[tlug] Here we go with the Palm Pilot

[Dave M G <martin@example.com>]

TLUG,

While I hope and pray that updated packages will become available to get 
my printer to work, I'm turning now to my Palm Pilot. I've got a Palm 
Pilot T|X which connects by USB, and Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.04.

I've installed pilot-link, Gpilot, and J-Pilot. None work. By not 
working, specifically I mean that any sequence of pressing the sync 
button on the pilot, or any relevant sync button in any of the 
application GUIs provokes no response at all to indicate any connection 
is taking place whatsoever.

Okay, so following some instructions on a web page to find out why, I 
did this command, and only later realized that "ttySO" only applies to 
serial connections. But perhaps the error indicates a problem?

dave@example.com:~$ sudo ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/pilot
ln: accessing `/dev/pilot': Too many levels of symbolic links

Another thing I notice is that when I press the sync button on my palm, 
the "pilot" link in the /dev directory is in red text. That can't be good.

Further, I'm led to believe that there should be a ttyUSB0 and ttyUSB1 
file created in the /dev directory when I press the sync button on my 
palm. I don't see them there.

So... moving on, again following directions on the a web page, I edited 
/etc/fstab to include the following line:
/proc/bus/usb/ /proc/bus/usb/ usbfs none 0 0
... and then did this:
sudo mount /proc/bus/usb/

Well, that didn't seem to have any effect on anything.

Another page said that it's better to try and run Gpilot from the 
command line in order to see error output. So I tried that, and indeed 
got error output:

dave@example.com:~$ gpilotd
gpilotd-Message: gnome-pilot 2.0.13 starting...
gpilotd-Message: compiled for pilot-link version 0.11.8
gpilotd-Message: compiled with [VFS] [USB] [IrDA] [Network]

(gpilotd:31540): gpilotd-WARNING **: Number of devices is configured to 0

(gpilotd:31540): gpilotd-WARNING **: No accessible devices available

(gpilotd:31540): gpilotd-WARNING **: Number of pilots is configured to 0
gpilotd-Message: Activating CORBA server
gpilotd-Message: bonobo_activation_active_server_register = 2
gpilotd-Message: Cannot register gpilotd because already active

Another page said that I need to have my Palm Pilot model listed in 
/usr/share/gnome-pilot/devices.xml. I took a look in Gedit, and there's 
a line that says:
<!-- Palm Tungsten T -->
<device vendor_id="0830" product_id="0060" />
Since my model is a T|X (or TX as it's often written on the web), I'm 
not sure if that's good enough. I looked on the web to see if I could 
find out if the TX required a different entry, but didn't come up with 
anything.

There was also a recommendation to edit a udev rules file:
dave@example.com:/dev$ more /etc/udev/rules.d/10-udev.rules #Dave Palm 
Pilot  BUS="usb", SYSFS{serial}=="PN70UBL5V099", NAME="pilot"

At this point I realized I was shooting in the dark without a cohesive 
plan. So I thought I would turn to here and see if anyone could tell me 
which direction I should focus on.

Here are some other commands which I think provide information:

This had a ton of output, so I'm only showing the tail end of it:
dave@example.com:$ dmesg
[4331617.555000] usb 3-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and 
address 9[4331617.687000] visor 3-1:1.0: Handspring Visor / Palm OS 
converter detected
[4331617.687000] usb 3-1: Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter now 
attached to ttyUSB0
[4331617.687000] usb 3-1: Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter now 
attached to ttyUSB1
[4331749.353000] usb 3-1: USB disconnect, address 9
[4331749.353000] visor ttyUSB0: Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter now 
disconnected from ttyUSB0
[4331749.353000] visor ttyUSB1: Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter now 
disconnected from ttyUSB1
[4331749.353000] visor 3-1:1.0: device disconnected
[4331750.059000] usb 3-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and 
address 10
[4331750.191000] visor 3-1:1.0: Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter 
detected
[4331750.191000] usb 3-1: Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter now 
attached to ttyUSB0
[4331750.192000] usb 3-1: Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter now 
attached to ttyUSB1


dave@example.com:$ udevinfo -p /sys/class/tty/ttyUSB1 -a
 looking at the device chain at 
'/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1':
   BUS=="usb"
   ID=="3-1"
   DRIVER=="usb"
   SYSFS{bConfigurationValue}=="1"
   SYSFS{bDeviceClass}=="00"
   SYSFS{bDeviceProtocol}=="00"
   SYSFS{bDeviceSubClass}=="00"
   SYSFS{bMaxPacketSize0}=="16"
   SYSFS{bMaxPower}=="500mA"
   SYSFS{bNumConfigurations}=="1"
   SYSFS{bNumInterfaces}==" 1"
   SYSFS{bcdDevice}=="0100"
   SYSFS{bmAttributes}=="c0"
   SYSFS{configuration}==""
   SYSFS{devnum}=="10"
   SYSFS{idProduct}=="0061"
   SYSFS{idVendor}=="0830"
   SYSFS{manufacturer}=="Palm_ Inc."
   SYSFS{maxchild}=="0"
   SYSFS{product}=="Palm Handheld"
   SYSFS{serial}=="PN70UBL5V099"
   SYSFS{speed}=="12"
   SYSFS{version}==" 1.00"


Here are some of the web pages I've looked at:
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/HOWTO_Sync_your_Palm_Pilot_with_gpilot_in_Dapper
http://howtos.linuxbroker.com/PalmOS-HOWTO.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=3591

If anyone can tell me if there's something else I should do to diagnose 
the problem, or if there's a gem of info here which sheds light on why 
my Palm won't connect, that would be splendiferous.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

--
Dave M G