pdftoppm misbehaving, can't import books

[MelBr]

Hi all,

I've noticed that when importing PDFs, sometimes Calibre becomes unresponsive and appears to crash. However, when I check processes, I notice that the problem is actually pdftoppm (which I presume generates cover image from a PDF). It uses tons on RAM/CPU and becomes unstable. After I kill pdftoppm, Calibre (sometimes) remains unresponsive and you have to force quit is as well. So you basically can't import some books because of a pdftoppm bug.



Is there anything that can be done? Can I disable pdftoppm?

Thanks

Using the latest Calibre, Mac version.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by MelBr

Hi all,

I've noticed that when importing PDFs, sometimes Calibre becomes unresponsive and appears to crash. However, when I check processes, I notice that the problem is actually pdftoppm (which I presume generates cover image from a PDF). It uses tons on RAM/CPU and becomes unstable. After I kill pdftoppm, Calibre (sometimes) remains unresponsive and you have to force quit is as well. So you basically can't import some books because of a pdftoppm bug.



Is there anything that can be done? Can I disable pdftoppm?

Thanks

Using the latest Calibre, Mac version.

You may have a CPU cooling problem (as you noted, Calibre can grab big chunks of CPU crunch power) or bad RAM.
Yours is the first complaint on this I have seen here, so I don't think 'bug'

[MelBr]

Originally Posted by theducks

You may have a CPU cooling problem (as you noted, Calibre can grab big chunks of CPU crunch power) or bad RAM.
Yours is the first complaint on this I have seen here, so I don't think 'bug'

It's a 6 month old MacBook Air. My machine is in absolutely perfect working order. Nevr had any issues with any other app.

I'm importing ONE 2MB PDF book. pdftoppm is using gigs of RAM and never finishes. If that's not a bug I don't know what is.

[Adoby]

Try another book. Could be a bug in the book. Or something in the pdf that pdftoppm doesn't like.

[kovidgoyal]

Preferences->Plugins disable the pdf metadata reader plugin.

[MelBr]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Preferences->Plugins disable the pdf metadata reader plugin.

Thank you Kovid! That works.

I've encountered this pdftoppm bug only twice or thrice so far. There seem to be some PDFs that it doesn't like.

If you can point me to its maintainer, I'll send them the PDF in question. The PDF opens fine in Acrobat Pro XI and Preview and neither report any issues with it.

[kovidgoyal]

It comes from the poppler project: http://poppler.freedesktop.org/

[farleylai]

Downloaded the latest 2.13 and encountered this problem though eventually it was down but took several minutes hogging the CPU tightly. It's probably because the pdf is a merged version from several pdfs.

[harrykar]

Originally Posted by MelBr

Hi all,

I've noticed that when importing PDFs, sometimes Calibre becomes unresponsive and appears to crash. However, when I check processes, I notice that the problem is actually pdftoppm (which I presume generates cover image from a PDF). It uses tons on RAM/CPU and becomes unstable. After I kill pdftoppm, Calibre (sometimes) remains unresponsive and you have to force quit is as well. So you basically can't import some books because of a pdftoppm bug.



Is there anything that can be done? Can I disable pdftoppm?

Thanks

Using the latest Calibre, Mac version.

+1 here and it's not a hardware problem the culprit is pdftoppm he licks 3GB RAM (of total 4 in my system) + Swap too (= thrashing behaviour) (but not CPU cycles --see attached pics-- )
so when i tried to add some hundreds of books the machine became unresponsively unused; notice that after i closed calibre pdftoppm continue to take 3 GB of RAM + Swap (definitely a thrashing behaviour) and the only way i found to free that RAM Swap memory was to kill that process
I'm on a Ubuntu 10.4 LTS (aka lucid lynx) and i have installed the last workable calibre for that OS release (1.48) ; 2.x release of calibre is not working for me because of the new qt lib used from calibre i guess

After i tried more times and got the same problem I found a "divide et impera" partially(i am sure the problem arises only from someone pdf the target is to find that problematic pdfs ) workaround :
1. divide the whole block of books in smaller (say 4 or more) more "manageable" sub-blocks and put every sub-block in a directory(folder)
2. do Add from calibre for the 1st sub-block and after finisced(hopefully whithout problems in contrary case rake note of the problematic pdf and put it out of the containing folder) close calibre
3. reopen it and repeat from step 1.

[harrykar]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Preferences->Plugins disable the pdf metadata reader plugin.

i can't find a so called or similar plugin there in calibre 1.48 any other workaround ?
TIA

[theducks]

Originally Posted by harrykar

i can't find a so called or similar plugin there in calibre 1.48 any other workaround ?
TIA

That PI is a standard Calibre PI (you were looking only at User Supplied PI)

Goto
Preferences: (change Calibre Behavior): Plugins: (expand)Metadata Reader PI: Read PDF Metadata (use the button near the bottom to disable)

[harrykar]

Originally Posted by theducks

That PI is a standard Calibre PI (you were looking only at User Supplied PI)

Goto
Preferences: (change Calibre Behavior): Plugins: (expand)Metadata Reader PI: Read PDF Metadata (use the button near the bottom to disable)

Thank you very much @theducks

[eschwartz]

Just as a matter of curiosity, why are you still on 10.04?

I can think of all kinds of reasons to not use unsupported and out-of-date OSes, and not many reasons to stick on one.

Are you avoiding the horrifically ugly and anti-useful Unity desktop? If so, switch to Cinnamon and Linux Mint!
That is what I... would've done, if I hadn't gone all the way to Arch Linux, anyway.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Just as a matter of curiosity, why are you still on 10.04?

I can think of all kinds of reasons to not use unsupported and out-of-date OSes, and not may reasons to stick on one.

Are you avoiding the horrifically ugly and anti-useful Unity desktop? If so, switch to Cinnamon and Linux Mint!
That is what I... would've done, if I hadn't gone all the way to Arch Linux, anyway.

;ditto: Mint is ( ) and clean, the way Ubuntu used to be

[harrykar]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Just as a matter of curiosity, why are you still on 10.04?

I can think of all kinds of reasons to not use unsupported and out-of-date OSes, and not many reasons to stick on one.

Hi @eschwartz
lasiness?! not have to do with new things (if that's not required )

from a point of view you're right (so i did till 2010) -- yes the new interface was the reason initially i'm an old guy afterall -- but i decided to follow the principle "KISS and not change it if not broken and if can do your work" i can't pretend others understand that point but can assure you till now i had no problems (OS security updates are not missing)
i guess the reason to change is if you want an app you haven't and is extremely difficult to workaround the OS to do it

Are you avoiding the horrifically ugly and anti-useful Unity desktop? If so, switch to Cinnamon and Linux Mint!
That is what I... would've done, if I hadn't gone all the way to Arch Linux, anyway.

yeah i hear about Cinnamon and ways to force Gnome3 show as Gnome2 ecc ; Regard FLOSS Os's out there nowadays exist zillions of Linux distros it's a bit a caotic enviroment i prefer BSD's for that reason