Anyone know of a small timer application with an alarm?[solved]

[Member MarkG_108]

Hello. I’m looking for a small timer application with an alarm. So, something that counts down and lets me know when the countdown is finished. I searched, but generally timers seem associated with desktop environment panels (widgets for them). I simply want a small program on its own. I tried gtimer and stopwatch, but neither of these has a countdown and alarm function.

[Forum Admin Dave]

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Maybe something like?

 #!/bin/bash
#alarm.sh - one line script to play alarm after X seconds
sleep $1 && ogg123 /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/alarm-clock-elapsed.oga

saved in a file named alarm.sh; made executable; and called like “alarm.sh 60”. Where 60 is the number of seconds till the alarm triggers.
or if you need a specific time of day add the “ogg123 *” command as a cron job?

Maybe this is too raw/bare for the job?

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown

[Member PPC]

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There’s a more elaborate timer, with alarm, included in the package ft10-transformation.
Install that package, then go to antiX Menu > Applications > Accessories > Clocks > Select “Timers”

Just like on any mobile device, you have a world clock, an alarm, a timer (that can even be used to suspend the system, when it finishes running) and a very basic CLI stopwatch.
It also adds a tiny script to let you see a weather forecast using wttr.in, etc. One of the package’s aims is to have all the features even the most basic smartphone has, available in antiX

Note: You do not need to enable any change to the toolbar/menu to be able to use all the extra apps FT10 provides.

P.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by PPC.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Some time ago I was messing around with scripts to build myself a simple clock, using a variety of languages.
Of course, we already have a clock available; this was just an exercise for me.

One of them I was working on was in Yad, so I found an old discussion about an alarm clock in an archived version of the PCLinuxOS Magazine.
This may be of some help to you if you want to write something with yad yourself.
https://pclosmag.com/html/Issues/201201/page12.html

Here is another one that may prove useful if you actually want to build something yourself.

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?pid=93773#p93773

--
Brian Masinick

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I actually copied this alarm clock, made it executable and ran it and it works.

#!/bin/bash
# AlarmClock.bash

# Alarm clock for PCLinuxOS
#
# Don't miss important times and events. Turn your computer 
# into the perfect wake up system. Set the alarm and get the 
# Pizza out of the oven in perfect time.
#
# Author: D.M-Wilhelm (Leiche)
# Email: meisssw01 at gmail.com
# Licence: GPL
# First build: May Wed 11 2011
# Last build: Jul Sun 10 2011
# fixed icon display in systray, move zenity,
# based now on yad.
#
Encoding=UTF-8
#
# i18n - Internationalization - Internationalisierung
#
export TEXTDOMAIN=alert_clock
export TEXTDOMAINDIR="/usr/share/locale"
#
# define some variables - Definierung einiger Variablen 
#
TITLE="Alarm Clock"
ICON="/usr/share/icons/Paper/48x48/apps/alarm-clock.png"

#
#question - Frage
#
function menu {
COUNTDOWN=$(yad --entry --text "Time now is $(date +"%H:%m")" --entry-label "Enter minutes until alarm..." --numeric --title="$TITLE" --window-icon=$ICON \
            --image=$ICON \
            --button=$"Change alarm sound:2" \
            --button=$"Test:3" \
            --button="gtk-ok:0" \
            --button="gtk-close:1" \
           )
ret=$?

[[ $ret -eq 1 ]] && exit 0
#
#change sound - Sound ändern
#
if [[ $ret -eq 2 ]]; then
    CHANGE=$(yad --title="$TITLE" --window-icon=$ICON \
        --file --width=600 --height=500 \
        --text=$"<b>Choose your own audio file as alert!</b>
________________________________________________")
        if [ -z "$CHANGE" ];then 
        exec alert_clock
        exit 0
        else
        mkdir $HOME/.config/alert-clock
        rm -rf $HOME/.config/alert-clock/alert sleep 1
        ln -s "$CHANGE" $HOME/.config/alert-clock/alert
        yad --title $"$TITLE" \
            --button="gtk-ok:0" \
            --width 300 \
            --window-icon=$ICON \
            --text=$"Your own sound is set!!"
        fi
menu        
fi
#
#Test sound - Klang testen
#
if [[ $ret -eq 3 ]]; then
    if [ -f $HOME/.config/alert-clock/alert ]; then
    SOUND="$HOME/.config/alert-clock/alert"
    else
    SOUND='/usr/share/alert_clock/alarm.ogg'
    fi
mpv "$SOUND" | yad --title $"$TITLE" \
                 --button="gtk-ok:0" \
                 --width 300 \
                 --window-icon=$ICON \
                 --text=$"Exit sound test!!"
killall mpv
menu                 
fi
}
menu
#
#progress - Prozess
#
if [ "$COUNTDOWN" = "" ];then
exit
else
echo you enter "$COUNTDOWN" minutes
TIMER=$(echo $(($COUNTDOWN*60)))
TASK1=$(date -s "+$TIMER seconds" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f4)
exec 3> >(yad --notification --command=CMD --image=$ICON --listen)
echo tooltip: $"Alarm clock was set to $COUNTDOWN minutes and notifiers at $TASK1!" >&3
sleep $TIMER
exec 3>&-
#
#check wich sound - auf Audio prüfen
#
if [ -f $HOME/.config/alert-clock/alert ]; then
    SOUND="$HOME/.config/alert-clock/alert"
    else
    SOUND='/usr/share/alert_clock/alarm.ogg'
fi
#
#alert output - Alarm Ausgabe
#
(mpv "$SOUND") | yad --title $"$TITLE" \
                 --button="gtk-ok:0" \
                 --width 300 --image=$ICON \
                 --window-icon=$ICON \
                 --text=$"<b>Time is over!!</b>"
                 exit;
fi
exit

--
Brian Masinick

[Member MarkG_108]

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Thanks. This works well (that being, the package ft10-transformation). So, this thread could be marked as “solved”.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by MarkG_108.

[Member MarkG_108]

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This does work, though it doesn’t reflect the current time. Rather, for some reason, it reflects the time that my user signed in (see image –> I signed in at 9:02, and the current time as of the screenshot is 9:12). And the other issue is there doesn’t seem to be any way to check in on the progress of the countdown.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by MarkG_108.

Attachments:

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   screenshotAlarmClockBash.jpg
   

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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@markg_108: In fairness to the tool, all it does it set an alarm based on the current time.
There are two ways to get the “correct time”. One is like many of us do with our classic clocks – we manually adjust the time.
The other way is to obtain the correct “network time”, using NTP or an application that obtains the correct time from an NTP service.

The “correct time” is managed by sites throughout the world and it is accurate to fractions of a second.
https://ntp.org/ will provide you with general information about this.
The command apt-cache search ntp on my system provides quite a few references to things containing ntp in the name.
As far as the packages that actually pertain to a time service, ntp, ntpdate, sntp, and ntpsec (plus utilities pertaining to these) are possibilities.

I happen to have ntp and ntpdate installed on my system. You may try that, or you may want a more modern, secure implementation, your choice; I would install something so you don’t have to worry about setting the time.

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Brian Masinick

[Member Xunzi_23]

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Hi Brian
you forgot conmann, it provides NTP too, if you let it.
I do not :-).

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Xunzi_23 wrote:

Hi Brian
you forgot conmann, it provides NTP too, if you let it.
I do not :-).

I don’t do that either. I prefer to use a known service to handle specific things using classic “daemon” processes.
Unless something else emerges that proves itself to be reliable, efficient and effective, I won’t be going in a different direction any time soon.

On one of my systems the other day, the connmand was running but network services were unstable at best.
Whether it was because of the Connman daemon or not, I’m not going to put even more responsibility on that group of processes and procedures.

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Brian Masinick

[Member MarkG_108]

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Brian Masinick wrote:

@markg_108: In fairness to the tool, all it does it set an alarm based on the current time.
There are two ways to get the “correct time”. One is like many of us do with our classic clocks – we manually adjust the time.
The other way is to obtain the correct “network time”, using NTP or an application that obtains the correct time from an NTP service.

[..]

I happen to have ntp and ntpdate installed on my system. You may try that, or you may want a more modern, secure implementation, your choice; I would install something so you don’t have to worry about setting the time.

I do have ntp and ntpdate installed. And yet, the script still gives the incorrect time.

Attachments:

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   ntp.jpg
   

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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If that is the case, it can be resolved, especially since you do have the tools; I don’t know why they’re not correcting the time, but here’s another way:
Menu –> Applications –> antiX –> Date and Time.
Once it comes up, navigate to Use Internet Time Server to set automatically time/date
press Enter to activate that selection, then check whether or not the time and date are adjusted properly; they should be.
If yes, then you can navigate down one spot to Quit the tool; again, press Enter once that selection is highlighted, and you can exit the tool.
If THIS does not properly set the date and time, then your Internet Time Server is not being appropriately reached, set, and updated.

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Brian Masinick

[Member MarkG_108]

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The time for the system is fine. It’s only the time in the script that is off. For instance:

$ date
Sat 25 Feb 2023 07:14:05 PM EST

The above time reading and date is correct. However, when I run the AlarmClock.bash script, it says the time is 19:02. The time that it reads is always something:02 (something being an accurate portrayal of the hour of the day, with the minutes, from the times I’ve run the script, always reading “02”)

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I suspect that something was accidentally changed, either in the code I copied here or in your copy.

I’ll look into my end.

If you are able to check your script for a mistake that would hard code the 2 or 02, please correct and share.

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Brian Masinick

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I found the issue:
COUNTDOWN=$(yad --entry --text "Time now is $(date +"%H:%m")" --entry-label "Enter minutes until alarm..." --numeric --title="$TITLE" --window-icon=$ICON \
The string should be “%H:%M” because %m is “month”, and the current month is February, hence 02.
Another useful string in a format I happen to like is “%r” instead of “%H:%M”. The 24 hour equivalent is “%R”.

I knew I could find it with well rested eyes!

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Brian Masinick

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