Calibre on Wine: book import from Kindle does not display file dates

[fredex]

I have, in the past run Calibre on Windows 10, to import Kindle books, and in that environment the file listing shown in Calibre includes the date/time for the files from which to choose.

I am now running Calibre in Wine on Ubuntu Linux, and importing kindle books works fine*, HOWEVER, Calibre's import file listing does not show the file dates. this makes it hard to find the one(s) I want to import, since Amazon kindly uses gibberish for the file names.

Is this a bug, or a feature? Any known way around it?

thanks in advance!

Fred

*to import Kindle books into Calibre you need to go read Apprentice Alf's blog and follow the instructions there. https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/

[BetterRed]

Try setting the CALIBRE_NO_NATIVE_FILEDIALOGS environment variable to 1. See ==>> https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cus...ment-variables

Curious : why are you running Calibre for Windows under Wine on Linux and not Calibre for Linux on Linux.

BR

[fredex]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Try setting the CALIBRE_NO_NATIVE_FILEDIALOGS environment variable to 1. See ==>> https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cus...ment-variables

Curious : why are you running Calibre for Windows under Wine on Linux and not Calibre for Linux on Linux.

BR

because Kindle for PC only works on windows/Wine, there is no native linux version. (see the footnote in my original post).

thanks for the pointer to the environment variable, I'll give that a whirl.

[fredex]

Yup, that works. Took a little messing around to get it set up correctly in Wine, but it works great.

thanks for the pointer!

Fred

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by fredex

because Kindle for PC only works on windows/Wine, there is no native linux version. (see the footnote in my original post).

thanks for the pointer to the environment variable, I'll give that a whirl.

That's another good reason for me not to buy a kindle

Glad file dialogue tip worked, I was looking in Look and Feel then I remembered it was an env-var.

BR

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

That's another good reason for me not to buy a kindle

An e-ink Kindle actually provides a way to get copies with removable DRM.

Kindle for PC/Mac is meant for reading on just PC/Mac. It doesn't transfer content to devices like iTunes for example.

Mind, the roadblocks Amazon has recently put in place has me wary of buying Kindle ebooks.

P.S. Besides, doesn't ADE and Kobo for Desktop require Wine as well?

[latepaul]

I see you've got a solution now but note that just because you run K4PC via Wine doesn't mean you have to run Calibre via Wine.

I run K4PC via Wine on Linux Mint 19 and run Calibre natively. Everything works fine.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by latepaul

I see you've got a solution now but note that just because you run K4PC via Wine doesn't mean you have to run Calibre via Wine.

I run K4PC via Wine on Linux Mint 19 and run Calibre natively. Everything works fine.

Been a while since I tried Dual boot and Wine. (I now mostly use Mint on a USB stick to recover stuff)
But it annoyed me that I could not use things like the native (Linux) Firefox INTEGRATED with Wine. I always had to do some clunky 'work-around' if I wanted to cross the OS border.
Has this changed?

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by theducks

Been a while since I tried Dual boot and Wine. (I now mostly use Mint on a USB stick to recover stuff)
But it annoyed me that I could not use things like the native (Linux) Firefox INTEGRATED with Wine. I always had to do some clunky 'work-around' if I wanted to cross the OS border.
Has this changed?

Not sure what you mean. I know there's some attempt to set things up so if your Windows-app-running-under-Wine needs to launch a URL it launches in Firefox - is that what you're talking about?

I'm pretty sure I've had that work, but I can believe there are (still) cases where it doesn't.

But since I mostly use Wine for K4PC and ADE I don't need to do that.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Not sure what you mean. I know there's some attempt to set things up so if your Windows-app-running-under-Wine needs to launch a URL it launches in Firefox - is that what you're talking about?

I'm pretty sure I've had that work, but I can believe there are (still) cases where it doesn't.

But since I mostly use Wine for K4PC and ADE I don't need to do that.

Yep, but Win firefox had to be installed. I wanted the ability to designate Linux side apps eg Use Linux:Firefox, Use Linux:Calibre, Use Wine: Notepad++

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by theducks

Yep, but Win firefox had to be installed. I wanted the ability to designate Linux side apps eg Use Linux:Firefox, Use Linux:Calibre, Use Wine: Notepad++

Still not quite sure what you mean. I suspect you have a different workflow in mind.

In general when I'm running Linux - which is most of the time - I use Linux apps. I only use Wine for those apps I need to run under Wine and those aren't trying to launch other apps. So if I want a browser I launch (Linux) Chrome in the normal way, same with Calibre, same with whatever the default text editor is (if it's actual serious editting I'll open a terminal+vim).

I'm sure your use case is valid but it sounds more sophisticated than mine.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Still not quite sure what you mean. I suspect you have a different workflow in mind.

In general when I'm running Linux - which is most of the time - I use Linux apps. I only use Wine for those apps I need to run under Wine and those aren't trying to launch other apps. So if I want a browser I launch (Linux) Chrome in the normal way, same with Calibre, same with whatever the default text editor is (if it's actual serious editting I'll open a terminal+vim).

I'm sure your use case is valid but it sounds more sophisticated than mine.

Not really. Simply, if the Wine side needs/wants an app that there is a Linux version, it should pass the call, not make me install another under Wine. I have many bookmarks in FF, why should I need to migrate those to FF wine.
I've enough

[fredex]

Originally Posted by latepaul

I see you've got a solution now but note that just because you run K4PC via Wine doesn't mean you have to run Calibre via Wine.

I run K4PC via Wine on Linux Mint 19 and run Calibre natively. Everything works fine.

True, you don't HAVE to run both proggies under Wine,... however, if you want to use Calibre to remove DRM from the kindle book it is just easier if both programs run on the same windows installation (or the same Wine installation).

since my Windows Insider installation of Win10 blew up I've given up on it entirely and just do the Wine thing now.

I actually have my "main" calibre in linux, too. after processing the ebook in the Wine version I export the book from there and import it into the Linux Calibre. (there are many ways to remove the fur from a feline, this just happens to be the one I chose.)

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by theducks

Not really. Simply, if the Wine side needs/wants an app that there is a Linux version, it should pass the call, not make me install another under Wine. I have many bookmarks in FF, why should I need to migrate those to FF wine.
I've enough

Ok. It was your talk of 'designating' certain apps as either Linux or Wine that confused me. As I said I don't launch other programs from K4PC or ADE.

But to return to the point of your original question, since I'm now at my home PC and have tested it, I can confirm that if I click on a menu item in K4PC that launches a URL it uses the Linux default browser to do so. This is the one set by xdg-settings/the one that xdg-open uses. Mine is Chrome but I switched to Firefox and that worked too.

But I don't blame you for being wary of Wine. Last time I tried to install ADE I failed and what I'm using now is the whole prefix dir restored from a backup.

That wariness is also why I expressed surprise at someone running Calibre under Wine when IMO they don't need to. But to each his own.

[jmontano]

Originally Posted by theducks

Not really. Simply, if the Wine side needs/wants an app that there is a Linux version, it should pass the call, not make me install another under Wine. I have many bookmarks in FF, why should I need to migrate those to FF wine.
I've enough

Trying to open the equivalent windows app is an annoying WINE default setting. But you can override it

Here are some tips from Arch Linux wiki