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THE LINUX LIFE
Using your Palm device with Linux
By Jason Perlow
The Linux operating system user base has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last year, due to a combination of factors: the explosion of the open source phenomenon; improvements in Linux that make it more palatable to end-users; and a general anti-Microsoft sentiment that has been sweeping some among the power-user community. Until recently, however, Linux users have been lacking tools to allow them the same level of Palm device interoperability their Windows and Macintosh-using peers have been enjoying for quite some time.
But that's no longer the case. In this article, we'll help you set up Linux to work with your Palm device, show you how to get HotSync operations working, and explore some tasty desktop solutions.
If you're not a Linux user, you'll find this article interesting. But you should know that we're aiming the article at already established Linux users. If you've got questions, feel free to post them on the PowerBoards. A link to the appropriate discussion board is at the end of the article.
Setting up the HotSync connection
Assuming you've got your favorite Linux distribution up and running, the first thing you'll want to do is connect your HotSync cradle to an available communications port. In most Linux distributions (such as Red Hat 6.0) the first two serial COM ports are mapped to /dev/cua0 and /dev/cua1, but it might be /dev/ttys0 or /dev/ttys1.
By default, most Linux synchronization software looks for the HotSync port on /dev/pilot, so the first thing you'll want to do is make a hard link (using the ln command) to your serial port by issuing the following command from the shell prompt:
Replace "cua1" with the name of the port to which you connected your Palm OS device's cradle.
Syncing up, penguin style
The next thing you'll want to do is download a copy of software called Pilot-link. If you're running a recent version of Red Hat or Caldera, you've probably already got Pilot-link installed. Just in case, you can download the latest version from ftp://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/pub/PalmOS/.
Like a lot of open source applications, you will need to unzip it with gunzip and untar it, then run the configuration script by running "./configure" from the directory you've untar'ed Pilot-link to.
After the configuration script has configured the Makefile for your system, simply type "make install" to compile and install Pilot-link on your system.
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