On my Palm tungsten t3 I have iSilo / eReader / TealDOC / Mobipocket for reading ebooks. I would LOVE it if mobipocket was ported to maemo, but fbreader is at least letting my wife read unlocked pdb files in bed at night.

I also cannot get my FBReader to "see" *.pdb files. Has anyone else been able to open these files using FBReader? I am having no luck. I followed the above suggestions from boblinds. Help.

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I just installed FBReader yesterday and was able to get FBReader to see and work with unprotected (free) .pdb books.

However it will not see eBooks that I purchased from eReader.Com. Must admit this was kind of what I was expecting.

Anyway to get eReader.Com to support the N800? I'll bet that won't happen anytime soon.

First time using FBReader and must admit it's pretty nice!
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Yes, I played around a bit more and found that having the extension *.pdb is not enough. It has to also be a supported format (e.g. DOC or Plucker). Then the FBReader sees the files, opens, reads just fine. Have downloaded several DOC format *.pdb files, and it is very nice.

I rest my case fbreader was clearly written by a geek.

Clearly he had never heard of the BSI test.

This app fails miserably

ps BSI == Britsh Standard Idiot

I was expecting FBreader to be the same level as HalliReader on PPC. And I was very disappointed.

The .pdb extension indicates a "container" file format that is used by many otherwise incompatible applications. FBReader makes it easy by only showing you the files it supports.

Under Linux usually the file command would tell you what kind of files you have, but it isn't on the 770. The Palm magic file for the file command is at:
http://opengrok.creo.hu/dragonfly/xr...ic/Magdir/palm

Check bytes 61-68 of your file directly to determine the format. FBReader supports:

Aportis Doc (bytes 61-68 = "TEXtREAd")
zTxt ("zTXTGPlm")
plucker ("DataPlkr")
mobipocket ("BOOKMOBI")

Some MobiPocket books show up as AportisDoc, and usually have a .prc extension. Note that DRMed MobiPocket books are not supported.

FBReader is highly customizable, but the defaults may not be what you want and it assumes that changing them will come naturally. Which further strengthens your case. For an overview of what is changable, see Visual Tour of FBReader ....

By the way, if you have a choice of formats FB2 files are automatically added to your library (but are not commonly available) and I find non-DRM MobiPocket files are the best of the common formats.

If it is legal to do so where you live, the DRM of MS Reader .LIT files is easily defeatable using ConvertLIT. This program also "explodes" .lit files without DRM. You should end up with HTML files, images and a .oeb file. If you make a zip file of them all and rename it .oebzip this will be directly readable by FBReader.

Back to one of the previous comments - fbreader cannot read DRM .pdb books from ereader. Is there any way past this? I have a big library of books that would be rendered useless if I can't somehow read them on whatever I choose as my next handheld. Right now I have a Palm T3, but it's getting long in the tooth. I digress - is there a way to clear the DRM from the ebooks so I can read them with fbreader?

I know it's not exactly legal, but I really do only want to view them myself & have no intention of distributing them out.

Thanks.

Nope. I have as of yet to find a way to un-drm eReader's ebooks. This royally pisses me off as well, because you're at the mercy of a provider who apparently sees no interest whatsoever in porting their reader software to Linux.

The *.lit format OTOH can be cracked more easily than peanuts that have been cracked already by neurotic monkeys with an eating disorder.

So, buy lits or buy only ebooks without drm. I learned the hard way as well. Sorry...

[edit] You didn't get this from me, but practically all of the books Peanut Press (yes, that was the source of my lame monkey jab) provides are "available" on the P2P networks in "easier" formats. Since you alluded to not seeing ethical problems in circumventing the drm of an a-ethical company, you could venture down that alley.

Obviously I'm in no way enticing you to do so, nor have I any knowledge of this other than from hearsay. You know...

Down with drm! Bits to the people! Sharing is caring!
Or something like that...