Manage Calibre Library with two Calibre Instances

[riff]

I have a Debian 8 server with Calibre 2.50 installed. system.d starts a calibre-server, through scripts I can import and convert bebooks. Ebooks are served through server for Tolino and Kindle readers.

The Database/Library is on server /path_to_server/calibre and can be accessed through Samba and NFS.

I want to work on metadata of this library from remote. I stopped the running calibre-server with

systemctl stop calibre.service

Now I want to mount the database from my remote Calibre installation (I chose /path_to_server/calibre as path for library in this installation), but it always says database is locked (read only). Since web-calibre does not offer editing-function, I have to go this way. Alternatively I would have to create the entire database/library on my local system and copy it to the server. This works, but is nasty for any changes.

How can I resolve this.

My remote Calibre version is 3.4. Should I downgrade to the older one?

I know that a remote database on a NAS/Server is not recommended. I do a lot of backuping here to prevent errors.

[kovidgoyal]

Run calibre 3 on your server, then you can connect to it using the calibredb command, and eventually directly witht he calibre GUI itself.

[riff]

Debian 8 offers, due to its freeze, only Calibre 2.50. Debian Calibre Package Tracking

I'll give it a try with a old version on my local system.


Edit: I run into the same problem with Client 2.50 on my local file-system. I stopped calibre-server on the remote machine and tried to connect via Samba. Error is a read-only database.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 637, in library_moved
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\legacy.py", line 73, in __init__
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\legacy.py", line 46, in create_backend
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 363, in __init__
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\schema_upgrades.py", line 18, in __init__
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 808, in execute
  File "c:\cygwin64\home\kovid\sw\build\apsw-3.8.2-r1\src\cursor.c", line 231, in resetcursor
ReadOnlyError: ReadOnlyError: attempt to write a readonly database

[theducks]

Originally Posted by riff

Debian 8 offers, due to its freeze, only Calibre 2.50. Debian Calibre Package Tracking

I'll give it a try with a old version on my local system.


Edit: I run into the same problem with Client 2.50 on my local file-system. I stopped calibre-server on the remote machine and tried to connect via Samba. Error is a read-only database.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 637, in library_moved
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\legacy.py", line 73, in __init__
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\legacy.py", line 46, in create_backend
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 363, in __init__
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\schema_upgrades.py", line 18, in __init__
  File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 808, in execute
  File "c:\cygwin64\home\kovid\sw\build\apsw-3.8.2-r1\src\cursor.c", line 231, in resetcursor
ReadOnlyError: ReadOnlyError: attempt to write a readonly database

Forget the Distro version (un install)
Use the commandline given on the Calibre Linux Download page
Do pay attention to the notes, just incase you have one of those 'edge cases'

[riff]

I tried the newer version on server as well. Works for starting a calibre server, but stopping the server and connect from remote to this database still gives me the database read only error. It seems almost like calibre is running in background an locking the database.

[kovidgoyal]

File locking errors are almost certainly caused by samba. Dont use it. Instead rsync the library between your computers.

[riff]

The locking-error was due to permissions. Access tohe database is done by a user, but the database itself is owned and priviliged only by calibre user on server. Setting up correct permissions for the remote user has solved the issue.