MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - bbasic help request: using calibre in linux

aleyx · 11-03-2013, 08:45 AM

I'm not familiar with the way Dropbox works, not using it myself.

Ubuntu is based on Gnome (more and more loosely; some would say lousily...), with the Gnome tools for mounting stuff, namely GVFS. Your data partition is probably mounted by GVFS.

Calibre uses the Qt toolkit, which on Linux means KDE, Gnome's not-always-so-friendly neighbour.

So yeah, when you mount stuff on Ubuntu, software built with the Qt toolkit (KDE apps and Calibre, among many others) aren't aware of it.

You can, however, access GVFS mounts under Qt by going to where GVFS is actually mounted on the filesystem. On Ubuntu 12.04, I _think_ it was in ~/.gvfs/, so be sure to display hidden files in Calibre's "Open File" dialog, and go there.

Nowadays it's in /var/run/user/<uid>/gvfs/ (much more sensible, IMO. Makes backups of the home dir less of a pain).

Anyways, if it's not there, it's not mounted by GVFS. In that case, try /media or /media/<user>, those are basically the mounts for optical and/or USB drives.

In either case, remember that using Calibre on a non-local mount is not supported, because Calibre can't make sure that it's mounted before trying to open the library. That, and the mount going boom while Calibre runs is not exactly healthy for the database. That's true for all OSes.

11-03-2013, 08:45 AM	#5
aleyx Addict Posts: 250 Karma: 20386 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: France Device: Bookeen Diva, Kobo Clara BW	I'm not familiar with the way Dropbox works, not using it myself. Ubuntu is based on Gnome (more and more loosely; some would say lousily...), with the Gnome tools for mounting stuff, namely GVFS. Your data partition is probably mounted by GVFS. Calibre uses the Qt toolkit, which on Linux means KDE, Gnome's not-always-so-friendly neighbour. So yeah, when you mount stuff on Ubuntu, software built with the Qt toolkit (KDE apps and Calibre, among many others) aren't aware of it. You can, however, access GVFS mounts under Qt by going to where GVFS is actually mounted on the filesystem. On Ubuntu 12.04, I _think_ it was in ~/.gvfs/, so be sure to display hidden files in Calibre's "Open File" dialog, and go there. Nowadays it's in /var/run/user/<uid>/gvfs/ (much more sensible, IMO. Makes backups of the home dir less of a pain). Anyways, if it's not there, it's not mounted by GVFS. In that case, try /media or /media/<user>, those are basically the mounts for optical and/or USB drives. In either case, remember that using Calibre on a non-local mount is not supported, because Calibre can't make sure that it's mounted before trying to open the library. That, and the mount going boom while Calibre runs is not exactly healthy for the database. That's true for all OSes. Last edited by aleyx; 11-03-2013 at 08:48 AM.