2004.12_Hand to Desk-Palmtop Synchronization in Linux.pdf

KNOW HOW

Palmtop Synchronization

Hand to Desk

A PDA is standard equipment in today’s business world. Owners of handheld

computers use them to manage appointments, answer email, and even play

the occasional game of solitaire. In this article, you’ll learn how to transfer per-

sonal data from your Palm to your Linux desktop. BY HAGEN HÖPFNER

and appointments on your Palm,

you may wonder how to go about

transferring this data to your desktop.

The Palm comes complete with a Win-

dows synchronization tool. But what

about Linux? Actually, there are several

free programs for transferring Palm data

to Linux. In fact, there are so many solu-

tions that we can’t cover them all in one

article. Instead, I will describe a selection

of the best programs: KPilot [1], Gnome-

Pilot [2], and J-Pilot [3].

As its name suggests, KPilot is a KDE

application. Gnome-Pilot synchronizes

the Palm with Gnome-based applica-

tions, and J-Pilot is a GTK-based

application that models its look and feel

on the official Palm Windows software

tool.

Basic Command Line Support

All three programs use the pilot-link

toolkit, which is available at [4], and

because they all use pilot-link, their fea-

tures are similar. The main differences

between the tools are in their ability to

pass synchronized data to other applica-

tions, such as KOrganizer [5], or Ximian

Evolution [6]. Because pilot-link under-

lies each of these tools, it makes sense to

take a look at some pilot-link back-

ground information before we go on to

the task of getting the Palm to talk the

Linux desktop PC.

pilot-link is a collection of shell scripts

that help the Linux PC and the Palm to

communicate using the serial [7],

infrared [8], or USB [9] ports. As it is the

most widely used application of this

kind, besides ColdSync [10], most Linux

distributions should include it. The fact

that the current stable version of

ColdSync does not support PalmOS5

devices is another convincing argument

in favor of pilot-link. Incidentally, if you

are not sure if your PDA is supported,

you can check out the list of devices with

pilot-link support at [11].

After connecting your Palm to the PC,

and making sure that the device file

( /dev/pilot ) exists (see “Connecting your

Palm to your PC”), you are now ready to

start. It makes sense to create a safe

backup copy of your

data. You can use the

first tool in the pilot-

link package to do so.

But increase the data

transfer rate before you

start transferring data,

as pilot-link defaults to

a safe setting with 9600

baud. As the manpage ( man pilot-link )

explains, you can change the transfer

speed by setting the PILOTRATE environ-

ment variable.

If you use the Bash shell, for example,

you can export PILOTRATE=115200

to up the speed. If you use the tcshell,

you would need to setenv PILOTRATE

115200 instead. This will increase the

data transfer speed between the PC and

Palm noticeably. A backup with 2.4

MBytes of data would take almost 45

minutes at 9600 baud, compared to five

minutes at 115200 baud. First, create a

directory for the backup on your desk-

top:

mkdir ~/.my_palm_backup

and then launch the backup by typing:

pilot-xfer -b ~/.my_palm_backup/

The program will then wait for you to

press the sync button on the cradle or

launch a Palm application to start the

synchronization routine. To restore this

backup to your Palm device, you would

need to type pilot-xfer -r ~/.my_

palm_backup/ . Table 1 has an overview

of interesting pilot-xfer parameters, or

you can type man pilot-xfer for a com-

plete list.

Locating the Software

Most current distributions should have

binary packages for the programs we will

examine. But if you are a do-it-yourself type,

you can download the sources for pilot-link

from [4] and for J-Pilot from [3]. Gnome-Pilot

[2] requires a large number of Gnome devel-

oper packages, and this makes building the

application quite complex. The same thing

can be said of KPilot [1], which is part of the

kdepim package that also includes KOrga-

nizer [6]. SuSE refers to the Gnome-Pilot

package as gnome-pilot . There are source

code and binary packages for Evolution at

[5]. Make sure you use a package that was

specially pre-compiled for your distribution.

Table 1: Useful pilot-xfer Parameters

Parameter Meaning

-p devicefile Specifies the device file to use (default: /dev/pilot)

-b directory Backs up your Palm device to the specified directory

-u directory Replaces the existing backup data (in directory ) with new Palm data

-s directory Similar to -u, but removes any data deleted from the Palm from the PC

-r directory Restores a backup from the directory to the Palm

-i file

December 2004

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Synchronizing Palmtops with Desktop Computers

A fter you store your contact data

Installs PalmOS files (file extensions prc, pdb, pqa) on the Palm

Palmtop Synchronization

KNOW HOW

The Clone: J-Pilot

Of the three programs we will be looking

at, J-Pilot most closely resembles a Win-

dows application. It is not a Java applet,

although the name might suggest other-

wise, but a C program that uses Gtk

toolkit. The J stands for the developer’s

first name, or his wife’s (Judd or Jacki

Montgomery). The main window pops

up when you type jpilot to launch the

program (Figure 1).

As previously mentioned, you will

want to set the maximum data transfer

rate before synchronizing. To do so, use

the configuration tool in File|Preferences

(see Figure 2). The fields for the data

transfer parameters are located in the

Settings tab. Check out the manual at

[12] for a list of settings.

After setting the data transfer speed,

click the Sync button in the main win-

dow to tell the PC to listen for the sync

data. Then enable HotSync on your Palm

or cradle to start the data transfer. You

can create a backup by clicking the cor-

responding button in the main J-Pilot

window.

After completing synchronization,

your Palm data should be on the PC.

Click one of the icons in the main J-Pilot

window to access the data.

figure the server daemon, you can enter

gpilotd-control-applet in a console win-

dow, or use the Gnome menu entry. If

you do not have a configuration to mod-

ify, this entry will launch a druid to

create a configuration.

The druid takes you to the preferences

dialog, where you can set up the com-

munication parameters, such as the

correct device and speed. The next dia-

log is for the credentials. If you have

synchronized your Palm previously, you

should already have a username. In this

case, you can click Forward to tell

Gnome-Pilot to sync and discover the

username. If not, the

second option in this

dialog allows you to

specify a new user-

name.

The next windows

prompt you to specify a

directory and view the

configuration settings.

To fine tune the

configuration, use the

dialog shown in Figure

3, which will auto-

launch when you com-

plete the druid. This dialog is also dis-

played if you re-run gpilotd-control-

applet .

Figure 3 shows the Gnome-Pilot con-

figuration tab that controls how Gnome

Pilot is synchronized with external appli-

cations. The most interesting entries

here are the ones for EAddress , ECalen-

dar , and EToDo , which allow you to

synchronize Evolution and Gnome-Pilot.

Gnome-Pilot will run on KDE and does

not necessarily

require a complete

Gnome environ-

ment.

Figure 2: J-Pilot Preferences.

Figure 3: Synchronizing Evolution

with Gnome-Pilot.

advantages of Gnome-Pilot and J-Pilot in

a single tool. Just like Gnome-Pilot, KPi-

lot runs a daemon to listen for Palm

synchronization requests, and the GUI

(see Figure 4) has a wide

range of features for pro-

cessing the synchronized

data.

Typing kpilot or click-

ing on the menu entry to

launch the program,

launches the KPilot dae-

mon and opens the main

KPilot window at the

same time. The window

has menu items for dis-

playing synchronized

tasks and addresses. It

can also display additional information

on the file retrieved from the Palm device

in the Generic DB viewer .

Before you start, you will need to set

up the transfer speed for KPilot in Gen-

eral setup|Device . When you launch

KPilot for the first time, you may need to

add the Pilot User , although KPilot can

automatically detect the user when you

sync for the first time.

Gnome-Pilot for Gnome

Although J-Pilot supports plugins [14] to

add functionality for synchronizing the

Palm with Gnome applications, Gnome-

Pilot [2] is a better choice. The program’s

core component, gpilotd , is a daemon

that sits in the background, waiting for

the Palm to start synchronizing. To con-

Synchronization Types

You can set up the synchronization type

in the HotSync tab, specifying if KPilot

should create a backup, for example.

This is also where you set up a conflict

resolution strategy. Ask User, the default,

is probably your best option.

The Viewers tab allows you to config-

ure the behavior of the main KPilot

program, specifying if the viewer is

allowed to modify entries or simply to

display records. In the Backup tab you

need to specify the databases (Palm

files) that KPilot should not synchronize,

or not restore in the other direction. The

default is to ignore the Arng (Arranger),

PmDB (HanDBase), lnch (application)

and AvGo (AvantGo) databases. These

Figure 1: Looks just like the original: J-Pilot.

KPilot for KDE

Both Gnome-Pilot

and J-Pilot will

run independently

of your current

window manager

or desktop envi-

ronment. But KDE

users looking for a

convenient sync

tool would do well

to choose KPilot,

which has all the

www.linux-magazine.com December 2004

KNOW HOW

Palmtop Synchronization

Figure 4: The KPilot GUI.

a database, addr for exam-

ple, and then check the

checkbox for that database.

The next time you synchro-

nize, KPilot will ignore the

address database.

After completing the basic

configuration, you can sync

for the first time. To do so,

launch the sync application

on the Palm, or press the

HotSync button on the cradle

as you did with Gnome-Pilot.

KPilot shows a sync progress

indicator in the main win-

dow (see Figure 4).

It is useful to be able to

display and modify the syn-

chronized data in the

appropriate KDE programs,

and that takes us to the Con-

duits Setup… (see Figure 5).

There are far too many

options for us to go into

detail on all of them, and

your best approach is to

experiment, but I will exam-

ine what I consider to be the

three most important options.

The most important dataset is proba-

bly the one containing your memos

(Palm Memos on the handheld), which

you will want to synchronize with

KNotes. To do so, first enable the appro-

priate plugin, KNotes/Memos , by

checking the checkbox. Finished! The

next time you synchronize, your memos

will appear in KNotes.

It is just as simple to sync appoint-

ments with KOrganizer. Simply enable

the plugin and synchronize. Of course,

you can configure the plugins to suit

your individual requirements.

When you enable a plugin, the right-

hand panel in the setup window changes

to display another set of options. For

example, you can select a different KOr-

ganizer file for the KOrganizer plugin

and also specify a conflict resolution

strategy. The “ToDo’s KOrganizer” plu-

gin takes the tasks stored on your Palm

to your desktop, and the “Addressbook”

entry will take care of your address

entries.

■

INFO

Figure 5: Synchronizing KDE programs with KPilot.

[1] KPilot homepage:

http://www.slac.com/pilone/

kpilot_home/

[2] Gnome-Pilot project page:

http://cvs.gnome.org/viewcvs/

gnome-pilot/#dirlist

[3] J-Pilot homepage:

http://www.jpilot.org/

[4] Pilot-Link homepage:

http://www.pilot-link.org/

[5] Evolution homepage:

http://www.ximian.com/products/

evolution/

[6] KOrganizer homepage:

http://korganizer.kde.org/

[7] Synchronization via RS232 (serial):

http://www.redbug.uklinux.net/palm/

pc-connect.html

[8] Synchronization via infrared:

http://howto.pilot-link.org/irdasync/

[9] Synchronization via USB:

http://pilot-link.org/README.usb

[10] ColdSync, a possible alternative:

http://www.coldsync.org/

[11] Palm Device Matrix:

http://wiki.pilot-link.org/title/

Palm+Device+Matrix

[12] Henrik Becker: J-Pilot manual:

http://www.henrikbecker.de/jpilot/

jpilot-manual-en.html

[13] Pimlico Software, Inc.:

http://www.pimlicosoftware.com/index.

htm

[14] Synchronizing J-Pilot and GnomeCard:

http://spsc.inw.tugraz.at/christian/

feld_pub/sync.html

[15] David H. Silber: Palm OS Desktop HOWTO:

http://www.faqs.org/docs/

Linux-HOWTO/PalmOS-HOWTO.html

four types are not synchronized, as the

databases could be damaged during the

process.

You can select more databases to pre-

vent KPilot from synchronizing them. To

do so, simply add the database ID to the

list by clicking on the “…” button. This

pops up a dialog box where you can add

Connecting Your Palm to Your PC

pilot-link supports a wide range of options

for connecting your Palm to your PC, assum-

ing that Linux has driver support to match.

The Palm Vx that we tested can use either

the serial or infrared port to connect to the

PC. The simplest approach is to use the cra-

dle, which attaches to the serial port. All you

need then is a symbolic link to the correct

device file, and a user account with read and

write privileges. Assuming that you will be

using the first serial port, you can type ln -s

/dev/ttyS0 /dev/pilot to create a symlink. The

device name for the second com port would

be ttyS1 instead of ttyS0 .

The privileges you need to assign depend on

your distribution. For SuSE, simply run YaST2

to add a user to the uucp group. Other distri-

butions may require some manual

configuration work. In the worst case, you

may need to chmod +rw /dev/ttyS0 (or ttyS1 )

to assign all users read and write privileges

for the device. You need to be root to do so.

The procedure is similar if you decide to use

the infrared port. If this port is not set up,

refer to the howto at [8] for details. Then,

working as root, run the /etc/init.d/irda start

script, which should set up the /dev/ircomm0

device file. Additionally, you can run findchip

to find out if your PC actually has an IrDA chip

with Linux support. If all of these conditions

are fulfilled, you can follow the same proce-

dure as for the serial port. Create a symbolic

link by typing ln -s /dev/ircomm0 /dev/pilot ,

and assign appropriate permissions.

Newer Palm models have a quicker USB-

based connector. In this case, the device file

will be /dev/ttyUSBx, where x reflects the

USB port number, for example, /dev/ttyUSB0

for the first USB port. If the USB refuses to

cooperate, try the howto at [9].

December 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

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