# Palm...

## GenKreton

I am most likely going to buy a plam tungsten c soon. I like the built in wireless and stuff and could really use it.

BUT it needs to have good linux support, I refuse to boot into windows for my palm to work, it owuld be a huge pain in the bum.

So how hard is it to get palm's to work in linux. (2.6 mm sources test 6 right now). Do the programs available work well and stuff? SHould I expect difficulites? And has anyone tried with this particular model?

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## ozonator

Off the top of my head, there's gnome-pilot (used by evolution), something for KDE (called k-pilot, I think), and j-pilot, which is a GTK app.  There's also command line software; pilot-link seems most widely used (I think 'coldsync' is the name of an alternative).

I've used j-pilot for a long time (http://jpilot.org/), and it works brilliantly.  (Note that I have nothing as fancy as a Tungsten yet; mine is a IIIxe connecting through a USB-serial converter; I'm using gentoo-sources 2.4.20-r7, and you'll need USB support to sync with a newer USB-based Palm.)  Ultimately, j-pilot is very fast, has the features I need (including plug-in support for things like Keychain and manana), and, unlike the older version of gnome-pilot I tried, it's reliable and stable.  To talk with the Palm device, it relies on pilot-link (http://pilot-link.org/), so if pilot-link supports whatever handheld you get, j-pilot should, too.

If you want to be sure about support, there's a pilot-link wiki and bug tracker, as well as an active mailing list for j-pilot.  It's likely worth checking the archives of that mailing list, and see if people were having problems with the model you want.  I don't recall hearing anything bad about use of a Tungsten C (I've subscribed to the j-pilot list for a while), but then again, I haven't always paid close attention to all the traffic.

As a general comment about using a Palm with Linux, in my experience, it can be a bit tricky to set up a Palm for sync'ing, but between the official docs and Google, you'll find the info you need (including tricks for specific models, like having to press the hotsync button on the handheld before telling your software to sync).  Once it works, you'll forget any trouble you might have had.   :Smile:   YMMV, but my only trouble was a couple of years ago, trying to get it to sync with a PPC box over the old-style Mac serial ports, a problem the USB-serial converter fixed; it's likely superstition that I'm now still using the converter on a new machine, even though I don't need to!

One note:  the latest versions of pilot-link and j-pilot are sometimes slow to show up in portage -- the latest pilot-link is now there, but the ebuild for the latest jpilot is one that is posted at bugs.gentoo.org (works like a charm for me).  The newer the Palm, the more likely it is you'll need the most recent versions of these.

Okay, one more thing, since I'm plugging software I like:  I also use mutt for e-mail, and thanks to a program called lbdb, I can easily get info from the j-pilot data files from within mutt, e.g., pull out e-mail addresses from j-pilot.  Very handy.

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## mtombs

I have a Palm Zire (opposite end of the spectrum from the Tungsten, I know, but still Palm and USB) and i syncronize it with various KDE apps (kAddressBook, knotes, korganiser) using kpilot. A bit of trouble setting it up (wrong permissions in /dev) but now it all works fine. I use pilot-link and kpilot from portage.

Kpilot : http://www.slac.com/pilone/kpilot_home/

/mark

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## GenKreton

Alright I guess I'll get it and return it if it doesn't work. I also considered the sharp zaurus but the tungsten c seems better. I could not find a list of supported palms anywhere for pilot-link. 

Thanks for the help.

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## ozonator

There's a list of devices here:  http://wiki.pilot-link.org/index.php/DeviceMatrix

A quick look at Google found at least a couple indications of success with the Tungsten C:

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3f7ea59f%240%242800%24626a54ce%40news.free.fr&oe=utf-8&output=gplain (en francais)

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-pilot-list/2003-June/msg00042.html (someone for whom it works with jpilot, but who was having trouble with gnome-pilot)

Searching the jpilot mailing list archives would likely turn up more info, but though I'm not in a position to make any guarantees, I'd bet that the Tungsten C will work, at least with the latest versions of jpilot and pilot-link, and a recent kernel.  (Just did a quick search through my small collection of saved mail from the list, and found notes from people using jpilot and pilot-link successfully with the Tungsten T and Tungsten E, including a message sent this morning -- doesn't prove anything, but indicates your chances are likely good.)  You'll have to do the usual fiddling before the first sync (make sure you've got the appropriate USB support, figure out which device in /dev your Palm connects to, make sure there's a user and uid installed, etc.).  Here are a couple useful bits of documentation for getting started:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/PalmOS-HOWTO/index.html

http://www.linuxpda.com/visor/howto/current/

Best of luck!

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## Gandalf_Grey_

I have had my Tungsten T syncing perfectly on both the 2.4 and 2.6 kernel. I have had trouble with kpilot on the 2.6 kernel but jpilot works great

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## The Mountain Man

I have a Tungsten|T working very well.  The only problem I've encountered is that if I remove it from the cradle after syncing and then replace, my system will refuse to detect it, so I have to make sure I sync everything I need to before removing.  I have been unable to solve this particular snag, but other than that, it works great.  I also prefer jpilot to KPilot.

Check out this thread (second post down) for detailed instructions getting a Palm to work with Linux.

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## GenKreton

Thanks for the help.  :Smile: 

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