terrencegf,

thank you for the pointer. However, it did not work for me. This is what I did: My tarball was stardict-dictd-moby-thesaurus-2.4.2.tar.bz2. I used 7-zip to extract it. The folder created by extraction was "stardict-dictd-moby-thesaurus-2.4.2" and the files were dictd_www.dict.org_moby-thesaurus.dict.dz,
dictd_www.dict.org_moby-thesaurus.idx and dictd_www.dict.org_moby-thesaurus.ifo.

I created the folder "stardict-dictd-moby-thesaurus-2.4.2" under /usr/share/startdict/dic and then move the 3 files into the folder.

I have tried to change the name of the dictionary files to 'dictd-moby-thesaurus.dict.dz', 'dictd-moby-thesaurus.idx' and 'dictd-moby-thesaurus.ifo', but that did not work either:-(

further advice would be appreciated.

Regards,
Cheve

I think the names of the files are okay. You shouldn't need to change them. I downloaded the Moby Thesaurus and it worked okay for me. I've never used 7-zip so I can't say if that's the problem or not. There are two possibilities I can think of. (1) Incorrect file permissions or (2) Dictionary not selected in StarDict.

To test/fix the first problem, open an xterm, enter the following commands, and see if you get the same output. (The "#" symbol is the command prompt so you don't type that. Anything else is output.)
The important parts are the '-rw-r--r--' field and 'root root'. The first is the file/directory permissions and the second is the owner/group. If these are different from what you have, you can fix them with the following commands.
If everything is okay, then run StarDict again, select "Manage Dict" from the pulldown menu, and verify that "Moby Thesaurus II" is checked in the list.

If none of that works, then I'm guessing that 7-zip messed up the dictionary files themselves (perhaps inserting extra CR/LF characters). Your best bet would be to download the *.tar.bz2 files directly to the "/usr/share/stardict/dic/" directory and bunzip2/untar them there. (That's what I did anyway.)

terrencegf,
thank you for taking the time to help me on this. I ran the command as suggested and other than the reported byte size for the folder is different(mine show 0, whereas yours shows 4096), the permission is root:root. I guess I should try to download and extract the package on the tablet.

btw, is the bunzip2/untar the same as bzip2/gnu_tar ? if so, how would i install the bzip? the reason is that i am getting the incompatible package from the n800's application manager. i am new to this and my linux skill is limited, i.would appreciate any additional pointers.

thanks again

I think that if you installed gnu-tar, then you can untar a bz2 file via 'tar xvjf filename.tar.bz2'. I didn't take the time to install gnu-tar and am simply using the (underpowered) built-in tar which doesn't grok bzip2 files. I installed bzip2 and then used the default tar via 'bunzip2 -c filename.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -'.

First, you'll need to get bzip2. I think I got my copy from the elkins.org repository, but I have so many repositories in my list I'm not sure.


Install elkins.org repo

I don't recall if bzip2 shows up in the list of installable apps or not. If not, you can always install it via "apt-get install bzip2" as root in an xterm. (Note that you can't be running Application Manager at the same time.)

One thing that the installation of bzip2 neglects to do is to also install bunzip2 (by simply creating a symbolic link). So let's assume that you install the elkins.org repository using the link above, but want to do everything else via an xterm. Here's all of the commands you would need to install the Moby Thesaurus. (Again, the "#" is a command prompt which you don't type.)
Hopefully, that will get you a working dictionary. You can then "wget" more dictionary files and bunzip2/untar them with a similar command (i.e. you do the "apt-get" and "ln -s" steps once only).

terrencegf,

thank you for the detail instruction. My dictionary shows up in stardict now:-) The only downside is that the dictionary takes up a fair amount of memory. I am down to 11% at /rootfs.

I have tried the same procedure to put the dictionary on my 16GB card at mmc1, but it did not:-(. I suspect it is because my memory card has not been formated as ext2 yet. What do you think?

Anyway, I am good at this point.
Cheve,

I didn't realize you wanted the dictionaries on the memory card. That's pretty easy. The card can be formatted fat16/fat32 or ext2. It shouldn't matter. Type these commands to move your current dictionaries to mmc1.
If your mmc1 card is fat16/fat32, you will get a bunch of error message like "mv: cannot preserve ownership of 'file...': Operation not permitted". Don't worry about it. The files will still be read by StarDict okay. StarDict should automatically pick up the new location of the dictionaries at "/media/mmc1/stardict/dic/". You can install more dictionaries to this directory, or to the old directory "/usr/share/stardict/dic/".

How do you get google news and fbreader to sync with stardick?
I've got it stalled and running but I can't seem to get them working together.
Any advise, tips or help would be greatly appreciated.
Dan

You mean like selecting a word in fbreader and having a definition pop up? It works for me. Maybe you don't have "Scan" selected in StarDict? Or maybe you have a different version?

I have StarDict 2.4.8-maemo.r4 installed. Run StarDict and click the little "up" arrow with a bar on top (in the lower right corner). This shows a new toolbar near the bottom of the screen with a checkbox for "Scan". Verify that is checked. Then click the "down" arrow with a bar on the bottom (in the lower right corner) to hide the new toolbar. Now you can select a word in fbreader and a popup box will appear from StarDict (assuming StarDict is still running).

I got the word stuff working with pop up. I'm just drooling over the screen shot that looks like fbreader is providing a wiki or some other box with detailed info about Pakistan in google news. That would be so cool! I'm wondering if it would work with SDict Viewer? Also I see that in stardict in the preferences it has all these websites can they be sync to Stardict? terrencegf I really appreciate all the help you've given us. The N800 rocks!!! Dan

just want to add my thanks for all the folks who posted help here and to the OP for starting the thread. I had run into the same issue but did not have time to look into it more and now I see how it works. Tonight I'll have dictionaries & thesauri again (...or is it thesaurusesesssss'(?) )

It would be GREAT if I can get it working in FBReader tonight. I am reading the 1632 series by Eric Flint and am always looking the historical stuff up in the mobile version of wikipedia (it's just faster and display's quickly) but have missed my dictionary look-ups. Kinda interesting to see where the books veer off from the recorded histories...I mean who knew what an Hidalgo was before reading this series?