Reinstalling Calibre on Ubuntu 14.04

[stevepar]

Hi,

I experienced problems configuring calibre's email client to send ebooks to my Kindle Paperwhite device. After some deliberation I decided to uninstall and then reinstall calibre. Since doing so upon choosing the calibre icon to enter the programme for the first time (after re-installation) the set-up wizard doesn't automatically start. If I initiate it using the function under preferences I receive the following error message:

calibre, version 1.25.0
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>TypeError</b>:QLineEdit.setText(QString): argument 1 has unexpected type 'tuple'

calibre 1.25 isfrozen: False is64bit: True
Linux-3.19.0-58-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-14.04-trusty Linux ('64bit', 'ELF')
('Linux', '3.19.0-58-generic', '#64~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 18 19:05:43 UTC 2016')
Python 2.7.6
Linux: ('Ubuntu', '14.04', 'trusty')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/calibre/calibre/gui2/wizard/__init__.py", line 445, in initializePage
self.to_address.setText(accs[0])
TypeError: QLineEdit.setText(QString): argument 1 has unexpected type 'tuple'

Any suggestions how to fix this please?

[theducks]

1.25 is a lame duck, older version that Ubuntu distributes.
Remove that
Use the Command line supplied on the Linux download page (currently for 2.55)

Note: you will need to use that CL for every update. I saved it to a file (remember to set the X bit)

[stevepar]

Thank you for your reply, theducks. I have done as you suggested. Apart from some minor issues creating a gmx account, calibre appears to have installed correctly. I shall test it all again later once I have more time to ensure that it works as intended.

[eschwartz]

You can also use my:

Sticky: Fully automatic calibre installer/updater for linux

[stevepar]

Thank you eschwartz

To be frank, I find the sticky just a tad too difficult to follow.

If I just run the code [sudo -v && wget -nv -O- https://github.com/eli-schwartz/cali...e-installer.sh | sudo sh -] I get the following output:

sudo -v && wget -nv -O- https://github.com/eli-schwartz/cali...e-installer.sh | sudo sh -
[sudo] password for steven:
2016-04-17 15:34:44 URL:https://raw.githubusercontent.com/el...e-installer.sh [2530/2530] -> "-" [1]
sh: 76: [[: not found
sh: 81: [[: not found
2016-04-17 15:34:46 URL:https://raw.githubusercontent.com/el...bre-upgrade.sh [2727/2727] -> "/usr/bin/calibre-upgrade.sh" [1]
sh: 88: [[: not found
Systemd not found, falling back on cron for scheduling.
Installing cron job...
no crontab for root

Later in the same post I see the script attached as a tarball. Looking at calibre-upgrade.sh.tar.gz I see it contains calibre-upgrade.sh as indicated in the post. Having looked in /usr/bin/ I can see the script has already been copied into that folder as an executable. Presumably, therefore, the calibre-upgrade.sh.tar.gz is just an optional method of adding the script to /usr/bin/.

Looking at the output generated by running [sudo -v && wget -nv -O- https://github.com/eli-schwartz/cali...e-installer.sh | sudo sh -] that would appear to indicate that as there is no crontab for root, the script won't automatically run unless I create a crontab for root, would that be fair to say?

Thanks for any further elucidation.

[eschwartz]

It would be fair to say that I shouldn't be assuming /bin/sh is the symlink to bash that it should be hence the syntax error for using bash constructs.

But the "no crontab for root" error is because it prints out the current crontab, echoes the new cron job, and installs the new crontab -- there is no "append this, please" mode.
You can check that by running `sudo crontab -l` to check the current crontab. It should be there.

...

I fixed that by piping the stderr for the initial crontab -l to /dev/null, and switching the instructions to use bash.

[stevepar]

Thank you once again, eschwartz

Running `sudo crontab -l`gives me the following:

0 6 * * 5 /usr/bin/calibre-upgrade.sh > /dev/null 2>&1

Having looked at that output in man 5 crontab, it would appear to indicate that calibre-upgrade.sh will run at 6 a.m. every Friday and therefore presumably any stable release of calibre would be automatically installed thereby on a Friday at 6 a.m., if I accurately comprehend what this intends to achieve.

[eschwartz]

Correct.

The second half of the sticky post explains the various pieces which are automatically set up by the one-liner.

[stevepar]

Thank you for your generous assistance.