Are you a Linux user and have you recently purchased a Kindle from Amazon? Don't worry because you will be able to read and manage all the books you purchase on the great platform of electronic books. In this article we are going to show you several ways to make your reading experience the best possible even if you are a user of a free operating system. So we leave you how to use kindle on linux.
In the market there is an option that is highly recommended by all users who have an electronic book reader in their possession. And luckily for all of them, there is a version for all platforms: Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS and, of course, Linux could not be missing. We are going to talk about this alternative and more in the following lines.
Reading Kindle books on Linux from the browser
Although there are different Kindle applications to be able to read the electronic books downloaded from Amazon, in Linux there is no such luck. At least, not natively through software. However, Amazon has solutions for all cases. And the most interesting is 'Kindle Cloud Reader'. This cloud-based service allows you to read all the books you have in your subscription through the web browser you use –regardless of the one you use–.
Likewise, if you have used the Kindle application for any of the available platforms, you will be able to verify that the Kindle service Kindle Cloud Reader has an interface identical to that of the application. Therefore, you will be able to bookmark, underline or annotate your electronic publications.
Managing your Kindle on Linux – using Calibre
You also don't have to worry about managing your books or how to upload them to your Kindle device even if you are a Linux user. Because? Well, because you have the best electronic book manager on the market. His name is Caliber and luckily It is free and available for both Windows, MacOS and Linux.
Likewise, Caliber is a program opensource, so in its beginnings it was intended to be used in Linux distributions. However, this manager is so good –and useful– that it became popular and began to be distributed for other platforms on the market. First of all, we want to tell you that Caliber is used both with the Amazon Kindle book reader and with other models on the market such as the famous Kobo.
Installing Caliber on Linux from the app store
Ubuntu versions as the most popular Linux distributions They usually have an app store.. And Caliber is available on all of them. To carry out the installation, we just have to write the following command in a terminal:
sudo apt install calibre
Installing Calibre on Linux from the official repository
In any case, if you prefer, Caliber – from its official website – also has the repositories. And for that, we must go to the download section of the program and we will see that there is a version for Linux. We enter it and the most important thing is to copy and paste the following in an open terminal for installation:
sudo -v && wget -nv -O- https://download.calibre-ebook.com/linux-installer.sh | sudo sh /dev/stdin
Perhaps this is the most recommended option and with less hassle of all. From the official website of the electronic book manager, The best thing that it offers us is that we will download -at all times- the most current version of the program. With all available patches and all bugs found, fixed.
Once Calibre is installed on Linux and using Kindle
Once we connect our Kindle to the computer and Caliber recognizes it, we will be able to manage our entire library, both in the reader –Kindle in this case–, as well as having all the books ordered in Caliber, either by author or by title. Also, Caliber has another good thing. And it supports a large number of electronic book formats. And are next: AZW, AZW3, AZW4, CBZ, CBR, CB7, CBC, CHM, DJVU, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, FBZ, HTML, HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ.
Likewise, you will be able to see at any time the covers or import covers that you really like for that title or that you have generated on your own. Caliber is a great Kindle companion both on Linux and on other platforms.
What happens if my Linux computer doesn't detect the Kindle when I connect it via USB?
It is very possible that your Kindle will not be recognized by your USB port, much less that you can use it with Calibre; if the computer does not recognize your Kindle you will not be able to get the most out of your electronic book reader. But for everything there is a solution.
The first thing you should know is that Linux works under the MSC protocol (a more generic protocol) to connect with equipment that connects via USB. However, Kindle works under Microsoft's MTP protocol. Both protocols are used to transfer content between computers through USB ports. However, Linux does not have the latest protocol installed, so we must proceed with its installation on our computer. Don't worry because it's an easy task. You just have to open a terminal and type the following:
sudo apt-get install mtpfs
When the installation is complete, try connecting your Kindle to the computer via USB again. You will see that this is recognized by the system and Calibre also detects it. From that moment you can manage your entire library.
Yes, If after this last installation your Kindle is not recognized, it is possible that the fault is in the USB cable itself that you are using; that is, it may be suitable for charging the equipment's battery but not for data transfer. In this case, we recommend that you replace the USB cable with another one and try the connection again.
Finally, keep in mind that if you have another computer connected via USB, it is very possible that Caliber will go a little crazy, so if at that moment you need to manage a Kindle book in Linux, the best thing you can do is prioritize and leave the other devices disconnected from your computer.
Next, we leave you with the different Kindle models that Amazon offers:
