[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[trishau]

Automatic - default settings. AFAIK - I have never changed anything there. And definitely not changed anything since I removed it and reinstalled!

[nerdy_knowledge]

Hi, I'm using the latest version of Calibre on a fully updated Fedora KDE Plasma. When I install Kobo Utilities, I obviously need to restart Calibre. But after a restart, and even after completely rebooting, I keep getting the same message:

calibre, version 7.13.0
ERROR: Must restart: You must restart calibre before you can configure the <b>Kobo Utilities</b> plugin

Obviously, restarting doesn´t help. Other plugins don´t have this issue; I only have it with Kobo Utilities and Kobo Annotations. I've been researching the problem online, but since there's only a very generic message, it's hard to find a solution online.

BTW, I have access to a Macbook, where the plugins work just fine.

[nerdy_knowledge]

I reinstalled Calibre not from the Fedora repository, but from the downloadpage instead. That solved the problem.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by nerdy_knowledge

Hi, I'm using the latest version of Calibre on a fully updated Fedora KDE Plasma. When I install Kobo Utilities, I obviously need to restart Calibre. But after a restart, and even after completely rebooting, I keep getting the same message:

Obviously, restarting doesn´t help. Other plugins don´t have this issue; I only have it with Kobo Utilities and Kobo Annotations. I've been researching the problem online, but since there's only a very generic message, it's hard to find a solution online.

BTW, I have access to a Macbook, where the plugins work just fine.

Did you install from the Linux repository? If so, you'll want to install fromt he calibre website as repository version are usually broken.

[WovenTales]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Did you install from the Linux repository? If so, you'll want to install fromt he calibre website as repository version are usually broken.

I'm getting the same, but I don't think that's the fault of the Linux packaging, at least on my system:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 147, in __init__
    ac = self.init_iaction(action)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 165, in init_iaction
    ac = action.load_actual_plugin(self)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/customize/__init__.py", line 659, in load_actual_plugin
    ac = getattr(importlib.import_module(mod), cls)(gui,
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py", line 90, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1387, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1360, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1331, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 935, in _load_unlocked
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/customize/zipplugin.py", line 205, in exec_module
    exec(compiled, module.__dict__)
  File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 40, in <module>
    from six.moves.configparser import SafeConfigParser
ImportError: cannot import name 'SafeConfigParser' from 'configparser' (/usr/lib/python3.12/configparser.py). Did you mean: 'RawConfigParser'?

...and from the Python 3.12 release notes:

configparser no longer has a SafeConfigParser class. Use the shorter ConfigParser name instead.

I've not looked into what it would take to patch/hack the plugin in order to verify that updating that typing fixes things, but even if it's not the specific problem we're running into (and this would be a particularly bad message to expose it if it is), it is at the very least a bug in the plugin.

(Also, don't know about the quality of the packaging on other distros, but I'm on Gentoo where everything is built from source and where "download the binary from the website" is not an acceptable solution.)

[ownedbycats]

Yeah, don't use Calibre from repository.

[gbm]

Yes you do want to run the calibre binary from the calibre website. My system has Python 3.12.3 installed but runs calibre with no problems.

Spoiler:

~$ calibre-debug -g
calibre 7.16  embedded-python: True
Linux-6.8.0-40-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.39 Linux ('64bit', 'ELF')
('Linux', '6.8.0-40-generic', '#40-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Jul  5 10:34:03 UTC 2024')
Python 3.11.5
Interface language: None
EXE path: /opt/calibre/bin/calibre-debug
Successfully initialized third party plugins: ACSM Input (0, 1, 0) && DeDRM (10, 0, 9) && ACSM Input Plugin GUI Extension (0, 1, 0) && Baen (1, 1, 0) && Barnes & Noble (1, 5, 6) && Diaps Editing Toolbag (0, 4, 0) && EpubMerge (3, 1, 0) && EpubSplit (3, 8, 0) && Goodreads (1, 8, 2) && Hyphenate This! (0, 1, 3) && Set KFX metadata (from KFX Output) (2, 9, 0) && KFX Output (2, 9, 0) && KePub Metadata Reader (3, 4, 3) && KePub Metadata Writer (3, 4, 3) && KePub Output (3, 6, 11) && KindleUnpack - The Plugin (0, 83, 1) && Kobo Books (1, 10, 2) && Kobo Utilities (2, 17, 1) && Modify ePub (1, 8, 4) && Quality Check (1, 13, 14)
QPA platform: xcb
devicePixelRatio: 1.0
logicalDpi: 96.0 x 96.0
physicalDpi: 92.53889943074003 x 92.67567567567568
ApplicationPaletteChange event ignored
Using calibre Qt style: True
[0.00] Starting up...
[0.00] Showing splash screen...
[0.07] splash screen shown
[0.07] Initializing db...
[0.31] db initialized
[0.31] Constructing main UI...
DEBUG:    0.0 Kobo Utilities Configuration - CreateNewCustomColumn is supported
DEBUG:    0.0 KoboUtilites::action.py - loading translations
DEBUG:    0.0 KoboUtilites::dialogs.py - loading translations
DEBUG:    0.0 KoboUtilites::action.py - loading translations
ACSM Input: GUI Plugin Genesis!
qt.gui.imageio: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
[1.22] GUI main window shown
EpubMerge: DEBUG: 2024-08-09 13:18:43,914: calibre_plugins.epubmerge.epubmerge_plugin(156): macmenuhack file_path:/home/cocadog/.config/calibre/plugins/fanficfare_macmenuhack.txt
DEBUG:    0.7 No Kobo Touch, Glo or Mini appears to be connected
DEBUG:    0.7 rebuild_menus - self.supports_ratings=None, self.supports_tiles=None
DEBUG:    0.7 KoboUtilities:set_toolbar_button_tooltip - start: text='None'
DEBUG:    0.7 device_driver_name - could not load extended driver. Exception= No module named 'calibre_plugins.kobotouch_extended'
DEBUG:    0.7 KoboUtilities:set_toolbar_button_tooltip - setting to text='Utilities to use with Kobo ereaders

Driver: KoboTouch'
DEBUG:    0.7 device_driver_name - could not load extended driver. Exception= No module named 'calibre_plugins.kobotouch_extended'
[1.29] main UI initialized...
[1.29] Hiding splash screen
[1.53] splash screen hidden
[1.53] Started up in 1.53 seconds with 3787 books

Note that the calibre binary has its own version of python.

bernie

Originally Posted by WovenTales

I'm getting the same, but I don't think that's the fault of the Linux packaging, at least on my system:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 147, in __init__
    ac = self.init_iaction(action)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 165, in init_iaction
    ac = action.load_actual_plugin(self)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/customize/__init__.py", line 659, in load_actual_plugin
    ac = getattr(importlib.import_module(mod), cls)(gui,
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py", line 90, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1387, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1360, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1331, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 935, in _load_unlocked
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/customize/zipplugin.py", line 205, in exec_module
    exec(compiled, module.__dict__)
  File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 40, in <module>
    from six.moves.configparser import SafeConfigParser
ImportError: cannot import name 'SafeConfigParser' from 'configparser' (/usr/lib/python3.12/configparser.py). Did you mean: 'RawConfigParser'?

...and from the Python 3.12 release notes:



I've not looked into what it would take to patch/hack the plugin in order to verify that updating that typing fixes things, but even if it's not the specific problem we're running into (and this would be a particularly bad message to expose it if it is), it is at the very least a bug in the plugin.

(Also, don't know about the quality of the packaging on other distros, but I'm on Gentoo where everything is built from source and where "download the binary from the website" is not an acceptable solution.)

[WovenTales]

Originally Posted by gbm

Yes you do want to run the calibre binary from the calibre website. My system has Python 3.12.3 installed but runs calibre with no problems.

Spoiler:

~$ calibre-debug -g
calibre 7.16  embedded-python: True
Linux-6.8.0-40-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.39 Linux ('64bit', 'ELF')
('Linux', '6.8.0-40-generic', '#40-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Jul  5 10:34:03 UTC 2024')
Python 3.11.5
Interface language: None
EXE path: /opt/calibre/bin/calibre-debug
Successfully initialized third party plugins: ACSM Input (0, 1, 0) && DeDRM (10, 0, 9) && ACSM Input Plugin GUI Extension (0, 1, 0) && Baen (1, 1, 0) && Barnes & Noble (1, 5, 6) && Diaps Editing Toolbag (0, 4, 0) && EpubMerge (3, 1, 0) && EpubSplit (3, 8, 0) && Goodreads (1, 8, 2) && Hyphenate This! (0, 1, 3) && Set KFX metadata (from KFX Output) (2, 9, 0) && KFX Output (2, 9, 0) && KePub Metadata Reader (3, 4, 3) && KePub Metadata Writer (3, 4, 3) && KePub Output (3, 6, 11) && KindleUnpack - The Plugin (0, 83, 1) && Kobo Books (1, 10, 2) && Kobo Utilities (2, 17, 1) && Modify ePub (1, 8, 4) && Quality Check (1, 13, 14)
QPA platform: xcb
devicePixelRatio: 1.0
logicalDpi: 96.0 x 96.0
physicalDpi: 92.53889943074003 x 92.67567567567568
ApplicationPaletteChange event ignored
Using calibre Qt style: True
[0.00] Starting up...
[0.00] Showing splash screen...
[0.07] splash screen shown
[0.07] Initializing db...
[0.31] db initialized
[0.31] Constructing main UI...
DEBUG:    0.0 Kobo Utilities Configuration - CreateNewCustomColumn is supported
DEBUG:    0.0 KoboUtilites::action.py - loading translations
DEBUG:    0.0 KoboUtilites::dialogs.py - loading translations
DEBUG:    0.0 KoboUtilites::action.py - loading translations
ACSM Input: GUI Plugin Genesis!
qt.gui.imageio: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
[1.22] GUI main window shown
EpubMerge: DEBUG: 2024-08-09 13:18:43,914: calibre_plugins.epubmerge.epubmerge_plugin(156): macmenuhack file_path:/home/cocadog/.config/calibre/plugins/fanficfare_macmenuhack.txt
DEBUG:    0.7 No Kobo Touch, Glo or Mini appears to be connected
DEBUG:    0.7 rebuild_menus - self.supports_ratings=None, self.supports_tiles=None
DEBUG:    0.7 KoboUtilities:set_toolbar_button_tooltip - start: text='None'
DEBUG:    0.7 device_driver_name - could not load extended driver. Exception= No module named 'calibre_plugins.kobotouch_extended'
DEBUG:    0.7 KoboUtilities:set_toolbar_button_tooltip - setting to text='Utilities to use with Kobo ereaders

Driver: KoboTouch'
DEBUG:    0.7 device_driver_name - could not load extended driver. Exception= No module named 'calibre_plugins.kobotouch_extended'
[1.29] main UI initialized...
[1.29] Hiding splash screen
[1.53] splash screen hidden
[1.53] Started up in 1.53 seconds with 3787 books

Note that the calibre binary has its own version of python.

bernie

Well that's horrific, glad I'm building from source to maintain a sane system. Sure is a good thing ConfigParser has had the exact same interface as SafeConfigParser since Python 3.2 (it's probably an alias from that point on, I don't know exactly how they implemented it) while Calibre has packaged at least 3.8 since it first switched to Python 3 almost exactly four years ago (in the leadup to 5.0.0); Kobo Utilities can update the four lines using the deprecated name without affecting anyone who's not using ancient software.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WovenTales

I'm getting the same, but I don't think that's the fault of the Linux packaging, at least on my system:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 147, in __init__
    ac = self.init_iaction(action)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 165, in init_iaction
    ac = action.load_actual_plugin(self)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/customize/__init__.py", line 659, in load_actual_plugin
    ac = getattr(importlib.import_module(mod), cls)(gui,
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py", line 90, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1387, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1360, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1331, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 935, in _load_unlocked
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/customize/zipplugin.py", line 205, in exec_module
    exec(compiled, module.__dict__)
  File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 40, in <module>
    from six.moves.configparser import SafeConfigParser
ImportError: cannot import name 'SafeConfigParser' from 'configparser' (/usr/lib/python3.12/configparser.py). Did you mean: 'RawConfigParser'?

...and from the Python 3.12 release notes:



I've not looked into what it would take to patch/hack the plugin in order to verify that updating that typing fixes things, but even if it's not the specific problem we're running into (and this would be a particularly bad message to expose it if it is), it is at the very least a bug in the plugin.

(Also, don't know about the quality of the packaging on other distros, but I'm on Gentoo where everything is built from source and where "download the binary from the website" is not an acceptable solution.)

Just try calibre from source and see how you get on. https://calibre-ebook.com A lot of Linux errors are due to the repo version being used.

[theducks]

As to compiling from source.
The source may be fine, and the OS distribution messed up a dependency

[damccull]

Thanks, @WovenTales, for identifying the issue with deprecated stuff in python 3.12. I made a very small patch, following what the python changelog says, and it works great on my calibre. Here's my patched version if anyone's interested. All I did was change SafeConfigParser to ConfigParser in 4 locations. I also bumped the version to 2.17.2 and added a change to the changelog, and added a quick note to the about.txt message for a new source code location. Seems to work great on my machine.

Does anyone know how to get in touch with the cbhaley person who seems to be maintaining this plugin's release? New to the forum and unsure how to do that.

Originally Posted by WovenTales

I'm getting the same, but I don't think that's the fault of the Linux packaging, at least on my system:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 147, in __init__
    ac = self.init_iaction(action)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 165, in init_iaction
    ac = action.load_actual_plugin(self)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/customize/__init__.py", line 659, in load_actual_plugin
    ac = getattr(importlib.import_module(mod), cls)(gui,
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py", line 90, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1387, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1360, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1331, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 935, in _load_unlocked
  File "/usr/lib64/calibre/calibre/customize/zipplugin.py", line 205, in exec_module
    exec(compiled, module.__dict__)
  File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 40, in <module>
    from six.moves.configparser import SafeConfigParser
ImportError: cannot import name 'SafeConfigParser' from 'configparser' (/usr/lib/python3.12/configparser.py). Did you mean: 'RawConfigParser'?

...and from the Python 3.12 release notes:



I've not looked into what it would take to patch/hack the plugin in order to verify that updating that typing fixes things, but even if it's not the specific problem we're running into (and this would be a particularly bad message to expose it if it is), it is at the very least a bug in the plugin.

(Also, don't know about the quality of the packaging on other distros, but I'm on Gentoo where everything is built from source and where "download the binary from the website" is not an acceptable solution.)

[damccull]

Here's a copy of the source in my zip file for 2.17.2 if anyone wants it: https://github.com/damccull/Kobo-Utilities

[chaley]

Originally Posted by damccull

Does anyone know how to get in touch with the cbhaley person?

That person is me.

I'm not going to release this until calibre itself uses python 3.12. Doing otherwise is supporting distro builds that change fundamental calibre dependencies, and there be dragons. There are incompatibilities between python 3.11 and 3.12 that affect calibre. Once @kovidgoyal has dealt with those I will look at what is necessary to update the plugin.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by chaley

That person is me.

I'm not going to release this until calibre itself uses python 3.12. Doing otherwise is supporting distro builds that change fundamental calibre dependencies, and there be dragons. There are incompatibilities between python 3.11 and 3.12 that affect calibre. Once @kovidgoyal has dealt with those I will look at what is necessary to update the plugin.

Thank you @chaley. I had started a few times to post a pithy reply deakling with these 3rd party repositories and their "philosophical" repackaging of tools like calibre but bit my tongue.

[WovenTales]

Originally Posted by chaley

That person is me.

I'm not going to release this until calibre itself uses python 3.12. Doing otherwise is supporting distro builds that change fundamental calibre dependencies, and there be dragons. There are incompatibilities between python 3.11 and 3.12 that affect calibre. Once @kovidgoyal has dealt with those I will look at what is necessary to update the plugin.

That's the exact problem I've had with this entire response. Explicitly switching to 3.12, yeah, I agree that that should wait for the base program to be updated. Calibre packaging an entire Python installation just because one distribution once linked it to the wrong Python version, for all that I rib at it I can't entirely say it's a bad setup (by the way for everyone here, there's no single "Linux" which could have messed up for everyone using it, there's Debian, Fedora, and Arch who all have separate package creation processes due to their entirely different formats, Ubuntu which is technically compatible with Debian but handles its software packaging and distribution separately, maybe another big name or two I'm forgetting, and several smaller repositories who generally follow one of those but might still decide to handle certain software specially, even before you get into from-source distros).

But this response of "I'm not going to make this change because Calibre is still on 3.11" is inarguably a shortsighted response which, to be blunt, doesn't show good code/project management. damccull and I aren't asking for the entire version support to be changed, we're asking for four lines to be updated in a backwards-compatible manner (I had found the same ones but didn't post my own patch because I was annoyed with the community response and hoped the official one was better). The SafeConfigParser name has been deprecated since Python 3.02; Calibre has packaged versions which support the recommended alias of ConfigParser since Calibre 5.0.0, and unless you have some concrete reason to support the older versions using Python 2.7 you don't lose anything from not updating now. (I honestly doubt the code supports 2.7 anyway no matter what the matrix in Calibre's "Get a plugin" dialog says -- and even if it somehow does this would just be another entry in whatever version compatibility code you'd already have to be using.) This is not jumping ahead of Calibre to support a Python version it doesn't, this is getting ahead of the plugin breaking unnecessarily when 3.12 finally removes something which has been incorrect in general since 2011 and incorrect for Calibre specifically since 2020.

damccull, thanks for publishing your patch. For anyone using any Linux/BSD distro which does ignore the bundled Python, that works perfectly for me when manually installed, and contrary to the fearmongering I've not had any problems running Calibre on 3.12 -- or with running this addon after that patch. That's certainly not to say there's not going to be bugs lurking in the corners somewhere or that reporting those bugs will be well-received with that setup, but everyday use is fine.