Calibre sets my reader to R/O

[Nathanael]

I've got a Sibrary G5, which Linux (I'm running Ubuntu 10.10) automounts (in my case at mountpoints /media/disk-1/ for the card and /media/BOOX Internal Memory for the internal memory). Using Dolphin (Ubuntu's file manager) or a command line I can copy files to the reader, rename, delete, the works, until I run Calibre. Calibre loads, detects the reader as a Boox, and then about thirty seconds later I get "Error communicating with device", and the following details:

(30, 'Read-only file system')

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 68, in run
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 288, in _books
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/devices/usbms/driver.py", line 164, in books
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/devices/usbms/driver.py", line 303, in sync_booklists
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/devices/usbms/driver.py", line 301, in write_prefix
IOError: [Errno 30] Read-only file system: u'/media/disk-1/.metadata.calibre'

And sure enough, I go back to Dolphin or the command line and I can no longer write to either the card or internal memory; they're both R/O. If I close out of Calibre, eject and then reconnect the reader, it's back to R/W as long as I don't run Calibre. As soon as I do, it's R/O again.

Any guesses?

--Nathanael

[itimpi]

Sounds as if you have two automounting systems fighting each other (system one and calibre one). When someone else reported a similar issue Kovid recommended either deleting (or renaming) the calibre automounter so that it no longer runs.

[Nathanael]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Kovid recommended either deleting (or renaming) the calibre automounter so that it no longer runs.

I googled "calibre automount" and this very thread popped up at the top of the list -- and I only posted 45 minutes ago. Wow.

Strike One: I turned up this, which creates a dummy /usr/bin/calibre-mount-helper, but that didn't fix my problem.

Strike Two: So I renamed /opt/calibre/calibre-mount-helper. Same luck.

Strike Three: So I un-renamed /opt/calibre/calibre-mount-helper, deleted the dummy /usr/bin/calibre-mount-helper, then unmounted my device (leaving it connected) in order to give Calibre a shot at mounting it itself. Same problem, slightly different details:

(30, 'Read-only file system')

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 68, in run
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 288, in _books
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/devices/usbms/driver.py", line 164, in books
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/devices/usbms/driver.py", line 303, in sync_booklists
  File "/home/kovid/build/calibre/src/calibre/devices/usbms/driver.py", line 301, in write_prefix
IOError: [Errno 30] Read-only file system: u'/media/BOOX Internal Memory (1)/.metadata.calibre'

--Nathanael

[timlegge]

I saw similar issues recently. I believe in my case I may have tried to connect my kobo while the devicev was attempting to access the internal memory. I am not certain though so I would need to retest

Tim

[kovidgoyal]

calibre contains no code that will ever mount a device in ro mode. Most linux kernels remount a filesystem in read only mode if filesystem errors are detected. Look at your system log to see if that is happening.

[capidamonte]

I had a similar problem. I seem to have solved it by switching to a system automount system that doesn't use HAL.

How is Calibre doing automount? (No need to get into the weeds, just a general description would do.)

[kovidgoyal]

It call mount

[Nathanael]

You were right about the filesystem errors, errors, Kovid. What threw me was that it turned out only .metadata.calibre was corrupted, so that I could write to the card all day long as long as I never touched .metadata.calibre. But as soon as I tried to copy it from the command line, syslog threw a few hundred errors, and the fs was set r/o.

So I renamed .metadat.calibre, hoping Calibre would rebuilt it, but as soon as Calibre tried to touch the card it was back to r/o.

So I copied everything off, reformatted the card, and restored. I seem to be back in business, except that I can no longer see the reader's main memory (it's not even mounted in Linux), and Calibre sees the card as the reader's main memory.

Thanks for the help. I hope everything's fixed.

--Nathanael