yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
That's fine, I just wanted to verify that this is the same old problem.

This problem was first reported in 2015. (There are actually half a dozen threads on the same problem.)

Loan Token Not Found on Nook Simple Touch

Computer OS: Windows 8.1. ADE version: 4.0.3.114137 Device: B&N Nook Simple Touch After working fine as recently as a few days ago, my Nook is suddenly unable to read a book downloaded from my public library. The book can be read on the Windows desktop using Adobe Digital Editions, but when I...

community.adobe.com
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
I'm going to have to demur temporarily on the ADE issue. I set mine up so long ago following directions from who knows where and for obvious reasons am reluctant to fiddle with it. A tenth circle of hell would seem to have a vacancy reserved for Adobe. But, I do have another PC without all the stuff already on it so I can try later to install ADE 3.0 and make it recognize another of my NSTs. I'll keep you posted.

My sequence of events for checking out Kindle (Overdrive) books specified Opera Mini. Opera Mobile, for all its fading assets, can't negotiate most logins, Google having become impossible only a month or two ago. You may find that Opera Mini is all you will want. I am tied to Opera Mobile for the time being because it can open local HTML files and I exploit that in some of the news apps I wrote. But I can see that is not going to work much longer. Time for some hard and creative thinking and much debugging.

If you want only USBHost and NoRefresh, you can just replace the kernal files with the ones here. To replace kernal files follow these steps. And reboot. If you also want to enable USB Audio, the easiest path is to use the CWM flashable zip by @pinguy1982. The kernal in that zip is overclocked and enables the use of FastMode, so if you would rather have NoRefresh, you just open the zip archive (not unzip) and drag the first set of kernal files I referenced to replace the resident ones. The process is described in more detail here.

Either way, you will need an app to activate USBHost mode. @Renate NST has one in her signature (and a companion app for audio). This is really useful if you are running into trouble and need to diagnose issues. Or, you can push your luck and try my one-touch toggle apps. I use them exclusively now without any problems, but I do think a lot depends on the"fit" of your OTG adapter. Just a guess. NoRefresh also requires an app. You can follow the link you'll find in my signature.

Edit: almost forgot about Opera Mobile. You'll have more luck by setting the security to TLS 1.2-- one of the remaining advantages of the app. Some websites will still refuse the browser, but many will at least consider it. Instructions are here: https://xdaforums.com/t/opera-mobile-and-tls-1-2.3843524/
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
OK, so here's what I have after doing a first time install with version 3.0 of ADE on another computer and trying to set up another NST.

It's important to remember that any authorizations are both device and installation dependent. So a book you downloaded with a different installation of ADE, even authorized with the same credentials, will not be seen as legitimate by ADE. So the first thing to do is delete the book that was left over when Windows uninstalled your previous version of ADE. You're not going to be able to do anything with it.

First the PC

1. install ADE

2. open ADE and under the "Help" menu select "Authorize computer". Fill in your credentials and click on "authorize".

Note: be careful if you're fooling around a lot to get things working. Don't uninstall ADE without first deauthorizing it, otherwise you are likely to run out of your allotted number of authorizations. It is said that you can contact Adobe and have your count reset. Speaking from an unsuccessful experience I can only say that the apparent AI (Artificial Ignorance) that responds to emails has a woeful lack of understanding of the English language and seems to know nothing about their products).

3. Check out a library book (epub) and see if you can fulfill it with ADE. If you can and you can read it in the program on your PC, you're half done. Close ADE.

The NST

Even with a new NST there is a sort of "dummy" folder which needs to be removed before trying to authorize the device with your ADE installation. If you have previous, now non-working ADE stuff on your NST, it's even more important to get rid of the stuff.

1. Delete /media/.adobe-digital-editions

2. If you have a "Digital Editions" folder in /media from previous content, delete it also

3. Connect the NST to your PC. Wait a few moments.

4. Open ADE

5. IF the devices are making nice with each other you may see the Nook listed as a device in the left-hand pane of the library screen. The little cog-wheel icon near it offers the option to authorize the device. Do it and then try dragging the book you downloaded earlier to the "Nook".

One source suggests that on opening ADE with the NST connected you will see a "Device Setup Assistance dialog". I did not and suspect this is perhaps for a different version of ADE. But anything is possible.

Probably with these items in mind your installation of ver. 4.5 would have been fine and if you'd rather have a more up-to-date version, you might as well try. Just help Windows out a little if you decide to do that. Check for folders that have not been deleted during uninstallation, especially in C:/Users/[you]/App Data.
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Actually, you can go back and forth in ADE 3.0 & ADE 4.5 if they both have registered the same device.

ADE on your desktop looks at device.xml which has a "fingerprint" which is a hashed B&N serial number and an automatically generated "salt".

If you wipe the directory off your Nook then a new "salt" and therefore a new "fingerprint" will be generated.

activation.xml references this "fingerprint".

Peronally, I've never seen any voodoo like "connect this first, then..."

(Which is not to say that it doesn't exist.)
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
Thank you both again for your detailed help and directions! I've followed them all and I've landed... much in the same place as before. Only now with 1.2.2 software, so that's something.

I did manage to get ADE 4.5 running on my laptop again, so if you want to test anything more, I can. If you're reading this and running into the same trouble I was having, click the taskbar icon so that it's active and press alt+space. You'll get an option to restore or maximize what's currently an invisible window. If you're like me and have something else tied to that keyboard combo (Microsoft PowerToys in my case) , you'll have to temporarily disable it.

I deauthorized and reauthorized everything, deleted the folders and files you indicated from the nook and... same error messages on all counts, the ciritcal one being "Loan token not found" for any DRM'd epub transferred to the device so far.
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
Wow, that's weird. I know some people have trouble with ADE, but I must have been awfully lucky. I'm pretty sure the answer is "no", but you didn't by any chance remove any of the B&N stuff? And I'm sure the books you are trying to transfer have not expired?

It seems unlikely that anything you've done in rooting, etc. would have caused this. If the backup/restore process were not hamstrung by the malfunctioning hardware button I'd suggest making a backup and then starting with a -fresh-out-of-the-box FW 1.2.2 device, no rooting or anything else, and see if you have the same ADE issues.

Well, I'll keep poking around. Maybe I'll find something. In the meantime, at least there's the Kindle app for library books :)
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
Oh right! I'd forgotten to try that. Unfortunately I'm also hitting the same roadblock there. I probably didn't even describe it above because I figured it was from the 1.1.0 software:

I downloaded and installed the Amazon app and tried signing in. It rejected my sign-in, as expected, but interestingly, instead of emailing me a one-time password, it texted me one (a 6 digit number) on my phone, saying to use that password to sign in. Unfortunately that one-time password doesn't work to sign in to the Kindle app either.
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
Success!

Got Overdrive epubs via ADE 3.0 working. Honestly I have no idea what was different. I retraced my steps in deauthorizing and deleting things and tried again with ADE 3.0 and now it works. 4.5 still does not work, but I don't particularly care. Probably I just missed something hidden the first time I tried.

So, so far to the original question, has the 1st gen NST had its last gasp, I think my provisional answer is likely that hacking and doing cool things with it is becoming increasingly untenable, but using it for its originally intended, limited functions, still works okay with more tinkering and sweat than should be absolutely necessary.
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
I'm glad you got the ADE thing sorted.

Edit: make a backup!

As to Amazon, well, see, that's another reason why I don't own a cell phone! You obviously have a mobile phone number on file with Amazon. All they have is my email address. Did you use your mobile number as a username when trying to sign in? This seems to be the case for many sign-ins these days. I used an email address because that's all I've got. So for me my Amazon username/password and my Kindle username/password are the same, I guess that means I don't know how to help here :-( But your experience with ADE suggests that the battle should not be over just yet.

Edit: are you

sure

you updated the cacerts.bks file and the permissions are rw-r-r? The md5 checksum should be f17c8294f51e21865c9fbc01a78e5153

They are going to have to pry my NSTs out of my cold dead hands (sheesh!). They do sometimes require patience to set up the way you want, but IMHO they are vastly more versatile than the succeeding models, largely owing to a nucleus of creative people who just couldn't stop pushing the boundaries. Those folks are all long gone now except for @Renate NST, the only person around who actually understands anything! The NST remains a great casual reader for people who are not too persnickety. And it's fun, too :)
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
I don't understand this bit at all. If there is a tab on the taskbar then it's not really an invisible window.

Believe it or not, Adobe handles (small w) windows goofily.

The fulfill progress dialog is another top-level window, the fulfill failure dialog is yet another top-level window.

There's a bunch of differences between ADE 3.0 and ADE 4.5 but it's mostly to do with stuff under the hood that has to do with desktop viewing.

If you don't use desktop viewing life would probably be easier with ADE 3.0

"Loan token not found" is 100% that the book is not included in activation.xml

Expired gives a different error.

In the old days there used to be a limit on activating devices.

You had to contact Adobe and ask them pretty please to reset your limit.

Deactivating and reactivating without clearing the device may not count.

I just avoid needless activations.
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
To be more literal about it, here’s exactly what you see:

1. Double click desktop icon or otherwise launch ADE 4.5

2. Icon appears on taskbar, nothing else is visible. If you hover over the icon you see a preview of what appears to be a blank, white square window.

3. If you double-click on the taskbar icon a few times, there is an animation of a window minimizing from (but not restoring to) somewhere out of the viewport to the right, as if there was another monitor that way.

4. Right-clicking the icon gives you the option to close the program, which works.

5. Clicking the icon and then hitting alt+space opens up an old school menu in the very top right corner of the screen that has the kind of indow management options you’d see in maybe the Windows 95 days, including minimize, maximize, and restore (greyed out). One or more of these options work and bring a working window onto your screen.

Here‘s a lengthy discussion on the subject where I got the tip.

I used my email as my username, but yes, they do have my number on file. Do you remember if the one time password they sent you was a six digit number?

I’m fairly certain I set permissions properly on the cacerts.bks but I also added a certificate manually so the checksum likely no longer matches. I can try logging into amazon on one of the Operas to see if I get security errors.
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
I got a four digit OTP if memory serves me. They could have changed that.

To reduce variables here it might help to go back to the cacerts.bks I provided.

Edit: I'm charging up another NST and after backing it up will uninstall Kindle and try it myself. I'll report back.
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Oh, then the shortcut was created incorrectly.

I'm surprised (not!) that Adobe screwed this up.

Right click the desktop icon and select Properties > Shortcut > Run

It probably says "Minimized"?

Change it to something else.
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
In the words of the inimitable Jeeves, this is most disturbing.

I uninstalled the Kindle app and then reinstalled it. I went through the login attempt and received a 6 digit numerical OTP via email. But like you, I was unable to complete a login using it. I tried several times more with the same result.

I looked at the cacerts.bks file and at Amazon's site and decided that a certificate might be missing, so I added another. Same result. Logcat is not very helpful. Most of it is about that idiot battery widget in the status bar. The system devotes more time (and no doubt battery power!) to that widget than anything else if one can judge by logcat.

Anyway, this is the only relevant section:

E/global ( 1941): Trouble finalizing SSL socket (SSL socket over Socket[addr=firs-ta-g7g.amazon.com/176.32.98.106,port=443,localport=56024], for Socket[addr=firs-ta-g7g.amazon.com/176.32.98.106,port=443,localport=56024])

E/global ( 1941): java.io.IOException: SSL shutdown failed.: Ok

E/global ( 1941): at org.apache.harmony.xnet.provider.jsse.OpenSSLSocketImpl.nativeclose(Native Method)

E/global ( 1941): at org.apache.harmony.xnet.provider.jsse.OpenSSLSocketImpl.close(OpenSSLSocketImpl.java:941)

E/global ( 1941): at org.apache.harmony.xnet.provider.jsse.OpenSSLSocketImpl$Finalizer.run(OpenSSLSocketImpl.java:1031)

Such SSL errors are not good news.

What amazes me is that old logins seem to be "grandfathered", so to speak. Thus I was able to complete the checkout of a Kindle book as I recently described to you and have it appear on one of my devices. I hope when I restore my backup on

this

device the Kindle app will still be functonal.

I see in my Firefox certificate trove that there are quite a few Amazon certificates, as opposed to the two DigiCert ones that show up with Amazon.com. I can't see how these might be involved, but I guess as a last effort I could add them to the cacerts.bks file and see if it makes any difference.

The sad thing--yet another sad thing--is that this may be the end of the Kindle app for new users and, if so, probably soon for old timers like me. I'm also going to try installing the app on my KitKat device and see if it can negotiate the login. KitKat is marginally better with SSL things but still aging rapidly.

Not too hopeful.
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
I think you’re expecting a level of logic and internal consistency that is unrealistic for ADE. 😝The solution I described and as linked works permanently, and there doesn’t seem to be any way that it would change the shortcut (not to mention the fact

theat the behavior persisted even if the application was launched by something other than the desktop shortcut).

Oof, sorry to hear that. Thanks for all the time and effort experimenting with it and good luck restoring the functionality to yours!

This certainly has made me think more carefully about having a fairly durable device like an ebook reader be run on software designed for devices that are typically upgraded/discarded after two years. Cools my enthusiasm for an Onyx Boox if the Poke 3 could lose useful software support by 2023 (probably won’t actually be that bad, but still)...
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
The reason the taskbar preview of ADE shows only a white rectangle is that Adobe is foregoing normal Windows windowing and is doing their own goofy stuff.

I think that you are being inordinately hard on the B&N devices.

The NST is a decade old.

Trying to maintain compatibility with current devices is an uphill and to my mind a pointless task.

Developing software to both work on your phone and the NST has lots of gotchas.

You have to put in conditionals or make different versions.

The NST has a loader with bugs and only works with non-PIE executables.

Android 5.0 requires all ELF files to be PIE.

The Glow2 is five years old.

I still use mine as a reader.

I don't use any 3rd party apps (except stock Launcher) or WiFi.

The Glows have three times the number of pixels of the NST

Any replacement for a Glow has basically the same display.

The NST has Linux 2.6

The Glow has Linux 3.0

My phone has Linux 4.9
[Nook Touch General] SJT75:
I agree with Renate. NST is old. It is far better hardware then software which resides in it. Only way to make it cope with new challenges would be making new dedicated software from the "level zero" but that seems pointless.

I do not have at this moment any library in my country that lends ebooks. Even ebooks making is at the very starting point from my perspective. Therefore I just do not have nothing to add in the debate about ADE. Certificates will most likely be a straw that could broke a camel's back.

Just for the sake of staying in line with topic run in this thread I must say that various internet reviews for the best reader 2020 and "2021” literally mentioned all devices we did here. And yet again Renate is correct as her favorite has highest marks. B&N was mentioned only once again with model Renate already have and with a comment "oh how mighty have been fallen".
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Well, I bit the bullet.

Boox finally had US stock on the Poke 3.

We'll see...

Edit: It's been shipped...
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
The good news is that restoring my backup gave me back my functioning Kindle app. Still works as previously described with Overdrive Kindle books.

The bad news, of course, is that this appears to be the end of the line for new installations of this app. I installed a copy on a KitKat device and was unable to complete a sign-in there as well, so likely the SSL chops for this version are simply no longer enough for Amazon servers.

Legacy installs like mine are obviously on borrowed time. But then, aren't we all?

Edit: 9-1-21, Trying to clean up after myself here. @jptiger, you've doubtless given up on the NST as any kind of reading device at this point, but in case someone else stumbles across these posts I just wanted to add that the issue with Kindle login has apparently been solved (at least for now) by @wrexroad. The problem seems to be with Amazon accounts for which 2SV has been enabled. The old Kindle app can't deal with the second level of verification. If you disable 2SV on your Amazon account, you will be able to sign in with the old Kindle app (you still get a OTP email, but the OTP actually works). After, you can re-enable 2SV if you prefer and the Kindle app will continue to function properly since the authentication information is resident on the device.

There was a twist in this for me because I had never enabled 2SV (no cell phone). I actually had to enable it (borrow a cell phone number...) so that I could

disable

it (the little button must actually say "disabled"). After that I was able to sign in new installations of the Kindle app. So....not dead yet.
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
And... I got my Poke3.

Initial appraisal: thumbs-up:

Ok, there are a number of nits and I haven't even rooted it yet.

It's elegant, small and lightweight.

Enabling ADB is in "Applications" (and not Settings as you'd expect).

It's not hidden or anything.

My initial biggest worry was that stupid "Navigation Ball".

You can turn that off, but no, not in Settings, there is an application named "Navigation Ball" to turn it off.

In the stock Android settings you can go to Accessibility and disable it completely

My worries about no buttons were a little assuaged.

It uses swipes starting at the bottom over the bezel and continuing onto the screen for the recent, home, back buttons.

In rotated mode, they follow the orientation.

I don't think that they are actually detecting over the bezel exactly, but these swipes are easily differentiable from normal swipes.

The stupid backlight has two controls which are not color & brightness, but hot & cold.

I feel like I'm in a cheap hotel.

Also, it doesn't seem to follow the standard Android brightness either.

Bottom line: There are still more annoying things to fix, but I can read my book completely normal on my own reader.

Grr... Sleep images are in /system/media

In their Settings is Local/Cloud/Push.

However in Storage a long push can set a file as either Screensaver or Powerdown image.

Grayed text automatically gets an ugly border.

I must see how to defeat this.

Edit: This came with a "cover", a thin plastic shell with a front flap.

I'm still making up my mind.

It's sort of convenient that there is a magnetic sensor and it shuts off when you close.

For now, I'm gluing a 1/4/" T-nut to the cover with epoxy so I can use my bendy foot on this.

Some folks might like the cover or maybe glue a cell phone "spinner" to the back.

I like having my gooseneck foot, even when I'm holding it in the air.

More edits: It's nice that it actually is square; it sits evenly propped up on a table, unlike the Glow2 with the USB jack lump.

If your reader can use VOLUME_UP (or be made to) as a page turn, a cheap $1 Chinese selfie clicker will turn pages for you.

I'm kind of beginning to like this.

Still, Android 10 is a much bigger mountain than 4.4 to bulldoze.

Yet more edits: It has a locked bootloader.

C:\>fastboot getvar secure
secure: no
C:\>fastboot getvar unlocked
unlocked: yes

It does have some sort of recovery, but no ADB on it.

It has an annoying tendency to turn off ADB all the time.

The latest update 2021-03-17 3.1 fixed that.

The cover is magnetic, but the body is not magnetic to keep it closed

More edits: For some reason the stock Launcher2 installs correctly but is never seen and can't be activated.

So I wrote my own (extremely primitive) launcher and that works fine.

It's better than looking at the Onyx stuff.
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
What are the odds of getting xda to start a forum for the device (or at least the Boox family)? I've never investigated the process.
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
I made a request a week ago.

https://xdaforums.com/t/new-device-forum-requests.1660354/page-1199#post-84763957

I think once we get the Poke3 rooted it will really be a thing.

As it's Android 10 we'll want a system-less root like Magisk.

It seems lazy, but I really like my clicker.

You can set your Poke3 up somewhere and leave your hands elsewhere.

Edit: Eh, made my launcher a bit prettier-like.

I did get stock launcher to run but it's all wacked out (due to Onyx customization somewhere).

Onyx also pm disables and pm hides some apps based on unknown criteria.