Palm – bloggingIT

USB Working in Virtual 2.0.4 on Ubuntu Ibex Intrepid 8.10

After upgrading to Ibex, I found that I couldn’t sync my Palm with my Windows XP guest.

After trudging through different websites with contradictory solutions I stumbled on this, which works a charm:

Open the terminal and type
vbox /etc/group

You should end up with something like

vboxusers:x:124:john

Make a note of the group ID (124 in this case). Now run
sudo gedit /etc/init.d/mountkernfs.sh

Find this section

#
# Mount proc filesystem on /proc
#
domount proc "" /proc proc -onodev,noexec,nosuid

Below this, copy the following code:

#
#Mount USB file system
#
domount usbfs "" /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs -onoexec,nosuid,nodev,devgid=XXX,devmode=664

Replace XXX with the group ID from above.

Save and quit. Reboot the system. The next time you run VirtualBox, you should be able to see the USB devices and use them.

Palm realises that Outlook 2007 is out!

I was hopping around the Palm site looking for some Outlook 2007 conduits for my Tungsten T3 today. I realised that I haven’t actually synchronized my Palm in about a month!

I was lucky to find Outlook 2007 Conduits on the Palm site, only after following a link within the Outlook 2003 conduits. Oddly, Palm haven’t made any effort to link to this on the main support page.

So, I can finally see if the whole Ubuntu / Virtualbox / XP / Palm Desktop / Exchange configuration is giong to work for me. This is really the big thing for me at the moment. Until there is some vast improvement in Evolution, I can’t see myself using it. The whole process was just too unreliable. And I am not keen to pay for 3rd party syncronisation software.

Anyway, if you are using a Palm device and have upgraded to Office 2007, go and download the new conduits!

I’m Tired and My Palm Don’t Love Me

I almost fainted yesterday.

I took my T3 Palm out of my pocket and pressed address book. The screen was blank.

I gulped.

I slid open the screen which is set to fire up the Palm. Nothing.

I stopped breathing.

Finally, I pressed the power button.

Nothing. Nada. A sausage not.

My Palm’s battery had decided that it had had enough for the day.

The reason that this is so bothersome is that as most Palm users will tell you – a flat battery is the equivalent to carrying out a hard reset. All data on the Palm is lost. The real annoyance is that I haven’t been able to back up my Palm because I’ve been using Linux. The experience is becoming a painful one to say the least. Simple things like Synchronising my Palm is awkward and difficult because the closest I have got to a synchronisation is the following error message in KPilot:

Pilot device /dev/ttyUSB1 is not read-write.

Of course – being a DOS/Windows native, the obvious answer hadn’t occurred to me, which I found on the SuSE Linux Forums

It turns out that the error message is telling me exactly what I need to know. The USB device doesn’t have read/write permissions. Well, not when I’m a standard user anyway.

So running chmod 04666 /dev/ttyUSB1 (USB1 is the port I happen to be using) as root admin will make the USB port read/writeable for all users. Hooray!

The only drawback is that now I finally have the thing synchronising – I need to go back to Windows to be able to (hopefully) restore my settings Before Linuxing it. I’ll see how that goes…

Palm OS RIP?

I’ve read a disturbing blog today while trying to find something totally different on the internet. The PhysOrg.com Science Technology Blog
has an article outlining that the next Palm Treo will be running a Windows mobile platform rather than the traditional Palm OS.

A joint venture between the two no less.

So what does that mean for the Palm OS? Who knows. As a Palm T3 owner, I’ve found the Palm OS to be fast and slick. The interface was designed with the intention of being used in your palm, not by following Windows UI guidelines.

Let’s just hope the Palm OS will continue in some form.