epub manufactured from kobo download

[fredex]

I bought a book from kobo using the kobo app on my phone. it downloads a bunch of directories and files, so that with only a modest amount of hacking I could make a zip file of it, rename .zip ==> .epub and calibre imports it nicely. It also is readable, and one can edit the metadata.

what I CANNOT do is edit the book text itself. it gives me this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre/gui2/tweak_book/job.py", line 33, in run
File "calibre/gui2/tweak_book/boss.py", line 101, in get_container
File "calibre/ebooks/oeb/polish/container.py", line 1598, in get_container
File "calibre/ebooks/oeb/polish/container.py", line 1217, in __init__
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.InvalidEpub: OPF file does not exist at location pointed to by META-INF/container.xml

however the OPF file DOES exist and it is exactly where container.xml says it should be.

now, the structure of this epub is a little odd, I assume because it isn't generated by Calibre, but since Calibre can display it for reading it doesn't seem to me to be wrong, per se.

I went and run epubcheck against it and got two errors (plus about a bazillion of the same warning over and over). The first error is:

ERROR(PKG-006): /home/fredex/Calibre Library/Ben Aaronovitch/Masquerades of Spring (940)/Masquerades of Spring - Ben Aaronovitch.epub//home/fredex/Calibre%20Library/Ben%20Aaronovitch/Masquerades%20of%20Spring%20(940)/Masquerades%20of%20Spring%20-%20Ben%20Aaronovitch.epub(-1,-1): Mimetype file entry is missing or is not the first file in the archive.

and the second error is:

[QUOTE]FATAL(OPF-002): /home/fredex/Calibre Library/Ben Aaronovitch/Masquerades of Spring (940)/Masquerades of Spring - Ben Aaronovitch.epub/META-INF/container.xml(-1,-1): The OPF file "https://46b164ee-6bef-494a-b1f5-711309832c65.epubcheck.w3c.org/OEBPS/content.opf" was not found in the EPUB./[QUOTE]

the first attachment is the top-level directory in the epub file, showing the mimetype file.
attachment 2 is the META-INF directory.
attachment 3 is the contents of the container.xml file in the META-INF directory.

So, it looks to my (uneducated eyes) as if the files are where they should be.

I'd appreciate any guidance you folks can offer me on this.

Thanks in advance!

Fred

[DNSB]

You might want to try a epub to epub conversion on it.

The mimetype file must be the first file in the zip container and must be uncompressed. If you are manually building the .zip container, you would add it first and uncompressed and then add the rest of the files/directories.

As for the content.opf file? You state that it exists and is exactly where the container.xml file says it should be. Since you do not show an OEBPS directory in the root of the zip file, and the container.xml shows that as where the content.opf file is to be found—the full-path="OEBPS/content.opf" gives that information, it's hardly surprising that epubcheck errors on it. You may want to check the contents of the Masquerades of Spring directory.

[fredex]

You suggestion of converting epub to epub seems to have solved all my problems. Thanks!

Fredex

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by fredex

Your suggestion of converting epub to epub seems to have solved all my problems. Thanks!

That works fairly often and is simpler for most people than re-arranging the files into the correct structure. Not everyone is comfortable with manually fixing an ebook file.

calibre's viewer is browser based and a lot more forgiving that most dedicated ePub renderers when it comes to garbage in.

[JSWolf]

Why not just download it as an ePub? You can use the ACSM Plugin and the DeDRM plugin if it has DRM.