Author: wayney

Installing Ubooquity on Ubuntu


by wayney

Introduction

Ubooquity is a free, closed source home server for eBooks and Comics.

Ubooquity supports many types of files, with a preference for ePUB, CBZ, CBR and PDF files.
Metadata from library management software Calibre and ComicRack are also supported.

Ubooquity is a cross platform, light, Java 8 (Oracle) based. It allows for creation of user accounts and set access rights for each shared folder.

http://vaemendis.net/ubooquity/

Server accessable via browser:

http://server:2202/

http://server:2203/admin/

Installation

Introduction

Ubooquity does not modify any file outside of its own directory, the only other addition is Oracle Java 8.

Java 8 Installation

I’ve opted to install Java 8 within a user space rather than server wide to keep Java compatibility for other applications.

Java 8 was installed within Ubooquity’s directory.

Move the .tar.gz archive binary to the current directory.
Unpack the tarball and install Java
tar zxvf jre-8u73-linux-x64.tar.gz

Ubooquity Installation

  • First, download the Ubooquity package from here.
  • Extract .jar file to installation directory.
  • Installation directory should only have Java 8 and the Ubooquity.jar file.
  • Run Ubooquity.jar via terminal

Ubooquity First Run

Run command /path/to/jre/bin/java -jar Ubooquity.jar -mode=silent in terminal.

Ubooquity is now running and should display its desktop interface:

Check the Allow remote administration check box. Then click the Apply and restart server button on the bottom right.

Configuration

The only remaining thing to do is to choose which folders you want to share.

  • Click on the Admin screen button. The administration page will open in your browser, asking you to choose an adminstrator password.
  • Once you’ve chosen one (and entered it gain to log into the administration zone), click on either the Comics or Books section, depending on what you want to share.
  • Just click on the Add folder button, share a folder and you’re almost done.
  • Don’t forget to click on the Save and restart button (upper right corner).

Miscellaneous

The User Manual contains much more information about what you can do with Ubooquity.

In case you prefer to learn as you go, here are a few useful tips to get you started:

  • As long as Ubooquity is not running, you can move its directory anywhere you want on your device. Ubooquity has all it needs in its own folder.
  • By default, the admin page cannot be reached from another machine. You must activate the “Allow remote administration” option (either in the desktop interface or using command line options) to do that.
  • To access Ubooquity from another device (from your local network or from the Internet), don’t forget to properly configure your firewall and/or router.
  • If you ever need to reset your administrator password, just delete the webadmin.cred file in the Ubooquity folder.

Setup Auto Start On Boot

  1. Open Startup Applications via the Activities overview. Alternatively you can press Alt+F2 and run the gnome-session-properties command.
  2. Click Add and enter the command to be executed at login.