How to install latest calibre (any package) on Ubuntu?

Question

If I am installing calibre with apt-get, it installs version 1.25

# sudo apt-show-versions calibre
calibre:all/trusty 1.25.0+dfsg-1build1 uptodate

while it's current version is 2.6.

Is it possible to install newer calibre, staying with apt-get?

Solution 1

Calibre's website advises against uses the distribution's package for this reason (It's typically outdated/buggy). And I didn't see any repositories with updated calibre, so apt-get wasn't looking like the best option.

You can use wget, though, to download & install the binaries right from Calibre. Calibre's site instructs you to paste the following command into the terminal to install or update:

sudo -v && 
  wget -nv -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/master/setup/linux-installer.py | 
  sudo python -c "import sys; main=lambda:sys.stderr.write('Download failed\n'); exec(sys.stdin.read()); main()"

Source: http://calibre-ebook.com/download_linux

I just did it, and it worked perfectly. And when Calibre tells you there's a new version, you should be able to paste that same thing into the terminal to update. Or you can write a script to do it automatically.

Is there a reason you wanted to stick with apt-get, other than being familiar with it?

Solution 2

This means that the version mentioned by apt-get is the latest version in the repositories that are known to it. If you are able to find a newer repo for Calibre, you could add it so apt-get can look for the packages and install it. But please make sure it's a secure/trusted repository!

Edit: Here is a list on Launchpad with some repositories, but since the official site doesn't mention one itself (at least, I couldn't find it) they're not offical.

Comments

[muru]

"Is there a reason you wanted to stick with apt-get" .. the obvious one: apt-get handles most other updates. This adds one more place to (manually) check for updates.

[Kate]

Ah, right. Of course. I guess you could use a script that automatically checks if the version is outdated and updates if it is.

[Evpok]

"Is there a reason you wanted to stick with apt-get". Well, piping unchecked web content into sudo may make one a bit nervous.

[Steven C. Howell]

@Evpok, they have an non-sudo option: "You can also do an "isolated" install that only touches files inside the installation directory and does not need to be run as root, like this:" wget -nv -O- https://download.calibre-ebook.com/linux-installer.py | python -c "import sys; main=lambda x,y:sys.stderr.write('Download failed\n'); exec(sys.stdin.read()); main('~/calibre-bin', True)"

[yoyoma2]

calibre 3.19 doesn't start on ubuntu 14.04 unless you set two qt variables QT_SCALE_FACTOR=1 QT_DEVICE_PIXEL_RATIO=1 as explained here mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=288152

[geras]

@StevenC.Howell, I see this command has been changed now to: wget -nv -O- https://download.calibre-ebook.com/linux-installer.sh | sh /dev/stdin install_dir=~/calibre-bin isolated=y. Anyway, does it offer the same functionality as a sudo install?

[Steven C. Howell]

@geras, typically the only difference between a root (sudo) vs unprivileged installation for a program like this will be what users on the system can use it. I would have to double check which I have, so I cannot say certainly what you should expect. Regardless, I would be surprised if they do not behave the same.

[geras]

@StevenC.Howell, and how could I uninstall this programme if I installed it this way?

[Steven C. Howell]

@geras all you would need to do is delete the folder it installed in. Linux installs are typically MUCH simpler than on Windows.