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| HowTo Linux Zone | Linux Zone Home | E-Mail Me | Palm OS Desktop HOWTO by David H. Silber palm@orbits.com
v1.0.0, 20 September 1998
This HOWTO document explains how to use your Palm OS device with a
Linux system. Although HOWTO documents are targeted towards use with
the Linux operating system, this one is not dependent on the version
of unix used.
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 This Document
1.2 See Also
1.3 Mailing List
1.4 Mailing List Archives
1.5 FTP Site
2. General Information
2.1 Hardware Installation
3. Sharing Palm OS device Data with your Linux System
3.1 The pilot-link software
3.1.1 Installing the pilot-link software
3.1.2 Using the pilot-link software
3.1.2.1 pilot-xfer
3.1.2.2 install-memo
3.1.2.3 memos
3.1.2.4 pilot-addresses
3.2 MakeDoc
3.2.1 Installing MakeDoc
3.2.2 Using MakeDoc
4. People
5. A History of Palm OS devices.
______________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
First there was the Pilot, then the PalmPilot, and now we have the
Palm III from Palm Computing Devices. IBM sells a rebadged version of
the PalmPilot Professional, which they call the WorkPad. What are
these gadgets? They are Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), sometimes
known as palm-top computers. Sold as an electronic combination of
address book, telephone directory and memo pad, they are actually
general-purpose computers capable of running almost any kind of
application. The trick is to find Palm OS applications to fit your
needs and to be able to share your data with your Linux system. Palm
OS devices incorporate software to synchronize their data with
programs running on another computer. Such software for use on a
Windows 95 system is generally bundled with the device. A MacOS
version is also available. If the foriegn computer is running some
other operating system, you need to find third party software to work
with your Palm OS device. This document describes such software that
is available for use on a Linux or unix system.
1.1. This Document
The latest version of this document can be read at
http://www.orbits.com/Palm/PalmOS-HOWTO.html, and is part of the Linux
Documentation Project (LDP). This document superceedes the previous
version, which was called the Pilot HOWTO. See
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/ for further information about the LDP and
other HOWTO documents.
If you find anything in this document which needs to be corrected or
better explained, please send me e-mail at the address above and
specify which version of this document you are referring to.
This document is Copyright © 1997 & 1998 by David H. Silber. It is
released under the copyright terms in the LDP HOWTO-INDEX document.
1.2. See Also
The http://www.orbits.com/Palm/PalmDevelompent-HOWTO.html document
describes how to use the gcc-based development system to write Palm OS
applications.
The http://www.orbits.com/Palm/PalmConduit-HOWTO.html document
describes how to use the pilot-link libraries to write Linux-resident
conduits for use with Palm OS devices.
1.3. Mailing List
The pilot-unix mailing list is maintained by Matthew Cravit pilot-
unix-owner@lists.best.com. Its mandate is:
The pilot-unix mailing list is for discussion and idea-sharing for those
interested in using the US Robotics Pilot PDAs with UNIX systems. This
includes people who are interested in helping to develop tools to allow the
Pilot to operate with UNIX, and possibly to develop an SDK for the Pilot
for Unix.
For more information, including how to subscribe to the list, send
mail containing the word ``INFO'' to pilot-unix-
request@lists.best.com. The subject line does not matter.
1.4. Mailing List Archives
An archive of the pilot-unix mailing list can be found at
http:///www.acm.rpi.edu/~albert/pilot/. It is maintained by Chris
Stevens albert@acm.rpi.edu.
1.5. FTP Site
An FTP site containing an archive of Palm OS tools for use on unix
systems is located at ftp://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/pub/PalmOS/. It is
maintained by Jeff Dionne jeff@ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca.
2. General Information
2.1. Hardware Installation
Palm OS devices come with a ``cradle'' for exchanging data with the
desktop computer. This device is actually a serial cable with a
custom holder for the Palm OS devices and an integrated `HotSync'
button. Plug your cradle into a spare serial port on your computer.
When you run each of the stand-alone programs, you will need to place
your Palm OS device in the cradle and push the `HotSync' button so the
Palm OS device knows that it has to communicate. If the Palm OS
device happens to be off when the button is pushed, it will turn
itself on.
For convenience, create a device, /dev/pilot which will be an
alternate name for the serial port to which your Palm OS device cradle
is connected. As the root user, enter the following at the shell
prompt:
ln /dev/cua0 /dev/pilot
Replace cua0 with the name of the port to which you connected your
Palm OS device's cradle.
3. Sharing Palm OS device Data with your Linux System
3.1. The pilot-link software
The pilot-link suite of software tools allows you to download programs
onto your Palm OS device, and transfer data for the Palm OS device's
various built-in programs between the Linux system and the Palm OS
device. While these programs are not quite as seamless as the desktop
software that comes with the Palm OS device, they do allow you to copy
your data in both directions. In general, each separate program in
the pilot-link suite manages one type of data.
3.1.1. Installing the pilot-link software
The prepackaged versions will inevitably lag slightly behind the
master distribution, but will be easier to install and not require
configuration. The master distribution might be a better choice in
those rare occasions when you have been waiting for a particular
feature or bug fix.
You can get the Debian Linux (i386) port of pilot-link version 0.8.7
from ftp://ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-
i386/otherosfs/pilot-link_0.8.7-2.deb.
ftp://ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-
i386/otherosfs/pilot-link_0.8.7-2.deb. If this file does not exist,
you will likely find a newer version located in the same directory.
If all else fails, or if you want a more recent version than has been
packaged for Debian, you can install the generic distribution, as
detailed below. Install this file in the normal manner and skip to
Using the pilot-link software.
You can get the RedHat Linux (i386) port of pilot-link version 0.8.9
from ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/i386/pilot-
link-0.8.9-1.i386.rpm. If this file does not exist, you will likely
find a newer version located in the same directory. If all else
fails, or if you want a more recent version than has been packaged for
RedHat, you can install the generic distribution, as detailed below.
Install this file in the normal manner and skip to Using the pilot-
link software.
For other versions of Linux or unix, or if you need the absolute
latest version, download the version 0.9.0 of pilot-link from
ftp://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/pub/PalmOS/pilot-link.0.9.0.tar.gz. The
version number is likely to change, but new versions should end up in
the same location with a similar name.
Once you have the software distribution, unpack it with:
tar -xvzf pilot-link.0.9.0.tar.gz
If your version of tar does not support the -z option, decompress the
archive with gunzip, as follows:
gunzip pilot-link.0.9.0.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
This will create a directory (pilot-link.0.9.0) containing the source.
Change your working directory to the source (pilot-link.0.9.0)
directory.
Run ./configure. This will search through your system for information
needed to compile the software. configure will set things up to be
installed in /usr/local by default. If you want to change it, run
./configure --prefix=DIR, where DIR is replaced with the name of the
directory to which the software will be installed.
Run make. This will compile the software. The software will not be
installed until later, so that you have a chance to try it out first.
(If you are replacing an older version with a newer release, you may
wish to check and make sure that no functionality that you need has
been broken. Generally, this is not a problem.)
As the root user, run make install. This will copy the software into
directories under /usr/local (or wherever you specified with the
--prefix option). If you can not log in as root, you can install the
software to some directory where you have write access.
Don't forget to add any new directories of executables to your search
path.
3.1.2. Using the pilot-link software
Most of the programs in the pilot-link suite are conduits, that is
they transfer data into or out of your Palm OS device.
Each time you use of one of these programs, press the HotSync button
on your Palm OS device's cradle. This will initiate the Palm OS
device side of the data transfer. Note that not all of these programs
prompt you to press the `HotSync' button, so you may have to remember
to do it yourself.
For more details, and other options to these programs, view the
corresponding manual page. There is an overview manual page under the
name pilot-link. For the pilot-xfer program, for example, type man
pilot-xfer at your unix shell prompt.
3.1.2.1. pilot-xfer
Possibly the most useful program in the pilot-link suite, pilot-xfer
allows you to install programs on your Palm OS device, make a backup,
and restore that backup.
To install a program:
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -i program.prc
To backup your Palm OS device:
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -b backup-directory
This will copy all of the databases on your Palm OS device, (including
programs?) to a directory called ``backup-directory'', creating it if
it does not already exist.
To restore data to Palm OS device:
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -r backup-directory
Generally, you will only need to do this if your Palm OS device loses
power or if you have to do a hard reset.
To list the programs on your Palm OS device:
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -l
3.1.2.2. install-memo
Install a Linux file onto the Palm OS device as a memo.
To install a memo into your (already existing) project category:
install-memo /dev/pilot -c project project.memo
The name of the file will be inserted into the memo as its first line
and will appear in the directory of memos on your Palm OS device.
3.1.2.3. memos
This program grabs each memo from the Palm OS device and prints it out
in standard mailbox format.
To view your memos:
memos /dev/pilot
3.1.2.4. pilot-addresses
pilot-addresses Transfer the address database to or from the Palm OS
device.
To write your address data to a Linux file from your Palm OS device:
pilot-addresses /dev/pilot -w storage.file
To read your address data from a Linux file onto your Palm OS device:
pilot-addresses /dev/pilot -r storage.file
3.2. MakeDoc
One short-coming of the Palm OS device's built-in memo program is that
it does not deal well with large documents. To compensate for this,
Rick Bram <mailto:rbram@concentric.net> wrote Doc, a document reader
for the Palm OS device. (See
http://www.concentric.net/~rbram/doc.shtml). Documents can be
converted to the Doc format with MakeDoc, by Pat Beirne
<mailto:pat.beirne@sympatico.ca>.
3.2.1. Installing MakeDoc
MakeDoc can be downloaded from
http://www.concentric.net/~rbram/makedoc7.cpp. Compile it with your
C++ compiler and install the resulting executable as ``makedoc'' in a
directory in your search path. There seems to be a small bug in
makedoc (version 0.7a) in that it does not output a newline as the
last character displayed to the user. This does not seem to affect
the resulting document file, but it is annoying.
There is a new version out, but it requires Java. Take a look at Pat
Beirne's MakeDoc web page at
http://cpu563.adsl.sympatico.ca/MakeDocJ.htm.
3.2.2. Using MakeDoc
Use MakeDoc as follows:
makedoc data.txt data.prc "Data to display with Doc"
This will create a file data.prc, which can be installed on your Palm
OS device with pilot-xfer. The text "Data to display with Doc" will
be displayed in the directory of documents that Doc manages.
The syntax for MakeDoc is as follows:
makedoc [-n] [-b] <text-file> <prc-file> <story-name>
or
makedoc -d [-b] <prc-file> <text-file>
<text-file>
The file that you wish to convert.
<prc-file>
The name of the resulting file. (End the name with ``.prc''.)
<story-name>
The name you want displayed in the Doc or Jdoc directory of
documents.
There are also options to decode the resulting .prc file and manage
various compression options.
D. People
Kenneth Albanowski <mailto:kjahds@kjahds.com> Maintains the pilot-link
suite of tools.
Donnie Barnes <mailto:djb@redhat.com> Packaged pilot-link suite as Red
Hat RPM files.
Rick Bram <mailto:rbram@concentric.net> Author of Doc.
Matthew Cravit <mailto:pilot-unix-owner@lists.best.com> List owner for
the pilot-unix mailing list.
Jeff Dionne <mailto:jeff@ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca> Original author of the
pilot-link suite of tools. Manages the FTP area for the UNIX Palm
OS/Pilot development project.
Mark W. Eichin <mailto:eichen@kitten.gen.ma.us> Ported pilot-link
suite to Debian Linux.
David H. Silber <mailto:pilot@orbits.com> Author of this document.
Chris Stevens <mailto:albert@acm.rpi.edu> Maintains the pilot-unix
mailing list archives.
E. A History of Palm OS devices.
There are two versions of the Pilot. They are the 1000 and the 5000
and have 128k and 512k of RAM, respectively. They come with Palm OS
1.0 in ROM.
Then came two devices with the name PalmPilot. They are the PalmPilot
Personal and the PalmPilot Professional and have 512k and 1 Meg of
RAM, respectively. They also have a backlighting feature for the LCD
panel and version 2.0 of the operating system. The Professional also
comes with a TCP/IP stack and a few extra programs built-in.
(IBM has released a rebadged version of the PalmPilot Professional,
which they call a WorkPad.)
Now we have the Palm III, which has a redesigned case and an infrared
port, not to mention the 2 Meg of RAM and Palm OS 3.0.
It is possible to upgrade any Pilot by swapping out the memory card,
which includes both RAM & ROM. Of course, this doesn't get you
backlighting for the original Pilot series.
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