lubuntu-desktop team mailing list archive

[Jonathan Marsden <jmarsden@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>> Da: br41n3r@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:br41n3r@xxxxxxxxx>
>> Data: 11/09/2011 18.17
>> Ogg: [Lubuntu-desktop] Asking: How to read 'chm' and 'pdb'

>> I'm a newbie and I really love my new lubuntu. But I have some
>> problems here. I can't open my 'chm' and 'pdb' files. Is there any
>> I can do? ...


Yes, these files are probably readable in Lubuntu.  There are things you
can do to help us find out exactly what they are.  Then, we can help you
to install and try out some programs that will work with them.

On 09/11/2011 10:18 AM, Phill Whiteside wrote:

> pdb seems to be the file extension used by PDA's.. ...


The ".pdb" extension is also used by some versions of Microsoft Visual
C/C++ as a "Program Database".  In general, across multiple platfrorms,
an extension .xyz does not uniquely identify a file type, even in
Windows it may not uniquely identify a filetype.

Fortunately (!), this is Linux, not Windows.  In Linux, we do not need
to guess what is in a file based on its file extension.  Instead, we can
find out what kind of file it is, based on its contents.  The simple
little utility for doing this is called

  file

So, in LXTerminal, please do

  cd /wherever/the/files/are  # use the real path for your files!
  file *.chm *.pdb

and tell us exactly what the file command outputs.

That output will indicate clearly and specifically what the files really
are.  We will "know" whether a .pdb file is a PalmOS database, or an
MSVC C/C++ program database, or something else entirely.

Then, once we know what the files are, we can look at what Linux
applications will read and write such files.  Clear, simple, step by
step, logical.  No guessing needed.

If we *want* to guess (for fun?): most likely, the .chm files will be
something like "MS Windows HtmlHelp Data", and the .pdb files *may* be
something like "DB PalmOS document", or any one of about 22 other PalmOS
file types, or they really may be "MSVC program database" files.

To read MS Windows HtmlHelp Data (.chm) files, you can use one of many
CHM viewer or converter programs in Linux.  In Lubuntu, I would start with

  sudo apt-get install xchm

for an X-based CHm file viewer, or

  sudo apt-get install chmsee

for a GTK-based viewer, and if you want to convert these files to HTML, try

  sudo apt-get install archmage

Working with "PalmOS Document" files may be a little trickier, depending
on exactly what kind of PalmOS file they are.  One possibility is an
ebook reader that can read many "interesting" PDA and ebook files,
fbreader, so

  sudo apt-get install fbreader

might be worth a try.

But again, these are just *guesses* -- we need the output from that file
command, to be able to help with any certainty at all about what these
files truly are.

Jonathan