How to Install Calibre Web on OpenBSD

Calibre Web is a web-based platform for managing and sharing your e-books collection. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the steps to install Calibre Web on an OpenBSD machine.

Prerequisites

Before we get started, make sure you have:

Step 1: Install Dependencies

Before we can install Calibre Web, we need to install some dependencies. Run the following command to install them:

pkg_add py3-pip py3-setuptools py3-wheel py3-pil

Step 2: Download and Configure Calibre Web

  1. Download Calibre Web from the official repository using the following command:

    cd /tmp && doas pkg_add git
    git clone https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web.git
    
  2. Copy the calibre-web directory to the /var/www directory:

    doas cp -r calibre-web /var/www
    
  3. Rename the default configuration file:

    cd /var/www/calibre-web && doas cp config.example.py config.py
    
  4. Configure the database settings by editing the config.py file:

    doas vi config.py
    
  5. Configure the web server by creating a new file in the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory:

    cd /etc/nginx/conf.d && doas touch calibre-web.conf && doas vi calibre-web.conf
    

    Add the following configuration:

    upstream calibre-web {
      server 127.0.0.1:8083;
      keepalive 64;
    }
    
    server {
      listen 80;
      server_name yourdomain.com;
    
      location / {
        proxy_pass http://calibre-web;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
      }
    }
    
  6. Create a new user for Calibre Web:

    doas useradd -s /sbin/nologin -U calibre
    
  7. Change the ownership of the calibre-web directory to the new user:

    doas chown -R calibre:calibre /var/www/calibre-web
    

    Note: Replace calibre with the name of the user you created.

Step 3: Install and Run the Application

  1. Install the Python dependencies:

    cd /var/www/calibre-web && doas pip3 install -U -r requirements.txt
    
  2. Create a new user for the Calibre library:

    doas adduser -q -gecos "" -home /usr/local/calibre -s /sbin/nologin calibre-library
    
  3. Create the Calibre library:

    mkdir /usr/local/calibre/library
    
  4. Change the owner of the library folder:

    chown -R calibre-library:calibre-library /usr/local/calibre/library
    
  5. Start the Calibre server:

    cd /var/www/calibre-web && doas -u calibre /usr/local/bin/python3 manage.py runserver --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8083
    
  6. Open your web browser and navigate to http://yourdomain.com.

  7. Log in to Calibre Web using the default username and password admin and admin123.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Calibre Web on your OpenBSD machine. You can now start managing and sharing your e-books collection.

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