# FreeBSD Handbook on Kindle?



## jemate18 (Feb 17, 2010)

Hi guys!

I have started reading books on kindle using my ipod touch

Is there any way that FreeBSD handbook and other documentations be available in kindle?

Regards,


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## lyuts (Feb 17, 2010)

I think this is the question to ask on kindle forum, to find out how to upload html to kindle in order to read it.
But i'm pretty sure that it is possible.


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## SirDice (Feb 17, 2010)

I'm sure the iPod is quite capable of showing HTML. Why bother with a proprietary (DRM'ed) format?


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## jemate18 (Feb 17, 2010)

Kindle on iPod coz I want to read it even when I'm not online. Or how about the books by freebsdmall, the handbook to be converted to kindle so that others like me will have to purchase it. Ok just my opinion


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## DutchDaemon (Feb 17, 2010)

The entire handbook can be downloaded in HTML and other formats and read locally: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/


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## phoenix (Feb 17, 2010)

And, if you installed the *Docs* distribution when you installed FreeBSD, then the Handbook is available in text, PDF, HTMl under /usr/share/doc.


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## jemate18 (Feb 18, 2010)

I do have the HTML and PDF on my netbook and laptop..

But as you know, I don't usually bring laptops on travel... 


As for ipod touch, I have it with me almost all the time.. So when on travel, before going to sleep, I usually read books with it... That's why I'm thinking of having the handbook on kindle.....


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## lme@ (Feb 19, 2010)

jemate18: You can convert the pdf to the kindle format:
http://www.labnol.org/gadgets/convert-read-pdf-files-on-amazon-kindle/4016/


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## jemate18 (Feb 20, 2010)

Thanks for the link..

According to the link 


> a. Convert PDF pages to a series of images and read them inside Amazon Kindle as a picture slideshow. The same trick will also work for the Sony PR 505, iPod and iliad book readers.
> 
> b. The next trick is Kindle specific. You can email your PDF files to Amazon and they will convert them to AZW, a format that can be read by Kindle. The email address is yourname@free.kindle.com â€“ attach the PDF and send the email. If you are sending multiple files, you can compress them into a .zip file.
> 
> ...



If I choose option B.... would there be like a copyright violation or anything? So can I download the PDF version of the HandBook and send them to yourname@free.kindle.com, without having to worry of copyrights?


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## DutchDaemon (Feb 20, 2010)

For personal use? Sure, go ahead. I'm assuming you're not going to distribute it  If you do:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/LEGALNOTICE.html


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## jemate18 (Feb 20, 2010)

DutchDaemon said:
			
		

> For personal use? Sure, go ahead. I'm assuming you're not going to distribute it  If you do:
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/LEGALNOTICE.html



Yes Dutch just for personal use. I just want it
 to be availBle in kindle format
so that may be able to read it on my 
iPod touch specially on times
when I'm away and without internet connection
thanks. I'll go ahead and convert it


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## jprather (Sep 15, 2010)

The Kindle supports multiple formats including PDF and text/plain.

There are disadvantages to these:

1) text/plain shows up with filename as title, and no author info, makes it stand out a bit from the other books. 

2) pdf (unless it's changed recently) doesn't work nicely with text-to-speech or with adjustable font sizes.  sure a pdf viewer is handy but i'd rather use a format that the kindle can take more advantage of.

When pulling public domain books from gutenberg.org, I discovered that the mobi format (of which I know very little) 

So given a choice, I'd see if you can get your non-amazon-derived ebooks in .mobi format, but otherwise, just stick the .txt file on your kindle and there you go!


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## jprather (Sep 15, 2010)

Since I threw around some ideas and sentence fragments, I thought I should follow up.

I used deskutils/calibre to convert the handbook to .mobi format.  I left default conversion options and it appears to have created a rather successful kindle-friendly format of the handbook, complete with table of contents links to chapters as well as working links to the internet that pull up on Kindle's built-in browser.  And it even included the various screenshots.

What I did:

1) portmaster deskutils/calibre  (a graphical ebook manager)
2) run calibre, choose a book library location (i used the default)
3) click "Add books..." button
4) browse to and select /usr/share/doc/en/books/handbook/index.html (or wherever it is)

It took a few minutes to load, but in the end it listed a 13.6 MB book in ZIP format in my calibre book list (and it put a .zip file of the handbook in your calibre library tree).

5) Convert it (to MOBI format, I used default options)

It took 20 minutes or so to convert, but in the end I had a FreeBSD handbook .mobi file which I could drop into the documents/ directory on my Kindle (for which I used Kindle's umass feature and freebsd's mount_msdosfs command, followed by a cp, followed by a umount and a camcontrol eject, though there are simpler and more graphical ways).

Now I'm itching to go convert all sorts of other documents into kindle-friendly MOBI as well.


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## erixoltan (Mar 10, 2014)

I just want to echo jprather's advice on this topic. If anyone wants to read the FreeBSD Handbook on a Kindle or use EPUB to read it on another e-reader device, this is definitely the way to do it.  It still works for FreeBSD 10.

A reason why you might want to do this - you might want to use the e-reader or your phone with reader software to refer to the manual while you are setting up a system that doesn't have a graphical environment on it yet, and you're trying to figure out how to get the network connection going.


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## ronaldlees (Mar 10, 2014)

The easiest way to convert  the FreeBSD handbook to kindle format is to use use `kindlegen`.  It's available as a Linux program and works well with the Linuxulator.  Use either text or html as the format of the source material.  The .mobi format is the kindle format, plus or minus.  Amazon bought the mobi format (and its company) - and modified it a little bit.  That format still works in Kindle as result of backward compatibility.

I agree - PDF rendering in Kindle is a little crude.  For those, just use a regular PDF viewer.


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## tzoi516 (Mar 10, 2014)

iBooks on iOS reads PDFs - that's how I read PDF versions of BSD Magazine.


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