Synchronizing Palm OS under Linux

[Layne Lund]

I recently bought a Handspring Visor and the Palm Desktop software only runs under Windows, afaik. Does anyone know of similar software that can run under Linux?
Thanks in advance,
Layne

[Greg Harris]

there are several apps that will allow you to sync your handspring with linux...

pilot-link

source forge

good luck!

[Layne Lund]

Thanks, I'll check those out.

[Tim Holloway]

Red Hat 8 comes with PalmOS software support built into the default desktop app set.
Although less popular, I like to use Coldsync. It's designed to let the hotsync mechanism run as a daemon if you like and you can write conduits in Perl. It's actually a LOT easier than doing conduits using the "standard" conduit system (a Windows DLL) since your debugging environment doesn't have to be as sophisticated.

[Layne Lund]

In another forum, I was told that RH8 has it under Menu->Preferences, but when I looked there, I couldn't find it. I'm pretty sure I installed everything. Of course, I upgraded from an earlier version of RH, so it might only have upgraded the components I already had installed. Using rpm, I found that I have some pilot-related packages installed:

Script started on Tue Dec 10 20:52:59 2002
[layne@localhost layne]$ rpm -qa | grep pilot
pilot-link-0.11.3-3
pilot-link-devel-0.11.3-3
xpilot-4.2.1-2
[layne@localhost layne]$ pilot-xfer -p /dev/ttyUSB1 -b visor
   ERROR: Permission denied
   Unable to bind to port '/dev/ttyUSB1'
   Please use --help for more information
[layne@localhost layne]$ exit
Script done on Tue Dec 10 20:53:34 2002

Is it possible that the desktop utilities are installed, but their icons aren't in the menu? If so, how do I find out if I have them installed? If they aren't installed, what do I look for on the RH CDs?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Layne
[ December 11, 2002: Message edited by: Layne Lund ]

[Greg Harris]

when i upgraded from redhat 7.3 to 8.0, it seems that 8.0 put a lot of my apps in:
Menu -> Extras -> ...
i recently re-installed 7.3 because of some problems with 8.0 - and now i am having a problem syncing my Treo. it seems that 8.0 is set up better by default for PalmOS pda's.

[Greg Harris]

well, i upgraded my linux box last night with the redhat 8.0 distro and got my handspring treo syncing again!
however, i think the problem with 7.3 could have been my fault. i did not give myself permission on ttyS1, so (obviously) i could not connect to my device.
i am using:
pilot-link-0.11.3
KPilot-4.3 (set up to sync with Evolution)
gnome-pilot-0.1.65-88 (creates back-up of handspring)
[ December 13, 2002: Message edited by: Greg Harris ]

[Layne Lund]

I downloaded JPilot from the Net and installed it to my machine. The GUI comes up just fine but when I click the Sync button, I get an error message:
pi_bind: invalid file or directory
What should I do to fix this problem?
Layne

[Layne Lund]

I figured it out finally. Thanks for everyone that gave some input. I had to create a link called /dev/pilot to the correct USB device. It took some trial and error to figure out which one the cradle was connected to, but I finally got it.
As a side question, is there a way to tell the numbering scheme for the USB ports. I mean which is ttyUSB0 and which is ttyUSB1? I found the "lsusb" command, but its output is somewhat esoteric. I'm having a difficult time deciphering it all. I'm just curious if there is a simple way or not.
Regards,
Layne

[Greg Harris]

i figured it out, too... i just bought a serial cable