Can't open Calibre in Mac Snow Leopard

[gurr888]

I'm trying to convert my book to the Kindle .mobi format. I've downloaded Calibre for Mac Intel OS 6 from two sites and while it downloads fine, when I try to open it the application starts to launch and then stops. It disappears from the dock and no matter what I do it won't open. I've copied it onto my desktop and my Applications folder and tried launching from there but no luck. Can anyone help?

Thanks!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by gurr888

I'm trying to convert my book to the Kindle .mobi format. I've downloaded Calibre for Mac Intel OS 6 from two sites and while it downloads fine, when I try to open it the application starts to launch and then stops. It disappears from the dock and no matter what I do it won't open. I've copied it onto my desktop and my Applications folder and tried launching from there but no luck. Can anyone help?

Thanks!

OS 6?

Is that waaaay older than OS X?
From the download page:

If you are using OS X Tiger or a PowerPC Mac, the last version of calibre that will work on your machine is 0.7.28, available here [External link] .

I don't think there is a version for before OS X

[gurr888]

Snow Leopard (OS 6) is Mac's latest software. I'm using an Intel MacBook Pro so this isn't an issue about an older version of Calibre. In fact, I tried that version too just to see if it was the problem, but it didn't work either. Calibre 0.8.25 is the latest for Mac OS X (meaning 10.6.8 which I have) but I can't open it in either version.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by gurr888

Snow Leopard (OS 6) is Mac's latest software. I'm using an Intel MacBook Pro so this isn't an issue about an older version of Calibre. In fact, I tried that version too just to see if it was the problem, but it didn't work either. Calibre 0.8.25 is the latest for Mac OS X (meaning 10.6.8 which I have) but I can't open it in either version.

TNX
You can tell I am not a Mac person
I will leave this in the hands of the Guru's

[kovidgoyal]

Start Console.app, then try to start calibre, post the output you see in Console.app.

[gurr888]

Here is what is on Console when I tried to start Calibre - thanks for your help!

11/6/11 6:25:04 PM [0x0-0x4d94d9].net.kovidgoyal.calibre[49612] Python function terminated unexpectedly: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/folders/nl/nlpuH7872RWry++8ZQ+j5++++TM/-Tmp-/Jill Gurr/Create Now-calibre-gui.socket'
11/6/11 6:25:04 PM [0x0-0x4d94d9].net.kovidgoyal.calibre[49612] Traceback (most recent call last):
11/6/11 6:25:04 PM [0x0-0x4d94d9].net.kovidgoyal.calibre[49612] File "/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/Resources/Python/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 147, in main
11/6/11 6:25:04 PM [0x0-0x4d94d9].net.kovidgoyal.calibre[49612] return run_entry_point()
11/6/11 6:25:04 PM [0x0-0x4d94d9].net.kovidgoyal.calibre[49612] File "/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/Resources/Python/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 116, in run_entry_point
11/6/11 6:25:04 PM [0x0-0x4d94d9].net.kovidgoyal.calibre[49612] return getattr(pmod, func)()
11/6/11 6:25:04 PM [0x0-0x4d94d9].net.kovidgoyal.calibre[49612] File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/main.py", line 350, in main
11/6/11 6:25:04 PM [0x0-0x4d94d9].net.kovidgoyal.calibre[49612] OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/folders/nl/nlpuH7872RWry++8ZQ+j5++++TM/-Tmp-/Jill Gurr/Create Now-calibre-gui.socket'
11/6/11 6:25:04 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.502[99] ([0x0-0x4d94d9].net.kovidgoyal.calibre[49612]) Exited with exit code: 255

[kovidgoyal]

Something on your computer is preventing calibre from creating a socket. I'm afraid I dont know enough about OS X to guess what that might be.

Generically, try rebooting your computer.

[gurr888]

Thanks for the suggestion but the rebooting didn't help. I don't know anything about creating sockets... I hope someone can help!

[theducks]

Wouldn't you have to be root to write into /var/tmp ?
That implies that the tmp environment variable is set funny.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by theducks

Wouldn't you have to be root to write into /var/tmp ?
That implies that the tmp environment variable is set funny.

I think on OS X the /tmp directory is randomized. /tmp is usually a symlink pointing to something in /var/tmp

[gurr888]

This doesn't sound very hopeful...

[gurr888]

I was able to download the older version of Calibre to use on an old Macintosh iBook. After all of that, I've discovered that it doesn't allow any editing or changes but seems to be just a viewer.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by gurr888

I was able to download the older version of Calibre to use on an old Macintosh iBook. After all of that, I've discovered that it doesn't allow any editing or changes but seems to be just a viewer.

Editing or changing what? The original post just mentioned conversion to mobi format, and Calibre will do that (as long as the source book is not DRM protected against That.

Calibre is not an eBook editor if that was what you were looking for. It is an eBook library manager that allows management of a set of ebooks and their associated metadata, and conversion between different eBook formats. It also provides an eBook viewer.

If you are looking for an editor, what format are you trying to edit? As an example if you were looking for an ePub editor then Sigil is a good candidate.

[gurr888]

Thank you for clarifying that Calibre is not what I need, since I do need an eBook editor. I appreciate the tip about Sigil. If I can figure it out through their user guide, it seems to be exactly what I want! Much appreciated.

[aground]

I'm using a MacBook Pro running 10.6.8. I've tried Calibre version calibre-0.8.26.dgm and received the message "not recognized." I run Calibre on my old laptop fine. This is the first Mac software I've tried that didn't install. Is there a downlevel version of Calibre for Macs that works?
EJ

Found the error. Mine. The screen with the Applications / Calibre icons was buried beneath all the windows. My bad. It's working fine, now. Thanks for a great product.
EJ