KPilot and Synaptic
Posts: 8
Sorry I cannot put this in a more concise way. I have been having a disappointing time for the last two weeks trying to use a new Palm Tungsten E2 with both Mepis 6.5 and WinXP. Sadly Linux just does not {YET :-)} allow me to abandon some bits of the XP PalmDesktop functionality.
Turns out my problems stem from the KPilot setup in M6.5. It is unable to HotSync the Palm address database files without dropping data in Kontact, but not on the T E2 and then HotSyncing a corrupt file back into WinXP to crash the PalmDesktop. (As a workaround I now stop the T E2 from HotSyncing the address data back into XP.) An e-mail exchange with the KPilot developer sheds some light. He thinks I should be using a later version of KDE and KPilot but believes that my problem derives from the old version of pilot-link I am using.
In my Mepis6.5 setup kpilot 4.3.5.3-0ubuntu insists on using libpisock8 0.11.8-17
Unfortunately libpisock8 0.11.8-17 contains the Bugs that the kpilot developer has advised me to avoid.
The recommended library is to use pilot-link in a later version. It is libpisock9 0.12.1-5mepis and is provided in the M6.5 Synaptic repository.
Now for my impasse. Synaptic on my system will not allow me to uninstall libpisock8 as it seems to be locked to being used with kpilot4.6.0.
Is this a problem of my own making or are changes needed in the M6.5 KPilot dependencies?
Having finally found my way
Posts: 8
Having finally found my way to http://www.pilot-link.org/ I am now (80%-90% confident) that my problem is pilot-link. Only the latest version pilot-link 0.12.2, released 11th Feb 2007 contains the "Expanded OS5 Contacts support" that looks like addressing my problem·
KPilot,gpilot and Jpilot all use pilot-link so I suspect there might be no mileage in experimenting with them until I can be sure of using pilot-link 0.12.2. I shall have to dig deeper. I must admit I have been put off by the Ugly (IMO) screen shots on the JPilot site.
Any suggestions on how a Command-Line-Phobe might get pilot-link 0.12.2 to be used in Mepis 6.5
I'd like to stay with KDE if I can get it to work. My old Palm IIIxe-OS4 worked well with KPilot it is my new Tungsten E2-OS5 that has the problem.
did a quick and dirty
Posts: 2299
did a quick and dirty compile for you
Get it here: www.naranyaweb.com/mepis/pilot-link_0.12.2-1_i386.deb
Check if it works. No guarantees, as I said, quick and dirty. If it works you're lucky 
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
Thank you for your effort to provide real help
Posts: 8
It should have done the trick. I downloaded and tried to use it. But as a contemptible "Windows Refugee" (the term of abuse used in the KDEPIM-user list) I do not have the required skills and have been unable to find out how to use it with the binary package for KPilot. Synaptic will not allow me to uninstall/reinstall just this part of the package. So it looks as if I may have to wait for either an upgrade to the whole KDEPIM package in the Mepis repository or the release of KDE4 which ever comes sooner. My money is on KDE4. 
The KPilot and Pilot-link web sites as well as the traffic in the KDE-user lists seems to indicate that real progress has being made in getting it all licked into shape for compatibility with Palm OS-5. It is just a pity that the new releases of code are not compiled for end users and only those with the Geek skills stand a chance of benefiting until a major release. Still, if this was a M$ problem I would not even be told if an attempt was being made to fix things.
I will just have to wait. At least here with Mepis I am not being told to go away not return without a Degree in *nix Computer Science. I am grateful for your attempt to help.
jpilot
Posts: 4864
is there a jpilot in the mepis repos?
warren and i talked about this and when i did a test 6.5 install there was a working jpilot and pilot-link
I can't tell you how it went with E2 as i have the earlier Palm
jpilot sadly no.
Posts: 8
jpilot is in the repository. I have tried it. Apart from the lousy old fashoned design of the user interface that qualifies as "User Hostile" (IMO) it is really only designed for the early versions of palm handhelds with, I Guess, support for up to about Palm OS3. Even the Icons are inspired by the early Palm handhelds 
Somewhere about Palm OS4 and now in Palm OS5 the later Palm devices have sufficient memory to expand the amount of data allocated for each contact. Specifically each contact can have three addresses. They are Work, Home and Other. No support in jpilot and part support in Kontact, which will display three addreses per contact just like my TE2. It is possible to enter them in Kontact too at a push. The Kontact input interface could use an update too.
The problem seems to be the conduits provided in pilot-link. I confess I am not sure about how well Kpilot passes the address info both ways with the latest pilot-link.
My "factory refurbished" Palm IIIXe ran OS4 and was supplied with a Windows desktop that supported three addresses. That caused chaos for me when I discovered that the Palm IIIxe only supported one address. I had to roll back to an earlier windows version of the desktop with just the one address. The frustration with that eventually led me to the TE2 with its support for three addresses. If only I can get to sync the TE2 with my preferred Mepis desktop
settings
Posts: 4864
there is another setting which allows you to change between using memo and memo32.
i haven't tried multiple addresses at all
you are not correct about pilot-link - it is not actually used by jpilot, only one library is shared. Pilot-link and jpilot handle all new PalmOS PDAs.
however, I can't change the gui. I'm not worried, function is what I want, and I haven't noticed it as 'user hostile'. I will pass your comment verbatim (and without mine) to the jpilot user list.
jpilot sadly no cont...
Posts: 8
While I am happy to agree that Interface design should not stop me using effective functionality the following copied from www.jpilot.org home page is what made me sure that it too uses Pilot-link.
News
2006-08-27 J-Pilot version 0.99.9 released. Many bug fixes and improvements, see the ChangeLog for details.
Pilot-link 0.12.0 was just realeased yesterday!!! J-Pilot will work fine with it, and it is recommended. Older pilot-links can be used as well.
Then I found...
Requirements
* You will need pilot-link installed. Get the newest version available. You must have this working before J-Pilot will work.
Browsing the JPilot documentation reinforces the view and revealed that it is the creation of one man. I did not dig to see if he is supported by a community of developers.
{The date of that News also made me wonder if JPilot was still being developed vigorously. My disappointment with the screen shots and the fact that whilst OS4 is mentioned on the site OS5 is not mentioned all seemed to confirm my fears.}
So until I can use the version of pilot-link that your colleague carlops was kind enough to compile whether with any of the three candidates or something else I am resigned to waiting for the Linux developers community to manage to find time and do battle with all of Palm OS5.
For now... I'm reluctantly going back to WinXP (using my dual boot setup) just to use Palm's desktop as a periodic backup.
Thanks again for your generous efforts to help. I am confident patience will be rewarded.
why not use a virtual
Posts: 2299
why not use a virtual machine to install windows and sync tha palm. I recommend virtualbox. See the wiki for installation instructions: http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Install_VirtualBox
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
PalmDesktop in Virtual Box
Posts: 8
Hi Carlops,
I have had a quick look at the wiki and at the VirtualBox website. It looks very interesting and seems to be impressing a lot of people. At the moment I am not sure if I will be able to use the USB ports to Hotsync the T E2. When I have read through the documentation I will be in a better position to work out if it is worth the experiment.
I will let you know how I get on. Thank you for the suggestion. It might just be a worthwile stopgap.
Hi, No prob. USB should work
Posts: 2299
Hi,
No prob. USB should work with VB, at least, it works for me.... Make sure you have enough ram to run a VM. Your machine should have at least 764 MB, but the more the merrier.
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
USB OK
Posts: 8
Hi Carlops,
That is good news. Now all I have to do is find the time to get the work done. First step will be some more memory. Looking forward to reporting back.
The end of my Road
Posts: 8
Back again. Added memory,VirtualBox now installed and running WinXP as a Guest inside M6.5 beautifully.
Had lots of problems getting my USB connections to work until I found the useful documentation and then by accident found how easy it is to add the required USB filters to the VM Guest settings.
In Guest settings USB there is an icon of a small USB Plug with a green Plus sign to the right of the field to list the filters. Clicking it will reveal all USB devices connected to the system Select each one that should be connected to the guest Op System and you are in business. I took a screen shot but have just found that I cannot upload it here.
The VM documentation is good but did not cover my problem. Could be someone thought it was obvious. Perhaps they just overestimated this Idiot.
Seems other distros are adding good documentation for VB too. The ones below were located through the VB forums.
Maybe some folk with more confidence than I have could find some inspiration here to add to the Mepis Wiki page for VB.
Open SUSE
http://forgeftp.novell.com/lfl/.html/virtualbox.html
Ubuntu version..
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/VirtualBox
The section on modifying 40-permissions.rules proved useful once I figured out the need to log on as Root in order to be able to edit my 40-permissions.rules file. (There is probably an easier way but we idiots always do it the hard way.)
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/VirtualBox#Enable_USB_devices
Now MY VB setup of Win XP sees 5 USB connections. (Printer, My {Linux unsupported} Scanner, 2xFlash memory sticks and the Palm TE2. The first four work beautifully. The Palm will not HotSync at all.
So far no one on the VB forums has responded to my request for a possible fix for Palm HotSyncing
Having access to my scanner could yet make it worthwhile for me. In fact you could go so far as to say that using VB to access hardware that is known to be difficult {for Linux developers to support} might be worth drawing to the attention of the good people over at Mepis lovers.
Time I fear to go back to being patient for the next upgrade to KPilot to be released by Mepis and hoping that it will fully support PalmOS5. As I have said before that will probably mean KDE4 when it becomes available in Mepis.
You have learned A LOT in
Posts: 2299
You have learned A LOT in the process. That's good. The Palm still not syncing is bad. Bad, bad Palm....
Not meaning to make you jump through some more hoops, but you could try VMWare.It is not very difficult to install either, and maybe USB support is more transparent for the Palm.... (fingers crossed). To get you started: http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Vmware
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
kpilot
Posts: 4864
kpilot has a reputation for being unstable
you can try gpilot and jpilot
but you must completely uninstall the kpilot and stop its daemon from running to be absolutely sure of success.