CalDAV Calendar on Synology DSM5: Installing Baikal app

I got tired of spoonfeeding Google my day-to-day routines through using their Calendar app. I'll put on my tinfoil hat here, but nobody really knows what our habits, places and events translate into for a data-mining operation, and I would rather enjoy freedom from being part of a statistic. A small step towards cutting the cord involved privatizing my personal calendar and reminders.

I had a lot of difficulty trying to get the built-in Synology CalDAV working, so instead I ended up looking at Baïkal instead. Baïkal is a third-party app that runs on Synology's DSM, and while at the time of this writing it has only been tested by the author on DSM4.3, I found it worked well for me running DSM5.0. Furthermore, it also abstracted itself from existing user accounts, which I found useful, because I likely would have made calendar-specific users anyways. Additionally, it actually uses SQLite or MySQL, which opens a whole new dimension of possibilities, including some convenient backing up methods.

First, download the Baïkal DSM installable .spk package.

Next, back in DSM, install MariaDB from the Synology Package Center if you haven't already - this will provide SQLite and MySQL support. Note that MySQL was replaced in DSM5.0 with MariaDB.

Another prerequisite is to enable Web Station on your NAS, so go to Control Panel -> Web Services and check the "Enable Web Station" checkbox.

Now we are ready to install the downloaded package manually in Package Center:

Follow the steps, and once installed, Baïkal should appear in the list of installed packages. It can now be launched from the Main Menu in the top-left of your DSM interface. You should be greeted with a page such as this below, located at the URL path of [servername]/baikal/admin/install. Note that the port is omitted. For security reasons, you have one hour to complete installation, else you must remove the Baikal package and re-install it.

I will just stick with SQLite for now, but if you want to set up MySQL, feel free to consult the online Baïkal manual. If all goes well, and the installation goes to completion, you should be welcomed with a fresh Dashboard:

 From here, you can add new users, and then calendars for those users:

In the next post we'll take a look at syncing with a CalDAV client and actually adding some stuff!