Catalog generation fails

[Dan Clough]

When trying to generate a catalog in MOBI or EPUB format, I get the following error and failure. It does work properly for CSV format. Running Calibre 0.8.68 on Linux. I have attached my 'metadata.db' file as requested in the forum. Thanks.

calibre, version 0.8.68 (linux2, isfrozen: True)
Conversion Error: Failed: Generate catalog

Generate catalog
 Sections: Authors, Titles
Catalog_EPUB_MOBI(): Generating mobi for kindle in GUI environment
 connected_device: 'None'
 book count: 969
 opts:
  author_clip: 60
  catalog_title: u'My Books'
  connected_kindle: False
  description_clip: 100
  exclude_genre: u'.'
  exclusion_rules: ()
  fmt: u'mobi'
  header_note_source_field: ''
  merge_comments_rule: '::True'
  output_profile: 'kindle'
  prefix_rules: ()
  search_text: None
  sort_by: None
  sort_descriptions_by_author: True
  sync: False
  thumb_width: u'1.00'
  use_existing_cover: False
 Thumbnails:
  DPI = 168; thumbnail dimensions: 84 x 112
 Begin catalog source generation
 unhandled exception in catalog generator
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "site.py", line 58, in main
  File "site-packages/calibre/utils/ipc/worker.py", line 186, in main
  File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/convert/gui_conversion.py", line 68, in gui_catalog
  File "site-packages/calibre/library/catalogs/epub_mobi.py", line 337, in run
  File "site-packages/calibre/library/catalogs/epub_mobi_builder.py", line 367, in build_sources
  File "site-packages/calibre/library/catalogs/epub_mobi_builder.py", line 794, in fetch_books_by_author
  File "site-packages/calibre/library/catalogs/epub_mobi_builder.py", line 794, in <lambda>
  File "site-packages/calibre/library/catalogs/epub_mobi_builder.py", line 334, in _kf_books_by_author_sorter_author_sort
UnicodeEncodeError: 'latin-1' codec can't encode character u'\u2019' in position 6: ordinal not in range(256)

[GRiker (griker-deactivatedaccount)]

First, you can delete your metadata.db attachment, as I've download it.

When I build a catalog it's not failing for me. What computer/OS are you using?

[Dan Clough (danc3)]

I'm using a Lenovo laptop (i7 cpu) and Slackware Linux OS (ver 13.37
32-bit).

Perhaps it's something to do with the Python version I have... Slackware
is about to release a new version and I can try it again on that, soon...

Thanks.

On 09/09/2012 05:48 PM, GRiker wrote:
> First, you can delete your metadata.db attachment, as I've download it.
>
> When I build a catalog it's not failing for me. What computer/OS are you
> using?
>

[GRiker (griker-deactivatedaccount)]

Don't delete the metadata file. I don't have a Linux box, so I will ask Kovid to see if he can replicate the bug on his system.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

@GRiker: This is caused by various implicit bytestring to unicode conversions in the catalog code. I've fixed a few of them. The errors dont show up on os x because the default encoding there is UTF-8. Some (usually older) linux installs still set their encoding to non utf-8 values.

@Dan: Change your system locale to a UTF-8 based one and the error will go away.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

Fixed in branch lp:calibre. The fix will be in the next release. calibre is usually released every Friday.

 status fixreleased

[Dan Clough (danc3)]

Kovid and GRiker,

It worked! Changed my system locale to en_US.utf8 and now can generate a MOBI catalog just fine.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! Really appreciate the prompt and effective help.

Best regards,
Dan