7.1 - Only splash screen on Acer 714 chromebooK

[cliffskoog]

Hi
Kovid writes me that he has no chromebook, so he can't help. Therefore I'm posting here. He suggested I try try to reinstall with debug options, but I was spooked when I couldn't run Calibre and reverted to 6.29, I'll probably follow his advice when Calibre gets to 7.2 and Chrome to 120 or more, but for now I'm just relieved to have 6.29.
When I first tried to upgrade, I was told to install an xcb cursor package, which I did. The second time Calibre did seem to install, but only the splash screen appeared.
Maybe someone has suggestions?
Thanks

[PeterT]

See a post I just made on using flatpak for calibre on a chromebook. Check the Library Management forum.

I've also had luck with native calibre and the Chromebook; just need to document what I did .

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[cliffskoog]

Hi
I entered that
'sudo apt install libopengl0 libxcb-cursor0 libnss3'
and I was told they were already installed.
And I don't understand about the Wayland option.
Flatpak? I'd rather live with 6.29 awhile longer.
Thanks for giving me something to try though!

[PeterT]

I was just trying to document what I did from a clean install of the linux environment. Your mileage might vary.

Wayland is just the code that talks between an application (calibre) and the display (screen of the chromebook in this case).


A flatpak is just a means of packaging an application along with all of dependencies; installing a flatpak does not change any of the underlying O/S components.

[kovidgoyal]

All you need to do is run calibre like this:

QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb calibre

[cliffskoog]

YES. That worked. Make it sticky for other lost souls!
And I get to thank you again too.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Wayland is just the code that talks between an application (calibre) and the display (screen of the chromebook in this case).

Unfortunately they seem to have released an Alpha version, not even Beta. It's buggy, lacking components and compatibility. Maybe it's a better idea than X-Windows, but so far the implementation is useless.

Originally Posted by PeterT

A flatpak is just a means of packaging an application along with all of dependencies; installing a flatpak does not change any of the underlying O/S components.

Unfortunately it solves dependencies by creating other issues. I only use flatpak or snap if deb or author install isn't available. Maybe it's a good idea and it's not as broken as Wayland. It may also by default only install for the user installing (or upgrading).

[cliffskoog]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

All you need to do is run calibre like this:

QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb calibre

It is very welcome also that in 7.1 I now can scroll with my touchscreen, with 6.29 that was not possible.

However the way I now have to start Calibre with the terminal command above has another drawback: I now have to add books by navigating to their folder from within Calibre. Before I could add books from the ChromeOS filebrowser's context menu. These issues are really only inconveniences, but if there is a fix, I would like to know. I suspect that the answer might be in the launcher commands. I have tried to substitute the new terminal command into it, but that did not work. Calibre's ChromeOS Linux launcher is in usr/share/applications

Here is what it looks like, and thanks some more if you have any suggestions:

Spoiler:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=calibre
GenericName=E-book library management
Comment=E-book library management: Convert, view, share, catalogue all your e-books
TryExec=calibre
Exec=calibre --detach %U
Icon=calibre-gui
Categories=Office;
X-GNOME-UsesNotifications=true
MimeType=application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroenabled.12;text/x-markdown;application/epub+zip;application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text;application/x-cb7;text/fb2+xml;application/ereader;application/x-mobipocket-subscription;text/plain;application/x-cbc;application/oebps-package+xml;application/x-sony-bbeb;text/html;image/vnd.djvu;application/x-cbz;text/rtf;application/x-cbr;application/xhtml+xml;application/x-mobipocket-ebook;application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document;applicati on/x-ruby;application/pdf;application/x-mobi8-ebook;x-scheme-handler/calibre;

[PeterT]

I took the approach of initially copying that file to my home directory.
cp /usr/share/applications/calibre-gui.desktop ~/test.desktop

I then edited test.desktop and changed
name=calibre to name=Test

and the line
Exec=calibre --detach %U to Exec=env QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb calibre --detach %U

Then did
desktop-file-validate test.desktop
to ensure I had no errors.

Finally did
sudo desktop-file-install test.desktop

I now have a new application in the ChromeBook's Linux Application folder called Test which successfully launches calibre.

After that I cleaned up by removing the test application
sudo rm /usr/share/applications/test.desktop

recopying the calibre-gui.desktop file and making the one required change to it
cp /usr/share/applications/calibre-gui.desktop ~/

Exec=calibre --detach %U to exec=env QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb calibre --detach %U


and finally reinstalled the desktop file
sudo desktop-file-install calibre-gui.desktop

My limited testing showed no issues, and no need to edit the other calibre desktop files.

I had NO problems selecting a file in the ChromeBook's File manager app and selecting to open it with calibre.

[cliffskoog]

Wow. That was an informative post. Now I know more about setting up generic ChromeOS linux launchers too! I expected it should be simple, but before I knew not what I was doing.
Thanks.

[PeterT]

I will admit this was all brand new to me! Google was my friend in learning about the desktop file, and the key was reading about the exec= option and using the env command in it

[PeterT]

I also think that simply installing the modified calibre-gui.desktop to ~/.local/share/applications/ will override the one in /usr/share/applications and will have the benefit of surviving calibre reinstalls.

desktop-file-install --dir=${HOME}/.local/share/applications/ calibre-gui.desktop

[cliffskoog]

Yes. I will get a round Tuit.
Thanks.