Ebook Tools

Prepare an ebook with one of the tool above

• Kindlegen to create mobi file (warning, no asin)

• Calibre (overkill for a mobi but perfect for azw3 generation)
• One of the numerous online ebook converters.

Keep in mind : only mobi or azw3. Other (pdf, txt) appear weirdly in log.

You can also pick one of mine in my repo.

Kindle Toolchain

Download kindle toolchain ( = all the tools to compile source code). Here is the toolchain i used Samsheff's for linux. You can build your own on Mac OS, and maybe on Windows.

If you build your own toolchain, consider enabling C99.

I strongly recommend you to use the same directory you use in step 1 and in this case :

~/dev-kindle/ $ git clone https://github.com/samsheff/Amazon-Kindle-Cross-Toolchain

Cloning my repo

If you plan to only test, I suggest to clone my repo on /tmp/ because it's wiped on reboot.

$ cd /tmp/

$ mdir ~/dev-kindle/  
$ cd ~/dev-kindle/

Then clone my github repo :

~/dev-kindle/ $ git clone https://github.com/cekage/kindle-home-automation

1st build (for computer)

The toolchain provided by Samsheff supports C99 so am I. If you have a decent C compiler (clang or gcc), first of all check on your computer everything is ok.

kindle-home-automation $ make build
cc -Werror -Wall -ggdb -pedantic -std=c99 -O0 -fno-stack-protector -lm read_fifo.c -o  read_fifo
kindle-home-automation $ file read_fifo
read_fifo: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, not stripped

1st build (for kindle)

Now read_fifo.c is checked against your computer's C Compiler, check with the toolchain.

kindle-home-automation $ make build CC=../Amazon-Kindle-Cross-Toolchain-master/arm-kindle-linux-gnueabi/bin/arm-kindle-linux-gnueabi-cc 
../Amazon-Kindle-Cross-Toolchain-master/arm-kindle-linux-gnueabi/bin/arm-kindle-linux-gnueabi-cc -Werror -Wall -ggdb -pedantic -std=c99 -O0 -fno-stack-protector -lm read_fifo.c -o  read_fifo

Yes, LONG PATH IS LONG, but now you have a kindle ready binary

kindle-home-automation $ file read_fifo
read_fifo: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.3, for GNU/Linux 2.6.27, not stripped

Fit code to your network 1/2

In read_fifo.c, I've hardcoded that when program see

cvm[1234]: I SupplementarInfoBox:QUICK_LOOKUP:asin=51b5315f-77e9-4927-80b1-a9afbe1c4d76,word=Cuisine:

I provide with source code some logs you can test by typing make run :

kindle-home-automation $ make run
./read_fifo < Docs/kindle.log
process_SupplementarInfoBox() with cvm[1234]: I SupplementarInfoBox:QUICK_LOOKUP:asin=51b5315f-77e9-4927-80b1-a9afbe1c4d76,word=Cuisine:
  \_____ match : asin=51b5315f-77e9-4927-80b1-a9afbe1c4d76 / word=Cuisine
Could not connect: Connection refused
Makefile:16: recipe for target 'run' failed
make: *** [run] Error 1

kindle-home-automation $ make run
./read_fifo < Docs/kindle.log
process_SupplementarInfoBox() with cvm[1234]: I SupplementarInfoBox:QUICK_LOOKUP:asin=51b5315f-77e9-4927-80b1-a9afbe1c4d76,word=Cuisine:
  \_____ match : asin=51b5315f-77e9-4927-80b1-a9afbe1c4d76 / word=Cuisine
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Server: BaseHTTP/0.3 Python/2.7.9
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 16:55:37 GMT
Content-type: text/html

<!-- done /?toggle=Cuisine -->
(…)
process_SupplementarInfoBox() with cvm[1234]: I SupplementarInfoBox:QUICK_LOOKUP:asin=3258236f-e9de-416b-bb6f-ed462cd2b1d0,word=pendant:
  \_____ match : asin=3258236f-e9de-416b-bb6f-ed462cd2b1d0 / word=pendant
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Server: BaseHTTP/0.3 Python/2.7.9
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 16:55:37 GMT
Content-type: text/html

<!-- done /?toggle=pendant -->

Fit code to your network 2/2

Modify Docs/http_relay.py to change "mbp" :

HOST_NAME = 'mbp'

To the host of your computer. You can use IP either. And then start the "http relay" with python2 :

kindle-home-automation/Docs $ python2 http_relay.py 
Server Starts - mbp:8080

Modify lib/htmlrequest.h and modify

const char* host = "mbp";

const char* host = "192.168.1.123";

and then rerun test :

kindle-home-automation $ make run
./read_fifo < Docs/kindle.log
process_SupplementarInfoBox() with cvm[1234]: I SupplementarInfoBox:QUICK_LOOKUP:asin=51b5315f-77e9-4927-80b1-a9afbe1c4d76,word=Cuisine:
  \_____ match : asin=51b5315f-77e9-4927-80b1-a9afbe1c4d76 / word=Cuisine
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Server: BaseHTTP/0.3 Python/2.7.9
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 16:55:37 GMT
Content-type: text/html

<!-- done /?toggle=Cuisine -->
(…)

Copying to kindle

Now we have everything working fine on our computer. Let's gathering everything for a pre-demo in the kindle :

1. THE kindle binary ( see instruction on point 5)
2. ONE log for testing (see in Docs/)
3. ONE ebook the mobi (asin unknown) or azw3

Upload to the kindle to see stuff in live. I assume your kindle ip is 192.168.1.110.

Upload binary to /tmp :

kindle-home-automation $ scp read_fifo root@192.168.1.110:/tmp/ 

Welcome to Kindle! 

root@192.168.1.110's password:
read_fifo               100% 20KB 19.9KB/s 19.9KB/s 00:00  

Upload ebook to /tmp :

kindle $ scp Docs/domotique.azw3 root@192.168.1.110:/tmp/

Welcome to Kindle!

root@192.168.1.110's password: 
domotique.azw3          100% 11KB 10.7KB/s 10.7KB/s 00:00

kindle-home-automation $ scp Docs/kindle.log root@192.168.1.110:/tmp/ 

Welcome to Kindle! 

root@192.168.1.110's password:
kindle.log               100% 58KB 57.8KB/s 57.8KB/s 00:00 

1st run on the kindle

Now it's time to tap inside kindle through ssh :

kindle-home-automation $ ssh root@192.168.1.110

Welcome to Kindle!

root@192.168.1.110's password: 
#################################################
#  N O T I C E  *  N O T I C E  *  N O T I C E  # 
#################################################
Rootfs is mounted read-only. Invoke mntroot rw to
switch back to a writable rootfs.
#################################################

Go to /tmp/ and fire read_fifo

[root@kindle tmp]# ./read_fifo < cvm.log 
process_SupplementarInfoBox() with cvm[3363]: I SupplementarInfoBox:QUICK_LOOKUP:asin=unknown,word=switch:
  \_____ match : asin=unknown / word=switch
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Server: BaseHTTP/0.3 Python/2.7.9
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 19:36:36 GMT
Content-type: text/html

<!-- done /?toggle=switch -->
(…)

By curiosity here is the time for read_fifo to parse the entire log and trigger http connection :

[root@kindle tmp]# time ./read_fifo < cvm.log 
process_SupplementarInfoBox() with cvm[3363]: I SupplementarInfoBox:QUICK_LOOKUP:asin=unknown,word=switch:
  \_____ match : asin=unknown / word=switch
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Server: BaseHTTP/0.3 Python/2.7.9
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 19:42:09 GMT
Content-type: text/html

<!-- done /?toggle=switch -->
(…)
<!-- done /?toggle=BUREAU -->
real	0m 0.11s
user	0m 0.04s
sys	0m 0.01s

Quite quick isn't it ? :-)

Plumbery : syslog-ng.conf

WARNING IF YOU FOLLOW THIS STEP YOU WILL HAVE TO UNDO IT : SEE STEP 14 !

Now it's time to vi, if you are not familiar with this prehistoric tool, spend time with a cheatsheet.

First, set root partition read-writeable :

[root@kindle root]# mntroot rw
system: I mntroot:def:Making root filesystem writeable
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime,nodiratime)

and BACKUP syslog-ng.conf !

[root@kindle root]# cd /etc/syslog-ng/
[root@kindle root]# cp syslog-ng.conf syslog-ng.conf.ok

and then "vi /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf".

Edit the file to match mine :

[root@kindle root]# grep cvm /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf
destination cvm { program("/tmp/read_fifo" template("$MSG\n")); };
filter f_cvm { match("cvm"); };
log { source(src); filter(f_cvm); destination(cvm); };

I explain those 3 lines :

1. Tells syslog-ng to create a destination named cvm which aims a program (yes our read_fifo from /tmp/ ) and use a minimal template.
2. Tells syslog-ng to create a filter named f_cvm with search for the string in the entire line (both header and message according to manual)
3. Tells syslog-ng to create a log (= a real rule) who take source, apply filter, and if filter matches then send it to destination (= our program in point 1)

It's not mandatory but a good habit. We have finished tempering root filesystem so :

[root@kindle root]# mntroot ro
system: I mntroot:def:Making root filesystem read-only
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on / type ext3 (ro,noatime,nodiratime)