Here I am going to show y'all how to get Amazon's Kindle application for reading commercial ebooks working in Ubuntu.
Note here I use the Knoppix distribution instead of Ubuntu, which is similar in many ways.
Refer to the linked article, Getting Amazon Kindle for PC running in Ubuntu under Wine, for the original guide.
However often times we determine what Ebooks we want to purchase based on what we see at the local book store. Kindle is meant to render these more closed source and commercial products for us.
My first thought when I discovered it's not readily available for (GNU) Linux operating systems - apart from holy Android, of course - was of disbelief; isn't Linux the operating system on the original Kindle ebook reader? As one would expect, there are plenty of guides published online demonstrating various 'hacks', relating to the Kindle device and Kindle ebook format, for the more ambitious and confident, fit and patient (with ... much time to kill, maybe). "In the spirit of Open Source" and, more importantly, considering the casual and novice computer user who tends to run the Ubuntu flavour of GNU/Linux, I will interpret one short guide for you to make it work with only the graphical interface.
My mother - or "my mum" or "me ma" - has been painfully 'switching'* between Windows and Ubuntu for at least twenty-four hours now, since she phoned me from Germany, trying to refer to an ebook she downloaded with Kindle and compose an essay on 'The Democratisation of the Media' in the process of her study respectively. She is a good example of an Ubuntu user who benefits from the advantages of running Linux (or not running Windoze) but has neither the interest nor the time to memorise and learn to apply typed commands, however basic they might seem to a relatively 'expert' user. The following destructables are dedicated to Mum... "Happy travels!"
- *She told me on the phone it took all day just to get it working with Windows (or to get WIndows working) and I could sense the pain! Now I cringe every time she reboots between the two operating systems and signs back into the 'necessary evil' that is Skype.
Step One – Install Wine
In the Ubuntu main menu / Applications, click on Ubuntu Software Centre.
Type "wine" in the search field and click on the "WINE" entry in the results list.
If the button to the right is "Remove", you can close the window. Otherwise, if the button is "Install", you want to install Wine now. Click on Install. You will have to enter your administrator password to install the software. You can close the window when the process has finished.
- Note that you can click More Info to read about the target application in the Ubuntu Software Centre. Wine is made for Windows software to work with the GNU/Linux operating system. The commercial edition is Crossover, and is popular with Mac OS users. They didn't tell me to say that, anyway...
Step Two – Obtain Kindle for PC (Windows Version)
Click on the following text (or copy it and paste it in a new browser window) and download the file 'KindleForPC-installer.exe' to 'Downloads' or a folder you can easily remember: http://d1xhj100piaj9u.cloudfront.net/25338/KindleForPC-installer.exe
- It is good 'netiquette' to recommend using a virus scanner to the public, especially with regard to these '.exe' binary (executable) files. I didn't, though, and my computer is still working. Mind you, I'm not actually running That-what-shudder-not-been-said AKA Windoze.
Step Three – Run Kindle installer
Open up the Downloads folder (or wherever your downloads go) and right-click the icon, "KindleForPC-installer.exe". Click WINE in the pop-up menu.
The install process is completely automatic and 'came and went' in a split second on my computer.
Step Four – Change Windows Version for Kindle under Wine
We'll do this exactly as in the guide.
In the Applications menu, this time click on Wine Configuration under Wine. Click on the Add Application button. Double-click 'Program Files', 'Amazon', 'Kindle For PC', 'KindleForPC.exe'.
Click on the box following 'Windows Version:' and click to choose 'Windows 98'. Click on the OK button.
Step Five – Mark the Kindle Desktop icon as Trusted
This wasn't necessary in my case. Also, you can already click on Kindle For PC under Wine in the Applications menu.
Go back to the Ubuntu Desktop, right click on the Kindle for PC icon and left click on properties. Go to the Permissions tab. Click the check box to allow executing file as program.
- The other items here will look different on your computer so don't bother changing anything else before you click on the OK button!
You should now be able to start Kindle, and see it as in the first picture, every time from the icon on the desktop or the item in the Applications menu. We're done!
Another point to make is that the extra step to "Configure Wine" won't be necessary whenever the latest version of Kindle from the Amazon website works with Wine. I can't say when this will be either. Also this whole process will be made redundant as soon as Amazon catches on that there is a significant demand for a Linux edition of their Kindle application.
Just one more thing: I don't recommend the software and don't use it myself - I don't even have an account! This was a special favour for my mum and maybe I will go on to check out the free Lucidor software mentioned in the source article. Anything free and Open Source sounds promising to me...
I hope this helps someone out there. Good luck, Mum!
Written by choben at 12:43 AM.
Now that I've had my new laptop (Samsung QX310, Intel Core i5, NVIDIA GeForce 310M) for over two weeks, I think I'll have to learn not to use it - or to spend more time using it instead of sitting here trying to make it do stuff when I simply don't know how.
Talking of doing stuff, here is my 'To Do' list:
- Sort what I want from all my files on various disks and merge them on my (meagre) 350Gb HDD and my old 2.5" in an external USB casing.
- Get the family terror-bite out from it's box and learn to make efficient backups (instead of leaving directories crudely named with the date everywhere)
- Catch up with study.
That's only the "important" tasks directly related to my computer, and doesn't include the many wonderful ideas I gurgitate, regurgitate and cogitate every day:
- Make 3D graphics work properly on a Linux Distro with my GPU so I can then think about what to do with it. (Wipeout Fusion with PCSX2 has been on my mind recently.)
- Hack the Xbox I picked up for free a couple of weeks ago with XBMC (Media Centre).
- Get an Xbox Kinect, learn to hack it and make a cheap projector from an overhead and an unwanted LCD monitor so I can juggle clubs-come-lightsabres like a Jedi on a bluescreen: Lushgeek!
- Continue learning to use Blender for 3D modelling and write my cook-E-book for OCGCafe.wordpress.com with pictures!
- Learn all over again to use Jack and recording software to make cool sounds with my violin.
- Write to my blogs in a cohesive format and goal-oriented manner...
- Learn to use the command line.
- Learn to play violin.
What I have been doing is,
- Staying up all night making very little happen on my new computer and waking up at various hours the following day,
- Worrying about my course of study,
- Cooking too much really good food for myself,
- Thinking about writing about my fine cogitations before they pass,
- Getting on with stuff and,
- Slowly converting people from the dark side of (proprietary) computer software.
I installed Ubuntu on my friend's laptop today when he asked me if I could remove the viruses from Windows. He can sort out the viruses when he wants to use Windows again. I shrunk his 500Gb NTFS filesystem by 100Gb and made a 2Gb partition for 'swap', 50Gb partition for 'root' and a 48Gb partition for '/home'. I then edited '/etc/fstab' (when the ntfs-config front end embarrassingly wouldn't start) to mount the NTFS partition on boot and pointed Rythmbox to his music collection deep down in his Windows documents folder. I managed to demonstrate the subsequent success just as we were about to get out of his car in town! He seems quite satisfied and has lots of playing around to do yet before I introduce him to extra software repositories, Wine and Clamwin.
I believe this has inspired me to advertise as an 'Agent Ubuntu' private GNU/Linux consultant in the local region where you might otherwise never hear of the term. Watch this space...
Also for the first time ever I was standing among a majority of GNU/Linux users today: myself, my only friend who was using it before I met him, and the third person who before long was admitting she ought to change her OS soon. It was funny when I did point it out in a casual geek kind of way.
Knoppix and Sabayon were the first Linux distributions to work instantly with my wireless card (and with Ubuntu I couldn't even use the ethernet!) so I went ahead and installed Sabayon. Using it turned out to be quite tiresome and I got a lot further with Opensuse 11.4 when I realised it worked too. I still haven't managed to make the NVIDIA graphics driver work yet. I downloaded Ubuntu Natty Narwhal (11.04) Beta out of curiosity and really quite liked the current Unity desktop, but it doesn't like NVIDIA drivers either. Trawling forums, I found many related problems and few relevant solutions. I might just put that on hold until the experts get it covered in future releases. I'll make this clear that in support of GNU/Linux and Opensource software, I am disappointed in the hardware manufacturers who after a year don't release drivers for Linux or better yet release them as Opensource. Samsung laptops are not as common but a year since the production of a Broadcom wireless card, an NVIDIA graphics card and whatever touchpad is a long time to wait for proper functionality!
Written by choben at 11:40 PM.
