Plugins & Linux

[Brianrh]

Hi All

Sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find anything when I searched the forum.

I run Calibre on Windows XP on my work PC and on my home laptop with Linux Mint. I have some custom plugins which install and work perfectly with the Calibre on Windows but the Linux version of Calibre is different. It doesn't have the "Load plugin from file" option and it doesn't accept the zipped plugin folders that the Windows version have.

Is the only solution to run the Windows version of Calibre within Wine or is there way of doing this with the Linux version?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Brian

[avantman42]

I run Calibre exclusively on Linux with no problems. Are you running the version from the repositories, or from the Calibre website? The one in the repositories is probably old, and may have been modified.

If you're not already, install & run the version from the website.

[Brianrh]

Thanks for that avantman42 I will give that a try. As a matter of interest in the linux version you are using in Preferences/Advanced/Plugins is there a "Load plugin from file" button to use?

Thanks.

Brian

[kovidgoyal]

You can add plugins from the command line with

calibre-customize -a plugin.zip

[Brianrh]

Thank you avantman42 and kovidgoyal for your replies. When I did a binary install direct from the Calibre website to the latest version it was all there and worked as perfectly as the Windows version does.

Can you tell me if the Linux version will notify me automatically of updated versions being available?

Thank you gentlemen for your interest and assistance.

Brian

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Brianrh

Can you tell me if the Linux version will notify me automatically of updated versions being available?

Yes, it will. I think it will pop up a dialogue box by default, but it also puts a notification in the status bar. It'll only do that if you actually run Calibre, though - it won't notify you otherwise.

[mikeayers]

Originally Posted by avantman42

Yes, it will. I think it will pop up a dialogue box by default, but it also puts a notification in the status bar. It'll only do that if you actually run Calibre, though - it won't notify you otherwise.

On my Ubuntu system, it tells me of an update when I start Calibre

[Brianrh]

After installing the latest Calibre 2 -3 hours ago, I have just read your posts and re-started Calibre to find opportunely an update notification window appear. It does seem that I need to update by installing a binary again; I rather thought/hoped it might be more automated but I'm not complaining because it is a brilliant program.

Thanks again.

Brian

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Brianrh

After installing the latest Calibre 2 -3 hours ago, I have just read your posts and re-started Calibre to find opportunely an update notification window appear. It does seem that I need to update by installing a binary again; I rather thought/hoped it might be more automated but I'm not complaining because it is a brilliant program.

I believe new versions of Calibre are normally released every week, so you never have long to wait to test out the update notification

The idea of smaller updates has been talked about here before. I believe there are good reasons for updates being done the way they are, but I honestly can't remember what those reasons are.

I have seen advice (I think it was from Kovid himself) saying that you shouldn't bother updating unless the update has a bug fix or new feature that you actively want. I know that when I see updates available, I check the change log. If the update fixes a bug that affects me, or adds functionality I want, I update. If it doesn't, I don't bother.