Another pdb (PalmDoc) to epub conversion error

[CharsDox]

1. have read the FAQs but not very revealing as to what to do regarding the issue I'm having.
2. Am using latest Calibre (just downloaded & installed today -- 27Dec10)
3. Am trying to convert a pretty old ebook in PDB format (dated 2006)
4. Have attached the complete error log after the conversion failed. Note that I did in fact edit the metadata for its title and the author(s). Salient items to note in the error log (I think) are these:


ERROR: Conversion Error: <b>Failed</b>: Convert book 1 of 1 (The Prince)

Convert book 1 of 1 (The Prince)
Resolved conversion options
calibre version: 0.7.35
{'asciiize': False,
'author_sort': None,
'authors': None,
'base_font_size': 0.0,
'book_producer': None,
<<<<<<snip!>>>>
InputFormatPlugin: PDB Input running
on C:\Documents and Settings\Char\Calibre Library\Jerry Pournelle\The Prince (5)\The Prince - Jerry Pournelle.pdb
Detected ebook format as: PalmDOC with identity: TEXtREAd
<<<<<<snip!>>>>
Converting text to OEB...
Parsing all content...
Parsing index.html ...
Forcing index.html into XHTML namespace
Generating default TOC from spine...
Merging user specified metadata...
Detecting structure...
Auto generated TOC with 0 entries.
Flattening CSS and remapping font sizes...
Source base font size is 12.00000pt
Cleaning up manifest...
Trimming unused files from manifest...
Parsing stylesheet.css ...
Creating EPUB Output...
Looking for large trees in index.html...
Found large tree #0
Splitting...
Split point: {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}p /*/*[2]/*[2]
Split tree still too large: 2697 KB
Splitting...
Split point: {http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}p /*/*[2]/*
Split tree too small
Splitting...
Python function terminated unexpectedly
Could not find reasonable point at which to split: index.html Sub-tree size: 2697 KB (Error Code: 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site.py", line 103, in main
File "site.py", line 85, in run_entry_point
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\worker.py", line 107, in main
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\convert\gui_conversion.py", line 24, in gui_convert
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plumber.py", line 965, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\epub\output.py", line 169, in convert
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\transforms\split.py", line 56, in __call__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\transforms\split.py", line 66, in split_item
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\transforms\split.py", line 188, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\transforms\split.py", line 408, in split_to_size
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\transforms\split.py", line 392, in split_to_size
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\transforms\split.py", line 385, in split_to_size
calibre.ebooks.oeb.transforms.split.SplitError: Could not find reasonable point at which to split: index.html Sub-tree size: 2697 KB

5. Have considered the idea of trying to convert this file into something easier for Calibre to handle (RTF, HTML, etc) but no joy there either.

Question: what special settings (is this what is referred to as a "recipe"?) do I need to use to help Calibre convert this document without error? By the way, converting from ".prc" format files works fine. Just this PDB formatted ebook.

Thanks!

[user_none]

PalmDoc PDB files are just compressed text file. Read the TXT conversion section of the user manual. You need to specify one of the paragraph format options for it to convert. Try --single-line-paras first. That is usually all that is needed. If it doesn't work there are other options.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by CharsDox

calibre.ebooks.oeb.transforms.split.SplitError: Could not find reasonable point at which to split: index.html Sub-tree size: 2697 KB

This means when creating the epub, calibre couldn't determine a natural place to split the resultant html. The ePub spec requires the blocks of html be less then 300k and calibre defaults to breaking them into 260k size chunks. Most ereader devices won't read the book unless this is done.

There are three things you can try.

1st - Run the conversion with Treat each line as a paragraph option set in the PDB input. See attached for where you will find this option.

2nd - Run the conversion with the Assume print formatting option set in the PDB input. See attached for where you will find this option.

3rd - Run the conversion with a directory set under the debug option (see attached). This will give you the book at various stages of HTML processing after the conversion is run. You can open The input (or other stage) with SIGIL then save it as an ePub file then convert that ePub to ePub conversion to clean things up.

Hopefully one of the first two options will work. It would be easiest if one of them did, but if not the third option will work with a little more manual intervention.