This isn't a problem, just a success that I thought I'd share since finding answers via googling was a bit harder than most __-buntu inquiries. Not sure where this should be posted, really. The only relevant search on the board was this thread, which didn't offer much.
Step 1 - install Wine (obvious)
One (probably older) site suggested this command, but it didn't work in terminal for me :
Step 2 - download winetricks
Step 3 - adjust "corefonts" - a lot of people seem to have the issue that they can't read the kindle app's text once it loads in wine. This seems to pre-empt that issue. If you DO have that issue, configure wine to "windows 98" and go to "add application" and find the amazon app (if you've downloaded it already, it's a later step in these instructions). Also, you can just enter your amazon email, hit tab, and then your password.
Step 4 - Download the kindle app - you can do this from Amazon, but inputting this command into terminal yields the same result.
Step 5 - Up and running!
Again, a common complaint I got from scanning google results is that some people can't read the program's default display. Like I said though, just make sure you configure wine to windows 98 for use with this app. Hopefully this works! I'm on Kubuntu Lucid 10.04 and this worked great for me. Before I had resorted to setting up an Android emulator and running the kindle for android app, but this is much more straightforward.
Oh, and here's the beautiful part - I tried downloading an e-textbook from a website, but I found out that I would only be able to download the book once (wtf?) and then wouldn't be able to move it (meaning I wouldn't be able to backup a file I paid $70 for, wtf, MBSdirect). SO I cancelled the order through a livechat agent, then downloaded the kindle version of this book (tested first by downloading a free kindlebook). I received the book perfectly, but also a notification that they weren't able to charge me correctly. This is probably because the credit from cancelling the previous order hadn't processed yet. So, fearing I'd overdrawn, I called Amazon to see if they'd charged me for the book that I had definitely received. They said that my card had been declined, so they wouldn't try it again unless I ordered the book again. So in the end, I ended up getting a $70 book (110 paper) for free. I assume it's just all the good linux-karma I built up by fighting with the kindle app for a week without once thinking of going back to windows. Cheers! Hope anyone trying to use kindle on kubuntu found this helpful.
EDIT - UPDATES
Here's a useful program for converting files to kindle format without paying amazon's 10-cent conversion fee (also windowsware
:
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10187502-12.html
Also, I feel like I should also be giving a shout out to Calibre since we're talking about e-reading software.
Step 1 - install Wine (obvious)
Code:
sudo apt-get install Wine
Code:
sudo apt-get install wine lib32nss-mdns
Code:
wget [url]http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks[/url]
Code:
sh winetricks corefont
Code:
wget [url]http://ap.smu.ca/~taro/software/KindleForPC-installer.exe[/url]
Code:
wine KindleForPC-installer.exe
Oh, and here's the beautiful part - I tried downloading an e-textbook from a website, but I found out that I would only be able to download the book once (wtf?) and then wouldn't be able to move it (meaning I wouldn't be able to backup a file I paid $70 for, wtf, MBSdirect). SO I cancelled the order through a livechat agent, then downloaded the kindle version of this book (tested first by downloading a free kindlebook). I received the book perfectly, but also a notification that they weren't able to charge me correctly. This is probably because the credit from cancelling the previous order hadn't processed yet. So, fearing I'd overdrawn, I called Amazon to see if they'd charged me for the book that I had definitely received. They said that my card had been declined, so they wouldn't try it again unless I ordered the book again. So in the end, I ended up getting a $70 book (110 paper) for free. I assume it's just all the good linux-karma I built up by fighting with the kindle app for a week without once thinking of going back to windows. Cheers! Hope anyone trying to use kindle on kubuntu found this helpful.
EDIT - UPDATES
Here's a useful program for converting files to kindle format without paying amazon's 10-cent conversion fee (also windowsware
: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10187502-12.html
Also, I feel like I should also be giving a shout out to Calibre since we're talking about e-reading software.