KindleForPC.exe under Wine 1.3 - how to do it (SOLVED)

[tomcloyd]

After some real difficulty, I now have KindleForPc.exe running under Wine 1.3. There are a couple of things to know, if this is to work: (a) you must use an older version of KindleForPC.exe, and (b) you must set up the Wine configuration correctly. Employing multiple sources (blogs, etc.) and a number of trials, I finally got good results doing this:

1. I installed Wine1.3 and Wine1.3-gecko packages after adding the ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa repository. (I'm now successfully running Picasa for Windows using it, so Wine works fine.)
2. The most current KindleForPC.exe, downloaded from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...cId=1000426311), is 17 MB in size, and it sputters and dies before finishing its installation. No error messages. Just won't install. In several blogs, etc., I read that this is the wrong version to use. Better to use the 6 MB version availale at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2992929/Kind...-installer.exe, and indeed it does install and function fine, for me.
3. Also installed is a Wine configuation uniltiy. Instructions for what to do with it can be found at http://lifehacker.com/#!5406505/run-...inux-with-wine. It will put a kindle entry in your launch menu. NOTE that you must tell Wine to run KindleForPC under Windows 98, not Vista or whatever.

Know that:

The execution module path is /home/{account name}/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Amazon/Kindle For PC/KindleForPC.exe

Downloaded books are found at /home/{account name}/.wine/drive_c/users/{account name}/My Documents/My Kindle Content/

I hope this helps someone else get to this point more quickly than I did!

[oshunluvr]

Re: KindleForPC.exe under Wine 1.3 - how to do it (SOLVED)

That's for that>

Have you tried Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com? Great app for Kindle users.

[tomcloyd]

Re: KindleForPC.exe under Wine 1.3 - how to do it (SOLVED)

Absolutely. Just got into it, and have been diving deeply into it today. It's much more than it appears. It manages all sorts of book-length or book-formatted files - PDG, epubs, etc. It also has, in its fine help resources at the website, a decent primer on epublishing.

Calibre can generate all sorts of formats, from *.rtf files (including EPUBs), and can convert a non-DRM EPUB file into the unprotected Mobipocket format that the Kindle can read.

Time to think about self-publishing...!

The Linux world continues to amaze me.

[oshunluvr]

Re: KindleForPC.exe under Wine 1.3 - how to do it (SOLVED)

I think the coolest feature of Calibre is that it sends the books to your kindle with just a click (after setup of course). Too easy for an old linux dog

[tomcloyd]

Re: KindleForPC.exe under Wine 1.3 - how to do it (SOLVED)

Well, I don't have a Kindle - yet. No rush.

But, I do have a desire to do some web publishing, in multiple device formats, and Calibre look like the ticket, or part of it (I may need to find an epub file editor...don't know yet).

Mostly, for now, I use Calibre as an excuse to collect all my ebooks, in whatever format, into a single accessible database interface. Allows me to be mindless about it, and that's useful!