#How to install M4B to MP3 Python Script in Ubuntu 14.04
I was looking for a script/library to convert chapterized M4B audiobooks into separate MP3 files, split by chapter.
There is one, indeed, but the instructions are meant to be used for Ubuntu 10. It is called M4B Converter.
These are the steps I followed to make it work with Ubuntu 14.04
1. Install Python
AFAIK Python 2.7 came already with the distro. But if not, install like so:
sudo apt-get install python2.7
2. Install ffmpeg
This is not available by default on the package repositories. We need to add it from a PPA
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mc3man/trusty-media
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
3. Install libav-tools The package used in the original instructions is not available. We have to use a different one.
sudo apt-get install -y libav-tools ubuntu-restricted-extras
sudo apt-get install -y libavcodec-extra-54 libavformat-extra-54
4. Install MP4V2 library
Download the library from here: https://code.google.com/p/mp4v2/downloads/list
I used this particular version: https://mp4v2.googlecode.com/files/mp4v2-2.0.0.tar.bz2
Note: this first step may be optional. I had to do it because otherwise I started getting compilation errors:
apt-get install build-essential
cd into the folder where you downloaded the library, then run these commands to extract and build it:
tar mp4v2-2.0.0.tar.bz2
cd mp4v2-2.0.0/
rm -fr build/
mkdir build/
cd build/
../configure
make
make install
make install-man
5. Download the M4B converter script
Get the repo https://github.com/valekhz/m4b-converter/archive/master.zip
Extract it and cd into the folder
Basic usage of the script
python m4b.py <path_of_m4b_file>
For more information about the usage, go the repo's ReadMe
I haven't used this for a while but I remember that the original code has something that needs to be changed in order to work properly. There is a fix here; it needs to be changed manually since the patch was never added to the code.