Accessing Calibre Database in WSL

[MontyJ]

Perhaps I am dreaming, but I need to access my Calibre database that is on a Linux ext4 drive, from a Windoze 11 dual-boot setup. This is not via a network, but it is acting like it.

My setup:

- Dualboot Linux Mint 21 & W11 on two separate hard drives
- Running WSL2 on W11, with my Calibre drive (ext4) mounted and all files accessible
- Calibre 6.24 installed on W11 & the Linux drive.

Note: The mounted Linux drives, while mounted for use in WSL, are accessible in the normal W11 File Explorer where I can browse, edit files, etc, so thought they should be available to Calibre as well.

But when I attempt to add an existing library to Calibre, it hiccups with the same 'database is locked' error when attempting this on a networked drive:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 890, in library_moved
File "calibre\db\legacy.py", line 195, in __init__
File "calibre\db\legacy.py", line 50, in create_backend
File "calibre\db\backend.py", line 470, in __init__
File "calibre\db\backend.py", line 1319, in user_version
File "calibre\db\backend.py", line 1027, in conn
File "calibre\db\backend.py", line 343, in __init__
File "calibre\db\backend.py", line 400, in execute
apsw.BusyError: BusyError: database is locked

The point of course is to use the master database while in W11, where duplicating the database (its pretty big) is not practical every time I dualboot over to W11.

I have seen some network access solutions that simply add some extra commands to the mount parameters in fstab, but with WSL, there are no fstab contents...the mounting is done in the Windows system somehow.

Any hope for a solution or is it just a problem that isn't a network problem that thinks it is a network problem?

Thanks,

Monty

[kovidgoyal]

If I were you I'd run the linux version of calibre in WSL and use the content server to access your library via a browser in windows. THe main limitation is the browser wont be able to send books to USB connected devices

[MontyJ]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

If I were you I'd run the linux version of calibre in WSL and use the content server to access your library via a browser in windows. THe main limitation is the browser wont be able to send books to USB connected devices

@KovidGoval,

Thank you! It isn't as straight forward as I hoped, but I'll take it

I will post on how that goes.

Monty