Finally got 1

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by rcentros

The repositories for Linux Mint (one example, what I use) are way out of date.

... though frankly except for Python 3 support and fixed-up news recipes (which are wonderful!), even Calibre 2 still worked perfectly well for me. I don't understand why Kovid thinks his software in particular is so special that it is a massive sin if people want to keep it stable and unchanging for a couple of years (as you would if, y'know, you're using it for critical workflows like keeping your library going). The only other person I know of with this attitude is Jamie Zawinski with XScreenSaver (and at least that is software that can have serious security implications and Jamie is a semi-legend who is *very* good at working them out, so his attitude is almost justifiable).

If every author had this attitude, you'd have to maintain literally *thousands* of packages yourself, and you'd have no time left to do anything else and your system would probably not work very well. Why is Calibre more special than everything else on your system? e.g. LibreOffice is vastly more complex but you don't see the LO maintainers saying "don't use the distro LO it's always broken use our stuff from upstream".

(I further note that the one time there was a serious security hole in Calibre, a very long time ago now, the distros reported it, and Kovid reacted commendably fast and... kicked up a huge fight over it and generally acted exactly like you'd hope the author of software recently discovered to have rootable security holes wouldn't. I literally know people who have used that bug thread as an example in security training.

A few days after it hit the news and sprayed terrible everywhere, Kovid did remove the frankly entirely unnecessary code that had the trivial root hole in the first place, but only after implementing five or six completely hopeless "fixes" that wouldn't come close to fixing the problem. After that, I don't really trust Kovid's security posture, which is a bit worrying given that this software pulls stuff off random Internet sites. I would say that if you want a secure system, and you don't need new features in newer Calibres, don't use Kovid's Calibre. Use your distro's. This is a good general rule: the distro is more likely to be secure and well-integrated than random upstreams are. That is, after all, the distro's job.)

(disclaimer: I work for a distro vendor, though not on the distro. Oh and note that the thank-god-not-security-critical software I'm a maintainer for, I'm quite happy to have people use literally years'-old versions of, versions randomly hacked by distros etc. Maintainers cannot and should not attempt to dictate what versions of their software people should use, let alone badmouth people distributing it for free.)

[Gandulf]

Thanks, normally manually install software using terminal, but didn't this time. Will make a plan to fix it.

Don't suppose anyone has seen one of the free ebooks on this forum posted in the kfx format? Want to see if it will be worth all the trouble installing an old version of windows that supports calibre and the kfx output plugin. Think I got almost all original versions of Windows from the dos ones to windows 7. Just can't use 7 anymore as did my 2 installations.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by NullNix

I don't understand why Kovid thinks his software in particular is so special that it is a massive sin if people want to keep it stable and unchanging for a couple of years

I don't get the impression that he thinks Calibre is so special, but that it's tiresome answering questions when people are using an old, sometimes very old, version of Calibre and all they need to do is install the latest version.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I don't get the impression that he thinks Calibre is so special, but that it's tiresome answering questions when people are using an old, sometimes very old, version of Calibre and all they need to do is install the latest version.

Yep. The new versions almost always include some bug fixes or a feature implemented because people wanted it.

Moreover, Calibre needs frequent updating because it supports a variety of ereaders. If a new ereader gets released (or a Kobo reader gets a firmware update), people expect Calibre to support it ASAP. And yes, people using an old version of Calibre have bought a new ereader and then complained here that Calibre doesn't support their reader.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

Don't suppose anyone has seen one of the free ebooks on this forum posted in the kfx format?

I have attached a KFX conversion of this edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Added: And also this edition, suggested by JSWolf.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I don't get the impression that he thinks Calibre is so special, but that it's tiresome answering questions when people are using an old, sometimes very old, version of Calibre and all they need to do is install the latest version.

The problem is a lot of the version out there in repositories are garbage. They are either old versions, Python 3 beta versions, or versions that don't work. The problem is that some of the repository maintainers haven't a clue how to maintain Calibre. Kovid once posted that Linux is the least used OS with Calibre but with the most support issues. This is due to the problems with most repositories.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I have attached a KFX conversion of this edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Mind replacing this version with the original 1818 version (that's also well formatted)?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=294958

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Mind replacing this version with the original 1818 version (that's also well formatted)?

I added that one to my post.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I added that one to my post.

Thanks. I think the original 1818 version is the best version of Mary Shelly's book.

[Gandulf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I have attached a KFX conversion of this edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Added: And also this edition, suggested by JSWolf.

Thanks, so it makes use of a hyphen now. No change to margins or line spacing?

[Gandulf]

Originally Posted by ps67

I use Ubuntu 20.04 and I downloaded calibre (actually 4.22) from the official site because this is the advice of Kovid Goyal, the creator of calibre. It works perfectly. I have never tried the distribution version so I have no experience with that.

I also have a Windows 10 dual boot that I use only for KFX plugin, ADE and Kobo Desktop. So my calibre in Linux handles my Kobo and my Pocketbook, my calibre in Windows 10 handles my Kindle.

Do you share the same directory for your ebooks or must you install books on ubuntu and then the windows version?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

Thanks, so it makes use of a hyphen now. No change to margins or line spacing?

The most visible change is automatic hyphenation. (You can also get that in KF8/azw3 format using the "Add soft hyphens" polish feature in calibre.) Margins will generally be the same. With KFX large line spacing encoded in the formatting some books will be reduced.

KFX will obey the widows/orphans properties encoded in books. Some people find that annoying since it can cause extra blank space at the end of pages.

More subtle changes are use of typographic ligatures and kerning and the ability to switch between justified text and ragged right margin using the Aa menu.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

Do you share the same directory for your ebooks or must you install books on ubuntu and then the windows version?

I use two separated libraries, but not all books now are on my Windows partition, only those that go on the Kindle. I don't know if there are problems in using one only library for both, but until I have space enough on my SSD I don't care of it.

[JSWolf]

Another case of Calibre not working properly due to a botched Repository.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...61#post4025961

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Another case of Calibre not working properly due to a botched Repository.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...61#post4025961

How do you know that? Without more debugging output it might just be that the plugin requires a newer Calibre. That's not 'botched', that's 'don't use a version of Calibre from a location which specializes in stability if what you need is a feature not available in the old stable version'. This sort of "don't randomly upgrade and risk breaking stuff that already works" is what many Linux distributions are *for*. In particular, what distros usually guarantee is that stuff you install *from a distribution* works with other stuff *from that distribution*. Not being psychics, distro maintainers obviously do not and cannot guarantee that things from the distribution work with random plugins downloaded from random places on the Internet, which is what the attached poster is trying to do.

The problem here is really Calibre: it has no real versioning in its plugin interface, so it cannot determine that a plugin needs a later version of Calibre, or tell the user that, or say what version it needs. (This is, frankly, a neophyte software engineering error. And yes the last part can be done without precognition.)

(Downloading stuff from random places on the Internet, rather than getting it from the distro, is fairly terrifying to a Linux user, and frankly should be fairly terrifying to anyone who uses computers in this day and age: who knows what's in it? Calibre plugins can execute arbitrary code: do you have time to read the code and make sure it's not doing all sorts of nefarious stuff? The packages in the distro, you don't need to be worried about... the distro is a curated source. That's what it's *for*.)

If you want a bleeding-edge distro, use one of those: they usually have much more recent Calibres (and much more recent everything elses, and more breakage of things that previously worked as a consequence).

If you want to use bleeding-edge stuff downloaded from random places on the Internet, I'd agree that (given Calibre's plugin API design errors), using the latest upstream Calibre is probably necessary. But that's not the distros' fault, and it's not a sign that distro repos are in any way broken. They're doing precisely what they're designed for. The fault here is Calibre's poor plugin API and a design that expects to download code from random places on the internet with no signing or even hash verification: all you get is a warning that ooh this might be dangerous. In the modern world this sort of thing is just not anywhere close to adequate. I'm frankly amazed that nobody has exploited this to replace a popular plugin and attack Calibre users en masse yet: probably Calibre is too niche for the attackers to bother with (God knows what user figure that might be, I'm not an attacker: five million users? fifty?)