James Whitt's Blog

This post is about how I’ve been going about enabling access to my eBook purchases that are managed with Calibre without actually using the built in Calibre Server.  All of this is running on Linux, with my eBooks and Calibre Library sitting on a remote Linux File Share.

The reason that I’m not using the Calibre Server to do the distribution is because:

1. I actually store all the eBooks and the Calibre database on a Linux file share that is then shared on my network using Samba.
2. I use multiple computers to interact with that Calibre database (not at the same time).  They are all setup to open the database on the samba share.
3. The file share is headless and does not have X installed

So to do this, the first thing I had to do was setup the directory on my file share and then setup samba to share it out to the network.  Once that was done, I then mounted the share on my client computer.  With that done, when I started Calibre for the first time, I just change the configuration to use the samba share directory.  Now whenever I open Calibre, all the eBooks and database files are now stored and shared internally on my file share.

That was great and all, but I also wanted to be able to easily browse the collection inside and outside my network.  To do that, I figured the best way is using a web browser.  After looking around very quickly, I decided to use a software called, “Calibre PHP Server“, since the file server already had Apache and PHP installed on it.  I do have to warn, it’s not the best software out there and the design choices aren’t the best, but it is functional and I was able to get it up and working without having to write it myself.

To get it working with Apache, I created a new sub-domain to put it under, something like books.domain.com.  At that point, the configuration for it was very simple.

<virtualhost *:80>
        ServerName books.somedomain.com
        DocumentRoot "/var/www/books.somedomain.com"
        <directory "/var/www/books.somedomain.com">
                AllowOverride All
                Allow from All
        </directory>
</virtualhost>

After that, I just followed the instructions that came with the software for setting it up.  I also added the optional section, which restricts who can access the books, so that only my wife and I have access to our library.  As I mentioned, the interface isn’t the best, but it is functional.  One area that I ran into issues with was the configuration files.  The first one was the “$config['smarty']” option, which when you install smarty in Ubuntu, you will use, “$config['smarty'] = ‘/usr/share/php/smarty’;”  The other issue is with the, “$config['smarty_dir']“.  I found that no matter what value you enter into it, it won’t work unless you create an additional directory by hand under it called, “smarty_templates_c”.  So for example, if you specify it as “$config['smarty_dir']=’/tmp/smarty’”, then you will then need to create the additional directory as so, “# mkdir /tmp/smarty/smarty_templates_c”.

Now my wife doesn’t have to ask me to put eBooks on her Nook Color anymore, but knows to go to that website when she wants to get one of her books and just download it that way.  It will basically work with any browser and shows all the different file contents it contains.  In our case, we have some PDF’s and epubs.  It works flawlessly.

The next step that I want to take when I have time is to come up with an additional way to use access the library with the source being a OPDS server.  There are two pieces of software that I’m currently looking at, but haven’t had time to play around with them to see which way I like best.  Until then though, this solution is working good for us both.

So I just purchased an MSI Wind from Microcenter and have already removed all the OS’ from it. I’m planning on installing Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu Linux. Like most of my laptops, things are just plug and play to get it working, so I have a page to help me remember how I did it at: http://james.jamesandkristin.net/setting-up-msi-wind-to-triple-boot-windows-mac-os-x-linux

So far it looks like it’s perfect for what we need. A nice little laptop that will fit in Kristin’s purse and that will fit in little safes on vacation. Luckily my friend had a usb to ide adapter, so I didn’t have to purchase an external hard drive. I had looked into making a usb boot disks for all three os’s and even looked at using netboot to install. Netboot would have been cool, but I don’t have that much time to get it setup for all three OS’s.

One important note, you need to install Windows XP before anything else.

Well, I’ve managed to upgrade wordpress and gallery again. It’s been a while, so the versions were pretty far behind. One nice benefit of this upgrade is that the photo gallery is now working again. Enjoy.

Hopefully nobody has noticed, but I have upgraded the blog software to the latest and greatest version from wordpress. It was only about 9 or 10 version behind and 2 years old. If you have tried to go to the photo gallery, you have noticed that it currently isn’t working right now. I’m trying to find time to get that working again. I need to upgrade the gallery software and then upgrade the connection plugin to work with it. Hopefully I’ll have it done by next week. Summer is always the time when I have the least amount of time; Trying to finish the basement, clean the garage, get the yard respectable still, and jet skiing. I’m also working on getting my Solaris Systems certification, which I would like to have done before next year.

You heard right, Google thinks that my ip address that I use at my home is located in the UK.  I know this by the pages google displays to me and the ads I see.  When I do a search on google, I get sent to UK google.  I can go back to the regular google, only to be sent back to the UK google.  The ads on google also display adds for people in the uk.  I got to other sites that use Google Adsense and they will only display adds for the UK.  It’s starting to annoy me.

I’m going through Current for my ISP.  From the looks of it, they are based out of New York.  The service is great and when I do traceroutes, it never goes near the UK.

I’ve spent a couple hours trying to find a way to let google know of the issue, but it’s close to impossible to find a place you can just send an email to let them know of the issue.  I actually had an easier time finding a snail mail address for technical support.  If anybody knows how to get this corrected, please let me know.