How to install a CalDav and CardDav server using Radicale

During my time at the university I had lots of meetings, events and I couldn’t remember all these events, so I had to write them down. But we’re living in a digital world, so I wanted to keep all my appointments digitally. I tried Thunderbird Lightning and it is a great Add On. But I also wanted to synchronize all these events with my smartphone without using an external cloud, e.g. Google Calendar.

I wanted a small program with minimal dependencies to act as a server which is able to run on a Raspberry Pi. It doesn’t have to provide a web interface, because I can use Thunderbird or my smartphone to add, change or delete events. I found Radicale which is written in Python and has no dependencies. It supports the CalDav and CardDav protocol. That’s all I wanted so I gave it a try. My first impression was very good and it works great. Here are all steps I did to set up my own CalDav server with Radicale.

1. Installation of Radicale
2. Adding bcrypt support to Radicale (optional step)
3. Configure Radicale
4. Configure Thunderbird Lightning
5. Configure Android Calendar