calibre broken after v.0.4.56

[akadaedalus]

Kovid (or whomever cares),

Because I get a sort-of nag on calibre to upgrade to a newer version (I am running v.0.4.56) I thought I'd hit it with easy_install (on Gentoo). I spent a lot of time in dependencies hell (I try to limit the number of unmasked packages) when I finally narrowed down the problem to a library that I don't think I even have installed: PictureFlow. I don't want to install something that I can't uninstall (I hate how easy_install bypasses package management), so I backed out the upgrade to version 0.4.56. What am I missing?

Stack trace:

File "/usr/bin/calibre", line 8, in <module>
load_entry_point('calibre==0.4.69', 'gui_scripts', 'calibre')()
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/main.py", line 1175, in main
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/main.py", line 203, in __init__
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/cover_flow.py", line 72, in __init__
TypeError: argument 1 of PictureFlow.setSlideSize() has an invalid type
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/library.py", line 380, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/library.py", line 381, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/library.py", line 382, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/library.py", line 383, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/library.py", line 384, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/library.py", line 385, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/library.py", line 386, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/library.py", line 387, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/jobs.py", line 291, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/jobs.py", line 292, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/jobs.py", line 293, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/calibre/gui2/jobs.py", line 294, in headerData
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable

[kovidgoyal]

I suggest using the ebuilds on gentoo (you'll have to bump the ebuild version number to the latest though) they're in portage

[akadaedalus]

I had multiple issues with the ebuild. For one thing it's only masked for the AMD64 platform (I'm using x86). The dependencies were also quite the headache, and they didn't pull in everything that was needed. I do see that there's a new one since I last tried (0.4.64), so just to humor you, I tried it again....


Traceback (most recent call last):
File "__init__.py", line 16, in <module>
from calibre.translations.pygettext import main as pygettext
ImportError: No module named calibre.translations.pygettext


Which means it's not even possible to emerge it. I do see the pictureflow library being built.

I realize that's an issue to pass to the ebuild maintainer, but I honestly start to wonder if there's too much bloat and dependencies on external libraries. I do think it's a great product, I just see a lot of "hey, I added XXX feature", instead of streamlining the code base. Platform independence is hard, but I am not convinced Python is the way to get there.

The last paragraph is just an opinion and naturally perfectly acceptable to ignore.

[kovidgoyal]

like i said, you need to rename the ebuild to calibre-0.4.69

Umm you are saying I should sit around re-implementing all the functionality in external libraries, just to have a "streamlined" install process. If I followed that philosophy calibre would never have been written. And its only on linux that there a dependency problems, because I use cutting edge versions in calibre and distro maintainers are forever playing catch up. packaging systems really only work well for mature software.

You can try the binary linuxversion of calibre (its the all distros" item in the linux download page.

[akadaedalus]

I guess I found the term "bump up the ebuild" ambiguous, didn't realize you meant for me to actually create a new ebuild to get the latest and greatest. Good thing I had enough experience under my belt plus Google-Fu to figure out what it took to do that. I think it will disappear on my next emerge --sync, so I'll have to either do an overlay or talk about it w/ the package maintainer. It seems to have worked for me, I will play with it and see if it is worth submitting a new ebuild.

May I suggest that you update your page on Gentoo installations? http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/download_gentoo The "official" recommended means of installation was using easy_install, which was broken in my case. I had no idea there was a linux binary either (I went straight to the Gentoo page), so thank you for the pointer.

Like I said, i was only offering an opinion. Software library dependencies are nothing new, of course, the product just relies on a lot of new versions of libraries that I suspect most distributions don't have immediately available in stable versions (I would like to believe that Gentoo tends to be pretty good about keeping up with the Joneses, that's one reason I like it). I'm not sure there was a purpose to the "PictureFlow" stuff, which did cause my problems, and, now that I bypassed the issue, ultimately resulted in "that looks kinda cool, but I think I'll keep it turned off."

It is truly an impressive project, and I never had the patience to be a good coder (I do have a computer science degree) so I do admire the skill and time involved, not to mention the great reverse engineering. And, hey, I have no reason to complain about a great product that I use for free. I just thought I'd offer some feedback that it's starting to look like biting off a huge amount of work and complexity for little gains in usability.

Anyway, thanks for the quick responses.

[kovidgoyal]

The cover browsing mode isn't there to enhance usability, it's there because it was fun to code. While my primary motivation for writing calibre is that I'm a voracious reader and I find it insanely useful, I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't have fun coding

Gentoo is actually pretty bad unless you use ~ARCH (even python 2.5 is ~x86). I will update the instructions for gentoo once the ebuilds hit at least ~x86

[don1011]

I have a 1.7 gigs library and after 5 working days, my data are not yet compressed, Can i reverse the processus or solve the problem an other way?

[kovidgoyal]

What do you mean by "data not compressed"?

[don1011]

In the configuration, advanced section, I clicked '' compact database''. My calibre program works since that time for , i suppose , trying to compact the database. May i cancel this fonction?

[kovidgoyal]

it's generally not a good idea to cancel the comapct function, as it could result in a corrupted database. Do you have a backup of the old database?

[don1011]

No I don't. Is it normal to take so long to compact the database? Do i have just to wait? Is it possible that my database is already corrupt? How can i Know? What ps my solution?
Thanks

[kovidgoyal]

Compacting does take a while, but 5 days seems excessive. is there still disk/CPU usage on your computer?

[don1011]

I have 2 gig of ram. In my task manager, calibre use between 0 and 18 CPU.

[don1011]

I still have 50% CPU usage availaible. If i want to delete a book. i have to wait and it is is many books , i could have to wait 15 minutes

[kovidgoyal]

then it's still working. Unless you really need to reboot your computer, I suggest waiting.