- Connecting Your Palm to Your Linux Workstation
- pilot-link Basics
- Preparing for Installation
- From Here
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Preparing for Installation
First, let’s prepare the system:
- Remove everything from one of your USB ports. You want to connect your PDA directly to the computer, not through a hub. Get a hub for the other port and put everything on it except the Palm.
- Install udev, which automatically creates a device for the Palm when
it’s plugged in and removes the device when the Palm is unplugged:
# yum install udev
- Using a command-line text editor, open the blacklist for editing. You can
use any text editor you like, including GUI text editors, as long as you invoke
the text editor from a root terminal session (for example, # kedit). I
like nano, so here’s the command I used:
# nano /etc/hotplug/blacklist
- Add visor as the last line of the blacklist file.
- Save the revised file and close the text editor.
Installing pilot-link
Follow these steps to download and install pilot-link.
- Go to the following address to download the pilot-link tarball:
http://www.pilot-link.org/filestore2
Be sure to get the Anoxia prerelease version.
- At the prompt in the directory where you downloaded the file, run the
following commands:
# bunzip pilot-link-0.12.0-pre4.tar.bz2
This command unzips the bzip compressed file.
# tar xvf pilot-link-0.12.0-pre4.tar
This command untars the file; that is, it creates the program directory tree and puts the right files into each branch.
# cd pilot*
This command changes directories to the pilot* folder.
# ./configure --enable-libusb
This is the first step in a source build, which indicates how you want the program configured—enable-libusb means to configure the source so that, when it’s built, it has built-in support for libusb, which gives the program direct access to the computer’s USB hardware.
At this stage, you’ll see a lot of screen output that you probably won’t have to do anything about. Once this is done, you should see the following:
Options detected/selected -------------------------. pilot-link version...... : 0.12.0-pre4 libpisock version....... : 9.0.0 libpisync version....... : 0.0.2 Build for host.......... : i686-pc-linux-gnu Extra Warnings.......... : no Direct USB support...... : yes, libusb Thread-safe libpisock... : no ElectricFence checks.... : no CPPFLAGS................ : CFLAGS.................. : -g2 -Wall
You’ll see several other screens of output, but that’s the first one. Here’s the critical entry we’re looking for:
Direct USB support: yes, libusb
- Run the following command:
# make
When run alone like this, the make command figures out what parts of a program will have to be recompiled to operate in the hardware/software environment within your workstation.
- You’ll see more screen output. Unless this completes with an error
message telling you that make failed, run this command:
# make install
This command tells make to finish compiling, create all directories required by the program where the program requires them, and put the program files into the program directories. The program executable is likely to go into a /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin folder (as it does in this case), or /etc file.
- You can test whether the pilot-link installation worked by syncing with your
Palm. Start the Hotsync button on your Palm and then quickly enter the
following command at the prompt:
# pilot-xfer --port usb: --backup /root/.jpilot
Listen to the tones your Palm makes in response to a successful Hotsync.
You can also use this command to build a backup set in a location different from the one that J-Pilot uses. The Palm desktop packages I’ve seen warn that there’s a possibility of file corruption, so it’s best to have an archive copy somewhere else on your hard drive. For example, run the following commands:
# pilot-xfer --port usb: --backup /home/username/.jpilot
- To see a list of the available pilot-link programs after installation, run
this command:
$ man pilot-link
Man files are available for most of the applications mentioned in the overview pilot-link manual; you can also go to the pilot-link web site for documentation.
Installing J-Pilot
Follow these steps to install J-Pilot.
- Change directories to the /etc directory:
#cd /etc
- Open the ld.so.conf configuration text file with a text editor. The
following example uses the nano command-line text editor.
# nano /etc/ld.so.conf
- Add these lines to the end of the ld.so.conf file, if they
aren’t already there:
/usr/local/ /usr/local /usr/local/bin /usr/local/lib
- Save the file and exit.
- Run the following command, which tells the environment where to find library
files in the directories you just added to ld.so.conf:
# ldconfig
- Download the source tarball
and then run the following commands:
# tar xvfz jpilot-0*
This command simultaneously decompresses and dearchives the file into the program directory tree contained within the file.
# cd jpilot-*
This command enters the new jpilot-0* directory. The asterisk (*) is a wild card similar to the DOS wild card; it means "Enter any directory starting with jpilot-0*."
- Download patch.jpilot-sync and patch.0.99.8-memory and add
these patch files to the main J-Pilot directory. Then patch J-Pilot as
follows:
# patch -p0 < patch.0.99.8-memory # patch -p0 < patch.jpilot-sync
These patch files are after-the-fact program modifications, to debug or add a new program capability.
# ./configure
The /.configure – make – make install sequence is the same as for pilot-link and works the same way.
You should see this at the end:
This package is configured for the following features: ------------------------------------------------------ Compiling Expense plugin............... yes Compiling SyncTime plugin.............. yes Compiling KeyRing plugin............... yes Compiling with private record support.. yes Compiling with Datebk support.......... yes Compiling with plugin support.......... yes Compiling with Ma?na support.......... yes Compiling with Prometheon support...... no GTK-2 support.......................... no Compiler Options....................... -g -O2 -I/usr/local/include Prefix directory....................... /usr/local pilot-link headers..................... /usr/local/include NLS support (foreign languages)........ yes USB support enabled.................... yes dialer support......................... yes pilot-link 0.12 support................ yes Pilot-link version found............... 0.12.0-pre4
- Run the make command:
# make
It should end like this:
make[2]: Leaving directory ´/home/alizard/download/jpilot-0.99.8’ make[1]: Leaving directory ´/home/alizard/download/jpilot-0.99.8’
- Run the following command:
# make install
It should complete without error messages.
Follow these steps to create the desktop icon:
- Right-click the desktop and select Create New File > Link to
Application. Figure 1 shows the resulting dialog box.
Figure 1 Icon properties.
- On the General tab, click the icon button at upper left. In the resulting dialog box, click Other Icons and then click Browse.
- Browse to the following location, where [path] is the directory to which the
tarball was unpacked:
[path]/jpilot-0.99.8/icons/
- On the Application tab, type jpilot for Description and for
Command. If desired, enter a comment. Click the Advanced Options button. In the
resulting dialog box, select the Run as a Different User option and type root in
the Username box to make the program accessible only to root. Figure
2 shows the
settings in the dialog boxes.
Figure 2 Advanced options.
- Click OK twice to close both dialog boxes.
- Open the icon. You should find a root prompt on your screen. Fill in the root password and the program will open.
- Choose File > Preferences. Click the Settings tab. In the Serial Port
field, you should find the usb: port already filled in. Figure
3 shows the
J-Pilot Palm desktop application you just built from source.
Figure 3 J-Pilot opening screen.
- Start the Hotsync button on your Palm and then quickly hit the Sync button on the J-Pilot screen. Listen to the tones your Palm makes in response to a successful Hotsync. Your files will be saved to /root/.jpilot/.
- Choose File > Install to display the setup screen for installing files
to Palm internal memory (see
Figure 4).
Figure 4 J-Pilot internal file install screen.
- Download the following programs to your computer and install them via
J-Pilot to the Palm; you’ll need these programs to complete the process in
part 2 of this series.
- FileZ. Internal Palm file manager program.
- Card Export II. Makes the Palm external card emulate a mountable hard drive. Download the app from Softick to anywhere convenient, and then install it with J-Pilot. Note: This is a time-limited demo; you’ll have to buy a registration key.
- Card Directories. Lists file extensions/program associations.
- UDMH. Memory manager. Note: This is a time-limited demo; you’ll have to buy a registration key. But some larger applications, such as PalmPDF, won’t run without it.
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