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Software Version

Tested with calibre 2.78.0 on Gentoo Tested with calibre 3.3.0 on Sabayon

Not working calibre 3.8.0 on Sabayon

Updates 2025.04.30

On ubuntu 24.04 when you try to open an epub file the viewer crash:

calibre, version 5.32.0
ERROR: Render process crashed: The Qt WebEngine Render process has crashed. You should try restarting the viewer

The solution is to use an updated calibre version. If you are up to you can use the xtradeb ppa:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xtradeb/apps -y
apt install calibre

See https://xtradeb.net/

Why Do I need to remove it?

Because I want to read book legally borrowed from a library on the Amazon Kindle. Unfortunately it doesn’t support ADE DRM content.

Install Adobe Digital Edition

It requires wine

Install wine and playonlinux and winetricks

After PlayOnLinux installation run it and through the gui install Adobe Digital Edition 4.5 (ADE)

With the standard wine version configured by playonlinux I had no internet connectivity!

I solved it using the system wine installation ( v1.8.3 )

Once installed you can start to use ADE. You need to create an account. Afterwards you will need to extract the key that will be used by the DeDRM tool.

Follow the info here: https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/blob/master/DeDRM_calibre_plugin/DeDRM_plugin_ReadMe.txt

Update 2025.04.30

If you have already completed the installation and configuration of both Calibre and ADE they will survive an OS update. Everything work again after updating from Ubuntu 20.04 to 24.04.

Get the ADE key

I tried with the info in sourcecode:

https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/blob/master/Other_Tools/DRM_Key_Scripts/Adobe_Digital_Editions/adobekey.pyw
Windows users: Before running this program, you must first install Python.
We recommend ActiveState Python 2.7.X for Windows (x86) from
http://www.activestate.com/activepython/downloads.
You must also install PyCrypto from
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/modules.shtml#pycrypto
(make certain to install the version for Python 2.7).
Then save this script file as adobekey.pyw and double-click on it to run it.
It will create a file named adobekey_1.der in in the same directory as the script.
This is your Adobe Digital Editions user key.

But I had no luck with ActiveState Python ( ActivePython-2.7.13.2713-win32-x86-401787.exe ) and the I fall back to base python installation.

I downloaded python-2.7.13.msi from here https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.13/python-2.7.13.msi

Then I started a Windows Command Line from PlayOnLinux and tried to install pycrypto but I discovered that it needs another library; the Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler for Python 2.7.

After downloaded

https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjku8CX6NbSAhXLERQKHQocA4UQFggcMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fdownload%2Fdetails.aspx%3Fid%3D44266&usg=AFQjCNGcLCiv_suv67XLcfGWw-Wi2xFRKQ&sig2=xwm8wetGu-BhfEXvMb802g

You can download the VC for python from https://web.archive.org/web/20210106040224/https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/9/6/796EF2E4-801B-4FC4-AB28-B59FBF6D907B/VCForPython27.msi

and installed I retried to install the pycrypto library:

pip install pycrypto

This time I installed it with success; then I continued to follow the above instruction to get the .der file.

In the file https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/master/Other_Tools/DRM_Key_Scripts/Adobe_Digital_Editions/adobekey.pyw

I needed to change the winreg import as follow:

import _winreg as winreg 

Install linux ebook reader

emerge -av calibre

Install the DeDRM plugin

Download it from https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/blob/master/DeDRM_calibre_plugin/DeDRM_plugin.zip And install in calibre  https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/blob/master/DeDRM_calibre_plugin/DeDRM_plugin_ReadMe.txt

After that you need to configure some data in it; I configured the kindle serial number ( not sure if it is needed ) and I imported the ADE key extracted before.

Remove the DeDRM

Only at this point, when all the configuration had been done, you can import your file. If the plugins was well configured and the file has a supported file format you will get it DRM free.

Attention The DRM removal happen only when the file is loaded therefore if you change any config you need to remove the book and reload it.

Troubleshooting

If the conversion fail for any reason you can start calibre in debug mode:

calibre-debug -g And get useful infos.

Problems

It doesn’t run properly on systems with multiple screens

https://www.playonlinux.com/en/topic-15182.html
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/43612595/adobe-digital-edition-4-5-on-multiple-screens

Playonlinux fail with

7f55c56c8000-7f55c56c9000 rw-p 00003000 08:08 434576                     /usr/lib64/libgmodule-2.0.so.0.5000.3/usr/share/playonlinux/bash/find_python: line 58:  3627 Aborted                 (core dumped) "$POL_PYTHON" "$POLDIR/python/check_python.py"
failed tests
Looking for python2.6... which: no python2.6 in (/usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/5.4.0:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/bin:/opt/nvidia-cg-toolkit/bin:/usr/games/bin)

Looking for python2... 2.7.12 - wxversion(s): 3.0-gtk2, 2.8-gtk2-unicode
*** Error in `/usr/lib/python-exec/python2.7/python2': double free or corruption (out): 0x00007ffd403d1950 ***

This can happen when you update gcc and not all the reverse dependencies had been update! Solve it with:

revdep-rebuild --library 'libstdc++.so.6' -- --exclude gcc

Links

DeDRM_tools https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/tree/master/DeDRM_calibre_plugin

Full Guide but OLD ( 2013 ) http://dikkiisdiatribe.blogspot.de/2013/01/how-to-get-round-drm-issues-with-e.html

https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/blob/master/DeDRM_calibre_plugin/DeDRM_plugin_ReadMe.txt

http://tech.kateva.org/2013/08/using-calibre-and-dedrm-plug-in-to.html

Install a new 32bit env - called ADE Install msfont Install .net 4.0 - Failed no message Install .net 4.5 -> start installation .net from 2.0 3.0 not found -> continuing with 3.1SP

install msfont .net 3.0 -> will install .net 2.0 -> 2.0 SP1 -> 2.0 SP2 3.0 Failed to download -Download manually from filehippo and run manual installation

######### Install on the system wine New clean startup rm ~/.Playonlinux rm ~/.local/share/wineprefix

.net 3.0 -> will install .net 2.0 -> 2.0 SP1 -> 2.0 SP2 3.0 Failed to download -Download manually from filehippo and run manual installation –>Failed to install Try with winetricks

WINEPREFIX=~/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/ADE5/ winetricks

tried removing lib file

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1700283#p1700283

rm -f ~/.PlayOnLinux/wine/linux//lib/libz

USE Adobe Digital Edition 1.7 https://www.lehmanns.de/page/ebookadealt