Skip to content

Releases: danielpsf/tolon

Release list

Tolon v0.1.0-beta.1

Tolon v0.1.0-beta.1 Latest
Latest

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@github-actions github-actions released this 22 Oct 14:03
v0.1.0-beta.1
3f54a7b

Tolon 0.1.0-beta.1

The first beta of Tolon. Tolon watches your calendars and takes over the whole screen just before a meeting starts, so you join on time with one key.

This first beta is for macOS testers. The Windows and Linux installers are included, but no person has tested them on a clean machine yet.

What is in this beta

  • Full-screen reminders. Two minutes before a meeting, Tolon covers every screen, above full-screen apps too. Enter joins, Esc snoozes, D dismisses, Space marks you as already there.
  • One key to join. Tolon finds the link for Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex and Jitsi, and falls back to any https link in the location. After you join, the call app gets the keyboard.
  • Your calendars, read only. Subscribe to any iCal address: Google's secret address, a published Outlook.com or Yahoo calendar, or any .ics link. How to get the link.
  • Recurring events done right. Repeat rules, exceptions, moved occurrences and time zones, including the night the clocks change.
  • Quiet when you want it. Pause for an hour, set quiet hours, and ignore all-day events, events you declined, or titles with words like "Focus" or "Lunch".
  • A tray icon that knows what is next. The next meeting and the rest of your day, one click away. Peek, the winner of the logo poll, is the icon.
  • Make it yours. Light and dark, eight reminder colours, the optional Peek style, sounds, and 12 languages.
  • Private by design. No account, no telemetry. Tolon only contacts your calendar links and GitHub, to check for updates. Every update is checked against the project's signing key.

Known limits

  • Tolon is not signed by Apple or by a Windows certificate authority yet, so macOS and Windows ask you to confirm it once. The steps are below.
  • Google Calendar sign-in comes in beta 2. Until then, use Google's secret iCal address.
  • Windows ships as the -setup.exe installer only; the .msi comes with 0.1.0.

Something wrong or confusing? Open an issue.

Install Tolon

Tolon is a beta. Download the file for your system from the Assets list of the release, then follow the steps for your system below. It takes about two minutes, including your first calendar. Tolon only reads your calendars. It has no analytics and sends no data about you. It contacts your calendar links and GitHub, to check for updates.

The first-run window asks for an iCal link. Get an iCal link for your calendar shows where to find it in Outlook.com, Google Calendar and Yahoo Calendar.

System File to download
macOS 13 Ventura or newer, Apple silicon and Intel Tolon_<version>_universal.dmg
Windows Tolon_<version>_x64-setup.exe (the betas have no .msi; it comes with 0.1.0)
Linux, built on Ubuntu 22.04 Tolon_<version>_amd64.AppImage (any distribution) or Tolon_<version>_amd64.deb (Debian, Ubuntu)

macOS

Tolon is signed by its author, not by Apple, because the project has no paid Apple Developer membership. macOS therefore says it cannot check Tolon for malware. You approve it once.

  1. Open the .dmg and drag Tolon into Applications.

  2. Open Tolon from Applications. macOS shows a warning that it could not verify Tolon. Click Done. Do not click Move to Trash.

    The macOS warning that opens first: "Tolon" Not Opened. Apple could not verify "Tolon" is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy. Two buttons, Done and Move to Trash.

  3. Open System Settings, click Privacy & Security, and scroll down to Security. Click Open Anyway next to Tolon. The button shows for about an hour after step 2. If it is gone, repeat step 2.

    System Settings, Privacy & Security, the Security section: "Tolon" was blocked to protect your Mac, with the Open Anyway button beside it.

  4. Type your Mac password and click OK. Your user name is usually already filled in. On a Mac with Touch ID, Touch ID may ask for your finger instead of the password. Tolon opens its first-run window. From now on Tolon opens like any other app.

    The macOS password prompt: You are attempting to open an app that may cause harm to your Mac or compromise your privacy. Enter an administrator's name and password to continue with Privacy & Security. A name field with the user name arya, a hidden password field, and the OK and Cancel buttons.

If you prefer the Terminal, check the download against SHA256SUMS first (see "Check your download" below). Then run this line, which removes the quarantine mark that causes the warning:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Tolon.app

Install from the Terminal

One line in the Terminal installs Tolon and skips the Open Anyway steps:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://github.com/danielpsf/tolon/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

The copy of install.sh on each release installs that release. Here is what it does, in order:

  1. It stops unless this is a Mac.
  2. It downloads the .dmg and SHA256SUMS of the release into a temporary folder.
  3. It checks the .dmg against its line in SHA256SUMS. If the line is missing or the checksum does not match, it stops and deletes the download.
  4. It opens the .dmg read-only at a temporary mount point.
  5. It copies Tolon into /Applications, or into Applications in your home folder when you cannot write to /Applications. If Tolon is already installed and running, it quits Tolon first and then replaces it.
  6. It tells you where Tolon is installed and opens it. Then it closes the .dmg and deletes the temporary folder.

It never asks for your password and never uses sudo.

To read the script before you run it, save it, look at it, and run the saved copy:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://github.com/danielpsf/tolon/releases/latest/download/install.sh -o install.sh
less install.sh
sh install.sh

macOS shows the Open Anyway warning for files that a browser downloads, because the browser marks them. curl does not mark the file, so macOS does not ask. The script checks the file itself instead. The checksum proves that the download is intact. It does not prove who built it, because the checksum comes from the same release as the file. Tolon is still signed by its author, not by Apple.

Windows

  1. Download the .exe. Your browser may block it as "not commonly downloaded". In Edge or Chrome, open the downloads list, click the three dots next to the file, choose Keep, then choose Keep anyway.
  2. Double-click the file.
  3. Windows may show "Windows protected your PC". Tolon is not yet signed by a certificate authority, so Windows does not know the publisher. Click More info, then click Run anyway.
  4. Follow the installer. Tolon opens its first-run window.
  5. After that, Tolon lives in the system tray at the bottom right. If you do not see its icon, click the small arrow to show hidden icons.

Linux

AppImage, any distribution:

  1. Make the file runnable. In a terminal, in the folder with the download, run the first line below. Or right-click the file, choose Properties, open Permissions, and turn on Allow executing as program.
  2. Start it.
chmod +x Tolon_*.AppImage
./Tolon_*.AppImage

If it does not start and mentions FUSE, install the FUSE library once and try again:

  • Ubuntu 22.04: sudo apt install libfuse2
  • Ubuntu 24.04: sudo apt install libfuse2t64
  • Fedora: sudo dnf install fuse-libs

Debian and Ubuntu, with the .deb:

sudo apt install ./Tolon_*_amd64.deb

Then start Tolon from your applications menu. It opens its first-run window.

The tray icon needs a panel that supports AppIndicator icons. KDE works out of the box. On GNOME, install the AppIndicator extension.

Check your download

This step is optional. It proves the file was not changed on the way to you. Download SHA256SUMS from the same release into the same folder as your installer, then run one of these:

shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing      # macOS
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing          # Linux

On Windows, run Get-FileHash <file> in PowerShell and compare the result with the line for your file in SHA256SUMS.

Updates

Tolon checks GitHub for a new version when it starts and then once a day. When it finds one, the tray panel shows a line about it, and Settings, About shows "Tolon is available." with three buttons:

  • Install and restart: Tolon downloads the update, checks it against the project's signing key, installs it and starts again. An update that does not match the key is never installed.
  • Later: the message goes away until the next check.
  • Skip this version: Tolon does not offer this version again. A newer version is offered as usual.

Nothing is installed until you click Install and restart. To check at once, click Check for updates in Settings, About.

  • Windows: the installer shows a small progress window, then Tolon starts again. If you installed Tolon from the .msi, Windows asks for administrator approval first.
  • Linux: an update of the .deb asks for your password. The AppImage replaces itself.
  • macOS: if macOS warns again that it could not verify Tolon after an update, approve it once more with steps 2 to 4 above.

If an update fails, Tolon keeps running the version you have. You can always download the new file from the Releases page and install it over the old one.

Troubleshooting

If Tolon does something wrong, such as an alarm that did not ring or a c...

Read more
Assets 14