Calibre E-book Viewer has no icon

[Aye B. Seeh]

The icon associated with the bundled "E-Book VIewer" in Calibre is missing in some parts of application launch menus.

Solution:

1. Copy the 'viewer.png' from '/usr/share/calibre/images' to '/usr/share/pixmaps'

2. Edit the 'E-book Viewer.desktop' file found in '/usr/share/calibre/applications' by changing the line "Icon = calibre" to "Icon=viewer"

**On Wily /usr/share/applications/ebook-viewer.desktop

Of course this isn't a real solution to the problem; Calibre should automatically place the icon in the pixmaps folder, and set the E-Book Viewer.desktop file to point to the correct icon.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

It is a cosmetic or usability issue that doesn't limit the functionality of a non-core package.

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Note that /usr/share/calibre/images/viewer.png is 128x128 pixels big, when Calibre is installed from upstream website, it installs a 256x256 icon into
/usr/local/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/calibre-viewer.png
so the ideal fix would be using that icon, I guess.

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Calibre upstream has its own desktop file embedded in a python install file:

https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/blob/master/src/calibre/linux.py

Also, it sets up mime-handling there. I guess this bug should be fixed alongside this one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/calibre/+bug/543140

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Tomas, can you be more specific about what lines in https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/blob/master/src/calibre/linux.py you are referring to?

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Rolf, I would say it is lines 911-1002:
911 EVIEWER = '''\
992 [Desktop Entry]
993 Version=1.0
994 Type=Application
995 Name=E-book Viewer
996 GenericName=Viewer for E-books
997 Comment=Viewer for E-books in all the major formats
998 TryExec=ebook-viewer
999 Exec=ebook-viewer --detach %f
1000 Icon=calibre-viewer
1001 Categories=Graphics;Viewer;
1002 '''

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Although upstreams installs this:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=E-book Viewer
GenericName=Viewer for E-books
Comment=Viewer for E-books in all the major formats
TryExec=ebook-viewer
Exec=ebook-viewer --detach %f
Icon=calibre-viewer
Categories=Graphics;Viewer;
MimeType=application/x-cbz;text/fb2+xml;application/rtf;application/x-sony-bbeb;image/vnd.djvu;application/x-mobi8-ebook;application/x-mobipocket-subscription;application/xhtml+xml;application/pdf;application/x-ruby;application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document;application/epub+zip;text/html;text/x-markdown;application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroEnabled.12;application/oebps-package+xml;application/x-cbr;application/x-cbc;application/x-mobipocket-ebook;application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text;text/plain;

so plainly the install is more complicated.

[Jason (jason-force)]

Hello. I'm not sure if this is related, but when I launch calibre (Ubuntu 16.04) the calibre icon shows up in my launcher, however, the viewer icon also shows up and it seems that icon is what is actually associated with the running instance of calibre. I did move the viewer icon into /usr/share/pixmaps and edited /usr/share/ebook-viewer.desktop to use the viewer icon, but I'm still seeing the same behaviour (even after a restart). Right clicking on the calibre icon only give me the options: 'calibre' and 'lock to launcher'. Right clicking on the viewer icon give me the options to 'quit' or 'lock to launcher'. Strangely though, when right clicking on the viewer icon, I have an option for one of the last books I had open. I don't know why this would matter, but this behaviour started after I repositioned the viewer icon on my launcher while I had a book open. The book that was open at the time is the same one that is showing up in the context menu when I right click on it even after opening other books. I've installed calibre from the ubuntu repo through apt-get and have reinstalled, removed, purged, etc. several times and the behaviour remains. I'm at a bit of a loss and hope it's related in some way to this bug and will be fixed in the near future. In the mean time, if there's a work-around, I'm all ears. this doesn't really affect my ability to use calibre, but it's super frustrating. I've included a screenshot, though it may be of minimal help. You can see that there isn't any book open and the calibre icon (bottom left in launcher) doesn't have an indication next to it that it's running. You can also see the ebook viewer icon is active and shows my python book open, though it's not. If there's any info I can provide or changes someone would want me to try, I'd be happy to help. Thanks in advance for the help.

P.S. I apologize in advance for the giant screenshot.

calibre 2.55
linux kernel 4.4.0-45
ubuntu 16.04.1

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

I cannot verify that starting ebook-viewer from the command-line does not produce an icon on the unity launcher taskbar. I believe that is what this ticket is about, right?

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Rolf Leggewie: weird, it happens to me (the icon is not shown). Are you sure you only installed Calibre from Ubuntu's repos and not from the website?

[Michael R. Bernstein (webmaven)]

I currently have similar behavior to that described by @jason-force. I am currently on Ubuntu 15.04.

As my Calibre is installed from the Calibre site rather than a package from the repository, I have filed a more complete bug report here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1660299

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Michael - if you installed from the Calibre site, that is not a ubuntu bug, sorry, try your luck with the author of Calibre (who will probably dismiss your report, as I happends to me frequently). Also, you are using a unsupported version of Ubuntu.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

On 30.01.2017 19:42, TomasHnyk wrote:
> Michael - if you installed from the Calibre site, that is not a ubuntu
> bug, sorry,

Yeah, you really have to wonder sometimes what people are thinking (if they are).

@sup, yes my calibre is from the repo.

$ apt-cache policy calibre-bin
calibre-bin:
  Installed: 1.25.0+dfsg-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.25.0+dfsg-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.25.0+dfsg-1ubuntu1 0
        500 http://jp.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/universe i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.25.0+dfsg-1build1 0
        500 http://jp.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/universe i386 Packages

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

@michael I see, you are still on 14.04. I am reproducing this on 16.04. Also, I am on amd64, but that should hardly make a difference.

[Michael R. Bernstein (webmaven)]

@jason-force, I am seeing the same issue in Ubuntu 15.04. As my Calibre is a binary install from the site rather than the distribution package, I've filed a bug here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1660299

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

@Thomas, now this one is indeed odd. What do you get for this command?

$ dpkg -S /usr/share/calibre/images/calibre.png
dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern /usr/share/calibre/images/calibre.png

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

The same as you.

[Michael R. Bernstein (webmaven)]

@sup:
> Michael - if you installed from the Calibre site, that is not a ubuntu bug, sorry

Yes, I know that, which is why I filed a bug upstream in the first place, and only linked to it from here.

@r0lf:
> Yeah, you really have to wonder sometimes what people are thinking (if they are).

"People" are probably thinking that a short comment noting that:

  a) the issue also exists when the upstream code is installed (therefore, whatever else is going on, it probably isn't a packaging issue per-se)

  b) that the issue also exists for other versions of the application and other versions of the OS (therefore, it probably isn't a regression per-se in either)

  c) and pointing to a detailed bug report (which may help with reproducing the issue)

… would be seen as *helpful*, and that such comments wouldn't be immediately dismissed with a knee-jerk reaction as uninformed by someone who has obvious issues with reading comprehension, situational awareness, socialization.

Upon reflection, I suppose it *is* rather foolish and naive of "people" to think any of that. Good day.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

On 31.01.2017 01:17, Michael R. Bernstein wrote:
> Upon reflection, I suppose it *is* rather foolish and naive of "people"
> to think any of that.

Yes, it is indeed naive to think that explicitly opening new tickets in
LP for non-Ubuntu software is helpful. It's a distraction and waste of
time. Don't do it. Simple as that. Muchas gracias.

[Michael R. Bernstein (webmaven)]

@rolf:
> Yes, it is indeed naive to think that explicitly opening new tickets in LP for non-Ubuntu software is helpful.

When and where did I do that?

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Rolf: calibre uses launchpad for bugs, it was my mistake to overlook that the bug was filled in calibreand not in Ubuntu.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

@sup, is the icon missing for calibre, ebook-viewer or both in your case? Please start the program from the command line.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

programs

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Ebook-viewer only in my case.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

The Debian ticket was closed a good nine months ago. Is this something you can reproduce in bionic or artful?

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

No, I installed Bionic today and the icon is where it is supposed to be, closing.