is there a guide for how to use an ereader in linux?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Yep. Although from what I've been reading it seems that compiling with no-sse2 means QT5 may not perform as well.

Also it seems that it's possible for Linux distros to provide both an SSE and non-SSE version of the relevant library. See here for a good (technical) summary of the issue, and here for a related bug report.

It looks like Ubuntu - and therefore Xubuntu - is using this mechanism. HOWEVER Calibre supplies its own QT5 libraries so you'd probably need to build Calibre yourself. Sigil I think would use the system libraries if possible.

All of which is fascinating to some like me, but probably a bit of a tangent on a thread where we're discussing what's easy.

Oh and Greg, since you're already running Linux. You can check your CPU capability easily with:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

Look for sse2 in the output. HTH.

Pentium 4 with 2gigs of ram is serious underpowered. It's going to be swapping to disk quite a lot and slowing down because of this. And given that it's a Pentium 4 based system, memory is going to be hard to get and/or expensive. And that's even if the system can go past 4gigs. It cannot run 64-bit anyway. So an upgrade of the system is a rather good idea to make sure everything is new enough that it runs well and run all the software wanted to be run. My way of looking at it is that if it cannot run Windows 8.1, it's obsolete and should be replaced.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Pentium 4 with 2gigs of ram is serious underpowered. It's going to be swapping to disk quite a lot and slowing down because of this.

Where do you get this stuff? Don't you recall me saying that I ran XP with Sigil in Virtualbox using 900MB of RAM? It was nowhere near using swap. 2GB of RAM is plenty of headroom.

Maybe it's a problem if you're running Windows. That's probably why you assume the worst.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Where do you get this stuff? Don't you recall me saying that I ran XP with Sigil in Virtualbox using 900MB of RAM? It was nowhere near using swap. 2GB of RAM is plenty of headroom.

Maybe it's a problem if you're running Windows. That's probably why you assume the worst.

That's with a clean run. After you've used things a while, you are using more then 900MB of ram. Don't forget the cache and other things that use ram. The more you do, the more ram you can use. You load in more DLLs, fonts, eBooks, ADE to check things out, Notepad++, etc. It's not just a simple 900MB and that's it. It doesn't work like that in reality.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That's with a clean run. After you've used things a while, you are using more then 900MB of ram. Don't forget the cache and other things that use ram. The more you do, the more ram you can use. You load in more DLLs, fonts, eBooks, ADE to check things out, Notepad++, etc. It's not just a simple 900MB and that's it. It doesn't work like that in reality.

In reality, as I told you, I was also running a few apps in Linux, including Firefox with several tabs open and a media player. Since the virtual machine has a specified amount of RAM, my total RAM usage won't increase unless I do more in the host system, which would have over 1GB left if it had 2GB onboard. 2GB is plenty for running XP in Virtualbox on a Linux machine. I don't know if it would be enough on a Windows machine.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

... 2GB is plenty for running XP in Virtualbox on a Linux machine. I don't know if it would be enough on a Windows machine.

XP runs fine on 2GB RAM 32 bit Windows PCs, at least with VMWare but I doubt if others would be different.

Of course, in the end it depends on what one wants to run in the virtual machine given the PC's limited overall memory.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

XP runs fine on 2GB RAM 32 bit Windows PCs, at least with VMWare but I doubt if others would be different.

Of course, in the end it depends on what one wants to run in the virtual machine given the PC's limited overall memory.

Do you mean if you run XP in a VM on a 2GB machine running, say, Windows 8.1?

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Do you mean if you run XP in a VM on a 2GB machine running, say, Windows 8.1?

I suspect AnotherCat mean XP as the guest OS and Linux as the host. For home uses, the main reason to XP as the guest OS and Windows 8.1 as the host would be to run legacy software.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Do you mean if you run XP in a VM on a 2GB machine running, say, Windows 8.1?

Yes. For example Windows 8.1 2GB machine as the host in order to run legacy XP applications.

In general there is no inherent problem running XP applications under Windows 8.x itself, but I have had applications, for example, with dongles that prevent using the software other than in XP. Hence my need for XP on machines running later Windows versions (thankfully recently ended with those old XP only applications now being able to be replaced with new applications of similar functionality).

As an aside there is a significant advantage in running a VM on an 8.x host compared to earlier versions of Windows in that the start-up time of the 8.x OS (a matter of a few seconds) is insignificant compared to the much longer start-up times of earlier versions of Windows; so the time to get to the guest, XP say, from machine boot is now little different to running a dedicated XP machine.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by kacir

No. It is not certain. You have to try.
You already have the computer with Linux installed, so why don't you try running Calibre and Sigil?
They worst thing that can happen is that they will not work and you come back with an error message and ask for help.

Thanks kacir. I am already running Sigil 0.7.2 and the latest version of Calibre and they work great. In fact, everything works great.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Get at least 4gigs of ram (8gigs if possible) and a decent sized hard drive. I'd go with 1TB or larger. You want one that has room for expansion meaning room for more hard drive space and room for more memory. You want one that uses DDR3 memory. You want it to be compatible with Windows 8.1. You don't have to run Windows 8.1, but if it is compatible, then you can run Qt5 and thus the latest Calibre and Sigil.

Thanks JS. From 39GB to 1TB. All right! Not sure I'm convinced I need a new computer though if everything is working perfectly as is. Including Calibre and Sigil. I saved what you wrote though for when I do decide to get something new.

Originally Posted by latepaul

Oh and Greg, since you're already running Linux. You can check your CPU capability easily with:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

Look for sse2 in the output. HTH.

Thanks. Found sse2 but there were no numbers next to it. I attached it as a screenshot.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Yes. For example Windows 8.1 2GB machine as the host in order to run legacy XP applications.

That's interesting about running legacy apps in an XP VM. And I'm pleasantly surprised to hear Windows isn't the resource hog it's made out to be. All those stories - was that just Vista?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Pentium 4 with 2gigs of ram is serious underpowered. It's going to be swapping to disk quite a lot and slowing down because of this. And given that it's a Pentium 4 based system, memory is going to be hard to get and/or expensive. And that's even if the system can go past 4gigs. It cannot run 64-bit anyway. So an upgrade of the system is a rather good idea to make sure everything is new enough that it runs well and run all the software wanted to be run. My way of looking at it is that if it cannot run Windows 8.1, it's obsolete and should be replaced.

A computer is only obsolete if it doesn't do what you want it to do. Apparently what you want your computer to do is run Windows 8.x. And that's fine, but I have no interest in Windows 8, 7 or any version. As it is, my Pentium 4 has zero problems running Linux Mint 13. And memory is not hard to find or expensive (at least not on eBay).

But I wouldn't upgrade the memory if I wanted to upgrade -- I would just buy a used Optiplex 755 for $45 (which would come with 4 GBs of memory), then stick in my 80 or 160 GB hard drive and install Linux Mint 13 or 17.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Thanks. Found sse2 but there were no numbers next to it. I attached it as a screenshot.

The list is just letting you know that your CPU supports SSE2. I'm pretty sure all Pentium 4s supported SSE2.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

I saved what you wrote though for when I do decide to get something new.

No.
When you need a new computer, just some here and ask. And we will have a nice little flamewar, quarreling about what is the best hardware for your budget and needs.
*I* personally, for example, have completely different ideas than JSWolf. You do not need 1TB spinning disk, a small SSD will do you much better service

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kacir

No.
When you need a new computer, just some here and ask. And we will have a nice little flamewar, quarreling about what is the best hardware for your budget and needs.
*I* personally, for example, have completely different ideas than JSWolf. You do not need 1TB spinning disk, a small SSD will do you much better service

Some SSD crap out if the computer loses power. So in that case, I'd only recommend SSD for a laptop or other computer that's battery backed up. And by crap out, that means data lost and possibly corruption of the SSD.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Some SSD crap out if the computer loses power.

And hard drives don't go out? Whatever you're using for your mass storage you're probably going to want to back it up.