Can I build Calibre 4.0 on a native macOS machine running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6?

vaboro · 10-07-2019, 06:03 PM

I've been using Calibre on different machines running different operating systems, macOS, Linux, and Windows, for ages with an external reader lucidor syncing both Calibre's library and lucidor's setting via the cloud.

With the new Calibre release the builtin reader is totally new and its looks are very much like lucidor's.

I could install and launch Calibre 4.0 on macOS Mojave and Windows. Haven't tried it on Linux yet. However, OS X El Capitan can't launch the prebuilt version.

Is there a way to build Calibre 4.0 in the native OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 environment without the VirtualBox?

kovidgoyal · 10-07-2019, 09:13 PM

I highly doubt it will build on 10.11 but if you want to try feel free, you would basically need to build all its dependencies first and then build calibre, instructions for doing so are on the linux download page.

vaboro · 10-08-2019, 02:38 AM

Do I understand it correctly from code that there are no special deps version requirements listed in bypy/pkgs and you rely on those installed on linux system?

kovidgoyal · 10-08-2019, 02:55 AM

All the software calibre uses is listed in sources.json if you have installed all of it, the you should be able to build calibre against it, without involving bypy at all

vaboro · 10-08-2019, 04:14 AM

Thank you for your prompt replies!

IMHO the reader in Calibre 4.0 is marvelous! I would love to have it on my El Capitan machines.

But I am afraid that I won't indeed be able to build Qt 5.13.0 from source on 10.11 since the highest El Capitan supports is 5.11. However, precompiled binaries of any Qt version can be downloaded from Qt sources.

I have three options now:

Install all deps on 10.11 and build Calibre 4.0 from source.
I installed precompiled binaries of 5.11.3 from Qt sources on El Capitan. Now I am to build PyQt5 for Python 2.7 from source since I can't install it from wheels. I am only able to install PyQt5 for Python3 from wheels.
Install all deps on 10.14 and build Calibre 4.0 from source in order to run on 10.11 then.
I downloaded and ran precompiled version of Calibre 4.0 for mac on 10.11 and it hanged with "Symbol not found: _getentropy" exception. So, I am not sure Calibre 4.0 runs if I built it from source on Mojave to run on El Capitan.
Install all deps on Linux, set up 10.11 Virtual Box and build Calibre 4.0 from source.
If I configure all deps from sources.json on linux and set up 10.11 in a virtual box what are the chances Calibre 4.0 can be built?
I have linux on a non-apple machine (installing 10.11 in a virtual box will be a hack per se; I had some experience with Yosmite and Mavericks). El Capitan and Mojave are on different apple machines.

kovidgoyal · 10-08-2019, 04:43 AM

calibre is built against the 10.14 SDK so it likely wont run on anything before that directly. You would have to try to build it against a 10.11 SDK. I am also fairly sure that there a few places where calibre uses Qt 5.13 functionality, but maybe you can patch them out easily.

vaboro · 10-08-2019, 05:10 AM

Thank you for your prompt reply and clarification!

I decided to start with xcode-select on 10.11 machine and to build against 10.14 SDK and the latest Qt from binary sources if I could get PyQt5 for Python 2.7 and other deps successfully built.

KevinH · 10-08-2019, 02:16 PM

If you are willing to move up to macOS 10.12, I know for a fact all of Qt 5.12.5 (the long term support version of Qt) will build on macOS including full Qtwebkit. I doubt there are any Qt 5.13 specific features in Calibre that do not exist in Qt 5.12.5. Python 2.7.x should build as will Python 3.7.2 with macOS 10.12.

I regularly build all of these against the macOS 10.14 sdk with the minimum deployment version set for macOS 10.12.

FWIW, Qt 5.11.x will build against macOS 10.11 but not Qt5.12.x due to changes in QtWebEngine and QtBase that were introduced in Qt 5.12.0

vaboro · 10-08-2019, 05:44 PM

Thanks a lot! This is really useful!

vaboro · 10-08-2019, 06:04 PM

BTW what versions of PyQt5 and PyQt5-sip do you use with Qt 5.12.5?

KevinH · 10-08-2019, 07:05 PM

See https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/s...pyqt/download5

I use the pyqt5 12.3 version with no problems with the associated sip for my from source builds of Qt. In fact, you can check out these instructions and replace Qt 5.12.3 with Qt 5.12.5.

https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil..._on_MacOSX.txt

Do **NOT** use Qt 5.12.4 as it was broken severely on release and it took me over a month to convince them to fix their breakage! So stick with Qt 5.12.3 or Qt 5.12.5. I have built Qt 5.12.5 but the release version for Sigil uses Qt 5.12.3 which are what my instructions use.

The Qt patches mentioned in those instructions are for Qt 5.12.3 and they can be found in the docs directory of the Sigil project. Qt 5.12.5 makes these patches obsolete.

KevinH · 10-08-2019, 07:11 PM

BTW you can find instructions for building pyqt5 and sip, and Python 3.7.2 in this doc:

https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil..._on_MacOSX.txt

Building the final version of Python 2.7.x should be quite similar.

KevinH · 10-08-2019, 07:15 PM

If you get a good build of calibre for macOS 10.12, please let us know as I am stuck at macOS 10.13.6 so that Sigil can support the most users, and would love to have a version of calibre 4.x to play around with.

If you run into build issues, just let me know and I should be able to help. macOS is my primary dev platform for Sigil.

vaboro · 10-09-2019, 04:39 PM

@KevinH, thank you for advice! It is golden!

Unfortunately, I can't move up to macOS 10.12 on the machine where I particularly want calibre 4 to work. I have some precious software on it that I don't want to break.

I will try to build calibre anyway and when I have issues will come back here again.

KevinH · 10-09-2019, 06:32 PM

FWIW, I do think macOS 10.12 can run anything that 10.11 can run. The kernels are just not that different.

10-07-2019, 06:03 PM	#1
vaboro Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2019 Device: Kindle DX	Can I build Calibre 4.0 on a native macOS machine running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6? I've been using Calibre on different machines running different operating systems, macOS, Linux, and Windows, for ages with an external reader lucidor syncing both Calibre's library and lucidor's setting via the cloud. With the new Calibre release the builtin reader is totally new and its looks are very much like lucidor's. I could install and launch Calibre 4.0 on macOS Mojave and Windows. Haven't tried it on Linux yet. However, OS X El Capitan can't launch the prebuilt version. Is there a way to build Calibre 4.0 in the native OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 environment without the VirtualBox?

10-08-2019, 04:14 AM	#5
vaboro Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2019 Device: Kindle DX	Thank you for your prompt replies! IMHO the reader in Calibre 4.0 is marvelous! I would love to have it on my El Capitan machines. But I am afraid that I won't indeed be able to build Qt 5.13.0 from source on 10.11 since the highest El Capitan supports is 5.11. However, precompiled binaries of any Qt version can be downloaded from Qt sources. I have three options now: Install all deps on 10.11 and build Calibre 4.0 from source. I installed precompiled binaries of 5.11.3 from Qt sources on El Capitan. Now I am to build PyQt5 for Python 2.7 from source since I can't install it from wheels. I am only able to install PyQt5 for Python3 from wheels. Install all deps on 10.14 and build Calibre 4.0 from source in order to run on 10.11 then. I downloaded and ran precompiled version of Calibre 4.0 for mac on 10.11 and it hanged with "Symbol not found: _getentropy" exception. So, I am not sure Calibre 4.0 runs if I built it from source on Mojave to run on El Capitan. Install all deps on Linux, set up 10.11 Virtual Box and build Calibre 4.0 from source. If I configure all deps from sources.json on linux and set up 10.11 in a virtual box what are the chances Calibre 4.0 can be built? I have linux on a non-apple machine (installing 10.11 in a virtual box will be a hack per se; I had some experience with Yosmite and Mavericks). El Capitan and Mojave are on different apple machines.

10-08-2019, 07:05 PM	#11
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 7,670 Karma: 5433388 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	See https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/s...pyqt/download5 I use the pyqt5 12.3 version with no problems with the associated sip for my from source builds of Qt. In fact, you can check out these instructions and replace Qt 5.12.3 with Qt 5.12.5. https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil..._on_MacOSX.txt Do NOT use Qt 5.12.4 as it was broken severely on release and it took me over a month to convince them to fix their breakage! So stick with Qt 5.12.3 or Qt 5.12.5. I have built Qt 5.12.5 but the release version for Sigil uses Qt 5.12.3 which are what my instructions use. The Qt patches mentioned in those instructions are for Qt 5.12.3 and they can be found in the docs directory of the Sigil project. Qt 5.12.5 makes these patches obsolete. Last edited by KevinH; 10-08-2019 at 07:08 PM.

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10-07-2019, 09:13 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,903 Karma: 22666668 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	I highly doubt it will build on 10.11 but if you want to try feel free, you would basically need to build all its dependencies first and then build calibre, instructions for doing so are on the linux download page.

10-08-2019, 02:38 AM	#3
vaboro Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2019 Device: Kindle DX	Do I understand it correctly from code that there are no special deps version requirements listed in bypy/pkgs and you rely on those installed on linux system?

10-08-2019, 02:55 AM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,903 Karma: 22666668 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	All the software calibre uses is listed in sources.json if you have installed all of it, the you should be able to build calibre against it, without involving bypy at all

10-08-2019, 04:43 AM	#6
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,903 Karma: 22666668 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre is built against the 10.14 SDK so it likely wont run on anything before that directly. You would have to try to build it against a 10.11 SDK. I am also fairly sure that there a few places where calibre uses Qt 5.13 functionality, but maybe you can patch them out easily.

10-08-2019, 05:10 AM	#7
vaboro Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2019 Device: Kindle DX	Thank you for your prompt reply and clarification! I decided to start with xcode-select on 10.11 machine and to build against 10.14 SDK and the latest Qt from binary sources if I could get PyQt5 for Python 2.7 and other deps successfully built.

10-08-2019, 02:16 PM	#8
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 7,670 Karma: 5433388 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	If you are willing to move up to macOS 10.12, I know for a fact all of Qt 5.12.5 (the long term support version of Qt) will build on macOS including full Qtwebkit. I doubt there are any Qt 5.13 specific features in Calibre that do not exist in Qt 5.12.5. Python 2.7.x should build as will Python 3.7.2 with macOS 10.12. I regularly build all of these against the macOS 10.14 sdk with the minimum deployment version set for macOS 10.12. FWIW, Qt 5.11.x will build against macOS 10.11 but not Qt5.12.x due to changes in QtWebEngine and QtBase that were introduced in Qt 5.12.0

10-08-2019, 05:44 PM	#9
vaboro Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2019 Device: Kindle DX	Thanks a lot! This is really useful!

10-08-2019, 06:04 PM	#10
vaboro Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2019 Device: Kindle DX	BTW what versions of PyQt5 and PyQt5-sip do you use with Qt 5.12.5?

10-08-2019, 07:11 PM	#12
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 7,670 Karma: 5433388 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	BTW you can find instructions for building pyqt5 and sip, and Python 3.7.2 in this doc: https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil..._on_MacOSX.txt Building the final version of Python 2.7.x should be quite similar.

10-08-2019, 07:15 PM	#13
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 7,670 Karma: 5433388 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	If you get a good build of calibre for macOS 10.12, please let us know as I am stuck at macOS 10.13.6 so that Sigil can support the most users, and would love to have a version of calibre 4.x to play around with. If you run into build issues, just let me know and I should be able to help. macOS is my primary dev platform for Sigil.

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10-09-2019, 04:39 PM	#14
vaboro Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2019 Device: Kindle DX	@KevinH, thank you for advice! It is golden! Unfortunately, I can't move up to macOS 10.12 on the machine where I particularly want calibre 4 to work. I have some precious software on it that I don't want to break. I will try to build calibre anyway and when I have issues will come back here again.

10-09-2019, 06:32 PM	#15
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 7,670 Karma: 5433388 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	FWIW, I do think macOS 10.12 can run anything that 10.11 can run. The kernels are just not that different.