[SOLVED] ereaders no longer being recognized by computer
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Hey. I got a newer computer (I'm running Xubuntu 14.10) and at first it was recognizing my Sony PRS300 ereader when I plugged it in via a USB cord. Then it stopped recognizing it.
Huh. I was going to write ' And the first time I plugged my Kindle ereader into the computer it didn't recognize it either but it is letting it charge.'
But then I disconnected it to make sure it was charging it and it was, but the charge was only about half so I plugged it back in and when I did the computer recognized it.
So, is this stuff just quirky (the Sony hasn't been recognized the last three times I plugged it in) or is there something I can do?
Have there been any updates to the either the ereaders or to the computer in the interim?
Try plugging in the ereaders and running lsusb and dmesg to see whether and how the devices are being seen by the computer, then post the relevant output here, being sure to surround it with "Code" tags which become available when you click the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of the "compose post" window.
Thanks guys. Good advice except that now the ereader is stuck on "Opening Book." It's an old reader. 5 years old. And I've had nothing but trouble with it. Ready to pitch it.
Btw. Tried soft re-set. Hard re-set. Lately I've taken to dropping it on the floor. (Not suggested in owner's manual.) Next up: dropping it from a skyscraper.
Distribution: Cinnamon Mint 20.1 (Laptop) and 20.2 (Desktop)
Posts: 1,672
Rep:
Can you check in the eReader setup (That's the eReader, nothing to do with the PC) to see if it can be connected as a storage device? If it was, it should mount so you can drag and drop books and files onto it. I'd reckon it's in a different mode waiting for some proprietary Sony/Windows loader to download the books from the PC rather than just as storage.
If you're using Callibre there's a device identifier code hidden in a config file somewhere, you'd need to Google the Howto guide.
Can you check in the eReader setup (That's the eReader, nothing to do with the PC) to see if it can be connected as a storage device? If it was, it should mount so you can drag and drop books and files onto it. I'd reckon it's in a different mode waiting for some proprietary Sony/Windows loader to download the books from the PC rather than just as storage.
If you're using Callibre there's a device identifier code hidden in a config file somewhere, you'd need to Google the Howto guide.
My
Play Bonny!
Thanks Soadyheid. I used to be able to mount the ereader and Calibre used to detect it but it no longer does. I'm pretty newbie but I stumbled across this command
Code:
dmesg
and ran it. Then I stumbled across the Calibre advice for "Why is my device not detected in Linux?" So I ran those commands. (But didn't know how to interpret the results.)
The PRS 300 is a nifty little ereader and I'd love to re-claim it. Things went haywire when I sideloaded this gigantic book (that I didn't realize was gigantic).
I actually got a little hopeful seeing that the ereader showed up in the results of the dmesg command. But really I don't know if that means anything.
It's your e-reader; YOU read the manual ;-). Nice try, however.
That's showing up as an unreadable disk. Do you know what your e-reader shows up as? One check is to run
grep -r Sony /lib/udev/rules.d/*
and see if there's a udev rule for it. Some distros are very thorough filling in for weird objects.
If not, the web search 'Sony PRS 300 udev rule' seems to have all sorts of folks with exactly your problem, so I'd suggest you read up on what they did, and do it.
Distribution: Cinnamon Mint 20.1 (Laptop) and 20.2 (Desktop)
Posts: 1,672
Rep:
Code:
[ 2901.979921] usb 1-4: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci
[ 2902.113500] usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=054c, idProduct=031e
[ 2902.113509] usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2902.113516] usb 1-4: Product: Sony Digital Book Reader
[ 2902.113521] usb 1-4: Manufacturer: Sony
[ 2902.113526] usb 1-4: SerialNumber: 0800461000B38746
[ 2902.269142] usb-storage 1-4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 2902.269378] scsi host6: usb-storage 1-4:1.0
[ 2902.269488] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 2902.306707] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[ 2903.269286] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access Sony PRS-300 1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 2903.270127] scsi 6:0:0:1: Direct-Access Sony PRS-300 Launcher 1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 2903.270774] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 2903.271494] sd 6:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[ 2903.301225] sd 6:0:0:1: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 2903.304234] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
I'd say that this means that the eReader has been identified and as USB mass storage. It looks like two disks; sg2 and sg3, the launcher being the system partition of the eReader and the other being , I would assume, the area where the book files are stored. (Yes, I'm making it up as I go along!)
Quote:
Things went haywire when I sideloaded this gigantic book (that I didn't realize was gigantic).
Most books aren't "gigantic", not even War and Peace! Have you tried removing this book? My thoughts are that it's now some sort of corrupt file which is screwing with the eReader and preventing it being mounted. It worked before you loaded it and it doesn't now, so try and go back a step. That's removing it using the eReader controls only, not via Callibre or any other PC resident application.
Another thought, providing you have all your books backed up, try a factory reset on the eReader and reload the books. (except the last one obviously!).
The plot thickens. To my amazement the computer recognized the ereader. But it would not allow me to add books. I could add them outside the database file but not within. At first when I tried to even open the folders, the folders would get lock icons on them. Then I managed to get into the Books folder (where the books should be) and when I went to paste a book there I got this screenshot.(38)
New development!! (Heartening development!) (Yes, Soadyheid, the big book was removed.)
There's HOPE! So the ereader was stuck on "Opening Page" then it was stuck on "Loading Book" then I hooked it up to the computer and on the ereader it said "Invalid Format" and there was a big warning exclamation mark in the middle of the screen!! (I'm psyched! LOL) So I then I ran into this:
Did what it said and it put the reader through something like 'formatting internal format.' I let it do its thing and in less than a minute the ereader looked frickin' NORMAL!!!! OMG. So I of course hooked it back up to the computer and tried to put some books on it. I figured copying and pasting and dragging and dropping were safer than Calibre, so that's what I did and via both processes I got the same error (see screenshot). And I also noticed that the Books folder in the ereader was missing.
But this seems overcome-able, does it not?
What do you guys think I should do next? How to get over the 'read only' objection. (And remember, earlier I got the lock icons on all the files so that was basicallyl the 'read only' thing as well.)
We're close. I can smell victory on this!! LOL
I could've tried Calibre but was chicken. And figured I'd ask if there was something else that needed to be done first.
Okay. Someone suggested I plug the Sony ereader into a Windows computer so I did. (Windows 8.1 I believe--definitely 8). Anyway there they have a Disk Management Tool. So I found that. Then to my great surprise I saw that the ereader was "functioning normally." I figured the Invalid Formatting (and subsequent re-formatting) did its job and straightened things out. Still I knew I was missing the "Books" folder. So I created a "Books" folder and copied and pasted it into the "Media" folder (which is where it was supposed to be) and it worked. That was it. Now it's functioning normally.
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