I partially sorted the problem with Kobo complaining about libzip1, by symlinking to the 32 bit /usr/lib32/libz.so, as suggested elsewhere. Now Kobo starts up, but crashes while synching. When started from the command line, I now get the following output:
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ApplicationBase::switchTranslator::loading locale: ":/translations/trans_en_US"
Object::connect: No such slot DeviceManager::startUsbUpgradeWizard()
Object::connect: No such signal DesktopSyncManager::downloadBookDone(Volume)
void AbstractLibraryController<C>::layout(bool) [with C = Volume] source has no rows
void AbstractLibraryController<C>::layout(bool) [with C = Volume] source has no rows
------- [SyncClient] ------ execute (Thread: 4092290832 )
------- [SyncClient] ------ verifyDeviceDone
void UpgradeManager:
nClientSyncDone() false
-- [SyncThread] ID: 4053498736
SyncThread running, device is "00:16:17:F1:88:C0" "Desktop"
------- [SyncClient] ------ execute (Thread: 4053498736 )
------- [SyncClient] ------ startUserSync
------- [SyncClient] ------ syncUserDone
Object::connect: No such slot SyncClient::finishRecommendedTabSync()
void SyncRecommendedTabsCommand:
nTabParsed(Tab&) "" "SomeFakeRecommendedTabId" "tabletDb" 0
void SyncRecommendedTabsCommand:
nTabParsed(Tab&) "What's New" "abcdefff-ffff-ffff-ffff-fffffffffffa" "tabletDb" 20
void RequestTabCommand:
nTabParsed(Tab&) "abcdefff-ffff-ffff-ffff-fffffffffffa" "What's New"
void SyncRecommendedTabsCommand:
nTabParsed(Tab&) "Featured" "abcdefff-ffff-ffff-ffff-fffffffffffc" "tabletDb" 20
void RequestTabCommand:
nTabParsed(Tab&) "abcdefff-ffff-ffff-ffff-fffffffffffc" "Featured"
------- [SyncClient] ------ syncNextItem [ Total: 10 ]
------- [SyncClient] ------ syncNextItem [ Total: 9 ]
------- [SyncClient] ------ syncNextItem [ Total: 8 ]
------- [SyncClient] ------ syncNextItem [ Total: 7 ]
------- [SyncClient] ------ syncNextItem [ Total: 6 ]
[ResumingDownloader] : Start: "http://a4ccf0b6.blob.core.windows.net/kobo/ca8a3b64f1c16f64b00a447f0a21619c5a037d53.epub"
void AbstractLibraryController<C>::layout(bool) [with C = Volume] source has no rows
void AbstractLibraryController<C>::layout(bool) [with C = Volume] source has no rows
[ResumingDownloader] : FINISHED: 2444491
Using an absolute path false
"7fa767e9-66fd-414d-ace2-5869e444f222"
/usr/local/Kobo/Kobo: symbol lookup error: /usr/local/Kobo/libnickel.so.1: undefined symbol: zip_open
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I'm assuming the problem is that last undefined symbol error.
Distribution is Kubuntu 11.10, ( kernel 3.0.0-16-generic x86_64 )