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List:       kdepim-users
Subject:    Re: [kdepim-users] Kpilot: Problems using "usb:"-device?
From:       "Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper" <vr () movingparts ! net>
Date:       2007-01-05 2:39:47
Message-ID: 200701042139.47784.vR () movingparts ! net
[Download RAW message or body]

Hi Martin.  Wow, I think this is the longest and most complete e-mail I've 
seen in a long time.  =:)  So for starters, thanks for the time you took to 
be as complete as possible.  I'll try to do the same below....

On Thursday 04 January 2007 19:45, Martin Bernreuther wrote:
[snip]
> Not long ago I did a ground-up installation of OpenSuSE 10.2
> (kernel 2.6.18.2 on a i686 machine) with all the necessary software,
> like KPilot and pilot-link. Looking at
> http://cvs.codeyard.net/kpilot/hardware.php#tungsten
> KPilot should work great with the T|X (at least with Debian using kde
> 3.4.3.).

Yes, but as you've discovered, there are some major problems with pilot-link 
0.12.1 and kpilot from anything other than the soon-to-be-released KDE 3.5.6.  
=:(

> With an USB cable connection my first try was
> using the /dev/pilot device, which is a link to /dev/ttyUSBX.
> and automatically set up by udev (see
> /etc/udev/rules.d/50-udev-default.rules). Looking at /var/log/messages, the
> visor kernel module detects the Palm TX, but the USB port will change 
> (with disconnects and reconnects), so it's a good idea to use /dev/pilot
> instead of directly using /dev/ttyUSBX...

Okey.

> KPilot (KPilot 4.6.0 (blivit), pilot-link 0.12.1, KDE 3.5.5 "release
> 50.1",Qt 3.3.7) showed "Connection established", but there was an error
> message like "Could not read system information from the Pilot"
> after pressing the Palm USB-cable Sync-Button and the Process stopped after
> 30%... (like reported in "http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=138306" or
> "http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=126982") I managed to get a full
> backup after pressing the KPilot "Reconnect button" directly after the
> Sync-Button! (I'll always get the standard sync. method this way.) Neither
> the installation nore the calendar or addressbook synchronizations were
> done. I think, I simply missed the checkmark to activate the "run conduits
> with backup" within the Backup-preferences! The calendar synchronization
> didn't work with a subsequent Hotsync...
> ("http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=136140"?)

Yah.  Avoid the combination you have here.  =:/  Even if it does work, there 
are major data loss problems that will eventually (or immediately) bite you.

> Looking at the Device-preferences, I'm still not sure what the
> T5...-Workaround is. The german help page does not spot that point. But
> this Workaround didn't change anything here for the TX. 

Yeah, this workaround is due to some screwy "connect, then disconnect, then 
reconnect" timing issues with some of the palms.  I don't honestly know 
exactly why this happens, but the code has been there a while so I'm assuming 
whoever put it there had a good reason.  =:/

> IMHO it would be 
> better first to have some "Serial|USB|Bluetooth|WLAN..." Radiobuttons and
> e.g. not to show "Speed" in case of an USB-choice.

Yes, you're right of course.  If you could go to the trouble of creating a bug 
report on bugs.kde.org for kpilot, I can see if we can get to this at some 
point.  =:)

> Is the Workaround targeting a Serial or an USB Synchronization?

It's for USB only, iirc.

> I included the "WiFiCoreLib" in the  "No Backup"-list, since I read
> somewhere that this eliminates problems with the backup, although I didn't
> experience them myself. BTW: I assume list-items within [ ] are Creator
> IDs. The german help is not very descriptive here.

You can do this, yes.  With the new code and the new pilot-link libraries, you 
shouldn't have backup problems anymore, so there is an improvement there 
awaiting you.  =:)

> Just to install some programs, I was looking for an "Install only"-Button,
> which I didn't find or doesn't exist. 

Well, if you bring up the kpilot interface (click the kpilot icon in the panel 
or just run "kpilot" manually), the second icon from the bottom on the left 
is a "File Installer" where you can add files to install, etc.

> And since this has nothing to do with 
> KDE, I switched to pilot-link. But after a "pilot-xfer -p /dev/pilot -i
> *.prc" and pressing the Sync-Button, pilot-xfer was listening but nothing
> happend. The same problems again... But e.g.
>
> pilot-xfer -p usb: -i ~/.kde/share/apps/kpilot/pending_install/*.prc
>
> on the other hand works perfectly!

Um.  Yay?  =:)

> (OpenSUSE only installs the man-page of ietf2datebook, not the converter
> itself. So I couldn't check, if this might offer a possibility to convert
> KOrganizer calendar data to some pilot-link compatible form.)

No experience with this personally.  If you're using the latest kpilot (from 
kde's branches/KDE/3.5 subversion) then you should be able to use the 
calendar syncing conduit to do this.  I do use this and have great success 
with it, although I use a Treo 650 and not a TX.

> I saw that Mandriva 2007 favors usb: over /dev/pilot and mentions problems
> with kpilot:
> http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/MandrivaLinux2007ReleaseNotes#Pa
>lmOS_based_PDAs (found a link at the french page:
> http://forum.club.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?p=274531)

Oh goody, we're famous.  =:/  The data loss problem is as I mentioned 
above--the combination of a released version of kpilot and pilot-link 0.12.x.

> After that I got the SVN sourcecode with KPilot 4.9.0 (deepsix).

Now we're cookin'...  =;)

> With kdelibs-devel, pilot-link-devel, libmal-devel... installed, it was no
> problem to build it. I managed to transfer my korganizer calendar to the
> Palm TX with this version! (Hopefully a new release will come soon to bring
> the improvements to the users.)

Yes, we'll release the code along with KDE 3.5.6, real soon now (TM).

> With this code the error message using /dev/pilot reads
> [...]
[snip] 
> kpilot: WARNING: KPilot error: Der Pilot-Socket (Eingabe-/Ausgabefehler)
> kann nicht zum Mithören geöffnet werden [...]
> ("The pilot socket (I/O error) can't be opened for listening")
> The SVN-version still has some quirks here.

And is this with using "usb:" as the device identifier or /dev/something?

> Using "usb:" I first had no problems at all (like with pilot-xfer). Hitting
> the Sync-Button once and that's it. I noticed that kpilot always freezes,
> if I start it and a kpilotDaemon is already/still running in the
> background. 

So it sounds like usb: works?  Cool.  I've never tried it myself.  =:)  But 
I'm not clear on the "freezes" part.  Are you saying that kpilot freezes by 
itself when the sync is done?  If so, can you please run kpilotDaemon from 
within gdb and if/when the freeze happens again, press control-c and get a 
backtrace (bt) and send it to the list?

> So after finishing kpilot 
> [...]
>
>      >killDaemonIfNeeded
>
> and starting it again
> [...]
>
>    >startDaemonIfNeeded
>
> the GUI will show up but won't react... (I was thinking of using an alias
> for kpilot like "killall kpilotDaemon; kpilot") But setting
> "PilotDevice=usb:" within "~/.kde/share/config/kpilotrc" also has
> consequences, if there's no kpilotDaemon running: choosing "Configure
> KPilot" still freezes the GUI [...]

Ohhhh wait.  Did you uninstall the previous version of kpilot on your system?  
Where did you install the new kpilot version to?

The problem is that if you still have the old version of kpilot on your system 
and you run "kpilot", it will start up the version that you would expect but 
may launch kpilotDaemon from the old version, thereby causing problems like 
this.

...

Or are you saying that the GUI only freezes if you have "usb:" in the config 
file?  If you can reproduce the freeze, please try running kpilot --nofork -s 
from inside gdb and control-c, get bt from it.

> For a "up-to-date" Linux distribution:
> Does anyone have similar experiences with kpilot+usb:?
> (It might also be a special problem with my installation here.)
> Is there a way to get kpilot working with "usb:"?
> Or is it typically no problem to use "usb:" with kpilot?

Well, unfortunately, I've not had a chance to play with libusb yet with 
kpilot.  I think I will give it a shot tonight and see where I get.  So it 
may or may not work.  I do know that the old way (visor kernel module and 
using /dev/ttyUSB1 (for me at least)) works perfectly well on both SUSE 10.1 
and FC6 laptops.

> Somehow I have the feeling, that the synchronization procedure itself is
> more stable using "usb:". But I have some problems with kpilot GUI here!

Yeah, please help me get to the bottom of where this is happening.  =:)

> P.S.:
> In the meantime I also had the first total loss of the calendar data after
> a hotsync. The synchronization seems still not to be very stable with the
> Palm TX...

Can you explain what happened, exactly?  You lost data with the latest version 
of kpilot?

> Is there also a possibility to synchronize the "pTunes"-stuff. (Starting
> "ptunes" will just crash my TX.)

What do you mean sync the ptunes stuff?  Install the program file?

Thanks again for your e-mail, Martin!!  =:)  I very much appreciate your help 
in making kpilot work for you.  =:)

-- 

,-----------------------------------------------------------------//
| Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper ::  Numbers 6:22-26 
 `
 | All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much MUCH thicker 
 | in the middle, and then thin again at the far end.  That is 
 | the theory that I have and which is mine, and what it is too.  
 ,
| bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
`----------------------//
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