[Gllug] palm zire

Tue Oct 28 03:36:36 UTC 2003

On Tue, 2003-10-28 at 00:05, Sean Burlington wrote:

> hmm..
> 
> I tried upgrading - no help - same erro messages
> 
> in any case it seems that the zire (not zire71) has been supported since 
> 2.4.20-pre9

Oh oops. Sorry, my misreading.

> I've tried switching to usb-hotplug but now I get the error
> 
> usb.agent[31425]: missing kernel or user mode driver visor

I don't _think_ that's harmful - you see it quite often for all manner
of things, I think it's just saying it ain't got anything else to run
for that device in the /etc/hotplug/usb/<name of thing> per-thingy
script directory, which suits us just fine.

In the following, keep in mind that palm-related devices only appear
whilst hotsync-ing (oh and also if you make a
network-connection-over-USB, but that's another topic) so nothing
happens unless you press the hotsync button on your palm.

On my machine with my T3 (partner's Zire71 and my M505 produce very
similar results, only difference is USB product IDs):

[0] I am sitting comfortably with caffeinated drink of choice.
[1] Place palm on cradle.
[2] Press hotsync button on cradle or application: the palm connects,
visor module recognises it and connects up the ttyUSB* devices:

Oct 28 02:58:20 hal9000 kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:10.1-2,
assigned address 10
Oct 28 02:58:20 hal9000 kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor / Treo /
Palm 4.0 / Clié 4.x converter detected
Oct 28 02:58:20 hal9000 kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor / Treo /
Palm 4.0 / Clié 4.x converter now attached to ttyUSB0 (or usb/tts/0 for
devfs)
Oct 28 02:58:20 hal9000 kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor / Treo /
Palm 4.0 / Clié 4.x converter now attached to ttyUSB1 (or usb/tts/1 for
devfs)
Oct 28 02:58:23 hal9000 usb.agent[11453]: kernel driver visor already
loaded

[3] The palm can now be hotsync-ed using the device /dev/ttyUSB1; this
is a character device:

crw-rw----    1 root     dialout  188,   1 2003-10-28 03:05 /dev/ttyUSB1

usually one would make a symlink called /dev/pilot pointing at this,
since pilot-link etc defaults to using /dev/pilot. You don't need the
ttyUSB0 device.

[4] Start up the program you are using to talk to the palm, e.g. you
could do something harmless such as listing all the installed
applications:

$ pilot-xfer -p /dev/ttyUSB1 -l 
   Listening to port: /dev/ttyUSB1
   Please press the HotSync button now... Connected
Reading list of databases in RAM...
Novarra-11
[... snip big list ...]
VFSMark_vfsM_appl_a68k

List complete. 497 files found.
Time elapsed: 0:00:21
$

[5] The "hotsync" finishes and the palm disconnects; USB devices are
removed:

Oct 28 02:59:28 hal9000 kernel: usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 3, frame#
1998
Oct 28 02:59:28 hal9000 kernel: usb.c: USB disconnect on device
00:10.1-2 address 10
Oct 28 02:59:28 hal9000 kernel: visor.c: Bytes In = 66149  Bytes Out =
11208
Oct 28 02:59:28 hal9000 kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor / Treo /
Palm 4.0 / Clié 4.x converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
Oct 28 02:59:28 hal9000 kernel: usbserial.c: Handspring Visor / Treo /
Palm 4.0 / Clié 4.x converter now disconnected from ttyUSB1

That's it! The only "usual" gotcha is that if pilot-link is old it won't
work properly syncing over USB, and you'll fail to get stage [4]
working.

> but:
> lsmod | grep visor
> visor                   8492   0
> usbserial              17468   0  [visor]
> usbcore                55136   0  [visor usbserial hid usb-uhci]

Looks the same as mine, so I think you're OK:

$ lsmod  | grep visor
visor                  11432   0
usbserial              19228   0 [visor]
usbcore                62636   1 [visor usbserial hci_usb usb-storage
ehci-hcd usb-uhci]

> I've not really used hotplug before - I could do with some help getting 
> the kernel to use the loaded visor module ...

I don't think there is much to it - you just install it, and if it has
inserted your visor module on demand (it appears to have done in your
lsmod above) then I think it is all working to the extent that you need
it to be. Nothing further should happen beyond the visor module
recognising your palm and making the ttyUSB* devices available whilst it
is hotsync-ing - anything else is for a user-space application to do.

Have you still got usbmgr installed? The error message is actually from
it in your original post - I suspect it is trying to do something
"appropriate" to your palm when it connects, but actually it doesn't
have a clue what to do and is getting in the way by making a duff
connection to your palm, which then promptly disconnects. I don't have
usbmgr installed on any of my debian boxes, but from the description it
sounds like it might tread on hotplug's toes, so my suggestion would be
to try disabling or uninstalling usbmgr, then try again.

Don't give up - usb syncing with pilot-link/jpilot really works rather
swimmingly, so it's almost certainly something daft and/or annoying
(isn't it always?). Your lsmod looks good and you now know your kernel
is OK, so you should be very nearly there.

Simon

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