Linux Web Interface - No Metadata Sent

[Fmstrat]

Hi all,

I'm running Calibre on a Linux system, and have noticed some odd behavior in the web interface. Is the below normal?

1. Load MOBI file into Calibre
2. Retrieve metadata (title/cover/amazon codes/etc)
3. Visit mobile port 7070 with Kindle
4. Download MOBI
5. MOBI is received but has the original metadata (title, no codes, etc)

I would have expected downloading from the web interface to serve up the eBook just like if it was delivered over USB or exported, with all the new metadata.

Thanks,
B.

[kovidgoyal]

From the changelog of calibre 0.8.19

Content server: Update metadata when sending MOBI as well as EPUB files

[Fmstrat]

Doh! It hadn't alerted me for an update in a while apparently. Thanks!

[Fmstrat]

Actually, do you have a repo that you send your latest updates to from an RPM standpoint? I noticed Fedora Updates is at 0.8.0 which is apparently what I'm running. Happy to use the binary install from your website, but just curious.

[kovidgoyal]

I do not maintain distro specific packages...that is a good way to commit hara-kiri.

[Fmstrat]

Cool, I figured. Actually with the latest version installed using the binary script on your site, I can no longer download MOBI files:

500 Internal Server Error

The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "site-packages/cherrypy/_cprequest.py", line 606, in respond
  File "site-packages/cherrypy/_cpdispatch.py", line 25, in __call__
  File "site-packages/calibre/library/server/utils.py", line 51, in do
  File "site-packages/calibre/library/server/content.py", line 97, in get
  File "site-packages/calibre/library/server/content.py", line 221, in get_format
  File "site-packages/calibre/ebooks/metadata/meta.py", line 132, in set_metadata
  File "site-packages/calibre/customize/ui.py", line 331, in set_file_type_metadata
  File "traceback.py", line 232, in print_exc
  File "traceback.py", line 124, in print_exception
  File "traceback.py", line 13, in _print
IOError: [Errno 5] Input/output error

Other formats work fine. Any ideas? Running FC15 with updates, Python 2.7.1.

Thanks,
B.

[kovidgoyal]

That error indicates that the server process is unable to output to stderr/stdout. Make sure you have setup those streams correctly. Run the server in a terminal to check. There is a typo that is raising the underlying error as well, which will be fixed in the next release.

[Fmstrat]

Thanks again! Unfortunately this led to not being able to use Calibre unless I had a terminal window open at all times. Here's some additional info if it's helpful to you or anyone else who may be browsing:

The reason Calibre needed terminal was to report an error:

Failed to set metadata for u'Test Book'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "site-packages/calibre/customize/ui.py", line 327, in set_file_type_metadata
  File "site-packages/calibre/customize/builtins.py", line 414, in set_metadata
  File "site-packages/calibre/ebooks/metadata/epub.py", line 205, in set_metadata
  File "site-packages/calibre/ebooks/metadata/epub.py", line 111, in __init__
EPubException: not a ZIP .epub OCF container

The MOBI file did download fine, however, when the terminal was accessible. To get around this I'm piping all output of Calibre to a log file (perhaps this is something that should be done by the app?). So, first:

mkdir /var/log/calibre; chmod a+rwx /var/log/calibre

Then I changed shortcuts from:

/usr/bin/calibre

to:

/usr/bin/calibre 1> /var/log/calibre/calibre.log 2>&1 &

Thanks,
B.