[GLLUG] visor sync trouble in linux

[Mike Rambo]

steven collins wrote:
> 
> So recently I busted out my old handspring visor and the usb cradle to
> try and sync it with my box (RH7.2) via pilot-link but I seem to be
> having some trouble.
> 
> gnome-pilot
> gnome-pilot-conduits
> pilot-link
> 
> are all installed. I have tried to bind it to port /dev/ttyUSB0,
> /dev/ttyUSB1, as well as ttyS0 and 1 just for kicks. logs state this
> during sync attempt:
> 
> Jun 20 11:05:26 sachiel kernel: hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/2,
> assigned device number 34
> Jun 20 11:05:26 sachiel kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor converter
> detected
> Jun 20 11:05:26 sachiel kernel: visor.c: Handspring Visor: Number of
> ports: 2
> Jun 20 11:05:26 sachiel kernel: visor.c: Handspring Visor: port 1, is
> for Generic use and is bound to ttyUSB0
> Jun 20 11:05:26 sachiel kernel: visor.c: Handspring Visor: port 2, is
> for HotSync use and is bound to ttyUSB1
> Jun 20 11:05:26 sachiel kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor converter
> now attached to ttyUSB0 (or usb/tts/0 for devfs)
> Jun 20 11:05:26 sachiel kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor converter
> now attached to ttyUSB1 (or usb/tts/1 for devfs)
> Jun 20 11:06:21 sachiel kernel: usb.c: USB disconnect on device 34
> Jun 20 11:06:21 sachiel kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor converter
> now disconnected from ttyUSB0
> Jun 20 11:06:21 sachiel kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor converter
> now disconnected from ttyUSB1
> 
> so it seems to be running smoothly in the background but I see no sync
> activity what so ever. My box does show anything is happening and my
> visor times out trying to connect to the box.
> Has anyone here had good luck with getting a Visor or Pilot to sync with
> linux?
> 
> -steven

Have you tried pushing the sync button on the cradle before
starting the sync process on your computer?

It looks like you might be using devfs(?). That has proven
troublesome here. I have only gotten jpilot to work reliably
and the gnome-pilot & gnome-pilot-conduits settings have
seemed pretty much irrelevant.

On my Mandrake 8.1 laptop I ended up disabling devfs and
manually loading the drivers at boot time to get my
HandSpring to work consistently. I don't know if this will
help at all or not but here is how my box is configured:

/etc/sysconfig/usb
# -*- Mode: sh -*-
<snip>
USB=yes
<snip>
visor=yes

/etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
<snip>
# load usb & visor modules
usbcore
usb-uhci
usbserial
visor

(Adjust for usb-uhci/usb-ohci on the line above as needed
for your usb chipset.)


If you _do_ use devfs you may want to check the following. I
never got devfs to work but was told by more than one person
that these entries were needed. OTOH, they already existed
on my system but it didn't seem to make a difference.

/etc/devfsd.conf should contain the lines:
REGISTER        usb/tts/[13579] EXECUTE
 /etc/dynamic/scripts/visor.script add
 $devpath
UNREGISTER      usb/tts/[13579] EXECUTE
 /etc/dynamic/scripts/visor.script del
 $devpath

Note that the above is only two lines. One begins with
REGISTER, the other with UNREGISTER.


I also had to create nodes at boot time back when I had
devfs enabled. Here is the script I used then:

#! /bin/sh
# Create usb device nodes.
mknod /dev/usb/ttyUSB0 c 188 0
mknod /dev/usb/ttyUSB1 c 188 1
<snip 2-14)
mknod /dev/usb/ttyUSB15 c 188 15
chmod 0666 /dev/usb/ttyUSB*
ln -f -s /dev/usb/ttyUSB1 /dev/pilot

(note that there are 16 nodes (0 through 15), I snipped some
for brevity.)

Hope that something here helps...


-- 
Mike Rambo
mrambo@lsd.k12.mi.us