Sync Your Palm PDA

Sync Your Palm PDA

Your Palm OS handheld can join in on the Ubuntu fun. Learn how to install applications on your Palm or Treo, keep it in sync with Evolution, and back it up.

Getting a Palm OS PDA to synchronize with Linux has usually involved some amount of effort, and some pain installing and configuring the necessary software. The folks working on Ubuntu have made it easy, however. Ubuntu includes all the software necessary to synchronize your Palm with Evolution and do almost everything you've done under Windows.

Configuring Palm Synchronization

Since the Ubuntu and Evolution developers included the gnome-pilot package in Ubuntu, there's no software that needs to be installed. Everything you need is on your system; it just needs to be configured to sync with your Palm.

To begin the configuration process, start Evolution, click on the Edit menu, and select Synchronization Options. The gnome-pilot splash screen will appear (see Figure). Click on Forward to proceed.

The gnome-pilot startup dialog

Next, gnome-pilot displays the Cradle Settings dialog, shown in Figure. Put values corresponding to your Palm and your system in this dialog box. For instance, USB-equipped Palms will probably sync using port /dev/ttyUSB0 and a speed of 115200, and they will require the USB radio button to be selected. Older, serial Palms will probably need the port set to /dev/ttyS0 and a speed of 57600, and they will need the Serial radio button selected. Click on Forward to continue.

The Cradle Settings dialog

Now it's time to identify the Palm (see Figure). If you've synchronized your Palm with another PC or operating system before, select "Yes, I've used sync software with this pilot before." If you have never synchronized your Palm, select "No, I've never used sync software with this pilot before." If you select No, ensure that your User Name is set to something you'd like the Palm to have embedded in it. The ID string doesn't require any changes or editing. Click on Forward to move to the next step (initial sync).

At this point, you'll be prompted to press the Hotsync button on your Palm. Press it, and you should hear a couple of quick beeps from the Palm. Click Forward to move on to the next step.

Identifying the Palm

The next screen (see Figure) asks you to enter a descriptive name for your Palm and a directory path. It defaults to MyPilot; you can leave it at the default or change it as we have.

Setting the Pilot attributes

You're now done configuring the Palm sync method. Click on the Apply button (see Figure) to commit the configuration.

Palm sync configured

Your sync may not initiate automatically. You may have to mount the usbfs by entering sudo mount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb/ at a terminal window. This is to work around a change the Dapper developers made.

Configuring the Sync Conduits

The only thing that remains is to configure the individual synchronization conduits. In Evolution, go back to the Edit menu and select Synchronization Options. The Pilot Settings dialog is where you can enable and disable the Evolution conduits, and set up the synchronization methods and rules. To edit conduits, click on the Conduits tab, select a conduit, and click Enable or Disable.

You can set the default sync action as well as a one-time action that will fire just on the next sync. You can choose to add private records to your sync and decide which Evolution database you'd like to sync to. Figure shows an example of the Address Book conduit.

Address Book sync options

Add the Pilot Applet

To make sure the GNOME Pilot daemon (gpilotd) is started when you log in, you should add the Pilot Applet to your panel. Right-click on the panel and choose Add To Panel. Locate Pilot Applet under Utilities, and add this to the panel. You can click the applet to bring up the conduit settings and right-click it to get a menu with several options, shown in Figure.

Pilot Applet option menu

At this point, your Palm is ready to sync with Evolution. Simply hook up the Palm and initiate a hotsync, and it'll sync with Linux just like it did under Windows.