Manual Installation

Manual installation on Linux or MacOS

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

1. Install pip, venv, and cryptography (optional)
   Make sure you have pip and venv installed for your Python version. Install them via your distribution's package manager (e.g., apt for Debian-based distributions).

   • sudo apt install imagemagick python3-netifaces python3-pip python3-venv

   PRO TIPS:

   • On Ubuntu and Debian, python3-cryptography is installed by default.
   • On Raspberry Pi OS, you will need to install python3-cryptography manually:
     • sudo apt install python3-cryptography
   • Installing python3-cryptography is not required if you plan to install a newer version using pip in Step 5.

2. Navigate to the folder where you want to install Calibre-Web, e.g.,

   • cd /opt/calibre-web

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

   • python3 -m venv venv

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

5. Install dependencies by running:

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

   • Optional: Install a more recent version of cryptography (if not using the OS version):

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

6. Execute Calibre-Web with the command:

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

Additional Issues and Considerations:

Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi OS):
Depending on your version of pip, the installation might fail with Failed to build cryptography. If you encounter this issue, try:

1. Updating pip:
   • ./venv/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
2. If the error persists, install cargo:
   • sudo apt install cargo
3. Then, try installing Calibre-Web again.

Ubuntu:
On some Ubuntu versions, you may see 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

Configuration Files:
All configuration files (settings database, log files) are stored in the Calibre-Web root folder (in this example, /opt/calibre-web). Any 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. Execute 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.