Calibre is no longer Launching

[RSEAMONKEY87]

It is unclear since when this has been an issue, as Calibre is running on a headless VM. However, Calibre will no longer launch.

Machine specs are Win10 Pro 22H2. The machine is virtualized on ESXI, domain-based, English OS.

I've gone through a few steps to troubleshoot this issue with no luck.
-Updated calibre
-Uninstalled and reinstalled.
-Clean, uninstall, hunt down leftover configs and delete them.
-Updated Windows
-Added exception to defender.
-Logging in as a Local Admin
-Installing as a LocalAdmin

The behavior I see is when I start the application, I can see the process come up, use up some memory, and then it just goes away. I've tried looking for log files to see, I created a batch file and issued this "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre-debug.exe" --gui -g > "C:\temp\calibre-debug-%USERNAME%.log"

If I run calibre-debug -g via ps or cmd this is the data returned:

c:\Program Files\Calibre2>calibre-debug.exe -g
calibre 7.26  embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.19045')
Python 3.11.5
Windows: ('10', '10.0.19045', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: c:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre-debug.exe

The log file does write but is blank.

I've also built a new VM with Win11—a fresh install. Once I install the app and run it, it takes a bit longer, and there are a few processes that run in the background, but then again, they are the same. I would expect the wizard to show up, seeing as this is a new build and I haven't migrated the library or even pointed it to the library. I tried to install 7.26.0 on my local machine which is also win11 on the same domain. In that case, I had no issue.

I'm at a loss now.

I would appreciate some guidance, please.

Thanks.

[JSWolf]

You could have a problem with gui.json if you've copies over your settings. Meaning the calibre gui could be off screen. If you rename gui.json to gui.jason.bak, you'd know if that is the problem or not.

[kovidgoyal]

Try restarting in safe mode and then running calibre.

[RSEAMONKEY87]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Try restarting in safe mode and then running calibre.

You are correct. Safe mode does allow Calibre to start. As does safe mode with networking. But I can't just have this machine running in safe mode constantly. I'm trying to determine what services might be causing the app to exit upon start. Is there any other logs that I can enable that calibre to point me in a direction? I'm assuming it has something to do with being on a VM as both systems i've tested are in that environment, except that one is Win 11 and the other 10. I've tried to remove VMWare tools to no effect and i've also tried to disable any and all other apps that run on startup.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by RSEAMONKEY87

You are correct. Safe mode does allow Calibre to start. As does safe mode with networking. But I can't just have this machine running in safe mode constantly. I'm trying to determine what services might be causing the app to exit upon start. Is there any other logs that I can enable that calibre to point me in a direction? I'm assuming it has something to do with being on a VM as both systems i've tested are in that environment, except that one is Win 11 and the other 10. I've tried to remove VMWare tools to no effect and i've also tried to disable any and all other apps that run on startup.

Try setting this system variable and see what happens.

QTWEBENGINE_CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--disable-gpu"

[RSEAMONKEY87]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Try setting this system variable and see what happens.

QTWEBENGINE_CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--disable-gpu"

Still no joy on the Win10 VM. I'm waiting for my Win11 machine to finish updating before I can test that on that box, too.

[BetterRed]

Use Task Manager to disable all the 3rd party Startup Tasks, if calibre works in that environment use a process of elimination to find the culprit.

BR

[RSEAMONKEY87]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Use Task Manager to disable all the 3rd party Startup Tasks, if calibre works in that environment use a process of elimination to find the culprit.

BR

All third-party services are disabled. This is on a freshly installed Win11 machine. The calibre process still starts and uses up around 30k of memory before the process ends.

Just for fun, I also tried to run the application on one of my Server 2k19 VMs and the same behavior. So this seems to have to do with Virtualization.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by RSEAMONKEY87

Just for fun, I also tried to run the application on one of my Server 2k19 VMs and the same behavior. So this seems to have to do with Virtualization.

Which version of virtualisation are you using? VMWare Player? Workstation? full fledged VMWare?

[RSEAMONKEY87]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Which version of virtualization are you using? VMWare Player? Workstation? full fledged VMWare?

VCenter 8 and ESXi 7.0.3.

VM itself is running VMTools 12448

[DNSB]

Not certain about this but I seem to remember that ESXi 7.0.3 had an issue with GPU passthrough. We had some fun with AMD video where setting both audio and video to passthrough ended up sometimes working after a restart and sometime not working. You might want to take a look at VMware vSphere / ESXi 7.0 GA work-around for GPU passthrough issues including disabled-after-reboot bug and UI bug. I think this is where my co-worker found the basis for our workaround.

[RSEAMONKEY87]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Not certain about this but I seem to remember that ESXi 7.0.3 had an issue with GPU passthrough. We had some fun with AMD video where setting both audio and video to passthrough ended up sometimes working after a restart and sometime not working. You might want to take a look at VMware vSphere / ESXi 7.0 GA work-around for GPU passthrough issues including disabled-after-reboot bug and UI bug. I think this is where my co-worker found the basis for our workaround.

You're on the right path. It gave me the ideal of messing with display drivers. So it would seem that the latest VMwareTools update is the culprit. The SVGA3D driver is the main issue with the update. If I disable the driver in a normal windows boot calibre will launch. If I remove the device and also ensure to remove the driver and rescan for hardware changes, the default Microsoft driver is installed, and Caliber will launch.
Another option is to enable 3d support in the VM machine settings under the video card section. But this seems to general some virtual memory issues. I found this link when I started digging in the right direction though.
https://enfocus.my.site.com/customer...language=en_US

This article suggests adding an environmental variable to correct a similar issue. But it did not work in my case.

I ended up uninstalling 12.5.0 and downgrading VMware tools to 12.4.5. This corrected the issue on both Win10 and 11 VMs.

[DNSB]

Good to hear that you got it working. I was going on memories from 4 years ago so very likely a bit fuzzy on the details.