Treo 700p not syncing with Kpilot

After checking all the threads here, I was able to sync my treo 700p using kpilot by changing /dev/pilot to /dev/ttyUSB1. However, after one successful sync, I am unable to make it work again. Tried changing permissions, doing it as root and a different users. Kpilot always hangs on

Starting the KPilot daemon ...
Daemon status is `not running'
Trying to open device /dev/ttyUSB1...

Phone shows up in Kinfocenter under USB Devices as Palm Handheld.

Tried reinstalling kpilot and korganizer in synaptic.

Also tried changing permissions for /dev/ttyUSB1

Using Mepis 6.0, KDE 3.5.3,

KPilot info:

Version: KPilot 4.6.0 (blivit)
Version: pilot-link 0.11.8
Version: KDE 3.5.3
Version: Qt 3.3.6

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

NLK