BALD Complete walkthrough for Podman

This guide will cover full BALD walkthrough on standard Linux with Podman and also on Linux with SELinux enabled (Windows and Ubuntu apparmor are not a part of this guide).

For Windows Podman please refer to Podman for Windows (scheduling is on your own).

Table of content

Pre-requisites
Preparations
Run BALD !!!
1. Foreground run
2. Background run
Setup automation
Audiobookshelf

General note:

This guide will use Podman volume binds as if SELinux is enabled.

That means all volume bind will be shown as /path:/container/path:z or /path:/container/path:Z.

You can check if you have SELinux enabled with the command getenforce if the result is Enforcing then you have SELinux enabled, if the command is not found or if the result is Permissive then SELinux is either missing or disabled.

If you do not use SELinux you will have to remove the last part of the volume bind (remove :z or :Z).

Pre-requisites

A Linux box/server
A working internet connection
A non-root user
Podman installed

Preparations

Directories

BALD requires a bunch of pre-existing files and directory. These are:

Local	Container	Type
History directory	/audible_history	dir
BALD Status file	/status_file	file
Download directory	/audible_dl	dir
Destination library	/audiobooks_dest	dir
Local database	/BALD/personal_library.tsv	dir
BALD Config file	/BALD/myconfig	file
tmp logs directory	/BALD/tmp	dir
audible-cli config dir	/root/.audible	dir

We will create a directory to host all of these.

Base directory: mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD
History directory: mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_history
BALD Status file: touch /home/YOURUSER/BALD/status_file
Download directory: mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_dl
Destination library: mkdir /home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/audiobooks
Local database: touch /home/YOURUSER/BALD/personal_library.tsv
BALD Config file: touch /home/YOURUSER/BALD/myconfig
Logs directory: mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD/tmp
Audible-cli config dir: mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible-cli

For copy/paste convenience:

mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD
mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_history
touch /home/YOURUSER/BALD/status_file
mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_dl
mkdir /home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/audiobooks
touch /home/YOURUSER/BALD/personal_library.tsv
touch /home/YOURUSER/BALD/myconfig
mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD/tmp
mkdir /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible-cli

Audible CLI setup

Run the following command to create a new config file for the audible-cli (this will open an interactive setup):

podman run -it --rm -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible-cli:/root/.audible quay.io/damajor/bald:latest audible quickstart

This will bring this interactive message:

Welcome to the audible-cli 0.3.2b3 quickstart utility.
=======================================================

Quickstart will guide you through the process of build a basic
config, create a first profile and assign an auth file to the profile now.

The profile created by quickstart will set as primary. It will be used, if no
other profile is chosen.

An auth file can be shared between multiple profiles. Simply enter the name of
an existing auth file when asked about it. Auth files have to be stored in the
config dir. If the auth file doesn't exists, it will be created. In this case,
an authentication to the audible server is necessary to register a new device.

Selected dir to proceed with:
/root/.audible

Please enter values for the following settings (just press Enter to accept a default value, if one is given in brackets).

Please enter a name for your primary profile [audible]:

Choose a profile name. I chose bald. Then press Enter.

Please enter a name for your primary profile [audible]: bald

Enter a country code for the profile:

Choose a country code (one of ‘de’, ‘us’, ‘uk’, ‘fr’, ‘ca’, ‘it’, ‘au’, ‘in’, ‘jp’, ‘es’, ‘br’). I chose us. Then press Enter.

Enter a country code for the profile: us

Please enter a name for the auth file [bald.json]:

Just press enter to accept the default value (which is the same as your profile name).

Do you want to encrypt the auth file? [y/N]:

Choose n and then Enter.

Do you want to encrypt the auth file? [y/N]: n

Do you want to login with external browser? [y/N]:

Choose y and then Enter.

Do you want to login with external browser? [y/N]: y

Do you want to login with a pre-amazon Audible account? [y/N]:

This depends on whether you were using Audible before it was acquired by Amazon. I choose n.

Do you want to login with a pre-amazon Audible account? [y/N]:

+--------------------+-----------+
| Option             | Value     |
+--------------------+-----------+
| profile_name       | bald      |
| auth_file          | bald.json |
| country_code       | us        |
| auth_file_password | -         |
| audible_username   |           |
| audible_password   | ***       |
+--------------------+-----------+
Do you want to continue? [y/N]:

This shows a summary of your choice before going through the authentication. Choose y and then Enter.

Login with amazon to your audible account now.
Please copy the following url and insert it into a web browser of your choice:

https://www.amazon.com/ap/signin?openid.oa2.____VERY_LONG_URL____.max_auth_age=0

Now you have to login with your Amazon credentials. After submit your username
and password you have to do this a second time and solving a captcha before
sending the login form.

After login, your browser will show you an error page (Page not found). Do not
worry about this. It has to be like this. Please copy the url from the address
bar in your browser now.

IMPORTANT:
If you are using MacOS and have trouble insert the login result url, simply
import the readline module in your script.

Please insert the copied url (after login):

Follow carefully the instructions on screen to get a valid auth file for Audible.

Finish the quickstart process by pressing Enter when asked about it.

Create default BALD configuration file

Run this command to create a new configuration file with all default settings:

podman run -it --rm -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible-cli:/root/.audible quay.io/damajor/bald:latest cat /BALD/myconfig > /home/YOURUSER/BALD/myconfig

Edit common settings

Open the configuration file /home/YOURUSER/BALD/myconfig with your favorite editor and change the following values to match your preferences.

Use the audible-cli profile name chosen in the previous chapter.

AUDIBLECLI_PROFILE=bald
Choose between a predefined audio encoding bitrate or a ratio of the original audiobook bitrate.
- Predefined bitrate example:
  
  CONVERT_BITRATE=96k
  CONVERT_BITRATE_RATIO=false
- Dynamic bitrate ratio example (reduce the size of the original files by 1/3 approx):
  
  CONVERT_BITRATE_RATIO=2/3
The following settings will drive the entire directory structure for the destination library. The default settings seem to fit perfectly with the usage of Audiobookshelf. Check the main README.md file for a detailed description of these parameters.

DEST_DIR_NAMING_SCHEME_AUDIOBOOK=(artist series)
DEST_BOOKDIR_NAMING_SCHEME_AUDIOBOOK=(series-part "% - " title "% {" composer "%}")
DEST_BOOK_NAMING_SCHEME_AUDIOBOOK=(title)
Choose if you want to keep the original audiobooks file or not. Beware keeping all downloads can take a lot of disk space.

KEEP_DOWNLOADS=true

A lot more settings can be changed or tuned to perfectly match your needs, check the main README.md file.

Run BALD !!!

The first run can take a while as BALD will download and convert your entire library, go take a break after starting it :).

Next runs will only download newly added audiobooks.

Foreground run

Use the following command (change local paths to match your needs).

podman run -it --rm \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible-cli:/root/.audible:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_history:/audible_history:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/status_file:/status_file:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_dl:/audible_dl:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/personal_library.tsv:/BALD/personal_library.tsv:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/audiobooks:/audiobooks_dest:z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/myconfig:/BALD/myconfig:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/tmp:/BALD/tmp:Z \
    quay.io/damajor/bald:latest

Background run

podman run -d --name bald --rm \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible-cli:/root/.audible:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_history:/audible_history:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/status_file:/status_file:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_dl:/audible_dl:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/personal_library.tsv:/BALD/personal_library.tsv:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/audiobooks:/audiobooks_dest:z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/myconfig:/BALD/myconfig:Z \
    -v /home/YOURUSER/BALD/tmp:/BALD/tmp:Z
    quay.io/damajor/bald:latest

To monitor the progress of the process you can run:

podman logs -f bald

Once the processing is finished, the container is automatically removed, and you can start it again with the same command.

Setup automation

Automation is handled by systemd.

Enable user lingering

As root run this command (replace YOURUSER with your username):

loginctl enable-linger YOURUSER

This will enable systemd to start services defined for your user.

Create BALD service

Create a file /home/YOURUSER/.config/containers/systemd/bald.container with the content below. Update the paths and the timezone to your personal preferences.

[Unit]
Description=Podman BALD

[Install]

[Service]
Restart=no
Type=oneshot

[Container]
Image=quay.io/damajor/bald:latest
ContainerName=bald
HostName=bald
AutoUpdate=registry
Volume=/home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_history:/audible_history:Z
Volume=/home/YOURUSER/BALD/status_file:/status_file:Z
Volume=/home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible_dl:/audible_dl:Z
Volume=/home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/audiobooks:/audiobooks_dest:z
Volume=/home/YOURUSER/BALD/personal_library.tsv:/BALD/personal_library.tsv:Z
Volume=/home/YOURUSER/BALD/myconfig:/BALD/myconfig:Z
Volume=/home/YOURUSER/BALD/tmp:/BALD/tmp:Z
Volume=/home/YOURUSER/BALD/audible-cli:/root/.audible:Z
Environment="GENERIC_TIMEZONE=Europe/Rome" "TZ=Europe/Rome"

For more information on Podman Quadlets https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-systemd.unit.5.html

Create BALD timer

Create the timer file /home/YOURUSER/.config/systemd/user/bald.timer with the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Podman BALD timer
RefuseManualStart=no
RefuseManualStop=no

[Timer]
# Runs sync every day at 23:30
OnCalendar=Mon..Sun 23:30
Persistent=false
Unit=bald.service

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

For more information on systemd timers https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.timer.html.

For more information on the OnCalendar format https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.time.html#Calendar%20Events

Update systemd services & enable timer

Run:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable bald.timer

Start the timer (this will start BALD automatically):

systemctl --user start bald.timer

Audiobookshelf

As a bonus the following part will help you to setup your audiobookshelf instance and connect it with BALD destination library.

Preparations

Create the required directories:

mkdir -p /home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/audiobooks
mkdir -p /home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/books
mkdir -p /home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/config
mkdir -p /home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/metadata
mkdir -p /home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/podcasts

Create Audiobookshelf service

Create a file /home/YOURUSER/.config/containers/systemd/audiobookshelf.container with the content below. Update the paths and the timezone to your personal preferences.

[Unit]
Description=Podman Audiobookshelf

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

[Service]
Restart=always
TimeoutStartSec=900

[Container]
Image=ghcr.io/advplyr/audiobookshelf:latest
ContainerName=audiobookshelf
NoNewPrivileges=true
AutoUpdate=registry
Environment="TZ=Europe/Rome"
PublishPort=13378:80
Volume=/home/home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/audiobooks:/audiobooks:z
Volume=/home/home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/books:/books:z
Volume=/home/home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/podcasts:/podcasts:z
Volume=/home/home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/config:/config:Z
Volume=/home/home/YOURUSER/Audiobookshelf/metadata:/metadata:Z

Update systemd services & start Audiobookshelf

Run:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user start audiobookshelf.service

Enjoy

Open your browser and go to http://localhost:13378/ (if Audiobookshelf runs on your own computer or replace with localhost the IP of your machine) and enjoy!