"invalid PID checksum" when using mobidedrm, even though it IS valid.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It might be a content protected, but not PID protected eBook.

See Latest MobiDeDRM Patch.

Another possibility is a bad copy of mobidedrm.py. I think the version bundled with eBookUtility is probably good. As is the most recent version of 0.06.

[Riptide]

Ok, I know I was running 0.05. I'll try the link above when I get home tonight.

[galavanter]

Since I got the Kindle 1, jetBook, iPod Touch, and then sold the Kindle, I have been using mobidedrm.py without a problem. Most of the files were azw from the Kindle, but when the kindle app came out I got the Touch, and sold the Kindle. The first test book I purchased on it came through mobidedrm clean as a whistle. I had used iPhone Backup Extrtactotr and drm'd the prc file.

The night before last, I purchased the second book on the Touch, extracted it, and that's when my 36 hr nightmare began.

I use a Mac upgraded to Snow Leopard. After running mobidedrm 1,2,5, and 6 repeatedly, I went to Windows via vmWare Fusion. I installed python 2.5.

I'm not Windows savvy, but with a little research I was soon able to get the identical error in DOS as I do in the Mac terminal every time, "Error: no key found. maybe the PID is incorrect".

I performed red_dragon's hack because the OP reported success with it. Not me.

I downloaded Hextreme to see if my book might be a Tpz file. it says Mobi.

I got my UDID again from iTunes and ran kindlepid.py again. The same PID I had saved from months ago popped up.

I switched to a Dell Mini 10, on which I have installed Mac OSX 10,5.8. I ran all the mobidedrm.py files again, this time on the FIRST book I purchased on the Touch, the one I had dedrm'd successfully previously. Same "Error: no key found. maybe the PID is incorrect".

Now that's just not right. The kindle app was updated just 3 days ago. I'm not into conspiracy theories, but nothing else makes sense to me at this point.

If anyone is using mobidedrm.py successfully on a Mac with prc files, please send me some help!

Better yet, buy a book today on your iPhone or Touch, dedrm it with your Mac, let me KNOW, and I'll reimburse you for the book via paypal.

[pdurrant]

It sounds to me like the book you bought doesn't have DRM. Some books in the Kindle store don't have any DRM to begin with.

Originally Posted by galavanter

Since I got the Kindle 1, jetBook, iPod Touch, and then sold the Kindle, I have been using mobidedrm.py without a problem. Most of the files were azw from the Kindle, but when the kindle app came out I got the Touch, and sold the Kindle. The first test book I purchased on it came through mobidedrm clean as a whistle. I had used iPhone Backup Extrtactotr and drm'd the prc file.

The night before last, I purchased the second book on the Touch, extracted it, and that's when my 36 hr nightmare began.

I use a Mac upgraded to Snow Leopard. After running mobidedrm 1,2,5, and 6 repeatedly, I went to Windows via vmWare Fusion. I installed python 2.5.

I'm not Windows savvy, but with a little research I was soon able to get the identical error in DOS as I do in the Mac terminal every time, "Error: no key found. maybe the PID is incorrect".

[aria110]

Originally Posted by galavanter

Since I got the Kindle 1, jetBook, iPod Touch, and then sold the Kindle, I have been using mobidedrm.py without a problem. Most of the files were azw from the Kindle, but when the kindle app came out I got the Touch, and sold the Kindle. The first test book I purchased on it came through mobidedrm clean as a whistle. I had used iPhone Backup Extrtactotr and drm'd the prc file.

The night before last, I purchased the second book on the Touch, extracted it, and that's when my 36 hr nightmare began.

I use a Mac upgraded to Snow Leopard. After running mobidedrm 1,2,5, and 6 repeatedly, I went to Windows via vmWare Fusion. I installed python 2.5.

I'm not Windows savvy, but with a little research I was soon able to get the identical error in DOS as I do in the Mac terminal every time, "Error: no key found. maybe the PID is incorrect".

I performed red_dragon's hack because the OP reported success with it. Not me.

I downloaded Hextreme to see if my book might be a Tpz file. it says Mobi.

I got my UDID again from iTunes and ran kindlepid.py again. The same PID I had saved from months ago popped up.

I switched to a Dell Mini 10, on which I have installed Mac OSX 10,5.8. I ran all the mobidedrm.py files again, this time on the FIRST book I purchased on the Touch, the one I had dedrm'd successfully previously. Same "Error: no key found. maybe the PID is incorrect".

Now that's just not right. The kindle app was updated just 3 days ago. I'm not into conspiracy theories, but nothing else makes sense to me at this point.

If anyone is using mobidedrm.py successfully on a Mac with prc files, please send me some help!

Better yet, buy a book today on your iPhone or Touch, dedrm it with your Mac, let me KNOW, and I'll reimburse you for the book via paypal.

I had this problem today, when I was testing out dedrm'ing on Kindle files from my iPhone (on Snow Leopard). I downloaded and used kindlepid.py to get an ID that looked like this: #######*## (with the #s as alphanumeric characters). I tried every version of mobidederm.py I could find, and every variant of single quotes, double quotes, using all 10 digits, dropping the last two, etc, but nothing worked. It alternated between "Error: no key found. maybe the PID is incorrect" and "Error: invalid PID checksum."

After lots of googling, I found someone who suggested downloading the latest version of kindlepid.py -- which can be found by googling azw-0.2.zip. The version of kindlepid.py in that zip, when fed my iphone device ID, gave me a different PID -- without an asterisk. That PID worked to decrypt all my kindle files just fine (with v0.05 of mobidedrm, though I'm not sure if it matters).

This may apply to anyone who uses the Kindle for iPhone application *only,* instead of in conjunction with a Kindle device. Worth trying at least!

[galavanter]

What can I say but thanks a million! It worked! Just like you, I got a different PID, without an asterisk. I used 0.06 of mobidedrm.

Thank you.

[Coops]

Just another thankyou to all here....

Just switched to a Mac - downloaded a mobi from fictionwise for my PRS-505, and was having the wrong pid checksum issue - but worked fine when i put the PId in single quotes..... Marvellous.

Already converted to ePub......

Coops

[Sydney's Mom]

For once, I thouht maybe I could provide a little help. I was getting this error message today (Kindle for PC doesn't show any of my books - I have to remove DRM first. I put the books on my kindle, want to read it on my
PC, and I have to remove DRM!). First, I tried different PIDs. When I had tried everything, I tried quotation marks. Nothing. It was a 5-word title, so I changed the first instance to one word. Nothing. Then I changed the 2d instance to one word - done.

[Katelyn]

FINALLY! After spending days trying to figure out why I could not get past the "Error: no key found. maybe the PID is incorrect" and "Error: invalid PID checksum" error when using my PID from my IPhone, I found the post about downloading azw-0.2.zip and using that version of kindlepid.py and it worked! I can now grab some of my books from my phone and move them to my 360 reader.

[kelosh]

Sorry if I am bringing up something that was answered. I looked through the posts and I believe that my mobipocket books that I bought must be content-encrypted and not necessarily tied to a particular device since I can view them on any device/computer as long as I view it with Mobireader. The problem is that I now have an Android phone and I want to be able to read it with that. It appears that Amazon has no intention of creating Mobireader for Android. Since I paid for the books I have no qualms with decrypting them. I have tried the mobidedrm and it keeps giving me the Invalid PID checksum error but I'm wondering if I need to actually use mobidedrm005 since my books aren't associated with a PID. Is there some other way to decrypt these? Thank you so much for any help!

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by kelosh

I looked through the posts and I believe that my mobipocket books that I bought must be content-encrypted and not necessarily tied to a particular device since I can view them on any device/computer as long as I view it with Mobireader.

Is there some other way to decrypt these?

See Mobipocket Decoder Tool #176.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

As is the most recent version of 0.06.

I see on a certain shadowy gentleman's blog that there's now a 0.07 version of mobidedrm available.

[andersz]

Originally Posted by Originally Posted by Dowland
Here comes a lengthy post to summarize the problem and give an actual solution. Please don't hesitate to reproduce this elsewhere. And also, please don't bury this post in the thread, because then nobody will ever find it ... :-)
*

Background info. A MobiPocket PID is 10 characters: 8 characters are the actual key, and 2 characters are the checksum.

Now, before doing its deed, MobileDRM looks at the PID you gave: it controls whether the checksum and the key actually correspond. If they dont, then it gives the error message we all know ("Error: invalid PID checksum"). If they do, then it cuts away the last 2 characters of the PID, and keeps only the key for the remainder of its operation.

Problem. The issue, at least in mobiledrm005.py, is that it accidentally repeats this operation twice (probably whoever wrote this did an unwitting double copy-paste). So scenario 1: your PID is incorrect, and it gets rejected on the first check. And scenario 2: your PID is correct, it passes the first check, gets shortened to its key component, and then flunks the second check.

Solution. Remove the first block from the initialization the code (as this is Python code, you have to be very careful with the indentation), i.e. change:
Code:
def __init__(self, data_file, pid):

if checksumPid(pid[0:-2

) != pid:
raise DrmException("invalid PID checksum")
pid = pid[0:-2]

if checksumPid(pid[0:-2]) != pid:
raise DrmException("invalid PID checksum")
pid = pid[0:-2]
to:
Code:
def __init__(self, data_file, pid):

if checksumPid(pid[0:-2]) != pid:
raise DrmException("invalid PID checksum")
pid = pid[0:-2]
That line that appears twice "pid = pid[0:-2]", is what shortens the PID (it means "take all but the last two characters of this string and replace the original").

Outro. It may very well be that your PID is actually incorrect, and you should browse this thread for ways to find out.

Also: opening the book after buying it unnecessary (except if your vendor does some non-standard thing I've never heard about). If this seems like it works, than a possible explanation is that opening the book actually removes the DRM (and then running MobileDRM on it gives the appearance that it actually worked ...).

Finally: no, I've never seen (valid) MobiPocket PIDs with anything but uppercase alphanumerical characters...

THANK YOU!

This is what made it working for me! I never thought it would work.

I signed up just to be able to thank you!

Thank you and everybody at this great community!

[Zorz]

hello everybody, I had similar problems, mainly fixed with the fix above. I also found a invalid PID because my PID had a ? in it. I found putting the pid in 'PID'. single quotes fixed this problem. Here is a updated and fixed script

http://paste2.org/p/640624

[kevindorsey]

I had to run the fix for one of the 7 units that our family owns, and yes it was fixed quickly. Last solution works well.