REBComm version 0.4 ------------------- Copyright (C) 2003-2006 Igor Izyumin Licensed under the GNU General Public License. NO WARRANTY IS PROVIDED. USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK. Introduction ------------ REBComm is a command-line program for GNU/Linux that lets the user upload and download files from the RCA eBook REB1100 reader device through the USB connection. Essentially, REBComm provides much of the same functionality as the eBook Librarian (TM) software on Windows. The REB1100 device is no longer made by RCA or Gemstar. The companies have decided to discontinue these devices. Please not that there is a similar-looking device called the GEB1150 (also discontinued). It is not compatible with REBComm. I designed this program to be used in tandem with RBMake [http://rbmake.sourceforge.net/], which can generate a book in .rb format from text or HTML source supplied by the user. A book created with RBMake can be uploaded to the reader device with REBComm. I do not know if REBComm works with encrypted eBooks purchased from Gemstar. This is alpha-quality software. It was developed for personal use in just a couple of days by reverse-engineering the eBook communication protocol. As such, it may have bugs, broken features, and general code ugliness; it may not even work on your machine or your distribution. Please note that I can not be held responsible for any damage this program might cause to your computer, your eBook device, or anything else. However, I would appreciate hearing about your successes or failures with REBComm. Please do not hesitate to report bugs, send patches, or ask questions. READ THIS --------- REBComm must be run as root in order for it to have access to the USB bus. It should never be made setuid on a shared system, since it is a huge security risk. The best option is to set up the permissions for /proc/bus/usb to permit writing for regular users, but this is difficult to do. The gphoto2 project has some documentation on how to do this. KNOWN ISSUE: The program takes a few seconds to exit. For some reason, the call to usb_release_interface takes a long time on 2.6 kernels. There is no error reported, so this is probably normal (or some kernel or libusb bug). Installation ------------ This program installs using the standard procedure: ./configure make make install Please note that you need to have libUSB installed. It is available from [http://libusb.sourceforge.net/]. It should also be available on the CD of your Linux distribution as an installable package (probably called libusb). In that case, be sure to install the development package as well (libusb-devel). There have been some changes to libusb. If rebcomm doesn't work, make sure you have at least version 0.1.10a Usage ----- This program must be run with superuser privileges (as the 'root' user). To become root, use the command 'su'. Syntax: rebcomm [filename] This program currently has four commands: status, list, get, and send. status: This command prints out some internal eBook configuration data. It is not very useful, unless you want to take a peek at the internals of your eBook. You do not need to specify filename for this command. Example: # rebcomm status list: this command prints out the list of books loaded on your device. Each book is on a separate line that looks something like this: TITLE[#]=filename=[filename on the device] title=[book name] size=[size in bytes] ANNO=[annotations - y or n] publisher=[publisher name] author=[author name] isbn=[ISBN number] url=[internal eBook address] This command does not need a filename to be specified. Example: # rebcomm list get: this command downloads an .rb file from the device. Filename must be specified; it is the name of the file on the device and it is the one shown by the 'list' command. Be sure to enclose the filename in quotation marks. The downloaded file will be prefixed with "REBCOMM_" Example: # rebcomm get "\books\pub-13-000098.rb" This command will download pub-13-000098.rb and save it as REBCOMM_\books\pub-13-000098.rb send: this command sends an .rb file to the device. Filename is the name of the .rb file that you want to upload to the eBook. The filename on the device is automatically read from the .rb file. Example: # rebcomm send ./mybook.rb This command will upload mybook.rb to the device. It should then be accessible from the bookshelf. sendc: this command is the same as 'send', except that it sends the file to the SmartMedia card. Caution: be sure that a SmartMedia card is actually present when using the command. Otherwise, the device could crash or reboot (mine just reboots). Acknowledgments --------------- A big thank-you goes to the authors of the USB Snoopy filter [http://www.wingmanteam.com/usbsnoopy/]. It is a very nice tool for looking at USB traffic on Windows. Legal ----- This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA REBComm is NOT in any way affiliated with or endorsed by RCA/Thomson or Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. RCA is a trademark of Thomson Corp. Gemstar, eBook, and Librarian are trademarks of Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.