How to install linux on Palm TX?

izquierdista · 02-16-2007, 07:11 AM

I have a palm TX. When I had windows installed on my laptop I could sync documents (wordprocessor,spreadsheet,prestentation) between the laptop and the palm TX.

I installed linux and unfortunately have not found a linux application that gives me the ability to do this. Thus I would like to know if there is any way I can install a linux OS (for example DSL or another linux distro) on the Palm TX and be able sync documents between the laptop and the palm device.

Also if anyone knows of any programs that let me sync documents between the palm and a linux computer please let me know?

JaseP · 02-16-2007, 08:11 AM

Try a google search for Hack & Dev...

They are developing Linux versions for the TX, LifeDrive, and several other Palms... It's not 100% working yet...

You can get Opie and a few apps... but that's about the size of it.

You can use Kpilot to synch the series 5 Palm OS devices, but you have to be carefull to configure the devices and links not to sync certain Palm files (like datebook.pdb, ToDo___.pdb, Addresses___.pdb, Memos___.pdb, and use Tasks__.pdb, Calendar___.pdb, and Contacts___.pdb instead. Also be careful not to allow the PC to overwrite the device. It can work with a little tweaking.

Get FileZ for the Palm, a niffty little Palm file manager that works on the Palm 5.X devices pretty well. Using that you cna manually backup your Palm. For automated backups, try NVBackup... again Free.

Be SURE to Backup you Palm to an SD card before trying. I have wiped my LifeDrive a couple of times forgetting to do that.

jglen490 · 02-16-2007, 09:51 AM

While it is possible to load Linux on a Palm TX, I don't believe you really want or need that solution. I routinely synch my Palm Zire 31 with my Kubuntu installation that is on my IBM T20 laptop.

Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop. One of the components in KDE is an application called KPilot. It works well with the standard Palm apps and provides conduits to the KDE PIM apps. It also backs up all the app databases. That saved my butt once when my Z31 was stuck "on" all night. KPilot is not perfect, but it does a good job and is very comparable to the Palm desktop in a Windows environment.

If you are using Gnome, there is a comparable app to KPilot, or you could just run KPilot under Gnome if the requisite library files are installed. At the command line there is a package called pilot-link, which actually is the basis for almost all the GUI applications for synching Palm devices with Linux.

The biggest problem is finding conduits for non-Palm apps. Some of the commercial office packages for Palm (i.e., DocsToGo) have decent conduits for Windows, but not Linux. So your Linux solution may be to use an SD card to move M$ Office-compatible files between the Palm office apps and OpenOffice.org, or Abiword, or Gnumeric office apps on the Linux box. I know that falls into the less than elegant category of "sneakernet" interfacing, but it does work and is probably the most reliable method, currently.

izquierdista · 02-16-2007, 07:29 PM

Ok,
well now I would like to know if you can help me setup Jpilot to work with my palm TX. I installed it today and tried looking at the documentation on the website but unfortunately I dont know how to sync it. I plugged the USB cord in but nothing happened I got this message on the shell:

/home/chacmool/.kde/share/config/gtkrc:37: error: unexpected identifier `gtk-alternative-button-order', expected keyword - e.g. `style'
pi_bind: No such file or directory
pi_bind Illegal seek
Check your serial port and settings
Exiting with status SYNC_ERROR_BIND
Finished

I would greatly appreciate your help.

izquierdista · 02-16-2007, 08:09 PM

Ok I tried solving the problem myself I went to the Jpilot website and downloaded the latest version which claimed to allow for USB syncing of palm OS PDA's

I downloaded the tar file but when I tried installing it it gave the following error messages:

./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cl... no
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.
linux:/home/chacmool/jpilot-0.99.9 #

JaseP · 02-17-2007, 12:21 AM

You need to install a compiler...

Otherwise, you cannot compile source code into programs.

izquierdista · 02-17-2007, 07:25 AM

well I installed the C compiler now I got a bunch of other errors. I dont understand why though because I have installed programs from tar.gz files before and never had this big of a problem:

well here is what I got on the script:

Code:

linux:/home/chacmool # cd /home/chacmool
linux:/home/chacmool # cd jpilot-0.99.9
linux:/home/chacmool/jpilot-0.99.9 # ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for library containing strerror... none required
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for /usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for BSD-compatible nm... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking how to recognise dependent libraries... pass_all
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking dlfcn.h usability... yes
checking dlfcn.h presence... yes
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for g++... no
checking for c++... no
checking for gpp... no
checking for aCC... no
checking for CC... no
checking for cxx... no
checking for cc++... no
checking for cl... no
checking for FCC... no
checking for KCC... no
checking for RCC... no
checking for xlC_r... no
checking for xlC... no
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... no
checking whether g++ accepts -g... no
checking dependency style of g++... none
checking for g77... no
checking for f77... no
checking for xlf... no
checking for frt... no
checking for pgf77... no
checking for fort77... no
checking for fl32... no
checking for af77... no
checking for f90... no
checking for xlf90... no
checking for pgf90... no
checking for epcf90... no
checking for f95... no
checking for fort... no
checking for xlf95... no
checking for ifc... no
checking for efc... no
checking for pgf95... no
checking for lf95... no
checking for gfortran... no
checking whether we are using the GNU Fortran 77 compiler... no
checking whether accepts -g... no
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 32768
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for objdir... .libs
checking for ar... ar
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for strip... strip
checking if gcc static flag works... yes
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... cat: /etc/ld.so.conf.d/*.conf: No such file or directory
GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking for shl_load... no
checking for shl_load in -ldld... no
checking for dlopen... no
checking for dlopen in -ldl... yes
checking whether a program can dlopen itself... yes
checking whether a statically linked program can dlopen itself... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... no
configure: creating libtool
appending configuration tag "CXX" to libtool
appending configuration tag "F77" to libtool
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for sed... /bin/sed
checking for perl... /usr/bin/perl
checking for XML::Parser... ok
checking for iconv... /usr/bin/iconv
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking for ld used by GCC... /usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for shared library run path origin... done
checking for CFPreferencesCopyAppValue... no
checking for CFLocaleCopyCurrent... no
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for GNU gettext in libc... yes
checking whether to use NLS... yes
checking where the gettext function comes from... libc
checking for pilot-link header files... no
configure: error: Could not find the pilot-link header files
linux:/home/chacmool/jpilot-0.99.9 #