I/O Error

I did not think it was Safari as I could not get it to work with Firefox either. The only version of Safari running on the difficult machine is 3.0.3. I also updated the flash player on that machine in hopes that would help. No dice.

I am definitely running out of ideas at this point.

Clearly there is something on that machine that is not happy with Adobe. I have no other programs running when we try. I have turned off ichat, and itunes.

How does DE activate? I keep thinking that is the problem. When I uninstall and redownload I feel that I am missing a piece.

Can DE run with out Reader 8.0? I get the impression that it cannot.

Debbie

OK. I've just tested Safari 3.0.3. No problems at all downloading an ebook.

This may be because the previous install of Digital Editions using Safari 2.0.4 was succesfully activated and that this only needs to be done once per computer.

Debra,

You're welcome. I've just installed Digital Editions on a Macbook Pro running OS X 10.4.10 and Safari 2.0.4. I had no problems whatsoever. It is possible to downgrade your Safari to 2.0.4?

The system requirements actually state that Safari 2.0.4 is supported. No mention of 3.0.3.

If this is the only difference between your Macs this may solve the problem. I'll try to remove DE, update Safari to 3.0.3 and try downloading an ebook. I'll let you know how it goes.

Regarding Digital Editions as a free product, that seems to be only for the time being. The plan is to have two versions, a free, ad-supported version and a premium version without the ads. Read about it here: http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/faq/#section-3

Maybe the premium version comes with a support plan!

Martin,

Thank you so much for replying so quickly. We are all running OS X 10.4.10. The computer having trouble is running Safari 3.0.3. That is a full version ahead of the other macs. I downloaded Firefox on the troubled computer and tried that installation as well (after a full uninstall). That did not work either.

I also called Adobe yesterday and was told there is no support for a free products.

It is really baffling why her computer will not download or authenticate even free books. I have tried many off the Adobe site.

Keep me posted. I am willing to try anything.

Debbie,

When you download an ebook which is delivered through an Adobe Content Server, I believe the ebook reader (Digital Editions or Adobe Reader 6/7) needs to perform some form of authentication in order for the DRM to work. Before the advent of Digital Editions, you could choose to do a named activation of your Adobe Reader 7 or 6, but some form of anonymous activation always took place and still does, it seems.

By the way, here's a link to our free ebook for testing purposes. It's in Danish but if it works, any Adobe ebook should work:
http://services.publizon.dk/retailer/FreeEBook.aspx

Whether or not you can use Adobe Reader 7 depends on the kind of Mac you have. An Intel Mac (such as the Macbook) will not install Adobe Reader 7 according to Adobe.com, but a PowerPC Mac will install v7.0.9, as far as I know. Download it here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html.

The missing voucher folder problem is not something I'm familiar with. I've just tried deleting it; the folder recreates itself, but any ebooks on the machine cannot be opened and a download of an ebook subsequently failed. I restored the original folder and all was back to normal.

Digital Editions shows up in my Add/Remove Programs (I'm using WinXP). I've also noticed these related folders:

*C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\www.macromedia.com\bin\digitaleditions2x0 - this is where the actual program is on a Windows PC

*Documents/My Digital Editions - where the ebook PDFs are located

*C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Application Data\Adobe\Digital Editions\Voucher - the voucher folder

If you could post details of both the system that works as well as the one that doesn't work it would be great.

I have of course contacted Adobe about this but that doesn't mean we can't try to work it out ourselves while we wait for an official response :-)

Martin

Martin,

We order our books from MBS Virtual Bookstore. They are well aware of the problem. It might be worth contacting them as well. Here is what other little information I can give you. When I read the log file it says there is an authentication error. Which is odd, as I am only trying to download the free ebooks in pdf format from Adobe's library. Also in scouring my hard drive for items used by DE I found a voucher folder. Do you know if this is installed initially or only when content is successfully downloaded? ON the machine that will not work, the voucher folder is missing. I tried copying it over from one of the machines that works and that did not help. I didn't really think it would.

I am happy to trouble shoot in any way I can. I can provide details of our systems, computers, logs, etc. My daughter needs the ebooks for school and is going to be stuck in one week's time if I cannot figure this out.

Is there anyway I can find Adobe Reader 6 or 7? I know the ebook reader was built into that version. It would be a temporary fix at least.

Last question for now. DE did not come with an uninstaller. If I truly wanted to start over what do I need to uninstall? Remember I am on a Mac. OS X 10.4.10.

I look forward to any and all suggestions.

Debbie

I've had a customer with the same issue. He had this setup: WinXP SP2, IE7, AVG Free, Adobe Reader 8.1 and he consistently got the IOError #2038. However, his co-worker on the same local network had no problems downloading ebooks on his machine, using Vista.

This error is quite puzzling. The only thing we know about the error is what Ric Wright wrote back in April on the now closed DE forum at ADobe Labs: "the message is simply that DE couldn't contact the server via your network. We don't get much info beyond timing out."

I know there are probably tens if not hundreds of possible reasons for this error to appear, but why it only appears on one of the two computers on the same network is beyond me.

Anyone else care to share their experiences with Error #2038? Maybe we can work it out together.

I am having the same issues. MacBook. OS X 10.4.10. I cannot get any help on this issue. I have tried to uninstall and reinstall too many times. We have no firewall running.

I am awaiting any one's suggestions.