Offline Wikipedia on Kobo (Guide) - Page 4

JSWolf · 10-27-2017, 05:19 AM

Yeah, don't do it.

nhedgehog · 10-27-2017, 05:25 AM

You could use Kiwix and install it like I described there (in German):
https://www.e-reader-forum.de/ebook-...075#post376075

This allows you to open multiple Wikipedia dumps at once.

Limitations:
Only working with FW 4.3.9084 or 3.19.5761.
You are losing automatic Wifi connection in the browser.
Search only possible in browser.

oren64 · 10-27-2017, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhedgehog

You could use Kiwix and install it like I described there (in German):
https://www.e-reader-forum.de/ebook-...517#post376517

This allows you to open multiple Wikipedia dumps at once.

Limitations:
Only working with FW 4.3.9084 or 3.19.5761.
You are losing automatic Wifi connection in the browser.
Search only possible in browser.

I tried and get an error in log file:

Code:

error 2 opening file "/mnt/onboard/content/wikipedia_en_ray_charles_2015-06.zim
The XML library file '/mnt/onboard/wikipedia/library.xml' is empty (or has only remote books).

What I did patching the FW 4.6.9995 with the patch `Allow launching browser without wifi connected`.

Install Kiwix-Serverinstallation.

Tried the file "ray charles" from here in English.

\wikipedia folder is:
\wikipedia\wikipedia_en_ray_charles_2015-06.zim
\wikipedia\library.xml
\wikipedia\index

restart, try the address 127.0.0.1, and get nothing.

What did I wrong?

the_Pan · 10-28-2017, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhedgehog

You could use Kiwix and install it like I described there (in German):
https://www.e-reader-forum.de/ebook-...517#post376517

This allows you to open multiple Wikipedia dumps at once.

Limitations:
Only working with FW 4.3.9084 or 3.19.5761.
You are losing automatic Wifi connection in the browser.
Search only possible in browser.

well this looks promising, but I like the latest firmware - with a few patches of course.
Should'nt it be possible to link the "wiki search box" within an book to the Kiwix offline wiki?

RobertoOG · 10-30-2017, 01:55 PM

Using the beta browser to read wikipedia in the eReader is utterly uncomfortable, it really should be accessible from within the book, this way you could find whichever entry seems convenient when you are reading a book, without needing to connect through wi-fi nor going through a lot of clicks and then needing to type the word you're searching for.

It was possible with an older firmware, why did they removed that useful feature?

davidfor · 10-30-2017, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobertoOG

Using the beta browser to read wikipedia in the eReader is utterly uncomfortable, it really should be accessible from within the book, this way you could find whichever entry seems convenient when you are reading a book, without needing to connect through wi-fi nor going through a lot of clicks and then needing to type the word you're searching for.

It was possible with an older firmware, why did they removed that useful feature?

To the best of my knowledge, this was never a supported feature. And it wasn't perfect. I don't know if it was an experiment they tried and have not completed, or if it was a function that came as part of some other library they used and they didn't disable it. The most likely reason that it stopped working is that they changed something somewhere else that broke this and have not fixed it due to the unsupported nature of the feature.

As to not using WiFi to get to Wikipedia from with a book, that's absurd. To do that, you would need all of Wikipedia on the device. And I can already search Wikipedia by selecting a word in a book. No typing necessary. Or are you talking about searching from within offline Wikipedia file?

compurandom · 10-30-2017, 08:26 PM

Technically, they didn't remove the feature, they just removed the menu entry that let you search it.

As to getting all of wikipedia on the device -- it's only 15G without pics, fills up half an SD card.

davidfor · 10-30-2017, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by compurandom

Technically, they didn't remove the feature, they just removed the menu entry that let you search it.

But you don't know if they removed it, or it disappeared because something was broken.

Quote:

As to getting all of wikipedia on the device -- it's only 15G without pics, fills up half an SD card.

Which is a problem when their current devices have a maximum of 8GBs of storage. And it needs to be updated and people will want the pictures.

compurandom · 10-31-2017, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

But you don't know if they removed it, or it disappeared because something was broken.

They didn't remove the parser, because I can still open wikipedia zim files.
However, it is certainly broken, because it won't follow links or otherwise let me browse it. But it has been that way for a very long time, which is why search was important.

(~15G zim file)

Quote:

Which is a problem when their current devices have a maximum of 8GBs of storage. And it needs to be updated and people will want the pictures.

Older devices would take an sd card. Alas, wp with pictures is 56G and I think even the devices that took sd cards stop at 32G. And without a decent filesystem (exfat? ext4?) You gotta split the file, which breaks the zim reader following links too, but didn't break search.

ams · 10-31-2017, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhedgehog

You could use Kiwix and install it like I described there (in German):
https://www.e-reader-forum.de/ebook-...517#post376517

This allows you to open multiple Wikipedia dumps at once.

Limitations:
Only working with FW 4.3.9084 or 3.19.5761.
You are losing automatic Wifi connection in the browser.
Search only possible in browser.

Installed it on Kobo Glo HD, FW3.19.5761.
However, when entering host or 127.0.0.1 or localhost in the browser nothing happens. There also is no logfile in /wikipedia. I'm using kobo start menu, do I need to add something to KSM to start /.wikipedia/wikipedia.sh?

tshering · 10-31-2017, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ams

Installed it on Kobo Glo HD, FW3.19.5761.
However, when entering host or 127.0.0.1 or localhost in the browser nothing happens. There also is no logfile in /wikipedia. I'm using kobo start menu, do I need to add something to KSM to start /.wikipedia/wikipedia.sh?

Since you are using KSM, I guess you did not install the rcS file included in Kobo_Wikipedia_installieren.zip, because if you did, KSM would not work any longer. The provided rcS contains this code that you would have to execute at some other point:

Code:

  file="/mnt/onboard/.wikipedia/wikipedia.sh"
  if [ -f "$file" ]; then
    ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1 up
	  $file
  fi

You could creata a file .adds/kbmenu_user/scripts/start_wikipedia.sh with this code, and then call it once per KSM session, by selecting user_scripts > start wikipedia.sh.

the_Pan · 10-31-2017, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

As to not using WiFi to get to Wikipedia from with a book, that's absurd. To do that, you would need all of Wikipedia on the device.

I've found a version within the kiwix project, one language, without pictures,~5GB (for german).
I don't need pictures and other languages to get explanations for words i simply never have heard of (historical novels have tons of those).

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

And I can already search Wikipedia by selecting a word in a book. No typing necessary

That's the function i meant. wouldn't it be cool if you could use it with the offline-Wiki, without the need of Wifi?

nhedgehog · 10-31-2017, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oren64

I tried and get an error in log file:

Code:

error 2 opening file "/mnt/onboard/content/wikipedia_en_ray_charles_2015-06.zim
The XML library file '/mnt/onboard/wikipedia/library.xml' is empty (or has only remote books).

What I did patching the FW 4.6.9995 with the patch `Allow launching browser without wifi connected`.

Install Kiwix-Serverinstallation.

Tried the file "ray charles" from here in English.

\wikipedia folder is:
\wikipedia\wikipedia_en_ray_charles_2015-06.zim
\wikipedia\library.xml
\wikipedia\index

restart, try the address 127.0.0.1, and get nothing.

What did I wrong?

Sorry for answering late, I was on a trip.
You did everything right but I guess in the path variable in library.xml there is an error.

In your library.xml there should be one entry:
path="wikipedia_en_ray_charles_2015-06.zim" indexPath="./index/wikipedia_en_ray_charles_2015-06.zim.idx"
yours is probably:
path="../content/wikipedia_en_ray_charles_2015-06.zim" indexPath="../index/wikipedia_en_ray_charles_2015-06.zim.idx"which points to a directory two levels up.

Edit:
Thanks for the browser patch, I couldn't find the function in libnickel myself.

Edit2: Guess I should change the folder structure according to the one in the kiwix zip files.

nhedgehog · 11-01-2017, 04:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tshering

Since you are using KSM, I guess you did not install the rcS file included in Kobo_Wikipedia_installieren.zip, because if you did, KSM would not work any longer. The provided rcS contains this code that you would have to execute at some other point:

Code:

  file="/mnt/onboard/.wikipedia/wikipedia.sh"
  if [ -f "$file" ]; then
    ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1 up
	  $file
  fi

You could creata a file .adds/kbmenu_user/scripts/start_wikipedia.sh with this code, and then call it once per KSM session, by selecting user_scripts > start wikipedia.sh.

@tshering:
Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't aware that KSM is manipulating the rcS too. ifconfig needs root to run. Do KSM-user scripts have root permissions on the Kobos?
I will update the tutorial later to avoid accidental KSM stops.

ams · 11-01-2017, 05:37 AM

@tshering: thanks, using your suggestion in #56 I got it running. Is there an easy way to automatically run the 'start wikipedia.sh' each time KSM boots?

@nhedgehog: in Library.xml, I needed to replace indexPath="/index/..." with indexPath="./index/..." to make full text search work (using the directory structure from your example)

10-27-2017, 05:25 AM	#47
nhedgehog Guru Posts: 743 Karma: 619508 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: EnergySistemEreaderPro, Nook STG, Pocketbook 622, Bookeen Cybooks ...	You could use Kiwix and install it like I described there (in German): https://www.e-reader-forum.de/ebook-...075#post376075 This allows you to open multiple Wikipedia dumps at once. Limitations: Only working with FW 4.3.9084 or 3.19.5761. You are losing automatic Wifi connection in the browser. Search only possible in browser. Last edited by nhedgehog; 11-02-2017 at 11:02 AM.

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10-27-2017, 05:19 AM	#46
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,877 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Yeah, don't do it.

10-30-2017, 01:55 PM	#50
RobertoOG Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 250352 Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: Bolivia, South America Device: Kobo aura h2o	Using the beta browser to read wikipedia in the eReader is utterly uncomfortable, it really should be accessible from within the book, this way you could find whichever entry seems convenient when you are reading a book, without needing to connect through wi-fi nor going through a lot of clicks and then needing to type the word you're searching for. It was possible with an older firmware, why did they removed that useful feature?

10-30-2017, 08:26 PM	#52
compurandom Guru Posts: 918 Karma: 417282 Join Date: Jun 2015 Device: kobo aura h2o, kobo forma	Technically, they didn't remove the feature, they just removed the menu entry that let you search it. As to getting all of wikipedia on the device -- it's only 15G without pics, fills up half an SD card.

11-01-2017, 05:37 AM	#60
ams Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 26326 Join Date: Jul 2013 Device: Kobo: Mini, Libra 2	@tshering: thanks, using your suggestion in #56 I got it running. Is there an easy way to automatically run the 'start wikipedia.sh' each time KSM boots? @nhedgehog: in Library.xml, I needed to replace indexPath="/index/..." with indexPath="./index/..." to make full text search work (using the directory structure from your example)

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