[vox-tech] Handspring Visor sync problem

[Ken Bloom]

On Tuesday 28 November 2006 09:54, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> I've lost the ability to sync my Visor with jpilot and kpilot.  Setup
> is:
>
>    * kernel 2.6.16
>    * jpilot 0.99.9.2
>    * Debian testing
>    * Handspring Visor prism
>
>
> Here's my analysis of the situation:
>
> 0. visor.o is built into the kernel.  From /proc/config.gz:
>
>       CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_VISOR=y
>
>
> 1. The problem is not a kernel bug because I've been able to sync
> with this kernel in the past.  I lost the ability to sync a month or
> two ago, but I haven't updated my kernel in many months.  Note that
> the Debian jpilot package *has* been updated quite a few times in the
> past few months, including new upstream CVS releases.
>
>
> 2. The device file being used is /dev/ttyUSB1.  Here's how I know:
>
>       * Initially, there's no USB tty device files:
>
>             $ ls /dev/ttyUSB*
>             ls: /dev/ttyUSB*: No such file or directory
>
>       * Press the hotsync button on the cradle.  While the Visor is
> trying to hotsync, udev creates the device files:
>
>             $ ls /dev/ttyUSB*
>             /dev/ttyUSB0  /dev/ttyUSB1
>
>       * During this time, reading /dev/USB0 produces no output:
>
>             $ dd if=/dev/ttyUSB0 of=/dev/null
>             0+0 records in
>             0+0 records out
>             0 bytes (0 B) copied, 3.62889 seconds, 0.0 kB/s
>
>       * However, reading /dev/USB1 produces output.  Presumably, this
> is the visor trying to connect:
>
>             $ dd if=/dev/ttyUSB1 of=/dev/null
>             0+12 records in
>             0+1 records out
>             101 bytes (101 B) copied, 39.3244 seconds, 0.0 kB/s
>
>       * So it's pretty clear that /dev/ttyUSB1 is the correct file.
>
>
> 3. Starting up jpilot, and using File | Preferences, I made sure that
>    jpilot is trying to sync to /dev/ttyUSB1.
>
>
> 4. jpilot is connecting to the visor, but disconnecting immediately:
>
>       * Start jpilot.
>       * Press the hotsync button on the cradle.
>       * Press the hotsync button on jpilot.
>       * Visor plays beeps indicating a connection is made.
>       * Visor immediately plays beeps indicating a connection is
> broken. * Visor displays "The connection ... was lost" message.
>
>
> 5. However, the app pilot-xfer can list the files on the Visor:
>
>    $ pilot-xfer --list -p /dev/ttyUSB1
>
>       Listening for incoming connection on /dev/ttyUSB1... connected!
>       Reading list of databases in RAM...
>       StripAccounts-SJLO
>       CityTimeDB
>       ...
>       AddressTitlesDB
>       VendorsDB
>
>       List complete. 38 files found.
>       Thank you for using pilot-link.
>
>
> 6. pilot-xfer can also backup and sync my Visor:
>
>    $ pilot-xfer -p /dev/ttyUSB1 -b .
>
>       Listening for incoming connection on /dev/ttyUSB1... connected!
>
>       [+][1   ][SJLO] Backing up 'StripAccounts-SJLO', 80 bytes, 0
> KiB... [+][2   ][CiAa] Backing up 'CityTimeDB', 8158 bytes, 8 KiB...
> ...
>       [+][35  ][addr] Backing up 'AddressTitlesDB', 924 bytes, 464
> KiB... [+][36  ][exps] Backing up 'VendorsDB', 472 bytes, 464 KiB...
>
>       RAM backup complete. 36 files backed up, 0 skipped, 0 files
> failed. Thank you for using pilot-link.

I'm uncertain what the jpilot problem is (it worked for me with the 
unstable version a couple of weeks ago), but have a look 
at /usr/share/doc/pilot-link/README.libusb.gz. This is the new official 
way to do USB syncs. You no longer need to press the button first then 
start pilot-link, nor do you need special kernel support for the visor. 
I think jpilot is also supposed to work with this configuration.

However, if you're using the visor driver anyway, then you should setup 
a /dev/pilot symlink in udev with the following rule, so as to ensure 
that you always pick the right device file even though it may change:
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", \
ATTRS{product}=="Palm Handheld*|Handspring Visor|palmOne Handheld", \
                                        SYMLINK+="pilot"


> 7. The application kpilot doesn't work.  The symptoms are almost
> exactly the same as what I'm seeing with jpilot.

Kpilot's been screwy lately and hasn't been talking to korganizer nor 
kaddressbook at all. Version 3.5.5.dfsg.1-2 fixes this, but it hasn't 
propagated to Testing yet. But that's different symptoms from what 
you're seeing.

--Ken

-- 
Ken Bloom. PhD candidate. Linguistic Cognition Laboratory.
Department of Computer Science. Illinois Institute of Technology.
http://www.iit.edu/~kbloom1/
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