Calibre 2.0 Crashing at start up

[kovidgoyal]

Instructions for running from source are here: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/develop.html

As for commenting it out, simply chang the line

if isxp:

to

if False:

[Howlingwolf]

Release: 2.1 [28 Sep, 2014]
New Features

Prevent calibre from installing or running on Windows XP as there have been many reports of Qt 5 crashing on Windows XP and Windows XP is now no longer supported by Microsoft. If you are on Windows XP, please stay with calibre 1.48 until you are ready to upgrade your windows.

Could this be reduced to an installer warning instead, along with a support moratorium if necessary.

Perhaps something along the lines of:-

'This is an unsupported configuration with known issues. Continue at your own risk'

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Howlingwolf

Could this be reduced to an installer warning instead, along with a support moratorium if necessary.

Perhaps something along the lines of:-

'This is an unsupported configuration with known issues. Continue at your own risk'

Yes he could, no he won't.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...41#post2909041

[fidvo]

Fair enough.

I have Calibre Portable on an external hard drive specifically so that I can transfer my library easily between my various computers, some of which run XP. Since the only changes I noticed in 2.0 are cosmetic, as far as I'm concerned Calibre is frozen at 1.48. That's fine; Calibre was mature a long time ago.

Are there any known problems downgrading Calibre Portable from 2.0 to 1.48? I've played around with a few settings, mainly to get the interface looking like it was before. Will that cause any problems?

[kovidgoyal]

No, no known problems

[Howlingwolf]

Ah...

Thank you.

I didn't see that. Probably because I stopped reading when the socially challenged started in with their 'My Windows Are Better Than Your Windows' nonsense.

[kdogg]

In fact, it's working somewhat better than 1.4x when I've got lots of programs loaded.

Please give us XP users the option of trying new versions.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Howlingwolf

Ah...

Thank you.

I didn't see that. Probably because I stopped reading when the socially challenged started in with their 'My Windows Are Better Than Your Windows' nonsense.

Oh, I think it is undisputed that Win7 is better than WinXP -- the question is, does it matter, is it worth the extra money, and most of all, is that "better" going to do anything for you (rhet.) in particular.

If you happen to be lucky enough that Qt5 behaves on WinXP for you, you can use the source mod that Kovid explained, if not there is no real harm in sticking with 1.48/2.0.

Err, not true actually. Kobo updated firmwares will undoubtedly start needing updates to the device interface, which would require updating calibre. Still possible by patching the source (by hand) even for 1.48, and I believe there was just an update (to go with the H2O) which requires enabling the experimental-support-unsupported-firmware option but works just fine.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by kdogg

In fact, it's working somewhat better than 1.4x when I've got lots of programs loaded.

Please give us XP users the option of trying new versions.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...41#post2909041

[Howlingwolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Oh, I think it is undisputed that Win7 is better than WinXP -- the question is, does it matter, is it worth the extra money, and most of all, is that "better" going to do anything for you (rhet.) in particular.

Undisputed by who?




Seriously...

My needs haven't changed and migrating to W7 is going to take time (and effort) which I simply do not have available at present.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

If you happen to be lucky enough that Qt5 behaves on WinXP for you, you can use the source mod that Kovid explained, if not there is no real harm in sticking with 1.48/2.0.

Err, not true actually. Kobo updated firmwares will undoubtedly start needing updates to the device interface, which would require updating calibre. Still possible by patching the source (by hand) even for 1.48, and I believe there was just an update (to go with the H2O) which requires enabling the experimental-support-unsupported-firmware option but works just fine.

That doesn't surprise me. I'm probably going to end up setting up a dev-env and doing my own builds simply because it's quicker and easier than the migration.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Howlingwolf

That doesn't surprise me. I'm probably going to end up setting up a dev-env and doing my own builds simply because it's quicker and easier than the migration.

Running from source doors not require you to do your own builds. It is sufficient to have the source on a local disk and point calibre to it. I have been running from source for years and have never compiled anything.

You do need to set things up so you can pull source changes from github. This is actually much faster than downloading binary releases.

[eschwartz]

But not all of calibre is written in python, some of it relies on the compiled C++ extensions. Linux is supported for development, so I can simply run

cd ~/git/calibre/ && sudo python2 setup.py develop

to recompile the extensions and have everything running from source. Fastness.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

But not all of calibre is written in python, some of it relies on the compiled C++ extensions. Linux is supported for development, so I can simply run

cd ~/git/calibre/ && sudo python2 setup.py develop

to recompile the extensions and have everything running from source. Fastness.

Just install the latest binary. It will have all the support libraries and extensions in it. I think that in 4 years I have had three instances where I have needed a new binary between releases where I couldn't wait because of release planning, and in each case Kovid has built an intermediate binary for me. For this situation it suffices to pull the source when a version is released and grab the binary at the same time.

If the binaries refuse to install on xp then this solution won't work. My understanding is that they refuse to run, not that they refuse to install.

[eschwartz]

And it seems you can also use

cd ~/git/calibre/ && python2 setup.py build

to build the extensions in-place.

If there is nothing to build, it will run really fast and report nothing to do. So you could even alias

cd ~/git/calibre/ && git pull [upstream master] && python2 setup.py build

as calibre-update or whatever, and no need to trouble kovid with new builds. You wouldn't even notice the need to check anything.

Remember, you're the one who said "This is actually much faster than downloading binary releases." I'm just agreeing with you.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And it seems you can also use

cd ~/git/calibre/ && python2 setup.py build

to build the extensions in-place.

If there is nothing to build, it will run really fast and report nothing to do. So you could even alias

cd ~/git/calibre/ && git pull [upstream master] && python2 setup.py build

as calibre-update or whatever, and no need to trouble kovid with new builds. You wouldn't even notice the need to check anything.

Remember, you're the one who said "This is actually much faster than downloading binary releases." I'm just agreeing with you.

Have you forgotten that we are taking about windows XP? And no, that is not an invitation to start yet another long discussion about why people should upgrade or switch to a Linux desktop.