PRS-500 How to use Sony Reader on a non XP machine

[gseryakov]

Hi,

Just got new Reader. Just found Connect needs XP. :-((

But you can still do different things with Reader. ebook.dll works fine, just 1) copy it in a directory, 2) install prsusb (driver, two files: prsusb.inf and prsusb.sys), 3) copy prsctr.dll to the same directory. (The files are inside Data1.cab file on the CD) At least I can see files with "ebook.py ls /" command. :-))

Long Live IgorSk!

I said non-XP? OK, but not any non-XP. Mine is W2K. Maybe NT4 will do as well...

Did I loose something with not having Connect?

[porkupan]

Well, I think you lose something by not having XP and still using W2K, but that's another story altogether.

As far as loading ebooks into your reader you might be fine without the CONNECT software. If you don't need to load any DRM content, which CONNECT allows you to purchase from Sony's web store, and you don't want to register the ebook and use your $50 store credit, you can keep using ebook.py to load books into your reader. Just keep copying your PDF, RTF and LRF files into the /Data/media/books directory, and you will probably be OK.

CONNECT does give you a few nice useful features though, especially if you are looking to start developing content. CONNECT can show you the content close to the way you see it on the device's screen, it can show you the bookmarks you saved, the file info, and some other nice stuff. I think the Reader is a better product with such software than it is without it.

[gseryakov]

Originally Posted by porkupan

As far as loading ebooks into your reader you might be fine without the CONNECT software. If you don't need to load any DRM content, which CONNECT allows you to purchase from Sony's web store, and you don't want to register the ebook and use your $50 store credit,

They don't want my money. This is how I see the situation.

Originally Posted by porkupan

you can keep using ebook.py to load books into your reader. Just keep copying your PDF, RTF and LRF files into the /Data/media/books directory, and you will probably be OK.

It is OK, reflashing is OK, putting books into reader is OK. BTW I use you post as the source for destination directory on Reader, thank you.

I found out what I missed: deleting. I can not delete files from reader. It should be supported by ebookusb.dll but not ebook.py. Have to do investigations: go to an XP machine and try to delete books with sniffing dll enabled. Or maybe igorsk just knows it...

I found out as well what I got: system update. Once I disconnected from Connect client software and connect server I am guaranteed that my (custom-made) flashing will not be erased by system updates. I could be solved by proxy dll filtering out system updated not from owner.

Originally Posted by porkupan

CONNECT does give you a few nice useful features though, especially if you are looking to start developing content. CONNECT can show you the content close to the way you see it on the device's screen, it can show you the bookmarks you saved, the file info, and some other nice stuff.

True. Especially if you have to debug a converter...

Originally Posted by porkupan

I think the Reader is a better product with such software than it is without it.

The question is - should we trust people writing retail software "for XP only".

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by gseryakov

I found out what I missed: deleting. I can not delete files from reader. It should be supported by ebookusb.dll but not ebook.py. Have to do investigations: go to an XP machine and try to delete books with sniffing dll enabled. Or maybe igorsk just knows it...

I am sure igorsk could add an option to ebook.py to delete a file. There was no need for it for most of us, since we are using CONNECT, but I see how there could be need for an rm <file> command. Let's say we are playing with lbook.sh, and we want to try different stuff. We could then just do:
ebook.py put lbook.sh b:/lbook.sh
and reset (BTW, b: is the way to address the SD card in the Reader OS. Looks like it isn't mounted as a normal filesystem, but the DOS way of addressing is used?).

Once we found out what the results were, we can remove the shell script without taking the SD card out of its slot:
ebook.py rm b:/lbook.sh

We could even enhance our options by making a daemon type script checking on the background if a certain file is in, say, /tmp directory. We could then control the execution of needed commands by creating or removing this file.

At this time you still have an option to remove files, it's just a little bit roundabout, inconvenient.
(a) Don't put files into the local storage, use the SD card only.
(b) Make an lbook.sh script to remove files you want to remove. Update Rootfs per igorsk's instructions. Put the script on your SD card. Reset the Reader.

Originally Posted by gseryakov

The question is - should we trust people writing retail software "for XP only".

Yeah, why not? It is a stupid move on their part not to be compatible with other systems, but it's not necessarily evil. I think they already went above and beyond the usual Sony ways by making the device compatible with SD cards and using Linux instead of some proprietary OS, which noone would know how to hack into.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by porkupan

I think they already went above and beyond the usual Sony ways by making the device compatible with SD cards and using Linux instead of some proprietary OS, which noone would know how to hack into.

You're right, porkupan: baby steps .

[cb2006]

Here is a version of ebook.py based on Igorsk's latest version (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...achmentid=1929), which has 2 new commands:

"del" - Delete a file from the ebook.
"cat" - Dump the contents of a file on the ebook to the screen (as opposed to "get" which writes it to a local file)

-cb2006

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by cb2006

"del" - Delete a file from the ebook.
"cat" - Dump the contents of a file on the ebook to the screen (as opposed to "get" which writes it to a local file)

Wow! Thanks, that's exactly what I was going to ask for! I was even prepared to try to write some Python code myself. This script is getting about as useful as it could be.

[gseryakov]

Originally Posted by cb2006

Here is a version of ebook.py based on Igorsk's latest version (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...achmentid=1929), which has 2 new commands:

"del" - Delete a file from the ebook.
"cat" - Dump the contents of a file on the ebook to the screen (as opposed to "get" which writes it to a local file)

Great. Don't reuse the version number. Yours is 0.4. And correct header for date and credentials.

We have only _three_ versions of ebook.py and have got confused about it already.

[gseryakov]

Originally Posted by cb2006

Here is a version of ebook.py based on Igorsk's latest version (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...achmentid=1929), which has 2 new commands:

"del" - Delete a file from the ebook.
"cat" - Dump the contents of a file on the ebook to the screen (as opposed to "get" which writes it to a local file)

-cb2006

Great, great. And how could I know the amount of the free space on my Reader? There should be a way on ebookusb level, but list of requests in ebook.py doesn't show anything suitable...

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by cb2006

"cat" - Dump the contents of a file on the ebook to the screen (as opposed to "get" which writes it to a local file)

The only thing that bothers me is that the "cat" option is not a real "cat". It's got a notice in front, and the name of the file, and all that stuff. What I would like to see is:

ebook.py cat /Data/blah-blah/xxx > c:\yyy\xxx

or

ebook.py cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "model name"

[cb2006]

Here is a version that fixes "cat" to be more like gseryakov would prefer I left the banner notice in to give igorsk his credit. Also removing that just for this command would require more changes to ebook.py than I feel like making.

ebook.py cat /Data/blah-blah/xxx > c:\yyy\xxx

I added a second, optional argument to "get" so you can specify a destination path, which should give you the functionality you want.

Also, I fixed my no-no's from my previous upload:
1. Version is updated in banner and file header to 0.41
2. Turned off enableWriting, which should be 0 by default
3. Gave myself attribution in the header

Enjoy,
-cb