I ended up just reinstalling instances and no every selecting the walled garden feature. I just used the login_required plugin for the functionality. Will pursue a root cause at a later date.

This probably doesn't help but I have a client running Elgg 1.8.8 with the standard walled garden and cron works fine, including the message_queue plugin.

cron works fine or reminders works or both?

yes i checked it in my site too... i also need an update plugin for problem 1

Kevin,

I checked cron config and no luck so far. Below is a screen dump of the appointment and output from cronchecker plugin (you can see it running and the event_cal registration hook).

I tried in my debug instance. A basic elgg 1.8.8 with no customizations, no walled environment, and just the full branch from github. Configured the cron entries (using curl). Turned on the reminders in the settings, created a appointment reminders and nothing happening.

I must be doing something ignorant, but I cant understand what.

Make sure that you are running the version here:

https://github.com/kevinjardine/Elgg-Event-Calendar/zipball/full

(full repository)

and either untick the options:

The region strings above are string handles. Use the Elgg translation system to resolve them.

The type strings above are string handles. Use the Elgg translation system to resolve them.

or provide the appropriate strings in your theme.

Those options are turned off by default. Perhaps you turned them on by accident or forgot to provide the appropriate strings?

Done.. thanks.... i just made "no" for The type, region strings above are string handles. Use the Elgg translation system to resolve them....

And it was done.... thanks..... :)