I have been unable to get my palmIIIxe to sync using serial cradle. I have tried gnome toaster and jpilot and make the simbolic link to the serial port and the pilot always says unable to connect. I have read every forum I could find. The same pc box when running win95se and the pilot desktop will sync no problem but not running linux. I am trying to migrate away from windows. Is there a way to trouble shoot problem?

hi sirius. i'm in the same quandry only with a IIIc. i use mandrake 10.1 instead of your fc1.

i have the serial cradle and i know that the cradle works. under windows 2k (for me) the palm syncs exceptionally well. further under different linux distros the palm will sync. my wife's comp runs mandrake 9.1 and hers syncs.

under mandrake 10.0, 10.1ce when i tried to sync and had the appropriate port selected my computer actually froze. now it doesn't it do that. i've even tried different syncing cables.

give something usb a shot. see if that syncs for you. that hasn't even worked for me.....yet.

I don't have a IIIx or IIIxe available right now to experiment with, but both of those were sync'ing on a serial port OK with JPilot when I was using Mandrake 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2. Since going to Mdk 10.1 OE I have only had a Tungsten E and it syncs on USB.

I would try to sync via USB if I had a IIIxe to experiment with. When sync'ing via USB, you must activate the hot sync ON THE PALM DEVICE first, wait a few seconds for the system to grab that connection, and then activate the JPilot or pilot-xfer, etc., sync. Otherwise there will just be a timeout.

And at this point I was going to say how I made a symbolic link to /dev/pilot, but I don't know how to find out! I just know I did it when I got the Tungsten E going (I had used serial sync'ing before that, with my III devices). Anyway, in JPilot under preferences>settings you can either specify a USB port or the symbolic /dev/pilot and I find that I'm referencing /dev/pilot there.

A side note: syncing got much more reliable after I purchased an inexpensive USB hub and attached my camera, Palm, mouse, and UPS cables to it instead of switching cables all the time.

It sounds like some linux distros have serial port issues. I am using Fedora core 1. Is there a way to find out if an update is available for these issues that deal with my distribution of linux? And is a usb cradle available that fits all palm pilots or is there such a thing as a usb adapter for serial plugs? When a symbolic link is created, is a file created that is placed in a pilot symbolic link folder? What is the full path to see if it is set up properly?

I wish I knew how to track that symbolic link! I confess ignorance. I thought it would show up somewhere but danged if I can find it...I haven't searched EXHAUSTIVELY for it but I'm also not sure how to search for a link....

It's been over a half year since I started USB sync'ing (got the Tungsten E in June), but as best as I recall, I made the link "ln -s /dev/pilot /dev/usb0" -- but chances are that's not right. Also, I am pretty sure the handling of USB devices underwent a change between version 9.2 of Mandrake and version 10.x.

There is no /dev/usbANYTHING in my /dev directory.

I found serial-to-USB adapters via Google; to avoid the appearance of advertising, I believe I'm not supposed to put actual links here. But it's easy to look up.

Wish I could be more helpful. I've had to jump through dozens and dozens of hoops myself getting my Palm devices to work under Linux. It seems like it ought to be so simple. But a lot of things are that way...