Calibre on Chromebook Linux

[ollie_s]

This is how I managed to have Calibre on my Pixelbook recognize my Kindle device.
As kovidgoyal mentioned, one solution is to use the 'Connect to Folder' method. This is how I do it:

Step 1: Connect your Kindle to your Chromebook. Open the ‘Files’ app. You should see your Kindle listed on the left column. If not, check your cable; ChromeOs should detect your Kindle.

Step 2: Share your Kindle with Linux. For this, right click on the Kindle on the left column in the Files app, and select ‘Share with Linux’. Your Kindle will be shared in /mnt/chromeos/removable/Kindle/documents/Downloads

Step 3: Start Calibre (from the Linux App folder). In the ‘Connect/Share’ drop down menu, select ‘Connect to Folder’ and select the /mnt/chromeos/removable/Kindle/documents/Downloads folder.
A new ‘Device’ menu will appear in Calibre.

Step 4: Configure the device. In the ‘Device’ drop down menu, select ‘Configure this device’. You will have only select mobi, azw, azw1, azw2, azw3.

At this point, you should be able to Select books in your library, and click on ‘Send to device’. They will be converted to the right format and copied to your Kindle. Make sure to properly eject your kindle when done, in ‘Eject your device’ in the ‘Device’ drop down menu, as well as in the ChromeOs Files app.

One remaining issue is that the cover.jpg are not copied, so the books appear without a cover on the Kindle.

[macallik]

Hey yall. Managed to get it working via USB temporarily so that the Linux calibre app was reading my tablet entirely but I forget what I did. Haven't been able to recreate that unfortunately. I did use remote ADB Android at one point so maybe that had something to do with it?

I tried a workaround with caliber-server as well but couldn't get it to work on the CLI either. My guess with that is since the connection is being routed through crostini, it isn't allowing my tablet to connect for security reasons or because it is a different (virtual?) IP address.

Not giving up yet though. I will figure this out eventually.

[Patricia1066]

I am on ChromeOS v99 (beta) and loving Debian on my HP CB.

I could not get calibre fully working (it installed without desktop integration) from the binary download or CLI, but debian repository works fine though its still 5.12 and latest is 5.37

Thanks for such a useful thread, saved me lots of time. Especially connecting to folder.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Patricia1066

I am on ChromeOS v99 (beta) and loving Debian on my HP CB.

I could not get calibre fully working (it installed without desktop integration) from the binary download or CLI, but debian repository works fine though its still 5.12 and latest is 5.37

Thanks for such a useful thread, saved me lots of time. Especially connecting to folder.

The rule is to not use the repository. It's a disaster for Calibre. Get Calibre for Linux from the official Calibre website.
https://calibre-ebook.com

[Patricia1066]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The rule is to not use the repository. It's a disaster for Calibre. Get Calibre for Linux from the official Calibre website.
https://calibre-ebook.com

Thanks for looking at this.

I looked again at the CLI options so I renamed my calibre library, uninstalled 5.12 (debian rep) and installed the isolated variant of calibre (also 5.12)

I had to install calibre from the calibre-bin file as I do not have root from linux terminal (whoami returns patricia)

Calibre partly installed, no icon in the linux tray. I opened with cli command, and pinned it to the tray when it opened.

Closed and reopened with an error.
[Errno 111] Connection refused

Why did the 5.12 download?

[theducks]

Where is the sudo part of the installer?

[Patricia1066]

Originally Posted by theducks

Where is the sudo part of the installer?

In chromeOS linux installs as a VM within a container. However it works, the effect on terminal is that whoami returns my username not root.

I may need to find a way to install linux in dual boot so that complex programs like calibre can work properly. If debian updates its calibre repo that works fine.

I think I understand why 5.12 installed when I tried the isolated install by CLI - there was an instance of calibre remaining after uninstalling the debian version.

[Patricia1066]

I updated to Chromeos v100 beta and can no longer get access to the Kindle folder either on Files app or on Calibre. The Kindle no longer shows on the Devices list on the Chromebook

Debug readout when Kindle gen 11 connected to HP CB 14a by USB

calibre 5.37 embedded-python: True is64bit: True
Linux-5.10.101-14946-gc18d6e5a6cc7-x86_64-with-glibc2.2.5 Linux ('64bit', 'ELF')
('Linux', '5.10.101-14946-gc18d6e5a6cc7', '#1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Mar 8 19:01:06 PST 2022')
Python 3.8.5
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: DeDRM (7, 2, 1) && Annotations (1, 16, 0) && FanFicFare (4, 10, 0)
USB devices on system:
[]

No disabled plugins
Looking for devices of type: MTP_DEVICE
No MTP devices connected to system

Looking for devices of type: SMART_DEVICE_APP
All IP addresses {'lo': [{'addr': '127.0.0.1', 'netmask': '255.0.0.0', 'peer': '127.0.0.1'}], 'eth0': [{'addr': '100.115.92.204', 'netmask': '255.255.255.240', 'broadcast': '100.115.92.207'}]}
No device is connected

Looking for devices...

Devices possibly connected: None

[Zeebra]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The rule is to not use the repository. It's a disaster for Calibre. Get Calibre for Linux from the official Calibre website.
https://calibre-ebook.com

So I recently got a Lenovo Chromebook duet 5 and installed Calibre using the distro install by simply doing sudo apt-get install calibre The version is out of date however at 5.14.

I tried going to the page you mentioned to get the latest version, but that's for Intel based processors, my problem is my Chromebook runs on an ARM chip. So the install won't work with the commands given.

I'm a total Linux noob, so I have no idea how to go about and get the correct version for my Chromebook that's up to date. Is there any compiled .deb package out there or something I could use to install the latest version of Calibre for my machine?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Zeebra

So I recently got a Lenovo Chromebook duet 5 and installed Calibre using the distro install by simply doing sudo apt-get install calibre The version is out of date however at 5.14.

I tried going to the page you mentioned to get the latest version, but that's for Intel based processors, my problem is my Chromebook runs on an ARM chip. So the install won't work with the commands given.

I'm a total Linux noob, so I have no idea how to go about and get the correct version for my Chromebook that's up to date. Is there any compiled .deb package out there or something I could use to install the latest version of Calibre for my machine?

Try the Calibre 6 Beta. IT supports ARM

[Zeebra]

Originally Posted by theducks

Try the Calibre 6 Beta. IT supports ARM

Finally got this to work thanks. Followed the instructions on this page: https://calibre-ebook.com/download_linux

went down to the 2nd section where it says "If you get an error about an untrusted certificate..."

Also made sure I had "xdg-utils, wget, xz-utils and python ≥ 3.3 installed on your system before running the installer" as it says. Worked and I have the latest version of Calibre running on my Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5!