]
April 11th, 2007 at 8:36 am
It’s nice, very nice. Concise instructions, thanks. “Get more skins” didn’t produce anything for me, but I see just a browse around will find you plenty. Might go for one of those pinball skins!
May 12th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
i installed the program but it saying re-installing might help
July 10th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
How can I install different languages?
July 18th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Thanks a heap man
I so needed those instructions.
One thing to add though, I didn’t have any /opt/ folder in my home directory, it was inside the folder /etc. So instead of the code you’ve give above, I had to use “sudo mv rainlendar2 /etc/opt/“,” /etc/opt/rainlendar2/rainlendar2” etc.
Thanks again.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Hi Naser,
Glad I could help.
What distro are your running? I’ve got a /etc/opt and a /opt under 7.04.
July 21st, 2007 at 11:32 am
Fantastic program. Good bye Google Calender.
The however in my case was Duck threw a fit in Terminal and wouldn’t install. It is in and it works at the moment. I just couldn’t use Terminal to do it. Sudo commands get weird on my install even for Duck’s normal ones. It should do that but it won’t. It isn’t just the calender program. I couldn’t have a normal install of anything… even an OS
August 12th, 2007 at 3:51 am
Thanks arsgeek but on my ubuntu 7.04 It doesn’t run.
I have these 2 messages :
“Failed to touch the file ‘/home/jmd/.config/.rainlendar2/rainlendar2.ini’ (error 2: Aucun fichier ou répertoire de ce type)”
and
“unable to create configuration file : /home/myname/.config/.rainlendar2/rainlendar2.ini
Make sure that the folder has write permissions”
I am a newbe on linux and my language is french…
not easy…
Thanks for your answers
August 12th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Hi ecri19,
Sounds like you don’t have the correct permissions set on the ./rainlendar2 directory.
cd ./config
ls -las | grep .rain*
Let me know what the permissions are.
August 13th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Hi arsgeek
thank you very much for your help
Now it runs
I have done it with
Rainlendar-Lite-2.1.tar.bz2
and all runs.
May be the last version Rainlendar-Lite-2.2.tar.bz2 is not good ?
Bye !
November 19th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Hi guys, i had exactly the same error as ecris19, two weird messages appear saying about permissions. I’ve tried several way wondering with chmod but nothing seems to work. Anyone can please figure it out ? I’m a Gibbon user, thanks.
I dont really like idea rolling back to older version when v2.2 seems to work well with everyone except me
November 24th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Hi,
For ecri19 and nqsonk9, this might work:
quote:
kubi, i had exactly the same problem.
i created an empty file /home/xxx/.config/.rainlendar2/rainlendar2.ini
after that the app started up normally
hope that helps
jeroen
jeroen Identicon Icon jeroen on July 28, 2007 10:39 am
unquote.
this fix is at http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/installing-rainlendar2-on-ubuntu/
i hope it helps.
for me, it shows up but when i try to add an event or do whatever, it just craches/ disappears. No idea!
Thanks,
December 23rd, 2007 at 12:15 am
@faisal: same thing. however, right-click the widget and hit refresh. it will show alright.
January 24th, 2008 at 7:38 am
How to install new skins….the organization of files in the default skin folders is totally different frm wht i get aftr unzipping a new theme ( default has three sub folders and an xml file while new skins have 1 or no subfolders and no xml file)
new themes dont come in the options of rainlendar….plz help sumone
April 1st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
hey guys, im pretty new at linux aswell, but so far ive successfully installed rainlendar. go straight to the rainlender website and download the linux .deb file, this acts like a MS .exe files and automatically installs it for you, no worries.
to make rainlendar launch at startup — system->preferences->sessions->add
then add a new entry and for command type “rainlendar2″. this should now startup
so far ive notived that the majority of skins for rainlendar contain .ini files instead of .xml files, and that they are properly organised. most skins ive tried do not work, however i have found one, the ”Sidewall” skins (google search it) works worderfully
April 20th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Helpfull and Usefull
June 24th, 2009 at 11:05 am
good also for Mandriva ONE 2009.1 … with very few differences.
Thank you.
August 5th, 2009 at 2:31 am
I just couldn’t use Terminal to do it. Sudo commands get weird on my install even for Duck’s normal ones. It should do that but it won’t. It isn’t just the calender program. I couldn’t have a normal install of anything.
December 29th, 2010 at 3:43 am
It’s nice, very nice. Concise instructions, thanks. “Get more skins” didn’t produce anything for me, but I see just a browse around will find you plenty. Might go for one of those pinball skins!
February 6th, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Awesome story once again! Thank you.
February 27th, 2011 at 7:44 am
You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be actually something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!
March 14th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
Hello there, I found your blog via Google while searching for a related topic, your web site came up, it looks great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
March 15th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Awesome story once again! Thank you.
March 29th, 2011 at 5:01 am
It’s nice, very nice. Concise instructions, thanks. “Get more skins” didn’t produce anything for me, but I see just a browse around will find you plenty. Might go for one of those pinball skins!
April 13th, 2011 at 9:47 pm
That looks like a pretty cool calendar to have on the desktop, the only thing I don’t like about widgets on my desktop is they seem to eat up resources if I am doing a lot of multi tasking
May 1st, 2011 at 9:29 am
Any type of operating system that I wanted to be able to hack, I basically compromised the source code, copied it over to the university because I didn’t have enough space on my 200 megabyte hard drive.
May 17th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Thanks for the tip, had just installed Ubuntu and im still kinda lost on it
June 12th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
I like Ubuntu much and want to see it on tablet devices too.
June 28th, 2011 at 9:23 am
With 800m to go, Stephanie Garcia of Virginia moved up into the mix.
August 6th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Hi I new user to linux I am using Rainlendar2. But I don’t install. How the install this.
I follaow this way,
downloading file , extract and move to /opt then in to the rainlendar2 folder and on the terminal write this ( ./rainlendar2 ) after error mesages came
( error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory )
and not run
I need to this program
can you help me ? Please
Thanks for all
my system pardus2011.1 (linux 2,6,37,6 )
September 11th, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Thanks for the tip, had just installed Ubuntu and im still kinda lost