Hello, everybody. I’m an old time QNAP user (TS-251+) but a new member of this community.
I am here looking for help to solve a problem which I suspect affects many QNAP users who, just like me, like to read a lot and maintain their own e-book libraries/servers.
Calibre is a tremendously popular application for book library management, sharing, format conversion and e-book reading. It is free, licensed under General Public License GNU.
There was a time when Calibre was available for installation in QTS [HD Station] as a qpgk application. I think I managed to find it and install it via a 3rd party repository called qnapclub, more than 10 years ago .
Unfortunately, the application version is stuck on Calibre version 5.10.1 and the newer versions of Calibre (currently at version 7.21) have not been ported to QNAP.
I’m looking for someone willing to package the latest version of Calibre as qpkg so i can upgrade my Calibre in HD from 5.10.1 to the current version. I realize there is work and effort involved and can pay some $$-$$$ for this help.
Moreover if/when it’s done, it will be very nice if I could pass free of charge this dpkg to QNAP so that they could include this application in their official repository. Honestly, as a long time reader (i have thousands of books in my library and read most of them), Calibre is the most useful app and what better place to keep one’s book server/library than on the QNAP NAS…
Many thanks for contacting me if you think you can do the job or for posting here, if you have any useful ideas. N.B. I don’t have the knowledge and understanding of using QDK myself to build that package.
Thanks for your patience and please note that I did not intend to break any community rules with this post, it’s just a genuine attempt to solve a problem and do something useful for the community.
you could ask Qnap_Stephane (on the discord server) is he intends on updating the package. I know he is moving away from the apache dependancy to Qbase24 dependancy (which is approx €25 at this time) though Calibre only relies on Apache8x for now. Stephane charges for some applications since all of his packages are compiled in his own spare time. afaik he also hosts myqnap.org.
Calibre-Web83_0.6.23.0_x86_64.qpkg seems to be the latest version on that site. v6.23 perhaps?
I can ask on the discord server for a newer version to be compiled if you like? 7.21.0
QNAP themselves seem to compile bespoke applications they are affiliated with.
I tried installing the container, but the problem is that i cannot configure the container to be accessible from the internet (it’s only available on the intranet). My attempt, (playing with NAT settings for the container) resulted in my whole network setup being messed and it took me almost 5 hours to get my QNAP back online.
So yes, as @dolbyman mentioned, I wanted the calibre under HD station usage, because on that, it’s really easy to configure my internet book server (without having to mess with the virtual switches and DNS and DHCP settings.
I understand that the HD Station may have been the easiest option, but it would appear QNAP have dropped that solution. Applications only get supported for a number of years then they tend to die off anyway.
As a note to the NAT settings, I would not advise allowing direct access to the NAS application from internet. I would have suggested setting up a VPN and using this method to connect to the NAS. The vpn on the NAS is not the best option either.
In my own setup I use OpenVPN on an Intel NUC, and I have a backup vpn using Unifi teleport. I can access all the NAS services via these VPNs without opening the NAS directly to the world. just a thought.