Re: cannot even log in with IIIc

["George N. White III" <aa056 chebucto ns ca>]

On 9/17/07, Rusty Carruth <rusty_carruth credence com> wrote:

> Ok, so I've got a Palm IIIc (color) that worked some years ago, with
> much older software.
>
> I had upgraded some time back, and my sync quit working.
>
> So, I upgraded again, to Debian 4.0, hoping that things would get
> better.
>
> OTHER things are very nice, but I still cannot get my Palm IIIc
> to sync with my Linux/Debian laptop.
>
> The charging cable I have has 2 ways to hook it up to the computer:
>
> 1 - using 9-pin serial
> 2 - using USB (which you need if you want to charge your Palm)
>
> When I connect the PDA via the DB9 serial to my laptop, start up
> hotsync on Palm, run kpilot, wait for it to say 'device link
> ready', then hit 'sync' on the Palm (with Local connection using
> direct serial) - Palm beeps and says 'Identifying user' then
> times out.  Kpilot says 'Unable to read system information from
> Pilot'
>
> The above is with Kpilot configured to use /dev/ttyS0, which is
> where I have the PDA plugged in, at 9600 (No workarounds)
>
> So, I decide to try USB:  Disconnect the DB9 from the laptop,
> change Pilot Device to 'usb:' (without the quotes, of course),
> and hit 'sync' on the Pilot.  It says 'connecting with the
> desktop using direct serial' and goes no further.  I look in
> /var/log/<interesting log files>, and I notice NOTHING relating
> to the USB port other than 'hub 1-0:1.0: over-current change on
> port 1' (and I see when I connected my USB mouse about 1/2 hour
> earlier.  In other words, USB works, as I use it for my mouse and
> my memory stick and my ...).  I look in /proc/bus/usb and see
> only things I expect there (3 hubs and the mouse).

The "overcurrent" message indicates your USB port can't
handle the charge current demands of the Palm (or possibly a
short in the cable).   You should fix that before attempting to use
USB.   You have to tell the Palm to sync using USB, and once
you have hit "sync" on the Palm, it should appear in the output
of lsusb.

> I had tried some stuff I found about fiddling with udev and putting
> visor into the blacklist (for modprobe and/or hotplug), so I
> tried that before the above usb attempt (actually, I've seen no
> difference between before and after trying different howtos.
> I even tried modprobe-ing visor (which loaded, but ddidn't seem
> to do anything else)...
>
> I tried IR once, but have no clue what I'm doing there, so
> gave up pretty fast.

I had that working a couple years ago on a Thinkpad 760 and
a 2.4 kernel.  As I recall, enabling the port required running some
DOS setup utility, but was otherwise pretty easy to get working.

> So - given that I want to hotsync my Palm IIIc (color) using
> Linux, using ANY of the above (serial, USB, IR), does anyone have
> any ideas/pointers_to_howtos/whatever?


-- 
George N. White III <aa056 chebucto ns ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia