Any interest in Kobo Desktop for Linux?

[iGregory]

I have given up on the Kobo desk top app... I've installed Calibre and it's running swimmingly. I guess I'll just have to do all my shopping for books directly from the Kobo.

C'est la vie...

[nukedathlonman]

To install in 64-bit Kubuntu (or 64-bit Ubuntu, or 64-bit Ubuntu variants), you need the ia32 package installed. However, the ia32 package is missing a the libzip1 library. The fix, download the i386 libzip1 package from Debian Sid (http://packages.debian.org/sid/libzip1 . You need to be sudo to do this - using your favorite archive tool (I like midnight commander), place libzip.so.1.0.0 into </usr/lib32>, & then create a symlink in </usr/lib32> called <libzip.so.1> and point it at </usr/lib32/libzip.so.1.0.0>. After that, it should work no problem (at least it worked for me in Kubuntu 10.10). Sure would be nicer to have a native 64 bit version though as no hacks like this would be needed.

[oberon227]

I'm very interested in a Linux Desktop program. I'm running Kubuntu 10.10 64-bit.

I've downloaded version 1.8-1 of the program and installed it along with the 32-bit compatibility libraries.

It runs fine, but once I try to update my library, after a few seconds it crashes. The log in the terminal seems to suggest that it syncs fine, but then crashes trying to zip something. The error message is:

/usr/local/Kobo/Kobo: symbol lookup error: /usr/local/Kobo/libnickel.so.1: undefined symbol: zip_open

(The line previous to that is "finished FINISHED 7537760")

Has anyone encountered this error and solved it? I find it strange that a library that was installed with the program is causing it problems.

Other than that, I love that you (Kobo guys) have released a version for linux, even if it is unofficial. Keep it up!

[HarryH]

Hi

"with the 32-bit compatibility libraries".... what are the files I need to install , I am usinh Ubuntu 10.10

Harry

[oberon227]

For the sake of documentation, here are the steps I took to get the Kobo app working on Kubuntu 10.10 64-bit (should be exactly the same for Ubuntu 10.10)

From a terminal:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs libpng3
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture kobo-desktop.deb
sudo ln -s /usr/lib32/libz.so.1.2.3.4 /usr/local/Kobo/libzip.so.1

Libpng3 is a dependency for the kobo package. It might already be installed on your system.

The package is 32-bit, so you have to force it to install on a 64-bit OS. The package file was in my current working directory.

Kobo needs the 32-bit version of libzip. Since I didn't want to disturb my own libzip, I made a link from the 32-bit version into the Kobo directory.

After this, the Kobo Desktop program works fine, but doesn't Update due to the libnickel problem noted above. Your results may vary....

[HarryH]

[QUOTE
From a terminal:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs libpng3
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture kobo-desktop.deb
sudo ln -s /usr/lib32/libz.so.1.2.3.4 /usr/local/Kobo/libzip.so.1

Libpng3 is a dependency for the kobo package. It might already be installed on your system.

[/QUOTE]

It didn't work as it should .. yesterday I installed python 2.6 additional files and python 3 and related files ... Today the kobo desk works ..why ???? logged on looked at computer books found one on formating ebooks with open office ... 3.55 including tax ... .. checked my reader . its there ... reading it now

Harry

[zoran]

Originally Posted by HarryH

It didn't work as it should .. yesterday I installed python 2.6 additional files and python 3 and related files ... Today the kobo desk works ..why ???? logged on looked at computer books found one on formating ebooks with open office ... 3.55 including tax ... .. checked my reader . its there ... reading it now

Sounds you fulfilled dependencies. After that you probably
rebooted.

[oberon227]

Shame on me for not reading instructions.

After reading nukedathlonman's post (#167) a little closer, I tried a different version of libzip.

The one available here, http://packages.debian.org/sid/i386/libzip1/filelist, I created a link from /usr/lib/libzip.so.1.0.0 (installed by the package; not the one in /usr/lib32) to /usr/local/Kobo/libzip.so.1. Now it works. Hurray! :-)

(For the sake of completeness, I actually made a link named /usr/local/Kobo/libzip.so.1.0. That worked. I just renamed it to libzip.so.1, but since there was nothing to sync anymore, it might not work anymore. But at least I know that a link named /usr/local/Kobo/libzip.so.1.0 works.)

[snmilliken]

Anyone have any love for the 32 bit user?

Non Ubuntu system, but debian based. Tried running as root with no avail.

Still getting the GLIB error. Have followed the instructions the previous post again with no luck.

Any suggestion much appreciated.

[ringerc]

I'd love a chance to test an x64 debug (-g3) build of Kobo Desktop. Just a tarball is fine, no need to worry about RPM or deb packaging. I'm on Fedora 14, so I have a nice recent glibc and Qt. Please don't strip debug symbols - "nm appname" should list symbols, not report "no symbols". This will enable me to send much more detailed, much more useful crash reports if any failures occur.

[ringerc]

I thought I'd try to get Kobo Desktop running on my Fedora 14 x64 system. After a little fiddling I got it running as per the instructions below. It detects the Kobo, browsing the store works, etc. I haven't tried actually syncing.

I don't recommend trying all this unless you're reasonable comfy with Linux, and I ask that if you try it you make VERY SURE to clearly explain your unusual setup if you mention any issues with it on these forums.


First, create /opt/kobodesktop and grant ownership of it to your normal account. That is the LAST operation you should have to perform as root or using sudo:

sudo mkdir /opt/kobodesktop && sudo chown `whoami` /opt/kobodesktop

From now on, you do everything as your normal user. All effects are confined to /opt/kobodesktop, which you can delete at any time.

cd into the newly created /opt/kobodesktop and extract the contents of the deb archive and then data.tar.gz within it:

cd /opt/kobodesktop
ar x ~/Downloads/kobo-desktop.deb
tar xzf data.tar.gz
rm control.tar.gz data.tar.gz debian-binary

You will now have a directory tree containing the "usr/bin/Kobo" wrapper script, "usr/share/applications/Kobo.desktop" launcher icon, and "usr/local/{Kobo,Trolltech}" containing the app code.

If you're running Fedora x64 you now need to install the core 32-bit userspace using yum. I had to install the additional package libzip.i686 to satisfy dependencies of Qt and the Kobo application. If you don't already have a 32-bit userspace you'll need to install glibc.i686, libX11.i686 and probably other packages to provide a minimal 32-bit runtime. Use `ldd' to determine which libraries are missing - see below.

The Kobo app (or Qt) depend on OpenSSL 0.9.8 while Fedora ships OpenSSL 1.0. Building 32-bit binaries on FC14 is a real pain, because FC14 doesn't provide a native 32-bit gcc or a 64-bit gcc that cross compiles to emit 32-bit binaries. I located an OpenSSL 0.9.8 rpm from Fedora 11, the last release that shipped 0.9.8 (http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pu....fc11.i686.rpm). I cd'd to the directory I'd unpacked the Kobo Desktop deb into and unpacked it there with:

cd /opt/kobodesktop
rpm2cpio ../openssl-0.9.8k-1.fc11.i686.rpm | cpio -idmv
ln -s libssl.so.0.9.8k usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8
ln -s libcrypto.so.0.9.8k usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8


(Do **NOT** run this as root, or from your root directory (/), because it will overwrite the system libssl and cripple your system. Run it with your current directory as /opt/kobodesktop ).

I can now add that openssl to my LD_LIBRARY_PATH when invoking the Kobo Desktop app, along with its own directory and the TrollTech Qt lib directory like this, all on one line with no spaces:

QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.6.2/plugins LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/kobodesktop/usr/lib:/opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Kobo:/opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.6.2/lib /opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Kobo/Kobo

This can be popped in a wrapper script to keep you sane. If the Kobo application used rpath linking like it should (see: "man ld"), there would be no need to include the Kobo and Qt directories on LD_LIBRARY_PATH manually ... but it doesn't.

If you get errors about missing libraries, you can find out more with ldd:

QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.6.2/plugins LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/kobodesktop/usr/lib:/opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Kobo:/opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.6.2/lib ldd /opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Kobo/Kobo | grep 'not found'

... then go about using yum to install the required .i686 versions of the libraries.

The application appears to work once the library dependencies are satisfied. I can browse the store and the free books, at least. I was also able to detect and sync with the Kobo.

[ringerc]

To make Kobo Desktop releases (as a binary tarball or preferably as .rpm) compatible with Fedora 14, it looks like all that's required is to bundle OpenSSL 0.9.8 (or compile against a less prehistoric version of OpenSSL) and package it in an rpm that specifies dependencies on the libs it needs. The 32-bit rpm can be installed on a 64-bit system and will pull in the 32-bit dependencies it needs, so you don't have to release a 64-bit build if you don't want to.

The following command examines the libraries used by the Kobo app, excludes libraries bundled in the kobo desktop .deb, and emits the names of the rpms the're contained in. All on one line, and with the setup described in my previous post in place:

QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.6.2/plugins LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/kobodesktop/usr/lib:/opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Kobo:/opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.6.2/lib ldd /opt/kobodesktop/usr/local/Kobo/Kobo | cut -d '>' -f 2 | cut -d '(' -f 1 | sort -u | grep -v 'kobodesktop' | xargs -n 1 rpm -qf | sort -u

The output on my FC14 system is:


expat-2.0.1-10.fc13.i686
fontconfig-2.8.0-2.fc14.i686
freetype-2.4.2-4.fc14.i686
glibc-2.12.90-21.i686
keyutils-libs-1.2-6.fc12.i686
krb5-libs-1.8.2-7.fc14.i686
libcom_err-1.41.12-6.fc14.i686
libgcc-4.5.1-4.fc14.i686
libICE-1.0.6-2.fc13.i686
libjpeg-turbo-1.0.1-1.fc14.1.i686
libpng-1.2.44-1.fc14.i686
libselinux-2.0.96-6.fc14.1.i686
libSM-1.1.0-7.fc12.i686
libstdc++-4.5.1-4.fc14.i686
libusb-0.1.12-23.fc14.i686
libuuid-2.18-4.6.fc14.i686
libX11-1.3.4-3.fc14.i686
libXau-1.0.6-1.fc14.i686
libxcb-1.7-1.fc14.i686
libXext-1.1.2-2.fc14.i686
libxml2-2.7.7-2.fc14.i686
libXrender-0.9.6-1.fc14.i686
libzip-0.9.3-2.fc13.i686
zlib-1.2.5-2.fc14.i686

... some of which are dependencies of others. A bit of checking with 'rpm -q --requires' suggests that the minimal set of direct dependencies, disregarding version requirements, is:

expat.i686
fontconfig.i686
libgcc.i686
libjpeg-turbo.i686
libpng.i686
libstdc++.i686
libusb.i686
libuuid.i686
libX11.i686
libXau.i686
libxcb.i686
libXext.i686
libxml2.i686
libzip.i686
zlib.i686


Hope this helps if you're considering Fedora compatibility. I'd do a proper spec file and release, but w/o sources all I can really do is the dirty hack instructions above. Hope it helps.

[pholy]

Very good work, ringerc. I did have to chuckle when I read

it looks like all that's required is to bundle OpenSSL 0.9.8 (or compile against a less prehistoric version of OpenSSL)

because I had a suspicion I knew where that came from.... yup, Ubunto 10.4 or 4.10 or whatever...

[vinnie1]

Just wanted to let people out there know that this app works fine, I can browse the bookstore and sync my Kobo. I have not tried to purchase a book through this app.

The steps to get this working.

1. Download app
2. install dependancies lib-ia32 libpng
3. dpkg -i --force-architecture kobo-desktop.deb
4. Find and download a 32bit version libzip1, unzip package somewhere and copy the 2 files in LIBZIP-PACKAGE_FOLDER/usr/lib/ to /usr/lib32/
5. Create symbolic link -
ln -s /usr/lib32/libzip.so.1.0.0 /usr/local/Kobo/libzip.so.1
6. Launch app by typing Kobo at the command prompt, or from the menu.

I thought I would put this here in one post to make it easier to follow.

[pholy]

Thanks for that; karma to you.

I use the 32-bit Ubuntu, and while I haven't purchased with it, it did download all the books I had already purchased. Now if I could just sort out setting up wine to use ADE...