# The &kalarm; Handbook

David
Jarvie

    software@astrojar.org.uk

2001
2002
David Jarvie
&FDLNotice;
2002-01-29
0.05.00

&kalarm; is an alarm/reminder message scheduler for &kde;.

KDE
kdepim
kalarm
alarm
reminder

## Introduction

&kalarm; is an alarm/reminder message scheduler. It lets you set up personal alarm/reminder messages which pop up on the screen at the time you specify.

In its default graphical mode, &kalarm; displays a list of pending alarms, showing their times and message texts. You can create new alarms, or alternatively you can select existing alarms in order to modify or delete them.

When setting up or modifying an alarm, you may either type in the alarm message text or specify a text file to display. You can also choose the colour of the alarm message, whether it should repeat, whether to sound an audible beep, and whether the alarm should be cancelled if it can't be displayed at its scheduled time.

Alarms may also be scheduled on the command line, or via &DCOP; calls from programs.

When an alarm message is due, it is displayed on each &kde; desktop to ensure that you don't miss it should you happen to be switching desktops just at that moment. The message window shows the time for which the alarm was scheduled, which could be useful to know if it was displayed late or if you were away from the computer when it popped up. It usually has a defer option to ask for the alarm to be displayed again later. An example of an alarm message:

Screenshot of the &kalarm; message window
Alarm message

&kalarm; can run in either of two modes: continuous (the default) where it runs from the &kde; system tray, or on-demand where it runs as and when required (with the option of displaying an independent system tray icon).

This document makes various references to the alarm daemon. This is an application which runs in the background, checking pending alarms and telling &kalarm; to display them when they become due.

## Using &kalarm;

### Graphical mode

When it is run with no command line parameters, &kalarm; starts in graphical mode. It displays the current list of outstanding alarms, showing their times, repetition counts, colours, and message texts or names of files to display.

Screenshot of the &kalarm; main window
Main window

For a repeated alarm, the list shows its next scheduled time for display and the number of times which it is due to repeat after that.

The alarms may be ordered by date/time, repeat count, colour or message text by clicking on the title bar for the appropriate column. To reverse the sort order, click the column title bar again.

When &kalarm; starts in graphical mode, it checks whether the alarm daemon is running. If it is not already running, &kalarm; starts it.

#### Adding a new alarm

To add a new alarm message, select Actions New. This displays the alarm message edit window:

Screenshot of the alarm edit window
Alarm edit window

In the Message group box, select either Text in order to enter the message text (which may include newlines) in the edit box, or File to enter the name or &URL; of a text file whose contents are to be displayed in the alarm message. When File is selected, Browse... may be used to display a file selection dialog.

In the Time group box, select At date/time: to enter the date and time when the message is to be displayed, or select Time from now: to enter how long after now (in hours and minutes) the message should be displayed.

If you want the alarm to be repeated, enter in the Repetition group box the number of repetitions (after the initial display) and the interval (in hours and minutes, in the range 1 minute to 99 hours) between repetitions. Check Repeat at login if you want the alarm to be displayed whenever you log in, in addition to its other scheduled times. (Note that an alarm repeated at login will also be displayed any time you enable alarms, or restart or reset the alarm daemon.)

The Cancel if late checkbox determines what happens if the alarm can't be displayed at its scheduled time. Check this box to cancel the alarm if it can't be displayed within 1 minute after the right time. Leave the box unchecked to display the alarm at the first opportunity starting at the scheduled time.

An alarm can only be displayed while you are logged in, and while both X and the alarm daemon are running.

Check the Beep checkbox if you want an audible alarm to sound when the alarm message is displayed.

Select the background colour for the alarm message window.

Press the OK button when all details are correct, to add the alarm to the scheduled list.

#### Modifying an existing alarm

To modify an existing alarm message, do one of the following:

- Select it by clicking on its entry in the alarm list. Then choose Actions Modify.

- Right click on its entry in the alarm list and choose Modify from the context menu.

This displays the alarm message edit window as described above.

#### Deleting an existing alarm

To delete an existing alarm message, do one of the following:

- Select it by clicking on its entry in the alarm list. Then choose Actions Delete .

- Right click on its entry in the alarm list and choose Delete from the context menu.

#### Acknowledging an alarm

When an alarm message window is displayed, do one of the following:

- Acknowledge it by clicking the Close button.

- Display options to defer the alarm by clicking the Defer... button. Then select Defer to date/time: to enter the date and time when the message is to be redisplayed, or select Defer for time interval: to enter how long after now (in hours and minutes) the message should be redisplayed. Then click Defer to defer the alarm message.

  The Defer... button is not available for alarms which are displayed at login due to the Repeat at login option having been selected.

The button with the &kalarm; icon provides a convenient way to activate &kalarm;. Clicking it has no effect on the alarm message window.

#### Displaying &kalarm; in the system tray

You must be running the &kde; desktop in order to display &kalarm; in the system tray. If &kalarm; is running in continuous mode, the system tray icon is always displayed. These instructions apply only to on-demand mode. (See Configuring default options for a description of run modes.)

To display &kalarm; in the &kde; system tray, select View Show in System Tray .

To remove &kalarm; from the &kde; system tray, do one of the following:

- Select View Hide from System Tray.

- Right click on the system tray icon and choose Quit from the context menu.

Use of the system tray icon is described below.

#### Enabling/disabling alarm monitoring

##### Enabling alarm monitoring

First, if &kalarm;'s run mode is continuous and you have selected Disable alarms while not running in the Preferences dialog, you must ensure that &kalarm; is running in order for alarm monitoring to take place.

Then if alarm monitoring is currently disabled, do one of the following:

- Select Actions Enable Alarms.

- Right click on the system tray icon and choose Enable Alarms from the context menu.

The alarm daemon is started if necessary and alarms will be monitored for when they become due.

Starting the alarm daemon will affect any other applications which use the alarm daemon.

##### Disabling alarm monitoring

To disable alarm monitoring when it is currently enabled, do one of the following:

- Select Actions Alarms Enabled.

- Right click on the system tray icon and choose Alarms Enabled from the context menu.

- If &kalarm;'s run mode is 'continuous' and you have selected Disable alarms while not running in the Preferences dialog, quit &kalarm;.

The alarm daemon stops monitoring &kalarm;'s alarms. &kalarm; will not display any further alarms until alarms are re-enabled.

The alarm daemon is not stopped by this operation: it simply stops monitoring &kalarm;'s alarms. So there will be no effect on the functioning of any other applications which use the alarm daemon.

#### Resetting the alarm daemon

To reset the alarm daemon, select Actions Reset Daemon .

See the Alarm daemon section for a discussion about resetting the alarm daemon.

#### Configuring default options

To set default options for &kalarm;, select Settings Configure &kalarm;.... This displays the configuration dialog. Here, you can:

- Specify &kalarm;'s run mode. You can choose either to run it continuously in the &kde; system tray, or to run it only on demand. This selection does not affect the display of alarms when they become due, since it is the alarm daemon and not &kalarm; which monitors the alarm list. Running &kalarm; in the system tray makes the application more accessible and displays an alarm-enabled indication, but running an application continuously does consume some system resources. So if system performance is of concern, the on-demand option may be preferable.

  When running in on-demand mode, the system tray icon can still be displayed. The main difference in operation between the two modes is the effect of closing the system tray icon: in on-demand mode, closing it has no effect on any &kalarm; windows, while in continuous mode, closing it also closes all &kalarm; main windows.

- If you specified that &kalarm; should run in continuous mode, you can disable all alarms due for display while &kalarm; is not running.

- Specify that the &kalarm; system tray icon should be displayed at &kde; session login.

- Set the frequency at which the &kalarm; system tray icon is updated to reflect whether alarms are currently being monitored. This involves checking whether the alarm daemon is running.

- Set the default font and background colour to use for alarm message display.

#### Configuring the alarm daemon

To set options for the alarm daemon, select Settings Configure Alarm Daemon.... This displays the alarm daemon configuration dialog.

#### Quitting the program

Quit &kalarm; by closing all its windows and the system tray icon, or if it is running in 'continuous' mode, by closing any message windows and selecting Quit in the system tray icon context menu.

File Quit closes only the window concerned. The effect of the system tray icon context menu item Quit depends on the run mode: in on-demand mode it hides the system tray icon, while in continuous mode it quits the program.

Quitting &kalarm; has no effect on the alarm daemon, which if already active will continue to monitor scheduled alarms and request their display when they become due (unless you have selected Disable alarms while not running in the Preferences dialog).

### System tray icon

&kalarm; may be run as an icon in the &kde; system tray. This icon allows one-click activation of &kalarm;, and provides both control and status indication of alarm monitoring. A normal &kalarm; icon indicates that alarms are being monitored, while a red cross through the icon indicates that alarms are not being monitored.

Left click on the system tray icon to toggle between displaying and hiding the &kalarm; main window.

Right click on the system tray icon to display its context menu:

Enable Alarms

  Enables monitoring of alarms.

  See Enabling/disabling alarm monitoring for details.

Alarms Enabled

  Disables monitoring of alarms.

  See Enabling/disabling alarm monitoring for details.

Configure &kalarm;...

  Displays the &kalarm; preferences dialog.

  The preferences dialog is described in Configuring default options. It includes options relating to the &kalarm; system tray icon.

Configure Alarm Daemon...

  Displays the alarm daemon's configuration dialog.

Restore / Minimise

  Restores or minimises the main &kalarm; window.

  This option is only available if the run mode is 'continuous'. (See Configuring default options for a description of run modes.)

Quit

  Closes the &kalarm; system tray icon.

  In continuous run mode only, it also closes all &kalarm; main windows. It has no effect on the monitoring of alarms by the alarm daemon (unless you have selected Disable alarms while not running in the Preferences dialog).

### Command line operation

When command line parameters are supplied, &kalarm; does not display the list of scheduled alarms as described in Graphical mode above. Command line options specific to &kalarm; may be used to perform the following operations:

- schedule a new alarm message

- control the alarm daemon

- control &kalarm;'s display mode

- obtain help

Additional command line options are provided primarily to enable other programs to interface to &kalarm;. They are described in the chapter Developer's Guide to &kalarm;.

The command line must only contain options applicable to one &kalarm; operation. If you want to perform multiple operations, you must invoke &kalarm; multiple times with a single set of options each time.

#### Schedule a new alarm message

The following options are used to schedule an alarm message for display by &kalarm;:

Option | Description
--- | ---
`-b`, `--beep` | Make an audible beep when the message is displayed.
`-c`, `--color`, `--colour colour` | Set the message background colour to the specified &Qt; colour name or hex code 0xRRGGBB.
`-f`, `--file URL` | Specify the name or &URL; of a text file whose contents are to form the alarm message. message must not be present if this option is specified.
`-i`, `--interval minutes` | Set the interval between repetitions of the alarm to the specified number of minutes. Mandatory if `--repeat` is specified.
`-l`, `--late-cancel` | Cancel the message if it cannot be displayed at the correct time.
`-L`, `--login` | Display the message every time you log in.
`-r`, `--repeat minutes` | The number of times the alarm should be repeated, after its initial display. Mandatory if `--interval` is specified.
`-t`, `--time time` | Display message at 'time' [[[yyyy-]mm-]dd-]hh:mm (default is immediately).
message | Message text to display.

Either a message text or `--file` must be specified; except as noted, all the options are optional.

Two alternative examples which display a multi-line message with a red background at 10 p.m. on the 27th of this month are:

    % kalarm -c red -t 27-22:00 "Remember to\nSTOP"
    % kalarm -c 0xFF0000 -t 27-22:00 "Remember to\nSTOP"

#### Other options

The following options are used to reset or halt the alarm daemon, or to control &kalarm;'s display mode.

See the Alarm daemon section for a discussion about resetting and stopping the alarm daemon.

Option | Description
--- | ---
`--reset` | Reset the alarm daemon.
`--stop` | Stop the alarm daemon.
`--tray` | Display &kalarm; as an icon in the &kde; system tray.

For example, to reset the alarm daemon:

    % kalarm --reset

#### Help options

The following help options are common to all &kde; programs:

Option | Description
--- | ---
`--help` | Shows a brief options help text.
`--help-qt` | Shows numerous generic &Qt;-specific options.
`--help-kde` | Shows numerous generic &kde;-specific options.
`--help-all` | Shows all options.
`--author` | Shows the names and email addresses of &kalarm; authors.
`-v`, `--version` | Shows the running versions of the &Qt; library , &kde; and &kalarm;.
`--license` | Show licence information.

### Alarm daemon

The alarm daemon, &kalarmd;, monitors &kalarm;'s calendar file for alarms becoming due. When it determines that an alarm is due, it tells &kalarm; to display it, or to cancel it if it is late and late display was not selected for that alarm message.

Under &kde;3, the alarm daemon may also be used by other applications, including KOrganizer.

The alarm daemon runs in the background, with no user interface. Its configuration dialog may be accessed either via the &kde; control centre, or via the &kalarm; menu option Settings Configure Alarm Daemon... .

#### Starting, resetting and stopping the alarm daemon

The alarm daemon is normally started at &kde; session login (unless you use its configuration dialog to disable auto start), and runs continuously until logout. If for any reason it is not running, alarm monitoring will not occur and &kalarm; will not display any alarms.

##### Starting the alarm daemon

To start the alarm daemon, you can either run &kalarm; in its default graphical mode (&ie; without any command line parameters), enable alarms using &kalarm;'s system tray icon menu, reset the daemon as described below, or you can run the alarm daemon directly from the command line:

    % kalarmd

##### Resetting the alarm daemon

It is also possible to reset the alarm daemon without stopping it. Resetting causes the alarm daemon to re-read the list of scheduled messages from the calendar file and re-initialise its &kalarm;-related data.

Why might you want to reset the alarm daemon? It isn't a very likely occurrence, but if for any reason &kalarm; was not able to run when the alarm daemon told it to output a message, that message will never be output until the alarm daemon is either reset or restarted. Resetting is preferable to stopping the alarm daemon and restarting it, since resetting the daemon will not affect any other applications which use the alarm daemon.

Resetting starts the alarm daemon if it is not currently running.

To reset the alarm daemon, either use the menu command Actions Reset Daemon or type the following command:

    % kalarm --reset

##### Stopping the alarm daemon

Stopping the alarm daemon will prevent any further monitoring of scheduled alarm messages until the daemon is restarted.

Stopping it will affect the functioning of any other applications which also use the alarm daemon. Consider resetting the daemon instead.

To stop the alarm daemon, type the following command:

    % kalarm --stop

## Developer's Guide to &kalarm;

&kalarm; provides an interface to allow other applications to request the following functions:

- schedule a new alarm message

- display or cancel an already scheduled alarm message

- cancel an already scheduled alarm message

- display an already scheduled alarm message

Each of the above functions is implemented both by a &DCOP; call and by the command line. &DCOP; calls should be used in preference if &kalarm; is already running.

### &DCOP; interface

cancelMessage

#### cancelMessage

cancel an already scheduled alarm message.

    void cancelMessage(const QString& calendarFile, const QString& eventID)

##### Parameters

`calendarFile`

  Specifies the &URL; of the calendar file containing the event to be cancelled.

`eventID`

  Specifies the unique ID of the event to be cancelled, as stored in calendarFile.

##### Description

`cancelMessage()` is a &DCOP; call to cancel the specified alarm message. &kalarm; deletes the alarm message from the calendar file without displaying it.

The calendarFile parameter is only used for integrity checking: if the &URL; does not specify &kalarm;'s current default calendar file, the request will be ignored.

displayMessage

#### displayMessage

display an already scheduled alarm message.

    void displayMessage(const QString& calendarFile, const QString& eventID)

##### Parameters

`calendarFile`

  Specifies the &URL; of the calendar file containing the event to be displayed.

`eventID`

  Specifies the unique ID of the event to be displayed, as stored in calendarFile.

##### Description

`displayMessage()` is a &DCOP; call to display the specified alarm message. &kalarm; retrieves the alarm message from the calendar file and then displays it.

If no repetitions of the alarm are still scheduled, &kalarm; then deletes the alarm message from the calendar file.

The calendarFile parameter is only used for integrity checking: if the &URL; does not specify &kalarm;'s current default calendar file, the request will be ignored.

handleEvent

#### handleEvent

display or cancel an already scheduled alarm message.

    void handleEvent(const QString& calendarFile, const QString& eventID)

##### Parameters

`calendarFile`

  Specifies the &URL; of the calendar file containing the event to be displayed or cancelled.

`eventID`

  Specifies the unique ID of the event to be displayed or cancelled, as stored in calendarFile.

##### Description

`handleEvent()` is a &DCOP; call to display or cancel the specified alarm message. &kalarm; retrieves the alarm message from the calendar file and then determines what action to take. If the late-cancel flag is set and the alarm is late, &ie; the scheduled time of display was more than a minute ago, &kalarm; does not display the message; otherwise, &kalarm; displays the alarm message. If no repetitions of the alarm are still scheduled, &kalarm; then deletes the alarm message from the calendar file.

The calendarFile parameter is only used for integrity checking: if the &URL; does not specify &kalarm;'s current default calendar file, the request will be ignored.

scheduleMessage

#### scheduleMessage

schedule a new alarm message.

    bool scheduleMessage(const QString& message, const QDateTime* dateTime, const QColor& bg, int flags)

    bool scheduleMessage(const QString& message, const QDateTime* dateTime, const QColor& bg, int flags, int repeat_count, int interval)

##### Parameters

`message`

  Specifies the text of the message to be scheduled.

`dateTime`

  Specifies the scheduled date and time at which the message should be displayed.

`bg`

  Specifies the background colour for displaying the message.

`flags`

  Specifies the logical OR of the desired alarm message flags. The flag bits are those defined in `msgevent.h`

`repeatCount`

  Specifies the number of times that the alarm message should be repeated, after its initial display.

`interval`

  Specifies the interval in minutes between repetitions of the alarm message.

##### Description

`scheduleMessage()` is a &DCOP; call to schedule the specified alarm message for display at the specified date and time. It has two forms: one for a non-repeating alarm, and another for a repeating alarm.

If the scheduled time (including any repetitions) has already passed, &kalarm; immediately displays the message or, if the LATE_CANCEL flag bit is set, ignores the request. If the scheduled time is in the future, &kalarm; adds the alarm message to the calendar file for later display.

Use a code sequence similar to the following to set up the parameter data for the &DCOP; call to `scheduleMessage()` for a non-repeating alarm:

    QString message;
    QDateTime dateTime;
    QColor bgColour;
    Q_UINT32 flags;
    . . .
    QByteArray data;
    QDataStream arg(data, IO_WriteOnly);
    arg <<  message;
    arg.writeRawBytes((char*)&dateTime, sizeof(QDateTime));
    arg.writeRawBytes((char*)&bgColour, sizeof(QColor));
    arg << flags;

Use a code sequence similar to the following to set up the parameter data for the &DCOP; call to `scheduleMessage()` for a repeating alarm:

    QString message;
    QDateTime dateTime;
    QColor bgColour;
    Q_UINT32 flags;
    Q_INT32 repeatCount, repeatInterval;
    . . .
    QByteArray data;
    QDataStream arg(data, IO_WriteOnly);
    arg << message;
    arg.writeRawBytes((char*)&dateTime, sizeof(QDateTime));
    arg.writeRawBytes((char*)&bgColour, sizeof(QColor));
    arg << flags << repeatCount << repeatInterval;

scheduleFile

#### scheduleFile

schedule a new alarm message which displays the contents of a text file.

    bool scheduleFile(const QString& URL, const QDateTime* dateTime, const QColor& bg, int flags)

    bool scheduleFile(const QString& URL, const QDateTime* dateTime, const QColor& bg, int flags, int repeat_count, int interval)

##### Parameters

`URL`

  Specifies the name or &URL; of a text file whose contents are to be displayed in the message to be scheduled.

`dateTime`

  Specifies the scheduled date and time at which the message should be displayed.

`bg`

  Specifies the background colour for displaying the message.

`flags`

  Specifies the logical OR of the desired alarm message flags. The flag bits are those defined in `msgevent.h`

`repeatCount`

  Specifies the number of times that the alarm message should be repeated, after its initial display.

`interval`

  Specifies the interval in minutes between repetitions of the alarm message.

##### Description

`scheduleFile()` is a &DCOP; call to schedule the specified text file for display at the specified date and time. Apart from specifying a file name or &URL;, its usage is identical to the `scheduleMessage` - see the description of that function for further details.

### Command line interface

Command line options are provided to enable other programs (such as the alarm daemon) to start up &kalarm; if it is not already running, in order to display or cancel scheduled messages, or schedule new messages. The reason for using command line options for this purpose is that if &kalarm; were started without any command line parameters and then sent &DCOP; requests, it would start in its default graphical mode, which is clearly undesirable for an inter-program request.

Programs should first check whether &kalarm; is already running; if it is, they should instead use &DCOP; calls to request these operations.

The command line options for scheduling a new alarm message are as described in the chapter Using &kalarm;. The options for displaying and cancelling scheduled messages are as follows:

Normal users may also if they wish use these command line options (assuming that they can supply the necessary parameter information).

Option | Description
--- | ---
`--calendarURL url` | Use the calendar file with the specified &URL;. This option is only used for integrity checking: if the &URL; doesn't specify &kalarm;'s current default calendar file, the request will be ignored.
`--cancelEvent eventID` | Cancel the event with the specified event ID.
`--displayEvent eventID` | Display the event with the specified event ID.
`--handleEvent eventID` | Display or cancel the event with the specified event ID. &kalarm; determines which action to take in the same way as for the handleEvent() &DCOP; call.

`--cancelEvent`, `--displayEvent` and `--handleEvent` are mutually exclusive. `--calendarURL` is optional, but can only be used with one of the other three options.

Examples are:

    % kalarm --displayEvent &kalarm;-387486299.702 --calendarURL file:/home/zaphod/hydra.ics
    % kalarm --cancelEvent &kalarm;-388886299.793

## Questions and Answers

&reporting.bugs; &updating.documentation;

What configuration files does &kalarm; use?

The file `~/.kde/share/config/kalarmrc` holds your &kalarm; preferences.

The calendar file which stores your scheduled alarm messages is `~/.kde/share/apps/kalarm/calendar.ics`, unless a different calendar file is specified in the preferences file.

If you change the calendar file in the preferences file, you should also edit the alarm daemon's `clients` configuration file to remove the old calendar file reference. This should be done while the alarm daemon is not running to avoid it overwriting your change.

What configuration files does the alarm daemon use?

The file `~/.kde/share/config/kalarmdrc` holds your alarm daemon preferences.

The file `~/.kde/share/apps/kalarmd/clients` holds details of client applications which have previously been registered with the alarm daemon, and their calendar files.

What are the application names of &kalarm; and the alarm daemon?

&kalarm;'s application name is kalarm, and the alarm daemon's application name is kalarmd. In addition, in the &kde;2 version only, there is a small application kalarmautostart whose function is to start &kalarm;'s system tray icon at login.

## Credits and Licence

&kalarm;

Program copyright 2001, 2002 David Jarvie software@astrojar.org.uk

Alarm daemon authors:

- Preston Brown pbrown@kde.org

- David Jarvie software@astrojar.org.uk

- Cornelius Schumacher schumacher@kde.org

Documentation copyright 2001, 2002 David Jarvie software@astrojar.org.uk

Thanks go to the author of the &kde;1 KAlarm application, Stefan Nikolaus stefan.nikolaus@stuco.uni-oldenburg.de, who kindly agreed to allow the name &kalarm; to be used by this &kde;2/&kde;3 application.

&underFDL;

&underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &kalarm;

&install.intro.documentation;

&kalarm; is available for &kde;2 and as a standalone package for &kde;3 from http://www.astrojar.org.uk/linux

### Requirements

&kalarm; requires the libraries `libkcal`, `libical` and `libicalss` from the &kde; package &package;.

- If you install a version of &package; which includes &kalarm;, &kalarm;'s requirements are automatically met.

- For the standalone version of &kalarm;, you need to run &kde; 2.0 or later. &kalarm; comes in different standalone versions which include the appropriate sets of &package; libraries depending on which version, if any, of &package; you have installed. The standalone versions of &kalarm; 0.5 contain copies of the libraries from &package; 2.2.2 (including a slightly updated `libkcal`).

&kalarm; uses about 12 Mb and the alarm daemon uses about 2.5 Mb of memory to run, but this may vary depending on your platform and configuration.

You can find a list of changes in the `ChangeLog` file, or at http://www.astrojar.org.uk/linux/kalarm.html.

### Compilation and installation

If you cannot obtain a suitable precompiled binary package, you need to compile &kalarm; yourself from source files. Get the source package file `kdepim-x.x.tar.gz` or `kalarm-x.x.tar.gz` (or similar), depending on whether you want to install &package; or just &kalarm;. Unpack it in a new directory using a command similar to ``tar` `xvfz package.tar.gz``, and change to the directory which has been created.

&install.compile.documentation;

If you have more than one version of &kde; installed (e.g. &kde;1 and &kde;2), this may possibly install &kalarm; into the wrong &kde; directory. If necessary, you can give the &kde; directory as a parameter to ``./configure`` . For example, if your &kde; is installed in `/opt/kde2`:

``./configure` --prefix=/opt/kde2`

If you install &kalarm; as a standalone package along with &package; 2.2.x, you must install &package; first and &kalarm; last to ensure that the correct library versions are installed.

### Configuration

No special configuration is required to set up &kalarm; to run on the &kde; desktop. Once you have run &kalarm; for the first time, the alarm daemon will start every time you log in, in order to monitor scheduled alarms.

To run &kalarm; on a non-&kde; desktop, the main requirement is to ensure that the alarm daemon is run automatically whenever you log in. More detailed instructions are contained in the `INSTALL` file which is distributed with &kalarm;.

&documentation.index;