Mobipocket Reader for GNU/Linux, Mac, all! - Page 2

pruss · 08-07-2007, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hadrien

If they want people to widely use Mobipocket (for both public domain books and other original books) they should make it a high-priority project: emulating mobigen with wine isn't exactly the best thing for a server.

If it's just a matter of generating Mobipocket format stuff without DRM, it's not a big deal. All one does is make a PalmDOC file with an HTML subset, followed by the images (8-bit BMP file) as separate records. There are Perl modules that suffice to rip apart and create Mobipocket files.

wallcraft · 08-07-2007, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pruss

If it's just a matter of generating Mobipocket format stuff without DRM, it's not a big deal. All one does is make a PalmDOC file with an HTML subset, followed by the images (8-bit BMP file) as separate records. There are Perl modules that suffice to rip apart and create Mobipocket files.

Since mobigen is itself not very well documented, what is really required is an open source way to convert "content" into MobiPocket format without DRM. Doing this in Perl would make sense, but it needs to be packaged as a single command. What mobigen takes as input is either a single .html file or a single .opf file, and that may be sufficient to cover "content" for an open source tool also.

I'm not sure if MobiPocket realizes that a mobigen-lite (without DRM support) is all that is typically needed, but an open source solution would be better anyway.

Robert Marquard · 08-08-2007, 06:55 AM

Huh? All you need as documentation for mobigen.exe is shown on the commandline. What the content should be is documented on the Mobipocket website and is good enough. I have seen worse documentation.
I see no reason why mobigen.exe should not be able to generate DRMed books. Simply do not use the DRM options and it will not generate DRMed books. Same for the proprietary compression.
All the rest of the Mobipocket format are some attributes added to link and image tags. Really no rocket science. The .mobi format is just some finetuning.

wallcraft · 08-08-2007, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Marquard

I see no reason why mobigen.exe should not be able to generate DRMed books. Simply do not use the DRM options and it will not generate DRMed books.

If MobiPocket released a Linux version of mobigen, it would be good enough. Since they clearly are in no hurry to do so, I am suggesting this creates an opportunity for someone to develop an open source batch solution for the mobipocket format.

pruss · 08-10-2007, 12:10 PM

Have people tried just taking simple html files and putting them inside PalmDOC files? That's all Mobipocket files are--html wrapped in PalmDOC--though there probably are restrictions on tags.

I've successfully modified Mobipocket files by adding a table of contents with a simple perl script.

Robert Marquard · 08-11-2007, 02:24 AM

There are some wrinkles to it. You need to add some custom attributes to the a and img tags.

pruss · 08-12-2007, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Marquard

There are some wrinkles to it. You need to add some custom attributes to the a and img tags.

Are you sure about the a tags? It's true that I've seen a filepos attribute in the a tag, but I think it worked (presumably more slowly) without it, too. The img tags are slightly different, true.

delphidb96 · 09-21-2007, 11:15 AM

Is there a version of BookDesigner for Linux? Because I routinely use it to create Mobi files and it does a great job with ToCs and chapter page-breaks. I've found that I can get decent results from Mobipocket Creator on my WinXP machine as long as I don't mind not getting a decent ToC. Still haven't figured out how to use their stupid ToC wizard.

Derek

Quote:

Originally Posted by pruss

Are you sure about the a tags? It's true that I've seen a filepos attribute in the a tag, but I think it worked (presumably more slowly) without it, too. The img tags are slightly different, true.

JSWolf · 09-21-2007, 12:28 PM

As long as the book doesn't have many images/illustrations, BD will do fine.

Yeah, their Mobi creator is a PITA.

delphidb96 · 09-21-2007, 01:04 PM

Thing is... except for not making page-breaks properly, or having a *FUNCTIONAL* ToC wizard, for most of the work I'm converting MobiPocket Creator works just fine. But their help is atrocious!

Even though I kinda have to massage it through, I like what BD outputs.

Derek

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As long as the book doesn't have many images/illustrations, BD will do fine.

Yeah, their Mobi creator is a PITA.

JSWolf · 09-21-2007, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Thing is... except for not making page-breaks properly, or having a *FUNCTIONAL* ToC wizard, for most of the work I'm converting MobiPocket Creator works just fine. But their help is atrocious!

Even though I kinda have to massage it through, I like what BD outputs.

Derek

And it also means you can output a copy in LRF for your Sony Reader as well.

delphidb96 · 09-21-2007, 01:24 PM

Absolutely! I just created my 'sample' files for both the Sony and the Bookeen using BD.

Derek

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And it also means you can output a copy in LRF for your Sony Reader as well.

JSWolf · 09-21-2007, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Absolutely! I just created my 'sample' files for both the Sony and the Bookeen using BD.

Derek

Looking forward to seeing how it looks on both devices.

danx · 10-05-2007, 12:48 PM

The MIME type for mobipocket ebooks (.mobi) files is application/x-mobipocket-ebook (that is what the mobileread.com web server uses).

Here's how I run mobigen under Linux, using wine. Mobigen is a CLI program, no graphical interface, so can run in batch mode in the background:

1. Install wine if not installed already
2. Copy or download DLL file msvcp71.dll and copy to
~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/msvcp71.dll
3. Download mobigen from http://www.mobipocket.com/dev/ and unzip. I installed it under /usr/local/mobigen/
4. Run mobigen as follows:

wine /usr/local/mobigen/mobigen.exe your-source-file.html -c1 -s0

This creates a file your-source-file.mobi (replace your-source-file above with the name of your html file). I converted about 100 ebooks at http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/ with this program.

Here's the command line options:

Usage : mobigen filename.opf/.htm/.html [-lowpriority] [-nomin] [-c0 or -c1 or c2] [-s0 or -s1 or -s2] [-vouchers=n] [-nocopypaste] [-rebuild] [-onlydeps or -nodeps] [-unicode]
Options:
-c0: no compression
-c1: standard DOC compression
-c2: Mobipocket huffdic compression
-s0: no security
-s1: encrypted content
-s2: PID secured (retargetable) Mobipocket ebook
-vouchers=n: [by default] use DRM v2 with n vouchers (min = 6).
-nocopypaste: does not allow any copy paste of content in Reader
-nomin: do not minimize version
-rebuild: rebuilds all dependencies
-onlydeps: build only needed dependencies
-nodeps: do not check/build dependencies
-unicode: force build of Unicode book
-lowpriority: set the PRCGEN thread priority to low (background build)
-regserver: register the XOPFPlugin Type Library
-unregserver: unregister the XOPFPlugin Type Library
-releasenotes: display release notes
-jpeg: native jpeg support (all images converted to GIF otherwise)

JSWolf · 10-05-2007, 01:08 PM

danx, how do you setup the html file so you get a native table of contents?

10-05-2007, 12:48 PM	#29
danx Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: San Diego, CA, US Device: Palm Pilot m130	mobigen under wine and mobipocket MIME type The MIME type for mobipocket ebooks (.mobi) files is application/x-mobipocket-ebook (that is what the mobileread.com web server uses). Here's how I run mobigen under Linux, using wine. Mobigen is a CLI program, no graphical interface, so can run in batch mode in the background: 1. Install wine if not installed already 2. Copy or download DLL file msvcp71.dll and copy to ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/msvcp71.dll 3. Download mobigen from http://www.mobipocket.com/dev/ and unzip. I installed it under /usr/local/mobigen/ 4. Run mobigen as follows: wine /usr/local/mobigen/mobigen.exe your-source-file.html -c1 -s0 This creates a file your-source-file.mobi (replace your-source-file above with the name of your html file). I converted about 100 ebooks at http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/ with this program. Here's the command line options: Usage : mobigen filename.opf/.htm/.html [-lowpriority] [-nomin] [-c0 or -c1 or c2] [-s0 or -s1 or -s2] [-vouchers=n] [-nocopypaste] [-rebuild] [-onlydeps or -nodeps] [-unicode] Options: -c0: no compression -c1: standard DOC compression -c2: Mobipocket huffdic compression -s0: no security -s1: encrypted content -s2: PID secured (retargetable) Mobipocket ebook -vouchers=n: [by default] use DRM v2 with n vouchers (min = 6). -nocopypaste: does not allow any copy paste of content in Reader -nomin: do not minimize version -rebuild: rebuilds all dependencies -onlydeps: build only needed dependencies -nodeps: do not check/build dependencies -unicode: force build of Unicode book -lowpriority: set the PRCGEN thread priority to low (background build) -regserver: register the XOPFPlugin Type Library -unregserver: unregister the XOPFPlugin Type Library -releasenotes: display release notes -jpeg: native jpeg support (all images converted to GIF otherwise) Last edited by danx; 10-06-2007 at 02:28 AM.

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08-08-2007, 06:55 AM	#18
Robert Marquard Delphi-Guy Posts: 285 Karma: 1151 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Berlin, Germany Device: iLiad, Palm T3	Huh? All you need as documentation for mobigen.exe is shown on the commandline. What the content should be is documented on the Mobipocket website and is good enough. I have seen worse documentation. I see no reason why mobigen.exe should not be able to generate DRMed books. Simply do not use the DRM options and it will not generate DRMed books. Same for the proprietary compression. All the rest of the Mobipocket format are some attributes added to link and image tags. Really no rocket science. The .mobi format is just some finetuning.

08-10-2007, 12:10 PM	#20
pruss Evangelist Posts: 461 Karma: 819417 Join Date: Nov 2004	Have people tried just taking simple html files and putting them inside PalmDOC files? That's all Mobipocket files are--html wrapped in PalmDOC--though there probably are restrictions on tags. I've successfully modified Mobipocket files by adding a table of contents with a simple perl script.

08-11-2007, 02:24 AM	#21
Robert Marquard Delphi-Guy Posts: 285 Karma: 1151 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Berlin, Germany Device: iLiad, Palm T3	There are some wrinkles to it. You need to add some custom attributes to the a and img tags.

09-21-2007, 12:28 PM	#24
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,947 Karma: 128903250 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	As long as the book doesn't have many images/illustrations, BD will do fine. Yeah, their Mobi creator is a PITA.

10-05-2007, 01:08 PM	#30
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,947 Karma: 128903250 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	danx, how do you setup the html file so you get a native table of contents?

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