Sync Palm IIIxe to Evolution

leupi · 03-25-2005, 06:51 PM

I have an older Palm IIIxe that I am trying to sync with Evolution 2.0.4. I got it to sync once but have had no luck after that and I am not sure what may have changed. I looked at /dev/ttyS0 and the permissions are set to crw-rw----, so I did

Code:

chmod 771 /dev/ttyS0

I checked and that set them to crwxrwx--x so I tried to sync again but I still had no luck. I also noticed that if I reboot the computer then the permissions default back to crw-rw---.

I am using RedHat FC3 and everything is updated. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

Todd

huibert.alblas · 03-27-2005, 05:20 AM

try,
chmod 777 /dev/ttyS0

This is not really secure, but for a home desktop PC it should be OK.

Permesions being resetted after reboot has something to do with devfs.

leupi · 03-27-2005, 09:41 AM

I tried going with 777 but the result was the same. The confusing thing is that I was able to sync once with no problem; now, nothing...

Todd

huibert.alblas · 03-27-2005, 01:55 PM

have you tried "manualy" synching with

Code:

pilot-xfer -b  -p /dev/ttyS0

That way you can fibd out if your problem lies within the domain of Palm->serial-connection->linux or if the problem is evolution / gpilot spezific

I would first try to deterime the exact problem location.

leupi · 03-27-2005, 06:24 PM

I tried what you said and I got the message:

Code:

pilot-xfer -b  -p /dev/ttyS0
   No $PILOTPORT specified and no -p <port> given.
   Defaulting to '/dev/pilot'
   ERROR: No such file or directory (2)

   Error accessing: '/dev/pilot'. Does '/dev/pilot' exist?
   Please use --help for more information

I then did a google search for 'pilotport' and found this:

Quote:

If you have an older Palm that connects via serial port, then you need to work out whether you are connecting via COM1 or COM2 (to use the old DOS terms). In Linux land, that will be /dev/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyS1.

* Delete /dev/pilot, so you start afresh.
* Plug your cradle or your cable into COM1.
* As root, create a symbolic link to it, with "ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/pilot".
* In addition, you can set the environment variable in your .profile or .bashrc. "PILOTPORT=/dev/ttyS0; export PILOTPORT".

So I created the symbolic link and tried again and I got this:

Code:

pilot-xfer -b  -p /dev/ttyS0
   No $PILOTPORT specified and no -p <port> given.
   Defaulting to '/dev/pilot'


   Listening to port: /dev/pilot

   Please press the HotSync button now... Connected

And it seemed to sync, of course not to Evolution though. What do you think that I should do now? Appreciate the help. Thanks.

Todd

leupi · 03-27-2005, 07:54 PM

OK, after all that I went into Evolution > Pilot settings > Devices and changed the port from /dev/ttyS0 to /dev/pilot and then I synced and everything worked just fine. I then rebooted the system and tried again and nothing. I looked at the permissions to /dev/ttyS0 and set them to 777 and tried again but no luck. I'm not sure what to do.

Todd

huibert.alblas · 03-28-2005, 03:39 AM

I got an idea(tm) :-)

You describe that after a reboot evolution does not sync, and the permissions are screwed up...

Gnome/evolution use the GnomePilotDeamon for Plamsync. the icon should be visible in your systray.

I think that because after a reboot the device permisions are setup wrong, the gnome pilot deamon can not start. Once the start failed, correcting the permissions will not help because the deamon is not informed about the change.

So:
After you changed the filepermisdsions, you should restart the gnome pilot deamon. This should work.

You should be able to permanently change the permisions for devfs,
look into /etc/devfsd.conf

Otherwise you could put the chmod command into a boot script.

leupi · 03-31-2005, 07:11 AM

As my good friend Alice once said, "It just gets curiouser and curiouser"

I did what you last said but still had no luck. I then checked the sym link that I set up previously with

Code:

ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/pilot

And I found that the file /dev/pilot no longer existed so I recreated the link, reset the permissions to /dev/ttyS0 to 777, restarted the pilot deamon, and tried again. And it finally worked!

I am wondering why my file permissions to /dev/ttyS0 keep resetting and why the sym link dissapears on reboot. But hey, at least I can get the thing to work, I'll figure out the details on the rest later. Thanks for all the help, much appreciated.

Todd

huibert.alblas · 03-31-2005, 12:05 PM

when all entries in /dev are reset after a reboot it indicates that you are using devfs (the Kernel Devices Pseude Filesystem)

Look into /etc/devfsd.conf or somthing similar (/etc/udev ?) on how to make the changes permanently-

leupi · 04-11-2005, 05:52 PM

I am looking to upgrade my Palm IIIxe a Palm Tungsten E. Anyone have any experience with this PDA and Linux?

Todd