Howto Set Up and sync a Palm PDA

[styla]

hi, folks!

what helped aldmal is not really an option for me. i just don't have quite the time to reinstall my linux. plus, evolution is a nice program.

I have a Palm m500 I recently bought off ebay. All the syncing stuff is cool, but takes a lot of time to configure *sigh*. I've looked into kpilot, too, but since it doesn't sync with any GNOME apps, I kicked it out again. I have my reservations in regards to KDE, I have to admit.

Anyway, the syncing has worked great for a few days now, but at some point I figured I would like to use the sendmail conduit as well. I did a few changes in the gnome-pilot settings but nothing helped, the palm won't sync any more. It just times out - and I hate it when that happens...

Whatever, it's late. I'll try again tomorrow and let you guys know what happens.

[Grue]

How about a guide to get IRDA syncing to work?

I posted a question on the subject here.

[Sokraates]

After a lot of searching (read this thread, too) I finally got syncing working again. Posted it to another thread a few days ago, so I'll just quote myself.

Hope it helps someone.

I had the same problem with my Tungsten E. gnome-pliot, jpilot and kpilot refused to sync after upgrading to Breezy. And they all complained that ttyUSB1 didn't exist. Before the upgrade, it worked like a charm.

The solution:

[CODE]$ sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/10-custom.rules[/CODE]

Delete the following line:

[CODE]BUS="usb", SYSFS{product}="Palm Handheld*", KERNEL="ttyUSB*", NAME{ignore_remove}="pilot", MODE="666"[/CODE]


Right. Just the one we all entered to make syncing work with Hoary.
I figured it out after trying to sync with a breezy live-cd and it worked.

If there are no other entries, you can probably delete the whole file.

Edit: Forgot to say, that it now works with jpilot and kpilot, using /dev/pilot or /dev/ttyUSB1.

By now I've deleted /etc/udev/rules.d/10-custom.rules, since another entry prevented my digicam from being recognized in PTP-mode.

[gypsy98101]

I will add my two cents just in case someone still can't get theirs to work and to request some comments on my solution.
First, I tried pretty much everything I could find in these forums, including some udev scripts. Please note that I am very much a noob and I was doing things that I hardly understood so I'm not totally sure what state my computer was in except that my 'palm pilot' (actually a Treo 600) would only be recognized if I logged in as root. If I logged in as root, things worked nice, everything would hotsync, it was heaven. But since I do in fact understand the dangers of working in the root login, I don't want to use root for anything except sys admin stuff.
So my problem was precisely this: everything worked fine as root, but I couldn't 'see' the device when logged in as a normal user. I found a few threads that alluded to this problem, but none of them really helped. Part of the problem is that the device node is not created until an actual hotsync is performed, and then it's kind of fleeting. I tried configuring KPilot lots of ways to sort of 'guess' which node was going to be created, but nothing worked reliably. I was frustrated.
Here was my solution: I logged in as root (here is yet another valid use for the root account) so I could watch what happened. I opened konqueror to the '/dev/' directory and then plugged in myTreo. When I hit the hotsync button, I noticed that a new node, which was actually a link, was created named '/dev/pilot/'. So guessing that priveleges on that thing were really at issue, I quickly checked what the owner/group and privileges were of that node. I noticed that the owner was root but the group was something funny, like 'dialout' or something. Not having any other plan, I opened KUser while still in root and added the group 'dialout' to my other limited-rights account. Guess what. When I logged in as the limited-rights user (+dialout) everything worked like a champ. Now I can hotsync as an ordinary user and life is SWEET again.
I'll also throw in that, armed with this new e-weapon, I was also able to get my iPod noticed as an ordinary user although I had to add a different group (plugdev or something like that). Now I really feel like I'm on to something here.
So here's my question to anyone, how dangerous is adding these groups to a limited-rights account? I understand completely that the more groups I add, the less limited the account is, but are the two groups I just mentioned (dialout and plugdev) something to worry about? And if so, how would I locate and change whatever the thing is that is dynamically creating these nodes in dangerous (if so) groups?

[silverfire]

Here's a question for you. I can sync and install files to my Zire 71 just fine. The only problem is I can't install anything directly to the SD card. I have to install to the device, then move the installed app to the card after. I installed a freeware MP3/OGG player app and would like to use it; however, I cannot get the media files on the card in a way that lets them be recognized.

I tried formatting the card, thinking that might help. Ha. Now I can't do anything but read the card with the SD card reader I have on my computer. So I can't put the music files on the card that way, either.

Anyone have any ideas on how I can get this to work? I'd love to be able to install things directly to the card, like you can in the Palm Desktop software in Windows. And I'd also love to be able to take advantage of the music-playing ability my Palm has. Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[matthew]

Here's a question for you. I can sync and install files to my Zire 71 just fine. The only problem is I can't install anything directly to the SD card. I have to install to the device, then move the installed app to the card after. I installed a freeware MP3/OGG player app and would like to use it; however, I cannot get the media files on the card in a way that lets them be recognized.

I tried formatting the card, thinking that might help. Ha. Now I can't do anything but read the card with the SD card reader I have on my computer. So I can't put the music files on the card that way, either.

Anyone have any ideas on how I can get this to work? I'd love to be able to install things directly to the card, like you can in the Palm Desktop software in Windows. And I'd also love to be able to take advantage of the music-playing ability my Palm has. Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I've never tried to do this. If no one replies here you might want to post a new thread in case there is someone who might know but who is not reading this particular thread.

[silverfire]

I got the read-only access problem fixed. I ended up having to do a mkfs.vfat on the device, after I finally got it unmounted (I'd switched back to Linspire, in the hopes that maybe it was just something in Ubuntu that was causing it, and I ended up unable to unmount it until I killed a process trying to access it or write to it or something along those lines).

I got the player program re-synced to the Palm, put a test .ogg file on the card, then tried it out. It worked. Yay.

Now my only concern is still the install directly to card issue. Not as big an issue now, but still an issue.

[dotmil]

After a lot of searching (read this thread, too) I finally got syncing working again. Posted it to another thread a few days ago, so I'll just quote myself.

Hope it helps someone.


By now I've deleted /etc/udev/rules.d/10-custom.rules, since another entry prevented my digicam from being recognized in PTP-mode.

Awesome! This finally got me up and running! Thanks!

[pito]

Hello...Hope I am not boring you...

I do have problems with synchrinizing my Palm with the 5.10 ubuntu. It worked OK on Fedora Core3 for over a year. Now Ihave switched to Ubuntu. Very nice Distro but the palm-pilot stopped to work.

I see that /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1 are created when the the Palm Pilot is connected.
I use UDEV utilities and I see that it create correct /dev/pilot automatically every time the pilot is connected.

In the /var/log/messages I see all the stuff correctly initialized.
The problem is that when I Sync the Palm nothing happends.
dplsh -p /dev/ttyUSB0 is not working
dplsh -p /dev/ttyUSB1 is not working
dplsh -p /dev/pilot neither works

/sbin/lsmod shows usbserial as stated on some TODOs lists.


I did try the GNOME UI for pilot but with the same negative result.

Any clue ? MAybe some one of you has the same problems ?
Is there any possibility to debug/log things on line and see what is happening ?

Best Regards
PiTo

[styla]

well... syncing works for me.

i had put /dev/USB0 and /dev/USB1 as Cradle and Cradle1 in my Gnome-pilot settings thingy but it wouldn't sync. Or rather, it did once and I thought awesome. But the next time I tried, it didn't.

Just yesterday I added yet another cradle: /dev/pilot as Cradle2 and lo, it did sync again.

Just to make sure I don't tell you crap I just tried five syncs on my palm m500 (like the ad says: "Isn't it great when things just... work?"). They worked smoothly - after I unplugged my MP3 player and plugged the HotSync station in again...