Kindle 2 HAL support

[cyli]

Binary package hint: hal-info

When I connect my Kindle 2 via USB, HAL recognizes it as a USB mass storage device. It does not recognize it as an ejectable volume, however.

Kindle support (as a media player) was added to HAL in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hal-info/+bug/230523, but that was only for the Kindle 1. The Kindle 2 has a different product ID, and thus is not recognized by HAL as a media player.

It seems a bit strange to me to classify the Kindle as a portable audio player - it certainly can play media, but so can PDAs (and the Kindle seems more like a PDA to me). Perhaps, given all the new ebook reader devices already out there and soon to be released, a new category may be needed. But as I am pretty unfamiliar with HAL, I cannot adequately evaluate the ramifications of these classifications. :) And since the Kindle 1 is supported by HAL as a media player, so I have added Kindle 2 support as a media player.

Rather than mess with any of the Kindle 1 stuff, I added a different match for the Kindle 2. The Kindle 2 needs to be ejected and not just unmounted (umounting it does nothing about the message on the Kindle that it needs to be ejected from the computer before being used - the Kindle remains in USB drive mode), and I am not sure if that is the case with the Kindle 1.

[cyli (cyli)]

Hmm... ok, this patch is probably not very useful. :( With this 10-usb-music-players.fdi change, I can eject the Kindle just fine, and the Kindle leaves USB drive mode, but I then get the following error on my screen (not on the Kindle):

Cannot eject volume
There was an error ejecting the volume or drive.

org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.UnknownError: An unknown error occured.

There doesn't SEEM to be a problem besides this error dialog, but I'm not sure how to interpret the hal.log.

I'm including the output from lshal, from running hald in debugging/verbose mode, and a snippet of my kern.log.

After I rebooted, I stopped hald, and then hald in non-daemon debug mode. Then I plugged in my Kindle 2, got the output from lshal, and ejected (via gnome-applets' disk-mounter applet) the Kindle. Then I stopped the debug-mode hald. The kern.log snippet is from about when I rebooted.

[dylan taft (d13f00l)]

Hi,
This needs a quirk in unusual_devs.h to force max sectors to 64
https://lists.one-eyed-alien.net/pipermail/usb-storage/2009-August/004789.html
It does work with that option, otherwise it will corrupt data or work erratically.

I never got around to submitting a patch upstream...but it was working fine.

I had it working in udev 145 on gentoo, but I'm on ubuntu now..
I am not sure if the device is being correctly detected with udev 147/the kerne in ubuntu server 9.10. It may be being detected with the wrong protocol, again.

I need to install kernel sources and mess with it...unless someone who is better with udev and kernel hacking wants to step in... :sigh:

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

Created an attachment (id=38260)
patch by cyli

From https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hal-info/+bug/407875

"""
When I connect my Kindle 2 via USB, HAL recognizes it as a USB mass storage device. It does not recognize it as an ejectable volume, however.

Kindle support (as a media player) was added to HAL in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hal-info/+bug/230523, but that was only for the Kindle 1. The Kindle 2 has a different product ID, and thus is not recognized by HAL as a media player.

It seems a bit strange to me to classify the Kindle as a portable audio player - it certainly can play media, but so can PDAs (and the Kindle seems more like a PDA to me). Perhaps, given all the new ebook reader devices already out there and soon to be released, a new category may be needed. But as I am pretty unfamiliar with HAL, I cannot adequately evaluate the ramifications of these classifications. :) And since the Kindle 1 is supported by HAL as a media player, so I have added Kindle 2 support as a media player.

Rather than mess with any of the Kindle 1 stuff, I added a different match for the Kindle 2. The Kindle 2 needs to be ejected and not just unmounted (umounting it does nothing about the message on the Kindle that it needs to be ejected from the computer before being used - the Kindle remains in USB drive mode), and I am not sure if that is the case with the Kindle 1.
"""

[Christophe Fergeau (teuf-gnome)]

Media player identification is handled in media-player-info these days which already has the kindle 2 http://cgit.freedesktop.org/media-player-info/commit/?id=0703bb7eb25e5590b828efe3f41b7f3259ad1ea6
The portable media player VS ebook reader is discussed in https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=627516 though at some point, a bug against media-player-info on this bug tracker might be needed.

[Danny Kukawka (danny-kukawka)]

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~dkukawka/hal-info/commit/?id=943e6a314caac4c8e8a0ccfc21c9de7060a19baa , gets merged later upstream.

commit 943e6a314caac4c8e8a0ccfc21c9de7060a19baa
Author: cyli <email address hidden>
Date: Thu Sep 9 14:04:48 2010 +0200

    add Kindle 2 as usb music player

    Added Kindle 2 as usb music player.
    lp#407875

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[lively (doratheexplorer)]

I have a Kindle Fire which is not recognised in new distro at all. USB connection is good for charging only. The Fire was connecting to my laptop without issues in 11.04 & 11.10. My regular Kindle is connecting as expected and is now automatically opening media software which id did not before. This is a good improvement.