Calibre Server resolution on Ubuntu 20.04

[pvspain]

I run calibre-server on a headless Linode VM. I am also a paying supporter of this project.

Around 6 months ago, there was a change to the source for calibre-server that introduced a dependency for graphics libraries. This is most unusual for an application designed to run headless.

A possible scenario was the unintentional introduction to the server source of a dependency previously only used in the GUI calibre client which imported a Qt module.

I tried to point this out to Kovid Goyal but was treated quite rudely and given the standard answer of install the graphics libraries. Going down this path led to a situation where the graphics library versions on the calibre build server fell behind the version of the same library on the vanilla Ubuntu 20.04 long term support (LTS) version on Linode VMs. This would only be reconciled by updating dependencies on the calibre build server to LTS versions. I diplomatically pointed this out, but again Kovid Goyal would not investigate.

It is now possible (Calibre 6.21) once again to install calibre-server on vanilla Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on Linode VMs. The requirement for graphics libraries for calibre-server remains in place, and can be resolved by this command:
sudo apt install libopengl0 libglx0 libxcomposite1 libxdamage1 libxrandr2 libxtst6 libxkbfile1

I hope this may help other hapless souls who only want to run calibre headless on Ubuntu.

If this of interest to you, I have developed a systemd daemon for autorestart of calibre server, and nginx pass-through setup enabling SSL server and also client certificates for improved security. I am happy to share the code.

[pvspain]

Correction. I am running Calibre 6.2.1 not 6.21.

[kovidgoyal]

There is nothing unintentional about it and if you had bothered to do even a little bit of reading you would know that. For instance: https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...n-linux-server

And if you are going to bleat about me being rude to you, please go do it elsewhere.

[pvspain]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018...learn-empathy/

[kovidgoyal]

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

[theducks]

Originally Posted by pvspain

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018...learn-empathy/

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/fa...ing_guidelinesI will remind you of the Mobileread guidelines (rule 1 )

[CubGeek]

Originally Posted by pvspain

I tried to point this out to Kovid Goyal but was treated quite rudely

This is not surprising nor uncommon, unfortunately. Luckily, the other denizens of this set of sub-forums are incredibly helpful and generally point people in good directions.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by CubGeek

This is not surprising nor uncommon, unfortunately. Luckily, the other denizens of this set of sub-forums are incredibly helpful and generally point people in good directions.

As a percentage of Kovid's posts, the ones where he might seem deliberately rude (as against being abrupt because he simply posts a link to an FAQ, or heaven forbid, a link to the commit for the fix) is absolutely tiny. But, if you only look at posts where he is responding to someone who is being rude or making demands, such as the first post here, it probably seems like he is rude quite often.

And looking at the first post, @pvspain states they told Kovid about an issue with newer libraries on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS breaking calibre. I can't find the discussion as @pvspain only the three posts in this thread, which seems strange. So I don't know if this is one of the times where a Linux distro decided to adopt a beta version of calibre as their current version and hence calibre and lots of plugins stopped working.