This isnt very intuitive, but easy once you figure it out. Use Puppy Quickpet in the menu and first install 64bit WINE pet. Then still using Quickpet, install 32bit compatibility SFS. Yes this will install in full install Puppy though you will get warning that its experimental on full install Puppy.
Now install Kindle for PC 1.16 or 1.17. Register and it works. The dictionary does work though takes bit effort, wont work first try after downloading. Have to unenable it, then reboot and re-enable it. Maybe more than once. Oh and disable automated updates. It tries to download newer version then complains it cant install it. Wastes time and bandwidth.
There are other handy small windows programs that work in WINE, but for me I wouldnt bother with WINE except to run Kindle for PC. Time will tell how long this will work, 1.17 is last version that runs in WINE, so once Amazon deprecates 1.16 and 1.17, unless some clever person figures out how to make later version work, that will be it. 1.15 and earlier have been deprecated and no longer work.
I get companies not wanting to make a special linux version for relatively small market share, but exactly how would it be that difficult to make sure they work in some version of WINE? Cant be seriously more expensive.
Use 'Kindle for PC' on Bionicpup64_8 CE
Kindle for PC
You don't need the overhead of installing Wine.
Use Google Chrome and go to the Google play store and add App :Kindle Cloud reader
Log into your account and all of your ebook content will be available on your computer.
Use Google Chrome and go to the Google play store and add App :Kindle Cloud reader
Log into your account and all of your ebook content will be available on your computer.
Kindle books use DRM. If you wanted to use Calibre, you would have to install its unofficial addon from Apprentice Alf, to let it de-DRM books. Books I probably only read once in this lifetime. You would still need Kindle somewhere just to download the books. Calibre cant download books from Amazon. I have in past played with Apprentice Alf addon and it usually works, but there are some books it wont convert. Still lot hoop jumping for a one time read of free fiction book.
I have tried the Cloud Reader addon for Chrome. Dont like it, its tedious to make it store books to use offline. Yes it can be done, but not worth the effort for most part. If you have constant high speed connection it might work for you. It just felt kludgy and unintuitive to me. Not a pleasant experience.
Kindle For PC 1.17 works for time being. I have been thinking about Kindle for Android app in an emulator. I did google enough to find one guy that got it working in Genymotion emulator. Using any Android app on big screen with mouse not ideal. But if nobody figures out how to make newer Kindle for PC work with WINE, then this might be way to go when Amazon deprecates the last of versions that work in WINE.
Once installed to where its functional, WINE is not a problem. Oh not ideal for antique marginal computers, but any dual core, even early ones should have no problem. Fastest of single core work too. Kindle for PC doesnt require a lot of processing power. Think of it as an ebook reader with encryption. The encryption stuff is biggest heaviest part of it.
Course even current Kindle for PC 1.26? works in win7. I have a n-lited version of win7 around here somewhere. Can run it in a virtual machine I suppose. I have a n-lited version winXP too that is truly small and fast, but Kindle for PC 1.16 was last version that worked in XP.
I have tried the Cloud Reader addon for Chrome. Dont like it, its tedious to make it store books to use offline. Yes it can be done, but not worth the effort for most part. If you have constant high speed connection it might work for you. It just felt kludgy and unintuitive to me. Not a pleasant experience.
Kindle For PC 1.17 works for time being. I have been thinking about Kindle for Android app in an emulator. I did google enough to find one guy that got it working in Genymotion emulator. Using any Android app on big screen with mouse not ideal. But if nobody figures out how to make newer Kindle for PC work with WINE, then this might be way to go when Amazon deprecates the last of versions that work in WINE.
Once installed to where its functional, WINE is not a problem. Oh not ideal for antique marginal computers, but any dual core, even early ones should have no problem. Fastest of single core work too. Kindle for PC doesnt require a lot of processing power. Think of it as an ebook reader with encryption. The encryption stuff is biggest heaviest part of it.
Course even current Kindle for PC 1.26? works in win7. I have a n-lited version of win7 around here somewhere. Can run it in a virtual machine I suppose. I have a n-lited version winXP too that is truly small and fast, but Kindle for PC 1.16 was last version that worked in XP.
It had been a while since I had used the cloud reader extension on Chrome. Ok, did some searching and apparently now you can do cloud reader on any browser without an extension?!
I tried on Firefox, ok there is no extension or app. You navigate Firefox to the kindle cloud reader webpage. (Bookmark it by the way) Sign in. Then choose book or books from your library to dowload for off line. No mention of limits, no real description how all this works at all. I chose one, it downloaded. Though no idea where. Then I pinned it, right click on the book cover image and choose pin.
Closed Firefox. Disconnected from internet. Opened Firefox and clicked the bookmark for cloudreader website. It opened and there was the pinned book. Clicked on it and it opened. I could navigate the book to read. Offline. No long wait, no clunkiness.
Ok, this is lot cooler than way it worked in past with Chrome and the clunky cloud reader extension for Chrome. This I probably could live with. I will leave it and come back later at different times and see how well it maintains the book or books. It apparently uses html5 somehow. So assume there is a html5 file somewhere. Like if you saved a webpage. Havent seen how you could move book offline from device to device, but still for kind reading I do, this probably work ok. Like say these books are freebie tossers. Read once and thats that.
One thing I dont like about this cloud stuff, if ever my Amazon account ended my Kindle library gone too. Whereas with Kindle for PC, the library is on my computer. And I have option to use Calibre and Apprentice Alf to convert majority of the books to form that they would be there and usable long as epub format exists.
I tried on Firefox, ok there is no extension or app. You navigate Firefox to the kindle cloud reader webpage. (Bookmark it by the way) Sign in. Then choose book or books from your library to dowload for off line. No mention of limits, no real description how all this works at all. I chose one, it downloaded. Though no idea where. Then I pinned it, right click on the book cover image and choose pin.
Closed Firefox. Disconnected from internet. Opened Firefox and clicked the bookmark for cloudreader website. It opened and there was the pinned book. Clicked on it and it opened. I could navigate the book to read. Offline. No long wait, no clunkiness.
Ok, this is lot cooler than way it worked in past with Chrome and the clunky cloud reader extension for Chrome. This I probably could live with. I will leave it and come back later at different times and see how well it maintains the book or books. It apparently uses html5 somehow. So assume there is a html5 file somewhere. Like if you saved a webpage. Havent seen how you could move book offline from device to device, but still for kind reading I do, this probably work ok. Like say these books are freebie tossers. Read once and thats that.
One thing I dont like about this cloud stuff, if ever my Amazon account ended my Kindle library gone too. Whereas with Kindle for PC, the library is on my computer. And I have option to use Calibre and Apprentice Alf to convert majority of the books to form that they would be there and usable long as epub format exists.
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spiritwild
- Posts: 181
- Joined: Mon 03 Oct 2016, 10:06
I'm not familiar with kindle. From my experience with amazon, I would guess they have their own file format. I don't read much but found this program useful when I had a few epub books
https://sourceforge.net/projects/crengine/
CoolReader is fast and small cross-platform XML/CSS based eBook reader for desktops and handheld devices. Supported formats: FB2, TXT, RTF, DOC, TCR, HTML, EPUB, CHM, PDB, MOBI. Platforms: Win32, Linux, Android. Ported on some eInk based devices.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/crengine/
CoolReader is fast and small cross-platform XML/CSS based eBook reader for desktops and handheld devices. Supported formats: FB2, TXT, RTF, DOC, TCR, HTML, EPUB, CHM, PDB, MOBI. Platforms: Win32, Linux, Android. Ported on some eInk based devices.
Kindle is proprietary. Only either dedicated Kindle ebook reader (dedicated gadget with screen) or Kindle software can download or read Kindle books from Amazon. Even the free books and public domain books they offer are DRM'd.
Calibre has available an unofficial third party plugin by Apprentice Alf that lets you de-DRM some (not all) books downloaded by "Kindle for PC" It cant download the books from Amazon, only de-DRM and convert books already downloaded. The Apprentice Alf plugin is third party and has to be downloaded from third party site. Calibre doesnt recommend or support Apprentice Alf plugin, they dont want or need legal hassles.
So you want to buy/download books from Amazon to read offline, you need either a Kindle gadget or Kindle software. Nothing else can download the books. Nothing else can read them unless you use Apprentice Alf plugin on Calibre to first convert them to say epub.
The Cloud Reader offline basically uses a web app stored in your browser cache. Its meant as a temporary convenience only, books are stored in browser cache in different way than Kindle for PC stores them. Number books limited by browser cache size. No idea if a cache containing cloud reader and book could be copied and stored, then re-inserted into the browser at later date. That would be only easy way to store a book via Cloud Reader for long periods. The Cloud Reader way of storing book in cache is not compatible with the Apprentice Alf plugin. These books cant be converted via Calibre with Apprentice Alf.
Calibre has available an unofficial third party plugin by Apprentice Alf that lets you de-DRM some (not all) books downloaded by "Kindle for PC" It cant download the books from Amazon, only de-DRM and convert books already downloaded. The Apprentice Alf plugin is third party and has to be downloaded from third party site. Calibre doesnt recommend or support Apprentice Alf plugin, they dont want or need legal hassles.
So you want to buy/download books from Amazon to read offline, you need either a Kindle gadget or Kindle software. Nothing else can download the books. Nothing else can read them unless you use Apprentice Alf plugin on Calibre to first convert them to say epub.
The Cloud Reader offline basically uses a web app stored in your browser cache. Its meant as a temporary convenience only, books are stored in browser cache in different way than Kindle for PC stores them. Number books limited by browser cache size. No idea if a cache containing cloud reader and book could be copied and stored, then re-inserted into the browser at later date. That would be only easy way to store a book via Cloud Reader for long periods. The Cloud Reader way of storing book in cache is not compatible with the Apprentice Alf plugin. These books cant be converted via Calibre with Apprentice Alf.
So far Kindle Cloud Reader is holding onto the two books I downloaded for offline reading. In my Puppy /root/Downloads directory there now is a "Kindle Cloud Reader_files" directory. Inside it are three files and two directories. One of those directories has only files I can open directly and they are book cover images. Rest are js and css files. I assume somewhere in there is the text of the two books.
Guess I could try renaming it, then see if books disappear, then renaming back and see if they reappear.
I am guessing the Kindle Cloud Reader_files directory is created when you choose the download and pin option for one or more books. Wonder how many books you can download. I had assumed it was stored in Firefox cache but apparently not and if you think about it, that would be rather unstable. this directory could expand upto size of free space on hard drive.
EDIT: yea books downloaded via Kindle Cloud Reader are scrambled into a database file. Here is a github js script to reassemble them, though not sure if its same since these folk are using the Chrome Cloud Reader Extension. Probably same scramble but different locations.
https://gist.github.com/yangchenyun/a1c ... 82f5e25d57
Guess I could try renaming it, then see if books disappear, then renaming back and see if they reappear.
I am guessing the Kindle Cloud Reader_files directory is created when you choose the download and pin option for one or more books. Wonder how many books you can download. I had assumed it was stored in Firefox cache but apparently not and if you think about it, that would be rather unstable. this directory could expand upto size of free space on hard drive.
EDIT: yea books downloaded via Kindle Cloud Reader are scrambled into a database file. Here is a github js script to reassemble them, though not sure if its same since these folk are using the Chrome Cloud Reader Extension. Probably same scramble but different locations.
https://gist.github.com/yangchenyun/a1c ... 82f5e25d57
Interesting installed latest chromium browser on 32bit LxPup (BionicPup with LXDE desktop). No Kindle Cloud Reader extension. I took it to read.Amazon.com and it offered to install whatever it needed to read book offline. Ok. Then it said it cant be installed on this version Chrome. It doesnt distinguish between Chrome and Chromium. Because its 32bit?? I could read book online in browser, but couldnt download/pin it. However I downloaded fresh 32bit Firefox and it would let me download and pin books. Oh this 32bit firefox didnt install same stuff in /root/Downloads. It seems to store books to sqlite files in /root/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxx.default-release/storage/default The "xxxxxxx" replacing the nonsense name Firefox uses for settings file.
Interesting its different in this Firefox than the 64bit Firefox in BionicPup64 CE Course need to look, it might did it both ways in the 64bit. No idea why it need so many bits and pieces. Suppose its same function as DRM in Kindle for PC. Try and make it difficult enough to discourage people making plain copies of the book that can be shared easily.
Ok just looked, yea seems to have both in the 64bit Firefox. I really dont want to download actual 64bit Chrome browser but curious what it does.
Interesting its different in this Firefox than the 64bit Firefox in BionicPup64 CE Course need to look, it might did it both ways in the 64bit. No idea why it need so many bits and pieces. Suppose its same function as DRM in Kindle for PC. Try and make it difficult enough to discourage people making plain copies of the book that can be shared easily.
Ok just looked, yea seems to have both in the 64bit Firefox. I really dont want to download actual 64bit Chrome browser but curious what it does.
Interesting little workaround. I ran portable Kmeleon browser under WINE. No installing anything. Kmeleon does work pretty well in WINE. And its around 90MB in size. Ok went to read.amazon.com. It let me pin and save books. It works offline. And obviously since its portable, it can be moved computer to computer. Work on WINE or on a windows computer. Maybe not the slickest workaround but if you just want to keep a kindle library offline and if Kindle for PC no longer works in WINE....