|
Syncing a Visor For my money, they epitomize the
tech age. A handheld computer with more power, even in the most basic models,
than was used to take man to the moon and back. Personal data, addresses,
notes, games, reminders, all housed in a small and attractive go anywhere
package. I've owned one or the other since 1998 and, I'll tell you, I'd be
completely lost without my trusty personal digital assistant. Like so much else in the consumer
computer world, though, Palm-based PDAs are manufactured with Windows in mind.
It's taken the dedicated efforts of Linux users around the world to exploit the
power of your PDA in Linux. And, as always, they've come through admirably. For the purposes of today's
GnomeTWEAK, we'll be discussing the Handspring Visor. It's a bit unique in that
it was the first PDA to offer USB-only synchronization. Though setup is
relatively easy, there are a few prerequisites. First, you'll need USB support
either built into the kernel or available as loadable modules. This is provided
in current major distributions as part of the standard install package. If
you're working with an older kernel, you'll need to upgrade to a 2.2.x kernel. You can run a quick check on your
system to find out the type of USB controller you have installed. lspci -v You'll get one of two responses
from this command: USB
Controller: ...... "I/O ports at ... "
indicates a UHCI controller. USB
Controller: ..... "Memory at ... "
indicates that your USB controller is OHCI. If you need to update and recompile
your kernel, make sure you've got the USB modules installed that will work with
your system. Now, you'll need to check to
assure that the proper /dev/ files for USB exist on your system. ls -l
/dev/ttyUSB* This will output the full listing
of all USB device files in the /dev/ directory. If you've got /dev/ttyUSB0 and
/dev/ttyUSB1, you're good to go. If not, you'll need to create them as root. mknod
/dev/ttyUSB0 c 188 0 You can also safely change the
permissions on the device to allow users access. chmod 666
/dev/ttyUSB* This should be safe in a home
environment, though you might want to give it some thought in an open
environment. Two more items and we're on our
way. First, you'll need a sync program. ColdSync
installs and configures easily, and it works quite well. Once you've downloaded
and installed it (per previous issues of Penguin Shell!), you have one final
task to get that tiny marvel of technology synchronizing in Linux. For
clarity's sake, it's a good idea to create a symbolic link for your visor: ln -s
/dev/ttyUSB1 /dev/visor Why didn't we create one to each
of the /dev/ttyUSB* devices? It turns out that /dev/ttyUSB0 is a generic
device, though it is necessary to have or create. The actual sync of your Visor
will occur on /dev/ttyUSB1, now known as /dev/visor. With ColdSync installed, type the
following command into a console window: coldsync -p
/dev/visor Before pressing the [enter] key,
press the HotSync button on your visor cradle, *then* press [return]. Your
Visor will chirp, signalling that it's made the connection. Now, you'll never have to do
without that crucial Visor data in Linux. |
