Firmware Update Kindelabra: Kindle Collection Manager

[thinkpad]

Does it work for K2i or just K3?

[Mixx]

Hi, I did that and I think I cleaned up all previous installs before installing everything new.

However, exact same thing happens with the same error message (now with python 2.6).

What else can I try?

Thanxx, Mixx

Originally Posted by teegee543

Hi Mixx, I'm not sure what could be causing that error, but it seems that GTK is not working for a lot of people. If you don't mind, could you try uninstalling Python and installing an older version that should work better:
http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.6.6/python-2.6.6.msi
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binar...in32-py2.6.exe
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binar...in32-py2.6.exe
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binar...in32-py2.6.exe

I've pushed out Kindelabra v0.2 now. My program now supports DRM-d books.

[NiLuJe]

@teegee543: I'll try to dig around a bit to try to see what's wrong with DRM'd files...

Right now, every DRM'd title in every collection is shown with the exact same title (which happens to be a DRM'd book, in my case).

[WS64]

I tried again to install it, and again nothing works.
No module named gtk

So, how to get rid of all the stuff that was installed with the install.bat for windows?

[NiLuJe]

@teegee543: Here's a small patch that *should* help with the DRM issue (I haven't tried it with a live Kindle, just on a backup folder).

It's probably messy for no good reason, I don't really have much clue about python stuff .

If an asin found in a collection isn't on the device, it'll be discarded, and a warning printed on the console. (Not sure how you want to handle bogus items in collections, that was mostly done to avoid a traceback because my backup wasn't up to date with my json db... :P).

EDIT: Attachment removed, it's been merged .

[woland]

Hi,
Looks like a very promising program but I am having trouble on Linux.
I can load and edit collections file. But the left pane with the list of books does not show any books. I get these errors in the console:

Loading documents..............Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./Kindelabra.py", line 108, in load
self.refresh(widget)
File "./Kindelabra.py", line 391, in refresh
self.kindle.init_data()
File "/home/user/Downloads/richardpeng-Kindelabra-ff6185a/kindle.py", line 98, in init_data
self.load_folder(folder)
File "/home/user/Downloads/richardpeng-Kindelabra-ff6185a/kindle.py", line 110, in load_folder
book = Ebook(fullpath)
File "/home/user/Downloads/richardpeng-Kindelabra-ff6185a/kindle.py", line 78, in __init__
self.meta = ebook.Mobi(path)
File "/home/user/Downloads/richardpeng-Kindelabra-ff6185a/ebook.py", line 29, in __init__
sections = Sectionizer(filename, 'rb')
File "/home/user/Downloads/richardpeng-Kindelabra-ff6185a/ebook.py", line 17, in __init__
raise ValueError('invalid file format')
ValueError: invalid file format


Thanks,
Yuri

[woland]

Hi,
Turns out I did have a few corrupted files on my Kindle. Removing/fixing them allowed Kindelabra to function properly.

But it would be nice if Kindelabra reported which files causes the problem - could it be done?

Yuri

[teegee543]

@WS64: to remove the stuff that was installed by install.bat, uninstall the following programs:
- Python
- PyGTK
- PyCairo
- PyGObject
- GTK for Windows

@woland: the latest version now prints files that have unreadable metadata rather than crashing

@NiLuJe: thanks for the patch! that's exactly the way I want to handle the bogus items. I'm going to read them into the program and write them back into new JSON files, even if the files don't exist on the filesystem. My reasoning is that people might delete books off their Kindle, but put them back later, expecting those books to still be in the right collection. I can't help it if they change the filepath/names though when they put it back.

Has anyone tested Kindelabra on a Kindle 2?

[NiLuJe]

@teegee543: Okay, just tried this on my live Kindle, and it does handle DRM'd mobi properly (at least on the 'read' side of things, haven't checked editing yet), so, yay!, and thanks for merging it . And, yeah, keeping track of orphaned items would be nice .

While trying this, I just realized it would probably be better to also print the name of the collection the orphaned ASIN belongs to .

Now we're just missing Topaz metadata handling... I'm gonna take a look at how calibre does this, and see if I can come up with something... .

Also, for interaction with calibre, you might want to take a look at the stuff that's been done here .

[NiLuJe]

Okay, here goes another patch:

* Topaz metadata support (shamelessly ripped out of Calibre from GRiker's code, so thanks!)
* Kindlet metadata support, since it was bugging me, and it's pretty simple (Should handle both official & developper apps. A developper app (ie. no ASIN) will print a warning message to the console, but that's harmless, the Kindle software falls back to the usual SHA1 hash too in that case).

At first glance, it seems to work, both read and write, but I haven't tried a tweaked collection db on a live device yet.

Again, forgive my brute force approach to Python .

EDIT: Attachment removed, patch merged upstream.

[teegee543]

Hey NiLuJe, thanks for the patches! I'm sure the community appreciates it as much as I do. I've merged your latest patch and will do a code clean-up to get consistent formatting when I release the next milestone version. I'm hoping to recode the GUI to use WxPython and hopefully get better support for all operating systems, including Mac.

[NiLuJe]

No problem . (And, yeah, what's original probably needs a good cleaning up, I basically suck at Python ^^).

You might want to contact GRiker about the Topaz bit of code, there shouldn't be any licensing issue, but IANAL, so it might be good to check .

[ElizabethN]

Thanks for all the effort! Your work is definitely improving my ability to use kindle's collection feature.

You probably are aware of this problem with the recent version but just in case. (FYI, I've changed computers since last using kindelabra (cpu's don't appear to like to be used as cat launch pads) and missed one or two updates while out of town.)

On windows 7 with k3, the kindelabra file downloaded tonight in folder "ef3d096" crashed when trying to sort the collection side (file side sorted with no problem). So I went to the other version I have on this computer, "ff6185a," which enables me to sort both columns but reads alot of titles (possibly drm'd files) as the same name over & over.

Thanks again for all your work.

[NiLuJe]

@ElizabethN: I haven't had any sorting issues here, can you try to run it from a terminal, and post what happens when it crashes? (Hopefully it should print a somewhat useful traceback).

Also, since you mentionned Windows, which Python distribution are you using?

(FYI, I'm currently using Python 2.6.6 on Gentoo Linux ~x86, so a weird Python 2.7/Windows quirk may be involved here.)

[ElizabethN]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@ElizabethN: I haven't had any sorting issues here, can you try to run it from a terminal, and post what happens when it crashes? (Hopefully it should print a somewhat useful traceback).

Also, since you mentionned Windows, which Python distribution are you using?

(FYI, I'm currently using Python 2.6.6 on Gentoo Linux ~x86, so a weird Python 2.7/Windows quirk may be involved here.)

currently using python 2.7.0 (32 bit) on windows 7 64bit (need 32 bit for other programs that won't run under 64bit python)

If I have time later today I may try to run the 3 programs on the vista machine which still has python 2.6. If I need to step back to 2.6 python would I need to completely remove 2.7 and all the assoc libraries then reload all the libraries with 2.6?

Following is copy of results in command prompt window when running various versions of kindelabra, italized comments are mine not the system's.

Thanks for your help.


Kindelabra v0.1 on windows 7 with python 2.7.
sorting - both columns,
metadata - most drm books show correctly, samples – most show correctly, topaz? (most are freebies that I leave on kindle for pc)
no warnings in command prompt except when saving collection to kindle (still saves)

command prompt:
Loading documents......................................... ......................
.................................................. ..............................
........................
Loading pictures

when saving collection:
.................................................. ..............................
........................
Loading pictures
C:\Python27\richardpeng-Kindelabra-v0.1-be896af\richardpeng-Kindelabra-be896af\K
indelabra.py:346: GtkWarning: Could not find the icon 'gtk-file'. The 'hicolor'
theme
was not found either, perhaps you need to install it.
You can get a copy from:
http://icon-theme.freedesktop.org/releases
if dialog.run() == gtk.RESPONSE_ACCEPT:



Kindelabra v0.2 ff6185a on windows 7 with python 2.7.
sorting – both columns,
metadata – drm books,samples – same file name repeats over & over, topaz?
2 warnings in command prompt – first after loading program,
second after sorting either “files” or “collections” (warning same regardless of column sorted), no warning with sorting second column after first sorted
no warning when saving collection to kindle

Command prompt:
Loading documents......................................... ......................
.................................................. ..............................
........................
Loading pictures
C:\Python27\richardpeng-Kindelabra-ff6185a\richardpeng-Kindelabra-ff6185a\Kindel
abra.py:79: PangoWarning: Invalid UTF-8 string passed to pango_layout_set_text()

gtk.main()
C:\Python27\richardpeng-Kindelabra-ff6185a\richardpeng-Kindelabra-ff6185a\Kindel
abra.py:79: Warning: g_convert: assertion `str != NULL' failed
gtk.main()

Kindelabra v0.2 ef3d096 on windows 7 with python 2.7.
sorting – files only
metadata – drm books - more titles show, a few title repetitions but nothing like the quantity in version 0.2 ff,
samples – most titles show, no repetition of titles , topaz?
2 warnings in command prompt – first after loading program,
second after sorting “files” , when try to sort “collections” python.exe crashes closing command prompt
if try to sort “collections” first, warning (same as file sort warning) appears but then python.exe crashes

no warning when saving collection to kindle

Command prompt:
Loading documents......................................... ......................
.................................................. .........................
.................................................. ..............................
........................................
Loading pictures
! ASIN B003O2SD3M belongs to collection __ROM_PNR but wasn't found on the device
!
! ASIN B00166DIV0 belongs to collection Penn, Jenny but wasn't found on the devi
ce!
! ASIN B003O2SD3M belongs to collection Winters, Zoe but wasn't found on the dev
ice!
! ASIN B00166DIV0 belongs to collection ___NEW_2010 but wasn't found on the devi
ce!
! ASIN B003SX12CG belongs to collection Anderson, Evangeline but wasn't found on
the device!
C:\Python27\richardpeng-Kindelabra-ef3d096\richardpeng-Kindelabra-ef3d096\Kindel
abra.py:79: PangoWarning: Invalid UTF-8 string passed to pango_layout_set_text()

gtk.main()
C:\Python27\richardpeng-Kindelabra-ef3d096\richardpeng-Kindelabra-ef3d096\Kindel
abra.py:79: Warning: g_convert: assertion `str != NULL' failed
gtk.main()


much later in day - I took everything back to python 2.6.6 (32bit) for reasons other than kindelabra but still can not sort (click) on the collections column without python crashing. I can't see if the error is different with 2.6 because the command prompt opened concurrently with the 2.7 install but not with the 2.6. Maybe tomorrow, i.e. much later today, I'll try to run kindelabra from the command line and see what happens.