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Monday, January 18, 2010

Run Kindle for PC in Linux with WINE

Reader Gene told us that Kindle for PC is "more important than people realize." That's because the desktop app runs almost seamlessly in Linux with one WINE tweak, making Kindle a great little laptop or netbook reading option.
To install Kindle for PC on your Linux system, make sure you've got WINE installed. Most major distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE) offer WINE in one of their repositories, or have versions custom-made for them.
With WINE installed, download the Kindle for PC installer, then double-click on the .exe file you downloaded. WINE will pick it up and install it in its virtual C:/ drive. The one issue you'll encounter is that Kindle will automatically start up and ask you for your username and password, even though you can't see the fields; you can quit the app and fix that, or just type in your username, hit Tab, then your password, and then quit.

Head to your system's menu and then to the WINE folder, and hit "Configure WINE"—if you don't see it, just run winecfg from a terminal or Alt+F2 prompt. In the "Applications" tab, hit "Add Application," then navigate to Kindle for PC in your virtual Windows drive, which is at C:\Program Files\Amazon\Kindle for PC\KindleForPC.exe by default. Hit OK, select KindleForPC.exe back in the Wine configuration window, and change the "Windows Version" drop-down at the bottom to Windows 98. Head back to your WINE menu, run Kindle for PC, and now all your controls and buttons should be showing up correctly.

You can now send books and sample chapters from Amazon's Kindle store to your PC. If you've already installed Kindle for PC in a Windows machine and tied it to your account, be sure to send your Kindle items to your Linux-based reader (which was "Kindle for PC 2" in my case).




Putty for Mac
Putty for Mac
$15.00

https://winereviews.onfastspring.com/putty-for-mac


7 comments:

Adam Gott said...

Excellent! Thanks for the tips. I recently picked up an iPad and have found that the Kindle system is quite handy for lots of things. I can now read books on all of my pc's, my iPad, and my Blackberry. I am really impressed with the way that it will save your place in a book on one platform and allow you to continue reading on another platform. And it's great being able to download previews for books before purchasing!

Unknown said...

Not working on Ubuntu 10.04 with wine 1.2. first it didn't want to run the install file. Turns out, you have to change the permission of the file first. Once it's installed, there is a shortcut added to the wine menu for the program, but when I click on it, I see the clock indicating something is loading for a second or three and then....nothing. Nothing at all. Why is it still so often that these would be easy and straight forward linux tips just don't work at all?? So frustrating!

Alice McCaffrey said...

I tried installing Kindle on a netbook with Ubuntu 10.04 too. No problem installing Wine, but nothing when I tried to install the Kindle for PC. :(

Roger O'Donnell said...

I found that the 5.2Mb Beta release of Kindle for PC and WiNE 1.0.1 are the only working combination.

Pedro Werneck said...

BTW, that version is available for download at the link below. Took me a while to find it but it works just fine.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2992929/KindleForPC-installer.exe

Phil said...

Kindle for PC 1.3 working on OpenSuse 11.3 with Wine 1.2. I seem to be able to do everything.

Robin Carnow said...

This is working for wine 1.3.15 on Ubuntu 10.10. It does not work with the stock version that is in the 10.10 repo. To get the latest version of Wine you have to add the WineQH repository by following these instructions: http://www.winehq.org/download/deb
After that uninstall any wine 1.2 package and install the package called "wine1.3"
I used the Synaptic Package Manager which you can find under System->Administration
Hope this helps and happy reading!