BookSmart running natively Linux: A Solution

Hey folks,

I know Blurb does not have any plans to support Booksmart on Linux. The common solution is “use wine.”

After spending a week or two attempting to make a book in Linux through wine, I just about gave up on the whole idea of making a book. Without going into much detail, Booksmart through wine is downright awful, and I’m shamed to say I cursed Blurb more than once during my trial.

However, I managed to get it working natively in Linux, and renounce my previous curses, because Booksmart is a fantastic piece of software.

I’ve created a simple BookSmart installer for those using Ubuntu. For those not using Ubuntu, it would be trivial to edit and make work on your distro. You can check out my post about it (and download the installer script) here: http://www.binaryelysium.com/blog/2009/10/23/running-blurb-booksmart-in-linux-without-wine/

Of course Blurb can’t condone or support this method, but I hope they’ll leave this post here for those Linux users who come along later.

Posted by
Ramblurr

Oct 23, 2009 1:08pm PDT

Permalink

Very cool Ramblurr…

You’re right, we can’t officially support BookSmart on Linux since we haven’t formally tested running BookSmart on Linux and ordering books through a Linux client. We don’t know which specific Linux issues people might run into and on what distros it will and will not run, and our customer support is also not trained to handle Linux specific inquiries. So if you upload a book from a Linux client we won’t be able to help you if It doesn’t come out the way you expected it. (You may want to consider importing your book into a Windows or Mac client and preview everything carefully on that OS before you upload and place your order.)

That said, Linux support has been on my radar here so I encourage people to submit their experiences here if they do choose to go this (unsupported) route. It may help other linux users and at the same time will help us scope interest in official Linux support for a future release.

Peter

Posted by
sfpeter

Oct 26, 2009 1:15pm PDT

Permalink

This is so frustrating. Obviously the underlying application is sound and written in a way to make supporting multiple environments. I don’t understand how Blurb doesn’t realize that the effort needed to support Linux is minuscule, and the revenue generated from that support would be orders of magnitude more than the costs incurred.

Why continue to turn people away who are trying to buy your products?

Posted by
rharrison10

Nov 18, 2009 7:00pm PDT

Permalink

I have just used Booksmart on Linux to make two books, including upload for printing to Blurb. Printed books have arrived and look great, just as expected, no surprises.

This was on Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 with 64-bit Java 1.6 (sun-java6-* from Ubuntu repositories), BookSmart version 2.5.1.30022. I have logged my setup notes here: http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas/booksmart.html

Šarūnas

Posted by
sarunas

Mar 30, 2010 11:28am PDT

Permalink

I used BookSmart 2.5.1 on Ubuntu 8.04 and published a book on it two years ago. It looked great.

Last night I installed Booksmart 2.8 on Ubuntu 10.04 using instructions found on the Ubuntu wiki (http://help.ubuntu.com/community/BookSmart) and just ordered a book with it. Haven’t received it yet, but I expect the book will look good. The only problem is that Booksmart crashes when trying to pull in files from my hard drive. Works fine when I download pictures from SmugMug though. go figure…

With the Linux desktop gaining popularity, it would be good business for Blurb to support it. The software would be very close to the Mac version so the benefits should outweigh the costs. I suggest testing it with Ubuntu and Fedora. As long as it works with these two distributions,users of other distros will be able to figure out how to adapt it for theirs.

Simon

Posted by
simonrobidas

Jun 25, 2010 10:53am PDT

Permalink

Sadly, the file pointed to by the install script is no longer available on the Blurb site, resulting in a 404 error.

Posted by
djbp

Jan 24, 2011 4:21am PDT

Permalink

I just installed Booksmart 2.9.5 on Ubuntu 10.04 editing by hand the installer from Ramblurr.
I downloaded the mac version of Booksmart by hand, and used the dmg2img that is in the standard ubuntu apt repositories.
It has been working fine so far!

Posted by
ugodiggi

Mar 5, 2011 9:18pm PDT

Permalink

BookSmart

BookSmart running natively Linux: A Solution

Forums

Help

BookSmart running natively Linux: A Solution Hey folks, I know Blurb does not have any plans to support Booksmart on Linux. The common solution is “use wine.” After spending a week or two attempting to make a book in Linux through wine, I just about gave up on the whole idea of making a book. Without going into much detail, Booksmart through wine is downright awful, and I’m shamed to say I cursed Blurb more than once during my trial. However, I managed to get it working natively in Linux, and renounce my previous curses, because Booksmart is a fantastic piece of software. I’ve created a simple BookSmart installer for those using Ubuntu. For those not using Ubuntu, it would be trivial to edit and make work on your distro. You can check out my post about it (and download the installer script) here: http://www.binaryelysium.com/blog/2009/10/23/running-blurb-booksmart-in-linux-without-wine/ Of course Blurb can’t condone or support this method, but I hope they’ll leave this post here for those Linux users who come along later.	Posted by Ramblurr Oct 23, 2009 1:08pm PDT Permalink

Very cool Ramblurr… You’re right, we can’t officially support BookSmart on Linux since we haven’t formally tested running BookSmart on Linux and ordering books through a Linux client. We don’t know which specific Linux issues people might run into and on what distros it will and will not run, and our customer support is also not trained to handle Linux specific inquiries. So if you upload a book from a Linux client we won’t be able to help you if It doesn’t come out the way you expected it. (You may want to consider importing your book into a Windows or Mac client and preview everything carefully on that OS before you upload and place your order.) That said, Linux support has been on my radar here so I encourage people to submit their experiences here if they do choose to go this (unsupported) route. It may help other linux users and at the same time will help us scope interest in official Linux support for a future release. Peter	Posted by sfpeter Oct 26, 2009 1:15pm PDT Permalink

This is so frustrating. Obviously the underlying application is sound and written in a way to make supporting multiple environments. I don’t understand how Blurb doesn’t realize that the effort needed to support Linux is minuscule, and the revenue generated from that support would be orders of magnitude more than the costs incurred. Why continue to turn people away who are trying to buy your products?	Posted by rharrison10 Nov 18, 2009 7:00pm PDT Permalink

I have just used Booksmart on Linux to make two books, including upload for printing to Blurb. Printed books have arrived and look great, just as expected, no surprises. This was on Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 with 64-bit Java 1.6 (sun-java6-* from Ubuntu repositories), BookSmart version 2.5.1.30022. I have logged my setup notes here: http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas/booksmart.html Šarūnas	Posted by sarunas Mar 30, 2010 11:28am PDT Permalink

I used BookSmart 2.5.1 on Ubuntu 8.04 and published a book on it two years ago. It looked great. Last night I installed Booksmart 2.8 on Ubuntu 10.04 using instructions found on the Ubuntu wiki (http://help.ubuntu.com/community/BookSmart) and just ordered a book with it. Haven’t received it yet, but I expect the book will look good. The only problem is that Booksmart crashes when trying to pull in files from my hard drive. Works fine when I download pictures from SmugMug though. go figure… With the Linux desktop gaining popularity, it would be good business for Blurb to support it. The software would be very close to the Mac version so the benefits should outweigh the costs. I suggest testing it with Ubuntu and Fedora. As long as it works with these two distributions,users of other distros will be able to figure out how to adapt it for theirs. Simon	Posted by simonrobidas Jun 25, 2010 10:53am PDT Permalink

Sadly, the file pointed to by the install script is no longer available on the Blurb site, resulting in a 404 error.	Posted by djbp Jan 24, 2011 4:21am PDT Permalink

I just installed Booksmart 2.9.5 on Ubuntu 10.04 editing by hand the installer from Ramblurr. I downloaded the mac version of Booksmart by hand, and used the dmg2img that is in the standard ubuntu apt repositories. It has been working fine so far!	Posted by ugodiggi Mar 5, 2011 9:18pm PDT Permalink