Hacking .palmkindle

alpha 2 readme

2011-09-06T01:09:00.000-07:00

1. Get a terminal, preferably on a computer with a keyboard, but xterm will do.

2a. Install Lighty Web Server. Make sure it works by going to the http://localhost on the touchpad if its a blank screen, restart.
or
2b. Just open /skindle/readme.html after it is written in step 6

3.   Download file from below. Extract it onto so it looks like /media/internal/skindle aka touchpad://skindle

4.   Copy the .mobi files you want to "/skindle/ready" (use calibre if they are not)(also, set this directory in calibre as the ebook reader directory for future use)

5    Get a terminal and run:

cd /media/internal/skindle
bin/python skindle.py

6. It will ask you to open localhost, do this now, or find it using internals and copy it to a computer
8.   A list should appear of the free samples to download. Download them now.
9 Press Enter. This step will overwrite your amazon samples with the correct name of the mobi file.

10. ?

alpha 2

2011-09-06T00:59:00.001-07:00

alpha2

EVEN BETTER!

2011-09-02T04:55:00.000-07:00

e2:removed link, bugs...

1.   Install preware/quickinstall
2.   Install Lighty Web Server. Make sure it works by going to the http://localhost on the touchpad if its a blank screen, restart.
3.   Download skindle.zip from above. Extract it onto so it looks like /media/internal/skindle aka drive://skindle
4.   Copy the mobi files you want to "/skindle/ready"
5    Get a terminal by quickinstall, ssh, or xterm/xserv.
6.   Run this exact command

/media/internal/skindle/bin/python /media/internal/skindle/term.py

7.   After it does its thing, go to the http://localhost on the browser. If you cant get the webserver to work, copy skindle/ready/readinglist.html to a computer to view.
8.   A list should appear of the free books to download. Download them now
9.   Everything "Should" have worked! (but it probably didn't)
10. As long as you have a terminal up, you can run these two commands to remove the sample overlay

rm /media/cryptofs/apps/usr/palm/applications/com.palm.app.kindle/images/item-sample-banner.png
rm /media/cryptofs/apps/usr/palm/applications/com.palm.app.kindle/images/item-sample-banner-small.png

Thanks to
DCPeterson2000 on precentral.net for the free preview thing
joesacher.com for the original idea
twitter@thp4 for the python binary

Best Version Yet! and an exe

2011-09-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

Rewrote the whole thing to use BING, and works really really well, assuming you have a book that I tested. Well in theory it should work if the book is listed on amazon, but I haven't found one thats not so let me know.

github.com/mrwulff

edit:

http://www.mediafire.com/?06izn5w1iof803r
exe version, no python required, extract to 'c:/skindle' or shotcuts wont work, or you can extract anywhere, and the exe is in the data folder. It uses py2exe so it might not work for everybody. Let me know if it does

another edit!
So i was thinking of a name that would work for sideloading kindle stuff, and I called it S-kindle, thinking that it was the coolest wordever, and just did a quick search and somebody thought of it. Damn

Just recieved my touchpad

2011-08-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

updates coming soon

edit:9/1
~~Porting my search over to bing because they have unlimited use api(look for updates today/tomorrow).~~
Just finished, updated source code at github
Also looking to build a preware app, looks like its possible to write python scripts, but still in the early stages of the linux toolchain(aka, I have no idea what i'm doing)

Python Script

2011-08-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

So I spent all day making a python program. However, it uses google for the search, and the apis only let you search 100 times a day, so I'm not sure how well it will work, unless I'm missing something. Anyway this is what it does.

Finds all .mobi converted books in a folder called 'ready,' and finds the exact name so no worrying about what it is called or anything.

Searches google for the amazon page of the book, because the Amazon search is kind of weird. Then it collects that link for later on a webpage called readlinglist.html

Finds the asin number, copies it to a new folder called 'copytokindle' and renames the book properly for later use.

Then it opens the readinglist webpage and tells you to click and download the demo of each book. Make sure you do this step and properly sync before copying because the kindle software will overwrite the custom books.

Finally, copy the newly renamed books to /.palmkindle on your touchpad
I successfully did this to about 30 before "code": 403, "message": "Daily Limit Exceeded" } started showing up, without any errors, so...
http://pastebin.com/e0UcULhy

Update

2011-08-23T23:39:00.001-07:00

Just sold my touchpad, blog on hold....

...until my 32gb ships from hp!

(the) Workaround (is) working!

2011-08-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to comment poster "Smokescreen" for this tip:
You can download a sample of nearly all books from amazon directly (btw, anybody know any that dont have a sample?)
Now, just do some renaming , and boo ya, no more weird names and stuff like that.

Also, you can remove the sample banner (or replace it with haxed or something stupid) by using xterm and entering the following two commands
rm /media/cryptofs/apps/usr/palm/applications/com.palm.app.kindle/images/item-sample-banner.png
rm /media/cryptofs/apps/usr/palm/applications/com.palm.app.kindle/images/item-sample-banner-small.png

Currently working on a python script to rename the files automatically.

edit:pngs

AH YEAH!

2011-08-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

So i found the database files:
/var/db/main/objects.db and
/var/db/main/indexes.db

then I did a search (in a text editor) for the books that I had downloaded, and found >100 instances of the book. Oh god. However, when searching for the book without underscores (ex: Hurricanes In Paradise instead of Hurricanes_In_paradise) there were only 3. Sounds good. So find&replace, transfer back to the touchpad, and success! or so I was thinking. Then an error comes up and tells me to restart. Oh nose! So I restart, and it seems to be taking forever, and when it boots up it greets me with the initial setup screen

The ????

2011-08-22T18:26:00.000-07:00

So this method works fine but I want the names to be the right one. So, where do we go from here? Well in /.palmkindle there is no database of what the names are so we will have to go deeper. Fire up ssh! You have ssh right working right? If you don't you will need to follow this guide.

Then we have to find where the hell this database is that tells what the kindle app should call each book.
Well, searching around the internal memory of the touchpad I eventually found
/media/cryptofs/apps/usr/palm/applications/com.palm.app.kindle !
Looks good right? But there is nothing in there, just the app and all the html, js, and css you could ever want.

Stuck :(

Hacking the Touchpads Kindle App!

2011-08-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

So using this link I found on the precentral forums, I was able to replace the amazon book with a .mobi book and it works fine, however the name of the book is still listed as the one you changed it from. You can also change the cover art and make it obvious what book you are trying to read.

http://joesacher.com/webos/loading-mobi-books-into-touchpads-kindle-app/

tl:dr
step 1: Download a random free book from amazon.
step 2: Use touchpad in usbmode to transfer the book, and rename it exactly as the real kindle book usb:/.palmkindle/[asin]
step 4: ????
step 3: profit