Mobiperl Mobiperl - Perl tools for handling MobiPocket files

[tompe]

Originally Posted by woofb

Help, cannot get perl to make. I have a Mac (OS X) and a Linux tiny laptop (eeePC). Both of them report a reasonable version of Perl (5.8.8) but throw an error on any attempt to make anything, including Palm::PDB &c. I can download from cpan, but everything seems to crash & burn at the last minute.

I get up to "Checking if your kit is complete. Looks good" and then I
get:
Writing Makefile for [whatever] -- NOT OK
Running make test.
Can't test without successful make.
Running make install
make had returned bad status, install seems impossible

'which make' doesn't turn up anything.

What am I doing wrong?

Well, if make is missing things will not work. You have to install the make at least and other missing programs on you eeePC.

[woofb]

It's very difficult to Google references to a program whose name is a simple English word like 'make'.

I tried to look up 'make' for the eeePC and didn't turn up anything.

All references to 'make' and 'darwinports' (Mac Open Source/Unix stuff) turn up things like 'run make configure', without offering help for people who just can't find make.

Why the hell can't I find this damn thing if it's standard? All the normal unix things like perl, bash, less, cat, vi &c work on both my boxes, but I cannot find make...

Regards, Ruth (....who really wants to run mobiperl on some *n?x version so as to stop having to use Windows over Remote Desktop, which sucks...)

[tompe]

Originally Posted by woofb

It's very difficult to Google references to a program whose name is a simple English word like 'make'.

I tried to look up 'make' for the eeePC and didn't turn up anything.

All references to 'make' and 'darwinports' (Mac Open Source/Unix stuff) turn up things like 'run make configure', without offering help for people who just can't find make.

Why the hell can't I find this damn thing if it's standard? All the normal unix things like perl, bash, less, cat, vi &c work on both my boxes, but I cannot find make...

Regards, Ruth (....who really wants to run mobiperl on some *n?x version so as to stop having to use Windows over Remote Desktop, which sucks...)

"gnu make mac" will give you hits wich tells you what developer package to install from your CD or DVD. For example:

http://www.nabble.com/Make-binary-di...d15070346.html

The reason you cannot find make is probably because they have put it into the developer packages and these are not installed by default.

[woofb]

I have now got 'make'; 'which make' turns up /usr/bin. Unfortunately, I still get the same error message:
--------------------
WARNING: LICENSE is not a known parameter.
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
'LICENSE' is not a known MakeMaker parameter name.
Writing Makefile for Palm
-- NOT OK
Running make test
Can't test without successful make
Running make install
make had returned bad status, install seems impossible
--------------
although presumably it should be able to find make because /usr/bin is in the main path where it found perl.

I also tried 'install Bundle::CPAN' in case there was anything cpan needed to do before installing Palm::PDB -- unfortunately I get the same error from make.

Regards, Ruth (...sorry to be a pain, I have no idea what it thinks it is/isn't doing now...)

[samjam]

Any of the mobi files at: http://lds.org/handheld/newarchive/0...4-81-2,00.html

e.g. http://lds.org/handheld/pdafiles/pocketpc/famproc.zip

won't convert with mobi2html because they are HUFFDIC_COMPRESSED (I'm pretty sure they are too).

Does anyone have hints on converting them? calibra tools and dark reversers tools think the books are drm'd, which they aren't - any mobi-reader cna read them straight off - unless they are being drm'd to some standard keys that are built in to mobi readers.

Anyone know?

Thanks

Sam

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by samjam

Any of the mobi files at: http://lds.org/handheld/newarchive/0...4-81-2,00.html

e.g. http://lds.org/handheld/pdafiles/pocketpc/famproc.zip

won't convert with mobi2html because they are HUFFDIC_COMPRESSED (I'm pretty sure they are too).

Does anyone have hints on converting them?

If you want HTML, I suggest downloading the MSReader version and exploding it with ConvertLIT. This may also be the best approach to producing a standard compression MOBI (add mobigen at the end of the process, or just use MobiPerl's lit2mobi).

[JSWolf]

So how are these Mobipocket eBooks setup so they are thought to be DRM protected?

Mobidedrm.py says there is no key yet mobi2oeb things they are protected and mobihuff.py thinks so as well.

[red_dragon]

Very funny indeed.

I have checked the "famroc.prc" file. The DRM information are there at the normal location so it looks like the file is protected. But which PID is used??? Anyone?

[samjam]

Originally Posted by red_dragon

Very funny indeed.

I have checked the "famroc.prc" file. The DRM information are there at the normal location so it looks like the file is protected. But which PID is used??? Anyone?

Thanks for checking this red_dragon, I didn't know where to look.

I recall hearing there was a java mobi reader, but I can't find one at mobipocket.com; java would be easiest to pop open, anyone know of a java mobi pocket reader?

Sam

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by samjam

I recall hearing there was a java mobi reader, but I can't find one at mobipocket.com; java would be easiest to pop open, anyone know of a java mobi pocket reader?

There's one in alpha status intended for smartphones, downloadable here:
http://www.mobipocket.com/dev/beta/j2me.asp

And a forum devoted to it here:
http://www.mobipocket.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=31
______
Dennis

[samjam]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

There's one in alpha status intended for smartphones, downloadable here:
http://www.mobipocket.com/dev/beta/j2me.asp

And a forum devoted to it here:
http://www.mobipocket.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=31

Nice one; thanks!

Sam

[pdurrant]

I've been using mobi2mobi quite extensively to add/update covers and to add proper titles and author names to my collection of 1200+ Mobipocket eBooks.

I've found some instances in which it didn't work, and (with a minimal knowledge of Perl) I've added in various changes to make things work for me.

In particular, some parts of mobi2mobi assumed that a cover or thumb offset of 0 was invalid. This doesn't seem to be the case.

In another instance, version 2 mobipocket files weren't converting correctly because the mobi header wasn't being enlarged suitably.

In a third, the cover image wasn't being recognised on my Cybook Gen3 because the images weren't immediately after the book, and we weren't updating the "first image" offset when adding in the first image in a file.

Lastly, I wanted 600x800 images up to 62KB in length. If some other device requires smaller than 62KB, the file size change (to 62KB) is probably a bad idea.

I've added comments to (I think) all the differences between my files and the 0.0.38 release. I've sent a private message to Trompe about these files, but you can't attach files in private message so I'm posting here. Hopefully he'll be able to check my changes and include good ones in a new release.

If you're brave, you can try them for yourself - but bear in mind I'm a C/C++ programmer, not at all familiar with Perl.

Paul

[JSWolf]

Can someone please compile the modified version so it works on Windows as an exe?Thanks!

[tompe]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've been using mobi2mobi quite extensively to add/update covers and to add proper titles and author names to my collection of 1200+ Mobipocket eBooks.

I've found some instances in which it didn't work, and (with a minimal knowledge of Perl) I've added in various changes to make things work for me.

Thanks, I will try to find some time to integrate this but I am very busy with a work deadline so it might take some time...

In particular, some parts of mobi2mobi assumed that a cover or thumb offset of 0 was invalid. This doesn't seem to be the case.

So does 0 mean take the first image and 1 is an offset to the first image?

Lastly, I wanted 600x800 images up to 62KB in length. If some other device requires smaller than 62KB, the file size change (to 62KB) is probably a bad idea.

I think my limit was from a posting on the Mobipocket forum that said that the real limit was what I have used if you want to generate files that works on all old devices.
]

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by tompe

So does 0 mean take the first image and 1 is an offset to the first image?

This is the value of EXTH header 201 or 202. It's just an offset to be added to the index of the first image in the file. So zero means use the first image, 1 means use the second image, etc.

I have seen this value be -1 in some Mobipocket generated files, indicating that the image wasn't present.

Paul