Skip to main content

Calibre-Web

Calibre-web is a graphical web frontend for a Calibre Library with many very useful features, such as user management, on-the-fly conversion, Send-to-Kindle and Kobo Sync API.

Initial Setup​

Installing Calibre-web is easy. Simply issue the following command from SSH:

sudo box install calibreweb

This command will configure and install Calibre-web.

You will then be able to access it through either http://domain.tld/calibre or http://domain.tld:8083, depending on whether or not you have nginx installed.

Options​

None of these are required for you to define if you want an easy install. If you would like to do something custom, then here are some options for you.

Make sure you know what you're doing!

Please note that it is difficult for us to support these options as they are custom for each install

None of the options are sanity-checked on install so setting something wrong could break your installation.

Again, you do not need to set these if you don't know what you're doing.

There are a couple options you can set before installing transmission through export.

If you'd like to use one of these, run export option=value before running the install command.

  • CALIBRE_LIBRARY_USER:

    • Default: The name of the master user
    • Adds the dedicated calibre-web user to the group of this user
    • Used to infer possible calibre library path if not specified (see below)
    • Calibre-web's admin password will be set to the value of this user's password

  • CALIBRE_LIBRARY_PATH:

    • Default
      • If exists, then: /home/$CALIBRE_LIBRARY_USER/Calibre Library
      • Otherwise unset, which will skip the library setup and password change procedure
    • Used to set up the calibre-web basic setup

Post-install​

  1. * Link to your instance of the Calibre Library folder
    • * Note: swizzin should do this for you during install in most cases. You should be told in the output if you need to do this
    • For example /home/masteruser/Calibre Library
    • Note: If you installed calibre through swizzin, this step will be done for you
    • If you would like to add your existing library, you will need to give the calibreweb system user access to your library with these commands:
      • # Replace $theuser with the name of the user which has the library files
        sudo usermod -a -G $theuser calibreweb
        sudo chmod 750 -R /home/$theuser
        sudo chmod 770 /home/$theuser/path/to/library
        systemctl restart calibre-web
  2. * Change the password of the admin user
    • * Note: swizzin should do this for you during install in most cases. You should be told in the output if you need to do this
    • Log in to calibre using admin:admin123
    • Go to http://<domain>/calibre/me and change the password there.
      • You might need to fill in an email address for this action to work
  3. Change the name of the admin user
    • Log in to calibre using admin:<your password>
    • Go to http://<domain>/calibre/me and change the details there
      • You might need to fill in an email address for this action to work
  4. Link or install necessary binaries
    • Go to https://<domain>/calibre-web/admin/config and open the "External binaries" section at the bottom
    • Calibre e-book converter should be in either of these paths
      • /usr/bin/ebook-convert (if installed via apt)
      • /opt/calibre/ebook-convert (if installed through calibre installer)
    • Kepubify is installed in /usr/local/bin/kepubify
    • If you have unrar installed (apt install unrar), it will be in /usr/local/bin/kepubify
  5. Set up SMTP
    • Get an SMTP gate and credentials
    • External guide goes here
  6. Optional: configure the direct Google Drive support
    • Please check this article for the appropriate steps
    • You only need to do this when you want to keep your entire library in google drive, not if you're using rclone etc.

User management​

Calibre-web has its own internal user database which swizzin does not manage in any way. Please manage your users through the web interface.

Service management​

Calibre-web runs as its own single process with its own system user.

The systemd service for calibre-web resides here:

/etc/systemd/system/calibre-web.service

You can use the following commands to manage the service.

sudo systemctl start calibre-web

Troubleshooting​

tip

You can always also try the general troubleshooting tips written in our guide. They might or might not apply, but asking these questions can often make you understand what is under the hood better and help you find what needs to be fixed. It's always worth a shot!

Please make sure to consult the issues of Calibre-web and the expansive wiki of the project.

Verbose output​

Calibre-web stores its logs in /opt/calibre-web/calibre-web.log and optionally /opt/calibre-web/access.log.

You can increase the verbosity of the log level by going to http://domain.tld/calibre/admin/config, opening the "Logfile Configuration" section and changing the level there.