HOW-TO: Surf the Internet with the EBW1150 or REB1200

[nrapallo]

EDIT: To easily surf the internet WITHOUT using the (limited) Linreb or Privoxy, please use Impserve and be sure to download all of the Impserve plugins to allow the downloading of content directly from the internet to your ebook reader!!!

Over in the thread Hacking EBW-1150 to browse the Internet, we have been exploring and have now found an easy way to allow all ETI hardware readers to 'surf the internet'.

We being nrapallo (myself), Ret and, in absentia, Nandagopal Kirubanandan. Major thanks go out to Ret for originally having this idea and finally getting it to work AGAIN as well as to the original author of Linreb (Nandagopal Kirubanandan) wherever and whoever you are!!

OK, so you have this new/slightly used EBW1150 or this REB1200 lying at the bottom of your gadgets drawer and you think (well maybe with some help from me) can I get this thing to browse the internet? The answer would be YES!

Most with just a EBW1150 should follow the first and third HOW-TO below, whereas those with multiple ETI devices should follow the second and third HOW-TO below (follow?):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW-TO: Get just the EBW1150 to "Surf the Internet"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, basically you need to do this:
1. Run Linreb (usually uses port 9090)
2. Run privoxy (usually uses port 8118)
3. In privoxy, add the line "forward .ebooksystem.net 127.0.0.1:9090"
(without the quotes) in Edit Main Configuration (config.txt in section 5.2)
4. Set the reader to use HTTP proxy pointing to the localhost IP address (127.0.0.1) and port of privoxy (usually uses port 8118).

Since privoxy, Linreb and the reader are connected to the same PC we just use 127.0.0.1.

--OR--

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW-TO: Get both the EBW1150 and REB1200 to "Surf the Internet"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, basically you need to do this:
1. Run Linreb (usually uses port 9090)
2. Run privoxy (usually uses port 8118)
3a. In privoxy, add the line "listen-address LINREB_IP:PRIVOXY_PORT"
(without the quotes) in Edit Main Configuration (config.txt in section 4.1)
(where LINREB_IP is the IP address of the computer where Linreb is running and PRIVOXY_PORT is the 8118 port above)
3b. Also add the line "forward .ebooksystem.net LINREB_IP:LINREB_PORT"
(without the quotes) in Edit Main Configuration (config.txt in section 5.2)
(where LINREB_IP is the IP address of the computer where Linreb is running and LINREB_PORT is the 9090 port in which it listens)
4. Set the reader to use HTTP proxy pointing to the LINREB_IP address (usually 192.168.X.XX) and PRIVOXY_PORT of privoxy (usually uses port 8118) where X and XX are the last two octals of your computer's IP address. Just type 'ipconfig' in a dos/command prompt to find it out!

In this case, privoxy and Linreb are connected to the same PC (and use the same IP address) but the reader is connected to a router (and uses a different irrelvant IP address)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW-TO: Start navigating the web on your hardware reader
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. On your reader choose the Bookstore icon or Directory icon.
2. Go to the Content directory's First page and click to go to the 'next page'.
3. On the Second page, Go to 'Test internet links (add your own)' page.
4. Choose any link after the first one to surf to that page.
5. If you get stuck or halted, choose the Bookstore icon or Directory icon to start over. Sometimes you need to tap your Bookshelf icon as well.
6. Add more/favourite web links to "Content/Test.html". You can't directly enter a link, but must click on one already there to navigate. There is no 'back' button so all pages must be 'linked' to traverse them without re-staring.
7. Make sure any <a href="X"> links have the UNDERLINE="YES" tag i.e. <a UNDERLINE="YES" href="X"> or else there will be NO visual cue where the hyperlinks are. Guessing helps find them.
8. Have fun!

EDIT: I took some more pictures of surfing the internet (better lighting and quality). Have a look at my REB1200 Album and EBW1150 Album!

As always, enjoy!

Nick Rapallo
(nrapallo)

p.s. these are the lines to add to the privoxy config.txt file, namely for the EBW1150 only:

listen-address  127.0.0.1:8118
forward .ebooksystem.net 127.0.0.1:9090

for both the EBW1150 and REB1200:

listen-address  192.168.X.XX:8118
forward .ebooksystem.net 192.168.X.XX:9090

[zelda_pinwheel]

nick, you're going to have to stop this sort of thing. i'm afraid if i use the word "amazing" any more i'm going to wear it out. seriously, bravo to all of you for yet another exploit. i already loved my eb1150 but i'm continually amazed (oups, there i go again...) by the things you manage to do with this "obsolete" device !!

just a question, i was sort of vaguely followin the other thread on this topic, do you need to run linux to do this ?

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

nick, you're going to have to stop this sort of thing. i'm afraid if i use the word "amazing" any more i'm going to wear it out. seriously, bravo to all of you for yet another exploit. i already loved my eb1150 but i'm continually amazed (oups, there i go again...) by the things you manage to do with this "obsolete" device !!

just a question, i was sort of vaguely followin the other thread on this topic, do you need to run linux to do this ?

Thanks (again) ZP!

No, linux is not required, in fact, I was asking if anyone using linux could confirm it worked, that's all!

[zelda_pinwheel]

good to know ! perhaps i'll try it out. there's, ah, no *danger* to my eb1150 right ? i would hate to make a false step and brick it !!

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

good to know ! perhaps i'll try it out. there's, ah, no *danger* to my eb1150 right ? i would hate to make a false step and brick it !!

No, no fear of that! Only if you remove your smartmedia card while the unit is On, would you ever damage/brick your reader.

Now, the EBW1150 can 'crash', in which case, you'll see all those machine adddresses/registers dumped at the top of the screen, then wait for the RESET button to appear, and then while you click-hold that button, wait for the unit to reset! ("Reader Crashing 101")

Please note that browsing the forums here directly currently doesn't work on the EBW1150, but the Home page works as do the individual threads. Got to see if there is something that Alexander can do to make this problem 'go away'! Oh, well, here is to more experimenting...

[zelda_pinwheel]

ouf ! good to know !!

[derrell]

Well it works sort of. I was able to get the ebookwise page to display and was able to tap through some of their links. All the other links I tried I would get a 2 or 3 packets of info then just an unending stream of 0 byte length ones. Might be a problem with my network setup though didn't test it for very long. I've got to get to bed.

Definitly going in the right direction. Oh had to tinker with the port settings, 8118 is blocked for me and I didn't take to the time to dig around in the iptables to open it up, don't even know for sure where ubuntu keeps those files. Other than that looks like it works.

[Nate the great]

I did it.

[Nate the great]

Well, drat. The 1150 cannot download ebooks. There goes my idea for a download guide.

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Well, drat. The 1150 cannot download ebooks. There goes my idea for a download guide.

No the links to .imp ebooks will not download properly because that is not the way they are 'transferred' to the EBW1150.

It takes a two-step process (for now):

- Step one, find the .imp ebook on the web starting from the Linreb content pages and then (not yet coded) have Linreb download the .imp, when you click its link, directly to your local 'shelf' directory.

- Step two, instruct the user to tap the "Online Bookshelf" tab, and to get an updated booklist sent to the EBW1150 (including that recently downloaded .imp ebook). The user then should choose that ebook to be "transferred" in!

Viola, the "IMP Download Guide" is born...

I hope that, in the future, Steps one and two can be coded and merged into one step in Linreb (to facilitate "one-stop" shopping)!

[Nate the great]

I was just hoping the easy way would be possible. I knew it was unlikely.

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by derrell

Well it works sort of. I was able to get the ebookwise page to display and was able to tap through some of their links. All the other links I tried I would get a 2 or 3 packets of info then just an unending stream of 0 byte length ones. Might be a problem with my network setup though didn't test it for very long. I've got to get to bed.

Definitly going in the right direction. Oh had to tinker with the port settings, 8118 is blocked for me and I didn't take to the time to dig around in the iptables to open it up, don't even know for sure where ubuntu keeps those files. Other than that looks like it works.

The communications go something like this:

For connecting to proxy server and local content:

internet <--> Privoxy listens on port 8118 --> Privoxy forward's *.ebooksystem.net to port 9090 --> Linreb listening/responds on port 9090 --> Privoxy responds on port 8118  <--> EBW1150's port 8118

or

For surfing the internet:

internet <--> Privoxy listening/responds on port 8118 --> EBW1150's port 8118

Please note that the only reason to have Linreb is to initally "serve up" the local html (content) that has weblinks. Afterwards, it is no longer required to be able to 'surf the internet'!

[Ret]

Originally Posted by nrapallo

No the links to .imp ebooks will not download properly because that is not the way they are 'transferred' to the EBW1150.

Well I found where the problem lies!! It's not that the links are incomplete or bad.
The readers CAN download books directly from a web server. They don't need to go through a booklist page to download them properly. They rely on plain HTTP protocol but..... , and here it's the solution, the need to know WHAT they are downloading. And they do that by reading the Content-type field on the HTTP responses.

The solution is configuring the web server to handle IMP files with their correct MIME type: application/x-softbook.

I added that MIME type to an Apache web server on my LAN and a book I posted downloaded without any problem. There it was, perfectly sitting in my readers bookshelf!!

The question is: Will Mobileread managers add that to their servers? Hope they do so
Good luck to you guys

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by Ret

Well I found where the problem lies!! It's not that the links are incomplete or bad.
The readers CAN download books directly from a web server. They don't need to go through a booklist page to download them properly. They rely on plain HTTP protocol but..... , and here it's the solution, the need to know WHAT they are downloading. And they do that by reading the Content-type field on the HTTP responses.

The solution is configuring the web server to handle IMP files with their correct MIME type: application/x-softbook.

I added that MIME type to an Apache web server on my LAN and a book I posted downloaded without any problem. There it was, perfectly sitting in my readers bookshelf!!

The question is: Will Mobileread managers add that to their servers? Hope they do so
Good luck to you guys

Amazing find!

Now to add this functionality to the current Linreb & privoxy solution. Where would you apply a patch to get the MIME type (application/x-softbook) properly transmitted through to the ebook reader?

One step closer to that 'IMP Download Guide" becoming a reality...

Thanks Ret!

[Nate the great]

I may have found Nandagopal Kirubanandan on a site. I emailed him and suggested that if we was the creator of linreb, he should do a google search on his name.