Install¶

Bookx is not published as a package yet. You build it from source.

Requirements¶

• GNOME 49 or newer: GTK 4.20 and libadwaita 1.8 or newer, and GtkSourceView 5.6 or newer (the code view of the book editor).
• A recent stable Rust toolchain.
• Optional: espeak-ng and pacat/pw-cat (PulseAudio or PipeWire) for natural voices in read aloud; system Hunspell dictionaries for spell checking.

Install the build dependencies:

sudo dnf install gcc pkgconf-pkg-config gtk4-devel libadwaita-devel gtksourceview5-devel pango-devel cairo-devel gdk-pixbuf2-devel gettext

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev libgtksourceview-5-dev

sudo pacman -S base-devel gtk4 libadwaita gtksourceview5

Build and run¶

git clone https://github.com/adhadse/Bookx
cd Bookx
cargo run --release

Install for your user¶

run.sh builds in release mode, installs the binary, desktop file, icons and metainfo into ~/.local, and starts the app:

./run.sh              # build, install to ~/.local, launch
./run.sh --no-run     # build and install only
./run.sh --debug      # faster build, run from target/, no install

Or install to a prefix of your choice:

make install PREFIX=~/.local

Command-line tool¶

bookx-cli is built with the rest of the workspace and lands in target/release/:

cargo build --release -p bookx-cli
target/release/bookx-cli --help

See Command line.

Flatpak¶

The repository builds a Flatpak for the GNOME 50 runtime (build-aux/com.adhadse.Bookx.json). Bookx is not on Flathub yet, so you build it yourself, or download bookx.flatpak from a release once one is published.

flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Platform//50 org.gnome.Sdk//50 org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.rust-stable//25.08
BUNDLE=1 build-aux/flatpak.sh      # or: make flatpak
flatpak install --user bookx.flatpak
flatpak run com.adhadse.Bookx

sha256sum -c bookx.flatpak.sha256
flatpak install --user bookx.flatpak

The Flatpak includes espeak-ng (voices for read aloud) and bookx-cli (flatpak run --command=bookx-cli com.adhadse.Bookx --help).

What the sandbox may do¶

Other folders (a library elsewhere, a backup folder, export targets) are reached through the file chooser, which hands the app that one folder. A library outside Documents has to be chosen again after a restart, or you can grant it: flatpak override --user --filesystem=/path/to/library com.adhadse.Bookx. Passwords go to the desktop's secret service through the portal; they never sit in a file. Accessibility needs no extra permission: Flatpak connects the accessibility bus by itself.

Opening books and links¶

The package registers Bookx for EPUB, KEPUB, MOBI, AZW, AZW3, FB2, FBZ, CBZ, CBR, CBT, PDF, RTF, ODT, DOCX, LRF and CHM (as an Open With choice; it does not take over PDF) and for bookx:// links. Text, HTML and Markdown files are not registered; add them from inside Bookx.

Where things are stored¶