Install ComicStreamer Ubuntu 14.x •

ComicStreamer can help you view your digital comic collection across your network. It is similar to Ubooquity but written in Python and only supports .cbr and .cbz files. ComicStreamer turns your Ubuntu home media server into a comic server that will stream your comic collection to your reading devices so you can sync your library with your e-reader or just view comics in a web browser. Couple ComicStreamer with nag free dynamic DNS and you can access your comics away from home as well. Have a look at Mylar for autofilling gaps in your comic collection. This tutorial was tested on Ubuntu 14.04.

Pi Unit	Processor	RAM	RAM Bus	Network	WiFi	USB	SATA	Cost
Raspberry Pi 3	1.2 GHz ARMv8 Quad Core	1 GB DDR2	450 MHz	100 Mbit	Yes	4	No	$35
Raspberry Pi 2	900 MHz ARMv7 Quad Core	1 GB DDR2	450 MHz	100 Mbit	No	4	No	$35.00
Raspberry Pi	700 MHz ARMv6 Single Core	512 MB SDRAM	400 MHz	100 Mbit	No	4	No	$25
Banana Pi	1 GHz ARMv7 Dual Core	1 GB DDR3	432 MHz	Gigabit	No	2	Yes	$36.99
Banana Pi Pro	1 GHz ARMv7 Dual Core	1 GB DDR3	432 MHz	Gigabit	Yes	2	Yes	$45.00

The ComicStreamer interface is not especially attractive but it is functional, if you are interested in contributing some CSS to spice it up then get in touch with the current maintainer of the project.

Install ComicStreamer Ubuntu 14.x

Install the ComicStreamer dependencies, it uses python and some image processing utilities

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git python-pip python-tornado python-dev python-dateutil libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev git libtiff*-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev liblcms1-dev libwebp-dev build-essential unzip -y

This command clones the latest ComicStreamer into the /opt/comicstreamer location. It is a fork which supports ComicStreamer behind a reverse proxy and has some additional fixes not in the original ComicStreamer.

sudo git clone https://github.com/davide-romanini/ComicStreamer /opt/comicstreamer

Change ownership of ComicStreamer folder to prevent permission issues, replace htpcguides with your username and its group which are almost always the same

sudo chown -R htpcguides:htpcguides /opt/comicstreamer

Enter the ComicStreamer folder to install the python dependencies and build unrar

cd /opt/comicstreamer

Install the pip packages using the requirements file

sudo pip install -r requirements.txt

Install pybonjour

sudo pip install https://pybonjour.googlecode.com/files/pybonjour-1.1.1.tar.gz

Run the paver command to compile unrar and the library

paver libunrar

Test if ComicStreamer runs

python /opt/comicstreamer/comicstreamer

ComicStreamer run on port 32500 so you can go check if it is working by going to a browser and entering http://ip.address:32500.

In the SSH terminal window hit Ctr+C to terminate Comicstreamer for now

Autostart ComicStreamer init.d Script

Let's make ComicStreamer start on boot with an init.d script adapted from here

sudo nano /etc/init.d/comicstreamer

Paste the ComicStreamer init.d script, replace htpcguides with the user you normall use and which owns the /opt/comicstreamer directory

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          ComicStreamer
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: ComicStreamer
# Description:       ComicStreamer shows your cbr and cbz files
### END INIT INFO
 
 
# Documentation available at
# http://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/LSB_3.1.0/LSB-Core-generic/LSB-Core-generic/iniscrptfunc.html
# Debian provides some extra functions though
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
 
 
DAEMON_NAME="ComicStreamer"
DAEMON_USER="htpcguides"
DAEMON_PATH="/usr/bin/python"
DAEMON_OPTS="/opt/comicstreamer/comicstreamer"
DAEMON_PWD="/opt/comicstreamer"
DAEMON_DESC=$(get_lsb_header_val $0 "Short-Description")
DAEMON_PID="/opt/comicstreamer/${DAEMON_NAME}.pid"
DAEMON_NICE=0
DAEMON_LOG='/var/log/comicstreamer.log'
 
[ -r "/etc/default/${DAEMON_NAME}" ] && . "/etc/default/${DAEMON_NAME}"
 
do_start() {
  local result
 
	pidofproc -p "${DAEMON_PID}" "${DAEMON_PATH}" > /dev/null
	if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
		log_warning_msg "${DAEMON_NAME} is already started"
		result=0
	else
		log_daemon_msg "Starting ${DAEMON_DESC}" "${DAEMON_NAME}"
		touch "${DAEMON_LOG}"
		chown $DAEMON_USER "${DAEMON_LOG}"
		chmod u+rw "${DAEMON_LOG}"
		if [ -z "${DAEMON_USER}" ]; then
			start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --oknodo --background \
				--nicelevel $DAEMON_NICE \
				--chdir "${DAEMON_PWD}" \
				--pidfile "${DAEMON_PID}" --make-pidfile \
				--exec "${DAEMON_PATH}" -- $DAEMON_OPTS
			result=$?
		else
			start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --oknodo --background \
				--nicelevel $DAEMON_NICE \
				--chdir "${DAEMON_PWD}" \
				--pidfile "${DAEMON_PID}" --make-pidfile \
				--chuid "${DAEMON_USER}" \
				--exec "${DAEMON_PATH}" -- $DAEMON_OPTS
			result=$?
		fi
		log_end_msg $result
	fi
	return $result
}
 
do_stop() {
	local result
 
	pidofproc -p "${DAEMON_PID}" "${DAEMON_PATH}" > /dev/null
	if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
		log_warning_msg "${DAEMON_NAME} is not started"
		result=0
	else
		log_daemon_msg "Stopping ${DAEMON_DESC}" "${DAEMON_NAME}"
		killproc -p "${DAEMON_PID}" "${DAEMON_PATH}"
		result=$?
		log_end_msg $result
		rm "${DAEMON_PID}"
	fi
	return $result
}
 
do_restart() {
	local result
	do_stop
	result=$?
	if [ $result = 0 ]; then
		do_start
		result=$?
	fi
	return $result
}
 
do_status() {
	local result
	status_of_proc -p "${DAEMON_PID}" "${DAEMON_PATH}" "${DAEMON_NAME}"
	result=$?
	return $result
}
 
do_usage() {
	echo $"Usage: $0 {start | stop | restart | status}"
	exit 1
}
 
case "$1" in
start)   do_start;   exit $? ;;
stop)    do_stop;    exit $? ;;
restart) do_restart; exit $? ;;
status)  do_status;  exit $? ;;
*)       do_usage;   exit  1 ;;
esac

Make the ComicStreamer init.d script executable

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/comicstreamer

Update the system to run ComicStreamer on boot

sudo update-rc.d comicstreamer defaults

Start the Comicstreamer service

sudo service comicstreamer start