Documenting the steps I took to get a Calibre server up and running on a Raspberry Pi.

Requirements

A Raspberry Pi that’s accessible from devices in the network and that’s optionally set up with a static IP and a custom domain.

Setting up calibre

Install calibre. The latest version of calibre doesn’t seem to be available in the repos.

sudo apt install calibre

Create a calibre library.

mkdir /mnt/elements/media/ebooks/
cd /mnt/elements/media/ebooks/
wget http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342.kindle.noimages -O pride.mobi
calibredb add /mnt/elements/media/ebooks/* --library-path /mnt/elements/media/ebooks/

Make sure everything works

calibre-server /mnt/elements/media/ebooks/

Try loading up http://127.0.0.1:8080

(Optional) Create a systemd service unit file to manage the server. Create file at /etc/systemd/system/calibre-server.service with the following

[Unit]
Description=calibre content server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=pi
Group=pi
ExecStart=/usr/bin/calibre-server "/mnt/elements/media/ebooks/"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Try starting up the server

systemctl enable calibre-server
systemctl start calibre-server

Next Steps

You can [make the server publicly accessible over HTTPS]({{ <ref “public-web-services”> }}).

TL;DR (auto-generated with llama3.2:1b)

🏠💻📚🖥️📊👍

The post documents the steps to set up a Calibre server on a Raspberry Pi, which allows users to manage their digital book collection remotely. To get started:

1. Install Calibre and create a new library.
2. Configure Calibre as a content server and start it.
3. Create a systemd service unit file for Calibre.
4. Enable and start the Calibre server.

The post also provides additional tips on how to make the server publicly accessible over HTTPS, including creating a system-wide configuration file.