Cannot launch Arianna

jamal-ali1989 · October 24, 2024, 10:18am

So, I am trying to run Arianna on Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.

This is what the terminal returns:

flatpak run org.kde.arianna 
Detected locale "C" with character encoding "ANSI_X3.4-1968", which is not UTF-8.
Qt depends on a UTF-8 locale, and has switched to "C.UTF-8" instead.
If this causes problems, reconfigure your locale. See the locale(1) manual
for more information.

(process:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 14:12:49.471: Locale not supported by C library.
	Using the fallback 'C' locale.
Gtk-Message: 14:12:49.471: Failed to load module "xapp-gtk3-module"
Qt: Session management error: Could not open network socket
"Running on http://127.0.0.1:45961/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)"
qrc:/content/ui/main.qml:81: TypeError: Cannot read property 'hideSidebar' of null

How do I get this to launch?

ben2talk · October 24, 2024, 11:32am

I would suggest, especially on Linux Mint with Cinnamon, that Foliate (a GTK app) is a better option. The reason I like this most is that 1. I launch books from files, or I launch them from Calibre, and they open - ready to read - in Foliate (I prefer it to Calibre’s reader and despite using Plasma, Arianna just seems to suck big time.

Right now, if I open Arianna - I see a whole ‘library’ of books which don’t exist and no menu option to rescan or clear it up.

None of those can be opened. If I try, it switches to a white screen and crashes.

If I now choose a file and ‘open with…’ Arianna, it doesn’t show up. Foliate does. I just installed them as binaries (via repos) rather than Flatpaks.

There’s no menu - you can’t remove these ghosts…

When it did run, I remember it as being just a very basic lacking useful features found in Foliate, Calibre, and KOReader.

Here’s what I get if I ‘open with Foliate’…

jamal-ali1989 · October 24, 2024, 6:02pm

The problem is that I get this error with Kget, as well. I feel like something in my system is broken.
In regards to Foliate, something seems fishy to me about Foliate. At 100% zoom, font sizes do not match up and I cannot find a setting that would create this discrepancy

This is what font size 12 looks like at 100% zoom. Could it be that 12 refers to another unit of measurement and not points?

For example, this is what I get upon launching Kget:

Detected locale "C" with character encoding "ANSI_X3.4-1968", which is not UTF-8.
Qt depends on a UTF-8 locale, and has switched to "C.UTF-8" instead.
If this causes problems, reconfigure your locale. See the locale(1) manual
for more information.

(process:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:04:14.721: Locale not supported by C library.
	Using the fallback 'C' locale.
Gtk-Message: 22:04:14.721: Failed to load module "xapp-gtk3-module"
Qt: Session management error: Could not open network socket
kf.coreaddons: The plugin "/app/lib/plugins/kget/kget_kio.so" explicitly states an Id in the embedded metadata, which is different from the one derived from the filename The Id field from the KPlugin object in the metadata should be removed
kf.coreaddons: The plugin "/app/lib/plugins/kget/kget_multisegkiofactory.so" explicitly states an Id in the embedded metadata, which is different from the one derived from the filename The Id field from the KPlugin object in the metadata should be removed
kf.coreaddons: The plugin "/app/lib/plugins/kget/kget_checksumsearchfactory.so" explicitly states an Id in the embedded metadata, which is different from the one derived from the filename The Id field from the KPlugin object in the metadata should be removed
kf.coreaddons: The plugin "/app/lib/plugins/kget/kget_metalinkfactory.so" explicitly states an Id in the embedded metadata, which is different from the one derived from the filename The Id field from the KPlugin object in the metadata should be removed
kf.coreaddons: The plugin "/app/lib/plugins/kget/kget_mirrorsearchfactory.so" explicitly states an Id in the embedded metadata, which is different from the one derived from the filename The Id field from the KPlugin object in the metadata should be removed
kf.coreaddons: The plugin "/app/lib/plugins/kget/kget_bittorrent.so" explicitly states an Id in the embedded metadata, which is different from the one derived from the filename The Id field from the KPlugin object in the metadata should be removed
kf.kio.widgets: Failed to check which JobView API is supported "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown"
QDomDocument called with unopened QIODevice. This will not be supported in future Qt versions.
QAbstractItemView::commitData called with an editor that does not belong to this view
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action
kf.notifications: Failed to play sound with canberra: Not available
Recalculate limits? true
"My Downloads"
"My Downloads"
"My Downloads"
"My Downloads"
"My Downloads"
"My Downloads"
"My Downloads"
"My Downloads"

ben2talk · October 25, 2024, 1:11am

You do have Timeshift, did you try restoring a snapshot from before you broke the system?
Here’s 12 point font in Foliate - no issue.

jamal-ali1989 · October 25, 2024, 9:04am

Well, I haven’t tinkered with the system, at all. I mostly use software manager to download new software and that’s pretty much it.
What does that error message mean, by the way?

Regarding Foliate, what did you do to achieve that? at 12 pt, fonts should be around 4.2 millimeters high, mine look way too small.

ben2talk · October 25, 2024, 10:37am

I would suggest you try the following:

Create a new user, call it ‘TEST’ and give it a password (test)
Log in to that user and try launching Foliate again.

Now you’ll have a benchmark on an unadulterated account with default settings to see if it’s actually working with your system… either your $USER data or your SYSTEM is at fault.

I installed from the repository (Manjaro testing)

foliate 3.1.1-1

❯ pacman -Qi foliate
Name            : foliate
Version         : 3.1.1-1
Description     : A simple and modern GTK eBook reader
Architecture    : any
URL             : https://johnfactotum.github.io/foliate/
Licenses        : GPL-3.0-or-later
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : gjs  gtk4  libadwaita  webkitgtk-6.0
Optional Deps   : espeak-ng: Text-to-speech support; also voice package needed [installed]
                  festival: Text-to-speech support; also voice package needed
                  gspell: Spell-checking support [installed]
                  hyphen: Auto-hyphenation support [installed]
                  tracker3 [installed]
Required By     : None
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Installed Size  : 3.44 MiB
Packager        : Caleb Maclennan <alerque@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Thu 04 Apr 2024 15:09:22 +07

.

Now I’m not sure about Linux Mint - I know I used to have a lot of issues using PPA repositories, so I think you’ll have to go with the flatpak.

Then I’m not sure if your flatpak will have issues accessing files and working well with your system…

So try the new USER first, install from your repository in terminal to be sure:

sudo nala update
sudo nala install foliate

Sth like that… (if you don’t have nala, install that first - it’s a big step up from just using apt).
https://manual.siduction.org/sys-admin-nala_en.html

Then if you have issues, first clean it out:

mv ~/home/.config/foliate ~/home/.config/foliate-MOVED

relaunch and check it again.

If it still sucks, then purge the thing

nala purge foliate

then install the flatpak and see how that goes:

flatpak install foliate

Although I enjoyed Linux Mint for a good 5-6 years, it was issues with installing software which led me to move on and install Manjaro (and Plasma is awesome - if you have time, get an ISO and copy it to a VENTOY USB and boot it up to mess with it).

ERRORS ABOUT your locale

I don’t understand, but you’re using ANSI_X2.4-1968. but Plasma (and Qt) use UTF-8… so something is not great about that… and it’ll be interesting to see if it’s the same issue in a new USER.

Best sorted out in the Linux Mint forums I think…
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=287361

Maybe Ubuntu forums might be helpful too:

jamal-ali1989 · October 25, 2024, 11:42pm

I am confused. Is it OK to use KDE software without KDE Plasma? A few KDE software seems kind of broken in Cinnamon (not saying it is because of Cinnamon, of course). Kget doesn’t launch. Arianna as well. There could be a few others as well…

Regarding Foliate, I even checked the “override publisher fonts” settings. But given that I haven’t used Foliate until 2 days ago. I don’t think it is any setting that I introduced that does this. Could it be that it needs to know my screen size, resolution and density?

ben2talk · October 26, 2024, 6:08am

I wouldn’t say it’s not okay, but you do end up pulling in many dependencies, especially if you’re not running Plasma (Cinnamon desktop is GTK, more like Gnome).

Rather than going with Arianna Qt application, I would go with Foliate GTK (even on Plasma, Foliate is better).

However, I don’t know why it’s not working for you - I suspect the message stating that your locale settings are messed up…

QT requires UTF-8.

You have ANSI_X2.4-1968.

That’s a problem.

jamal-ali1989 · October 26, 2024, 10:19am

Do I lose anything by changing the locale? My understanding of locale was completely different. I thought it referred to language, units, time, etc.

ben2talk · October 26, 2024, 11:14am

Go to Linux Mint forum, and look up Locale - they can tell you about their distribution.

I posted a link already… we are getting into facepalm territory here… type ‘locale’ in a terminal.

❯ locale
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=en_GB.UTF-8

jamal-ali1989 · October 26, 2024, 1:35pm

Thanks, I will consult the mint forum. The way I see it though, it is better to switch to a Plasma-based distro. What distro would you recommend in this case, just not a Ubuntu-based one.

LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_GB
LC_CTYPE=“en_GB.UTF-8”
LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=“en_GB.UTF-8”
LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=“en_GB.UTF-8”
LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_NAME=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

ben2talk · October 26, 2024, 2:15pm

There are many German speakers (mostly communicating in English) using EOs, Manjaro, Garuda (Arch based) and I like Manjaro KDE Plasma, but updates come frequently and we’re expected to read news and sometimes take action before updating.

Outside that I don’t know - I left Linux Mint because I wasn’t clever enough to work with it… moving to an apparently more complicated distribution.

I can’t say why you get locale reporting UTF-8, but errors saying you have ANSI_X2.4-1968.

It’d be interesting to see if it works booting up a VENTOY disk with Linux Mint.

Take care of backups… I like back-in-time for incremental ext4 snapshots to my mounted HDD, and make sure you don’t leave anything behind… package list etc.

After that, it’s not too hard to set up again - all those config files can be (mostly) copied back. Keep a snapshot on a mounted drive also, so that you can reinstall Mint and restore the snapshot if you get into a mess.

jamal-ali1989 · October 26, 2024, 3:31pm

I tried to look up a few and except the ones you have mentioned, I also came across KaOS.
Personally, I’m looking for something stable. Should I worry that it is based on Arch?

ben2talk · October 27, 2024, 12:54am

Stable means less updates to the repository - it also means you have to take time to update more frequently.

However, no ‘distribution upgrade’ is a bonus - it’s always upgraded.

Unless Plasma releases an unstable desktop (which - sadly - happens on occasion) then your machine will be stable.

The alternative is something like Kubuntu - stable, held around 6 months between major updates.

jamal-ali1989 · October 27, 2024, 9:32am

The thing is, when I installed Mint, I could get right down to customizing it. I am given to understand that Arch is somewhat “do-it-yourself”. Would it work right after an installation or will I have to have in-depth knowledge of it to set up desktop environment and other basic things to work?

ben2talk · October 27, 2024, 10:19am

I don’t use Arch - I’m too lazy to set it up, as Manjaro did most of the work for me already and seems to work well.

The desktop’s easy - I prefer Plasma by far, though having many more settings makes for some complication - comparing it to Cinnamon is a bit like moving out of a small apartment into a big house with rooms leading off rooms.

On the surface, very simple - but with many paths to travel… I’d juz say - give it a good spin. It’s probably not as hard as you think.

Manjaro is curated - which means that they will hold back plasma upgrades if it seems they are likely to break the system… so think of it as ‘semi-stable’ rolling with extensive release notes.

If you hold back for a week on updates, you’ll see people’s problems in the forum to see if anything’s likely to affect you.

jamal-ali1989 · October 27, 2024, 11:21am

Thank you. I will probably try Manjaro KDE while keeping my current Mint partition as well.