[Device Plugin] iOS reader applications

[Rezn8r]

ShellShock, I just tried your new DLLs to no avail. No error message was generated this time, but Calibre failed to recognize iPad/Marvin. Thanks for taking a look at this. I definitely appreciate the effort.

Cheers.

[Dspils]

Has anyone experienced a connection problem between MARVIN and Calibre (Windows7),since upgrading to IOS 8.3 on IPAD?
I have access to 2 IPADS, only one upgraded, the one with IOS 8.2 still works fine.
Calibre has the latest plugins for IOS and MARVIN.

[PeterT]

@Dspils:

Known issue, currently being worked on by those who support the Apple connectivity options for calibre.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by PeterT

@Dspils:

Known issue, currently being worked on by those who support the Apple connectivity options for calibre.

And that would be...

GRiker? (on prolonged vacation, no WiFi)
ShellShock? (did it last time, but expressed disinterest this time)

[Montana Harper]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And that would be...

GRiker? (on prolonged vacation, no WiFi)
ShellShock? (did it last time, but expressed disinterest this time)

If you read back a page, you'll see that we're apparently waiting on updates to libmobiledevice.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And that would be...

GRiker? (on prolonged vacation, no WiFi)
ShellShock? (did it last time, but expressed disinterest this time)

That is true...but my disinterest was mainly because I did not want to upgrade to 8.3 and then not be able to use the Marvin plugins. Now it looks like the problem is more serious and requires changes to the libimobiledevice library to get round Apple's security (which may not be feasible), then any fix is going to take some time.

But I am totally reliant on the libimobiledevice guys coming up with the goods first; when and if they can confirm the library is fixed for IOS 8.3 then there is a lot less risk for me to upgrade my IPad, as I can then port the fixed libimobiledevice code to Windows in a form that Kovid can easily use in the Calibre build (this is effectively what I did when IOS 8 came out).

[eschwartz]

Well, that sounds hopeful then.

The better news is, as per the Marvin XD thread, we know where Philantrop mysteriously disappeared to. Now he's back.

[ChaosForged]

Apologies for the lack of posts all, but was down with the flu this week.

Better now, and will be debugging tomorrow on my older ipad.

Though, as ShellShock indicated, it really does look like an issue with libimobiledevice, and there's already an explicit question about it on that mailing list, so I think that some of the folks there will be taking a look soon if they aren't already.

I did see that iExplorer already came out with an update to fix for ios8.3, so that's a reasonably decent sign that the issue may not be terribly difficult to fix.

[crazy318]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

Check out this: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/04...-from-ios-8-3/. Instructions for downgrading to 8.2; get in quick whilst the downgrade is still possible. I have not tried this, as I am still on 8.2, and won't upgrade now I have seen the problems you are having.

This looks like a problem with IOS 8.3. IOS 8.2 with the latest Calibre (2.24 Win 64 bit) and IOSRA (1.4.7.0.0) works OK.

OK my fist time posting but had to just say THANKS ShellShock for the link on how to downgrade back to IOS 8.2 .I love my Marvin compared to Itunes and when I add my books on my Ipad Mini 2 and it stopped working after my dumb butt upgraded to IOS 8.3 was going crazy, but i had read you guys other instructions before about using Calibre & Marvin so I did the downgrade and took me a minute LOL but it worked, for some reason I had to reinstall older version of Calibre 1.48 then install the IOS & Marvin Plugins then upgrade calibre to 2.26 and now working perfectly .

Thanks Again

[ShellShock]

This was recently posted to the libimobiledevice mailing list:

"We'll soon update some components to ease the MinGW build on Windows and target to provide official binary releases for Windows out of a build/CI server"

I'll explain what this means. libimobiledevice is the C/C++ library that the IOSRA plugin uses to talk to the Calibre connector in Marvin. The libimobiledevice libraries currently in the Windows version of Calibre are a port I did over 6 months ago from the libimobiledevice Linux source; this got IOSRA working with IOS 8 up to 8.2. The Linux version of Calibre is able to use the libimobiledevice Linux source directly, but I am not sure how often Kovid gets the latest source.

Since my port there have been a lot of code changes to libimobiledevice, possibly this may have fixed the IOS 8.3 problems (but I have not had any confirmation of this). Once the libimobiledevice build is providing Windows binaries, it will be a simple matter to drop them into our Calibre install (in Windows!) and to test with IOS 8.3.

For long term maintainability this should also be a better approach - we can get the library directly from the master build, and not have to rely on it being ported by people like me. In theory the master will keep pace with IOS changes. However, there is an issue of how the master source/binaries are integrated into the Calibre build (Linux and Windows).

[eschwartz]

Doesn't matter, Kovid builds everything by hand anyway.

Should make it easier for other people to test though, and hopefully a sign that the Win port will receive serious attention.

[HowardBrazee]

calibre, version 2.12.0
ERROR: Install Plugin Failed: A problem occurred while installing this plugin. This plugin will now be uninstalled. Please post the error message in details below into the forum thread for this plugin and restart Calibre.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/dialogs/plugin_updater.py", line 712, in _install_clicked
File "site-packages/calibre/customize/ui.py", line 390, in add_plugin
File "site-packages/calibre/customize/ui.py", line 557, in initialize_plugin
InvalidPlugin: Initialization of plugin Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages/calibre/customize/ui.py", line 551, in initialize_plugin
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.__init__", line 916, in initialize
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.__init__", line 1245, in _get_connected_device_info
InitialConnectionError: Unable to connect to iDevice
failed with traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages/calibre/customize/ui.py", line 551, in initialize_plugin
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.__init__", line 916, in initialize
File "calibre_plugins.ios_reader_apps.__init__", line 1245, in _get_connected_device_info
InitialConnectionError: Unable to connect to iDevice

[kovidgoyal]

Indeed, I insist on hand compiling everything. In any case, a build compiled against mingw is not a good idea, since the rest of calibre is compiled against VS 2008, which means you would be mixing incompatible C runtimes, which can cause all sorts of issues.

But, in any case, if the libimobiledevice project is supporting building on windows, then building it by hand on windows should also become easier

[theducks]

You are 14 versions behind 2.26
But that may not be your only issue.

The latest Apple updates are causing problems

[ShellShock]

Yes, the IOSRA plugin does not work with IOS 8.3. See the posts at the end of the plugin thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=241143.