Manual Installation

Manual Installation on Linux

If you want to manually install Calibre-Web (“from source”), follow the instructions below.

These instructions assume a Debian-based Linux distribution (Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS...)

1. Switch to user root:

   • sudo -i

2. Install git, imagemagick, netifaces, pip, venv, and cryptography:

   • apt install git imagemagick python3-netifaces python3-pip python3-venv python3-cryptography

   PRO TIPS:

   • On Ubuntu and Debian, python3-cryptography is installed by default, unlike on Raspberry Pi OS.
   • Installing python3-cryptography is not actually required — but can help if you're having trouble pip installing cryptography in Step 6. (if so, run python3 -m venv venv --system-site-packages instead of Step 5., which should allow you to skip Step 6. !)

3. Download and extract Calibre-Web:

   • cd /opt
   • git clone https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web
   • cd calibre-web

4. Create a virtual environment:

   • python3 -m venv venv

5. Install dependencies:

   • ./venv/bin/python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

6. Install cryptography using pip: (this NEW step was required when testing on 4 OS's on 2024-10-09: Debian 12, Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 24.10)

   • ./venv/bin/python3 -m pip install cryptography

7. Run Calibre-Web: (FYI the command below does NOT come back to the prompt, and that's OK!)

   • ./venv/bin/python3 cps.py

   PRO TIP:

   • Or use nohup ./venv/bin/python3 cps.py if you want to exit the terminal window.

8. Browse to try it out!

Additional Issues and Considerations: (several below appear old, and no longer relevant!)

1. Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi OS):

   1. Depending on your version of pip, the installation might fail with Failed to build cryptography.
      • If you encounter this issue, try updating pip:
        • ./venv/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
      • If the error persists, install cargo:
        • apt install cargo
      • Then, try installing Calibre-Web again.

2. Ubuntu:

   1. On some Ubuntu versions, you may encounter the error can't combine user with prefix. This is a known bug and can be resolved by installing the requirements with the --system flag:
      • ./venv/bin/python3 -m pip install --system -r requirements.txt

3. Configuration Files:

   1. All configuration files (settings database, log files) are stored in the Calibre-Web root folder (in this example, /opt/calibre-web). Additional config files, such as those for Google Drive or Gmail integration, should be placed there as well.

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Manual Installation on Windows

On Windows, pip and venv are included with the basic Python installation. Follow the steps below:

1. Download and install the newest Python version for Windows from python.org.

2. Open a command prompt (cmd) and navigate to the folder where you want to install Calibre-Web, e.g., c:\calibre-web.

3. Create a virtual environment for Calibre-Web in the folder venv:

   • c:\python\python.exe -m venv venv
     (This example assumes Python is installed in c:\python.)

4. Download and extract Calibre-Web into the current folder (in this example, c:\calibre-web) from the releases page on Github.

5. Install dependencies by running:

   • .\venv\Scripts\python3.exe -m pip install -r requirements.txt
     (Executed from the c:\calibre-web folder.)

6. Run Calibre-Web with the command:

   • .\venv\Scripts\python3.exe cps.py

Configuration Files: All configuration files (settings database, log files) are stored in the Calibre-Web root folder (in this example, c:\calibre-web). Additional config files (e.g., for Google Drive or Gmail) should also be placed here.