Adventures in Linux

[JustinThought]

So this is a little off-topic, but (I think) mostly on-topic.

A little background. I do most of my e-book editing on my (more powerful) desktop, which is not and will not be connected to the internet. Lately I've been getting some noises and slowdowns on my boot drive which is prompting me to get another drive and effectively duplicate everything (programs and data) on it. But I thought while I have this pristine environment, I might as well go ahead and load Linux so I can learn that environment as well. Way off topic, what I'm considering right now is a Linux called Deepin, but that might change.

So, to get back to what this forum is all about, my question is, am I going to experience difficulty getting Sigil loaded on this Linux partition without being able to directly access the internet? Also, any suggestions or recommendations from you more experienced Linux-ers regarding e-book readers, etc. would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JustinThought

So, to get back to what this forum is all about, my question is, am I going to experience difficulty getting Sigil loaded on this Linux partition without being able to directly access the internet? Also, any suggestions or recommendations from you more experienced Linux-ers regarding e-book readers, etc. would be appreciated.

The short answer is, yes. You're probably going to have difficulty without an internet connection no matter how you look at it. There is no standalone installable package for Sigil on Linux.

On new enough Linuxes, you can install Sigil directly from software repos (I'm not familiar with Deepin, however), but that involves an internet connection -- for both Sigil and its dependencies. It may not be the latest version of Sigil, though.

If you decide to build Sigil yourself, there's still build-tools and dependencies that are going to have to be met that will be a nightmare to try and get in order without a direct internet connection.

I have an experimental stand-alone Linux package for Sigil that is testing pretty well, but there's no guarantee it will ever be ready for Primetime.

[JustinThought]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The short answer is, yes. You're probably going to have difficulty without an internet connection no matter how you look at it. There is no standalone installable package for Sigil on Linux.

//snip//

Thanks for your prompt response! --even though it wasn't the response I wanted, but reality is a female doggie. If I ever need to replace the boot drive on my internet-connected laptop, maybe I'll give it a shot that way.

[DiapDealer]

No problem. Believe me, I'm a big Sigil/Linux proponent, too. I just know an uphill battle when I see it.

[st_albert]

Originally Posted by JustinThought

Thanks for your prompt response! --even though it wasn't the response I wanted, but reality is a female doggie. If I ever need to replace the boot drive on my internet-connected laptop, maybe I'll give it a shot that way.

Don't forget, a computer can be set up to dual-boot, very easily. And if your laptop has enough free space, you wouldn't need to replace the boot drive first (though that would be the best time to do it, I suppose.) I'd think a modest "starter" linux install could get by on maybe 50Gb or less.

Albert

[radius]

Do you mean you have NO machines with an Internet connection? Or just that this SPECIFIC machine doesn't? Because you could do the code checkout on one machine and then rsync that over to your main desktop and build there.

(Edit: just saw that you have an internet connected laptop so ignore the first paragraph)

There isn't a Linux based ebook reader that I am happy with. I can't seem to wrap my head around FBReader's user interface. I don't want to install Calibre just to use its reader. I didn't get along with Cool Reader but I don't remember why any more (and I'm kind of mistrusting of projects that are still on Sourceforge). And there is a Firefox plugin or two that kind of work-ish but aren't great.

A long time ago, I think Sony's reader software running with WINE was my favourite option, but I'm not sure that would work any more because it might try to call home on install and then find nobody there. I didn't have any success getting ADE to run under WINE, but it might be better now.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

If you decide to build Sigil yourself, there's still build-tools and dependencies that are going to have to be met that will be a nightmare to try and get in order without a direct internet connection.

Several years ago I set up a MythTV box for the first time whilst having no internet at home. It was a 'proof of concept' initially and so I used old hardware including a couple of hard-drives borrowed from other PCs.

I started with a Suse DVD from a Linux magazine and researched what sources I might need and downloaded them at work. I think I burned them on to a re-writable DVD.

I mention the harddrives because whilst MythTV itself had a fair amount of dependencies, I also had to (well not had to but really wanted to) re-compile my kernel so it had LVM support (so I could stripe my filesystem across the different physical disks - otherwise I only had space enough for a few recordings).

All in all there was a lot of compiling and whilst it took a few days of "compile, hit a problem, find answer and/or download missing software and repeat", it was fewer than you might think.

If the OP has another computer connected to the internet in the same house then he's already better off than I was.

Still it's a fair amount of work and those were the days when I did that sort of thing for fun.

More serious suggestion - but still involves some work - it appears Deepin is based on Debian Sid, which does have a sigil 0.9.7 package (see here) so you could install it from a .deb package downloaded via the other laptop. You might go through a few cycles of trying to install and having to get more dependency .deb's but it might be worth a try.

[JustinThought]

Thanks to everyone for checking in with your helpful suggestions. In the end, as I was setting up the new drive for the desktop, I chickened out at the last minute. As I was preparing to install the Linux, it said, "You are ready to install Linux on your computer. Be sure you have blah blah blah and an internet connection..." Oops. That's not my final answer, but it's where I'm sitting now.

I DO have a USB wireless connector I could use on that machine, but when I bought it, out of all the many many choices, I managed to pick the one with which NO version of Linux is compatible.

The good news is, my original boot disk hasn't crashed (yet), so this one is waiting in the wings available for me to screw it up in any way I wish without ruining my day. :0

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by JustinThought

Thanks to everyone for checking in with your helpful suggestions. In the end, as I was setting up the new drive for the desktop, I chickened out at the last minute. As I was preparing to install the Linux, it said, "You are ready to install Linux on your computer. Be sure you have blah blah blah and an internet connection..." Oops. That's not my final answer, but it's where I'm sitting now.

I DO have a USB wireless connector I could use on that machine, but when I bought it, out of all the many many choices, I managed to pick the one with which NO version of Linux is compatible.

The good news is, my original boot disk hasn't crashed (yet), so this one is waiting in the wings available for me to screw it up in any way I wish without ruining my day. :0

No network port?

[JustinThought]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

No network port?

Probably have the port, but I don't have cables or a router. I could snag all that, but it'd be cheaper to get a different USB wireless connector--one that works with Linux. It's just not the priority right now. No $$.

I'll keep playing with it, though. I'd love to get away from Windows and get serious about learning to get along with Linux, eventually.

[xingenter]

Does anyone think this might be a help in creating installable packages for Linux?

https://www.ostechnix.com/build-linu...tforms-easily/

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by evilmrb

Does anyone think this might be a help in creating installable packages for Linux?

https://www.ostechnix.com/build-linu...tforms-easily/

It might be. But I really don't want to be the one creating multiple packages to test/provide/maintain.

The problem is that Sigil requires a minimum version of gcc/glibc to build/run. That's currently gcc 4.8 and glibc 2.19 (-ish). In the Ubuntu world, that's the area of 14.04 (Trusty). But Trusty doesn't have the minimum Qt5 in its repos (5.4) to be able to have Sigil in it's repos.

So what we basically have is older (pre-gcc4.8, pre-glibc 2.19) machines that Sigil is never going to run on (without major, non-standard upgrades). Then we have a tiny window of OSes that can build/run Sigil, but can't provide it in repos (only Trusty in the Ubuntu world). Then we have newer OSes that are providing Sigil in their repos.

It just doesn't make a lot of logistic sense to test/provide/maintain a slew of packages for the tiny subset of Linux distros that is capable of building/running Sigil, but doesn't already have it available in their package management systems.

I'm still working toward a one-size-fits-all package that will work on all (glibc2.19+) machines, but it may never make it to "official" status. I may make an unofficial version available for the Sigil 0.9.8 release. We'll see.