me idiot updated calibre

[bellalugosi]

Hi,
I don't know why but I thought it would be a good idea to update calibre, but it turned out to be stupid to break the rule don't touch a running system.
I am on Debian 9 and was on Calibre 3.
Now that I updated (via wget... linux-installer.sh) not only my complete configuration was overwritten with 'start from scratch' but the ebook-viewer doesn't open anymore (out of the GUI) .
If I try to start it with /opt/calibre/bin/ebook-viewer I get an error msg: /opt/calibre/bin/ebook-viewer: error while loading shared libraries: libcalibre-launcher.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
ro

Now I regret being so naive. thinking that updating is a good idea, although I should have known better. It is dangerous.
Anybody has an idea what caused the problem?

[kovidgoyal]

You need to run /opt/calibre/ebook-viewer

[bellalugosi]

Thanks for the hint.

If I do that I get an error saying running as root without - - no-sandbox is not supported. If I add no-sandbox it says 'no such option'.
So, Gui working, Database working, but viewer not working - as root.
Does that make sense?

[kovidgoyal]

why are you running as root? Dont do that.

[bellalugosi]

because it is the easiest.
no security needed.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by bellalugosi

because it is the easiest.
no security needed.

And if you leave your doors unlocked, it's easier as well. You want to make the malefactor do some work.

You might want to check this thread: New ebook-viewer in Linux - problem running as root

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by bellalugosi

because it is the easiest.
no security needed.

Bad idea, which makes me wonder what else you might have done.

Running as a non-priviledged user has other non-security related benefits as well, such as not accidentally messing up a system file, not having a broken or malicious program blow away your whole system, etc.

[compurandom]

Running applications as root also tends to scramble your user profile. That's probably why your calibre configuration was lost -- it can't find it because it is confused which user it should be pulling it from.

Likely the permissions on your account profile are also wrong now.

Running applications as root is NOT easier. It just makes a mess.

[bellalugosi]

Thank you for the link ebook-viewer in Linux - problem running as root. It helped setting the environment variable so that the viewer will show up as root, as it always was. Qt5, so many things...

And by all gods, why do always - if you say you run a system as root - the educators come out of their caves waving their fingers. I said I have my reason isn't thst enough?
I do it fir 20 years now, nothing ever happened, the computer is for nothing but playing around, has no internet, no one has access to it. And guess what, I know about backups.
For every reason you say it's dangerous there is a method to fix it. So just leave those noobs alone with their silly and ridiculous root access.
Thank you.

[bellalugosi]

Originally Posted by compurandom

Running applications as root also tends to scramble your user profile. That's probably why your calibre configuration was lost

maybe yes I don't know.

Originally Posted by compurandom

Likely the permissions on your account profile are also wrong now.

no they are not

Originally Posted by compurandom

Running applications as root is NOT easier. It just makes a mess.

Not true in my case

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by bellalugosi

Thank you for the link ebook-viewer in Linux - problem running as root. It helped setting the environment variable so that the viewer will show up as root, as it always was. Qt5, so many things...

And by all gods, why do always - if you say you run a system as root - the educators come out of their caves waving their fingers. I said I have my reason isn't thst enough?
I do it fir 20 years now, nothing ever happened, the computer is for nothing but playing around, has no internet, no one has access to it. And guess what, I know about backups.
For every reason you say it's dangerous there is a method to fix it. So just leave those noobs alone with their silly and ridiculous root access.
Thank you.

The main issue for me is that it encourages bad habits. What I do on my computers at home tends to be reflected in how I manage the computers at work. Not using root on Unix/linux is a good habit much like not using an administrator account on MacOSX or Windows. Save root/administrator for when you need that level of access. Login as an enterprise admin when you need that level of access, use a standard account to check your email or join in a video session or other normal user level activities.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The main issue for me is that it encourages bad habits. What I do on my computers at home tends to be reflected in how I manage the computers at work. Not using root on Unix/linux is a good habit much like not using an administrator account on MacOSX or Windows. Save root/administrator for when you need that level of access. Login as an enterprise admin when you need that level of access, use a standard account to check your email or join in a video session or other normal user level activities.

Moreover, I go one step further. I have separate "users" for various files that I want to keep and ensure that I don't accidentally mess them up. My music, photos, long term archived documents (e.g. scans of important stuff), etc all have a different "user" that owns them, and my regular user account has read-only permissions to them.

If I want to manage those files I have to change to that user to make changes -- this way my day to day user cannot accidentally mess them up, either via a brain-dead mistake, or via a buggy or malicious application.

[Sirtel]

I have no idea about Linux, but I cannot imagine using Windows without admin access, and have not done so in all the years I've had personal computers. Can you even update Calibre with an ordinary user account?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by twowheels

Moreover, I go one step further. I have separate "users" for various files that I want to keep and ensure that I don't accidentally mess them up. My music, photos, long term archived documents (e.g. scans of important stuff), etc all have a different "user" that owns them, and my regular user account has read-only permissions to them.

If I want to manage those files I have to change to that user to make changes -- this way my day to day user cannot accidentally mess them up, either via a brain-dead mistake, or via a buggy or malicious application.

I have back-ups for that purpose. Constantly logging in and out with different users is about the most clumsy way I can imagine managing one's files. Of course, I'm on Windows. Possibly Linux is different.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I have back-ups for that purpose. Constantly logging in and out with different users is about the most clumsy way I can imagine managing one's files. Of course, I'm on Windows. Possibly Linux is different.

It's quite easy, I don't have to log-out and log back in. Linux is very flexible, everything is harder in Windows if you know your way around a computer. (I'm a software developer and have used both Windows and Linux since they each respectively first came out, and other Unix OSes before Linux existed [even working as a developer on a Unix OS before Linux], so I think that I can say I know my way around a computer)

You can have multiple full GUI environments running at once, each as a different user, if you want, and switch almost instantly with a very simple <CTRL><ALT><F#> (where # is the virutal desktop it's running on) keystroke, or if you're a command line user like me you can just open a terminal and prefix your modifying commands with (sudo -u <user> <command>), which is basically the same way that you get administrator (root) permissions, you prefix commands with sudo. If you want to run a single GUI program as one user and another GUI program as another user on the same GUI desktop you can.

Remember, I do this for files that are not actively changing and I don't want to get messed up, so it's not an every-day thing, but ensures that I cannot mess up my long term archived files by accident.