Accessing dictionary on unregisterd, unrooted Nook HD?

[TalEvans]

Hi all

I recently acquired a Nook HD (8GB), and I don't want to register or root it (tempted to root it, but a bit terrified of bricking it and so far I can do everything I want to without rooting).

This is a brilliant site, I've been able to find answers to all of my questions except this one.

I've worked out how to sideload apps using ADB install (from a laptop running Ubuntu 14.04), and so far I'm really happy with what it can do EXCEPT....

I can't access the built-in dictionary. When I use Terminal Emulator to look for /system/media/reference/basewords.db, it's right there (along with bgwords.db, fwp.db and inflectedwords.db).

But when I try to look up a word in the Reader, it suggests I download a dictionary, and when I touch 'Download', it brings me to the Reader settings page, which has a Dictionary Options entry, but with nothing available.

I'm a bit of a newbie - I've been reading through the Alternative Dictionaries thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1477918) to see if there's anything relevant, but I don't quite understand all of it and I'm not sure I'd recognise anything that might help.

Could anyone help me access the dictionary which is clearly there?

Thank you!

 

[Renate NST]

Oh! It's been a while since I looked at this.

It shouldn't have crashed in any case.

The (new style) dictionary files are kept in /sdcard/Dictionaries/
Try copying some (new style) dictionaries there.
Make sure you can select them in the drop-down on the right in the app.

I think that the app should be able to handle (to some extent) the old style, stock dictionaries.
They would have to be copied over to /sdcard/Dictionaires/ to be found though.

 

[TalEvans]

Oh! It's been a while since I looked at this.

It shouldn't have crashed in any case.

The (new style) dictionary files are kept in /sdcard/Dictionaries/
Try copying some (new style) dictionaries there.
Make sure you can select them in the drop-down on the right in the app.

I think that the app should be able to handle (to some extent) the old style, stock dictionaries.
They would have to be copied over to /sdcard/Dictionaires/ to be found though.

Thank you so much for your help!!

I've moved the eng-fra.db and fra-eng.db files now into sdcard/Dictionaries/ and they seem to be working fine.

I also copied the stock dictionaries into the same directory, but they aren't quite working, though:
* All four are visible in the Lookup dropdown menu
* For three of them - basewords, fwp and bgwords - I can type in a word and see the headwords, but the moment I select any one, Lookup stops
* For the fourth, inflectedwords, the moment I type a letter in, Lookup stops

Is your nookdict.exe on the temblast site the right tool to convert the stock dictionaries?
Updated: yes, I guess it is - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=37059619&highlight=convert#post37059619 I will need to try this at home later.

Thank you again!
Tal

 

[TalEvans]

Dictionary update!

Sorry for the long delay in updating - not only was I busy with boring Real Life stuff, but I also started worrying that nookdict.exe wasn't running when I double-clicked on it in Windows 8, and it took a couple of days before it occurrred to me to run it from the command line.

Anyway, I converted basewords.db using the nookdict.exe utility, and it appears to be working fine. I didn't create it with an index, which means it's slooooooow, but at least i can access the content!!! Next step is to re-do it with the index.

Interestingly, however, I've realised that the temblast eng-fra.db and fra-eng.db dictionaries are NOT working fine using Lookup on the unrooted Nook HD. They work fine for some words but sometimes is just weird.

For example, if I type s when using the eng-fra.db, the list shows s in the list, between Scotswoman and scoundrel. Tapping on scoundrel or any of the entries below the s results in the appropriate translation-entry, but tapping on Scotswoman or any entry above the s does not show the translation-entry, but instead shows 'Scotswoman' (or whatever) within a list, with a lot of hyphenated entries (ending with -y) before it, then Scotswoman (or whatever), then the beginning of the a entries.

This only happens with some letters. The ones that don't work are: d, e, g, i, j, l, m, s, u, w, z.

Any ideas? Is this an index problem? Nothing like this is happening with the unindexed converted version of basewords.db.