Re: [tlug] I'm a glutton for punishment - Palm Pilot and Ubuntu Dapper LTS connectivity

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

Stephen,

Thanks for replying.
> The "Connected" happens *after* you press the hotsync button, right?
>   
Yes. When I execute the pilot-xfer command, it will wait forever until I 
either kill it ([ctrl]+C), or press the hotsync button on the Palm. As 
soon as I press hotsync, it says "connected", immediately followed by 
the "Error read system" message.

> And it doesn't happen if you wait for 15 seconds?
>   
I wasn't sure if you meant execute the pilot-xfer command, wait 15 
seconds, then press the hotsync, or the other way around. So I did both, 
just to be sure.
In any case, no matter how long I wait, the results are the same. If I 
execute pilot-xfer first, then it ends with an error as soon as I press 
hotsync. If I start with the hotsync, both wait until the hotsync times 
out, then the pilot-xfer dies with an error.

> Does pilot-xfer have a "verbose" or "debug" switch?  That might give
> more information about what it's doing.
>   
There isn't anything listed in the pilot-xfer help output.
> That looks like when it comes back up it is not being recognized as a
> Palm device (which uses the "visor" driver).  That's probably not a
> problem since you say hotsync has already timed out---it fits with
> Jim's/Godwin's discussion about "changing personality".
>   
Sorry, my bad. There's actually more lines after the connect statement 
which clearly indicate that the device is a Palm. I had trimmed it out 
of the earlier post for brevity.

Here is what it looks like when the Palm connects, or reconnects:

Jul 25 19:05:05 localhost kernel: [17372527.964000] usb 2-1.1: new full 
speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 72
Jul 25 19:05:05 localhost kernel: [17372528.076000] visor 2-1.1:1.0: 
Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter detected
Jul 25 19:05:05 localhost kernel: [17372528.076000] usb 2-1.1: 
Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter now attached to ttyUSB0
Jul 25 19:05:05 localhost kernel: [17372528.076000] usb 2-1.1: 
Handspring Visor / Palm OS converter now attached to ttyUSB1


> I noticed that in your first post you had some traffic about "Unknown
> Output" from vmnet.  Is that a red herring, or have you seen it again?
> I wonder if it is possible that something (vmware?) is "stealing" data
> from your usb bus?
>   
Although I didn't say anything here, I did discover a little later that 
it was Vmware. Once I discovered that, I discounted it as being 
relevant. But now that you say it that way, it could be an issue. I must 
admit that I'm a little skeptical, as the Palm was not working from way 
before I had ever installed Vmware. But, that said, ultimately I can't 
discount any possibilities, so I will look into it.

What is most odd to me about the Vmware related output is that it 
happens even when I'm not running Vmware.

> Are they using the same OS?  Are they using the same user software
> (kpilot, etc)?  Do they have the same model of Palm?  etc etc.
>   
Well, not really. I think I found one post that was a Palm TX and Dapper 
related. And it was a question without any responses. The majority of 
others were varied in devices and distributions of Linux, the only 
similarity being the description of the problem, and the vague responses.


> At this point you've not got much left but "machigae sagashi", so any
> kind of flimsy guesswork is better than nothing....
>   

Flimsy guesswork is my specialty. At least now we've moved into an area 
of exploration where I'm comfortable.

--
Dave M G