Running Blurb BookSmart on Linux

Last tested: BookSmart 3.5.3.34869, Ubuntu 21.10, openjdk version 14.0.2.

  1. Get BookSmart:
    Download BookSmart for Mac from blurb.com.
    Unpack downloaded .dmg file with 7z (p7zip-full package in Ubuntu):
    7z x BookSmart_3.5.3.dmg
    From BookSmart_3.5.3_.../BookSmart.app/Contents/Resources/Java/
    copy lib/ and resources/ directories to, for example, booksmart/ directory in your Linux user's home:
        ~/booksmart/
                     lib/...
                     resources/...
    
  2. Create a shell script ‘bsmart’ to start BookSmart:
    #!/bin/bash
    cd ~/booksmart/
    classpath=""
    for jar in lib/*.jar; do classpath=$classpath:$jar; done
    java -classpath $classpath com.blurb.booksmart.application.BookSmart
    
  3. Run bsmart, and the BookSmart splash and main window will appear after some time — it may look like nothing is happening, as there is no visual startup feedback, so be patient…

January 2022. Šarūnas Burdulis.
/~sarunas