HOWTO: Pocket PC Syncing with Evolution

[maltje]

I trying to follow the things above to let my LOOX sync with my laptop,but you're speaking about sudo synce-serial-config ttyUSB0

but my pocket pc is connected with usb,is that a problem?

[lynng]

Well, I didn't have any luck. It seems for kitchensync to work w/ synce, you need syncekonnector. There is no debian package for it (it's been requested), and I could not get it to compile.

[cowabunga]

So basically, what I'm hearing is that multi-sync / synce is BROKEN for evolution and broken for Ubuntu.

For Pete's sake, I'm willing to PAY someone to make this bloody thing work. I seems like the synce people are spending all of their time trying to make the software work with KDE. Do I need to just give up and change desktops to get one silly application working?

Pardon the rant, I've just been waiting for the last two years for them to get it together on this package. PPC is now outpacing Palm sales almost 2:1; how long is it going to be before the Microsoft press notices that "Linux can't Sync" and points out the fitful progress of hardware integration. I know MSFT isn't making this easier, but the community has attacked bigger problems than this and licked it. What is so tough about syncing a silly PDA?

RMW

I fully subscribe to this comment. I have a Dell Axim device and spent several hours last night trying to make it talk to my Evolution (on Fedora Core 3) calendar and tasks.
I went through the step-by-step guides in the synce web page, and everything seemed to work well: I could see the Axim, and move files from and to it using the Synce tools (pstatus, pcp, pls...). However, when I then tried multisync for syncing with evolution, the result was quite discouraging: the first time i tried to sync, the calendar in the Pocket PC got plenty of entries from my Evolution calendar... but all of them duplicated! I tried to clean the mess and re-try a sencond sync, but from then on nothing happens... it seems that now Multisync has decided that there is nothing to syncronise anymore. Bad luck.
I am also willing to pay some software that makes my evolution (or any organizer that runs on linux) syncronise tasks and calendar with a PocketPC. I wonder if the Novell guys are selling something like this?
Why is it so difficult to use linux on the desktop? Is discouraging for us working everyday with hundreds of linux boxes offering high level services, that we can not use the same OS in our laptops for the everyday work...

[leviathon]

I've had marginal success with synce and my toshiba 755. I have managed to sync using the same steps as posted in the how to, although it is very quirky. Appointments created on the ppc show up 4 hours early in evo, tasks marked as complete in evo do not reflect the change on the ppc, etc. Contacts seem to work ok. It is definately a kludgy solution. I would also be willing to donate to a bounty to get solid gui based ppc synchronization in ubuntu.

[Heliix]

hello,
I followed your advices step by step but without success.
when I performed sudo synce-serial-config ttyUSB0
there was the first error: cannot find a character device ttyUSB0
(but previously was my cradle detected at ttyUSB0!). so I read synce-serial-config --help and tried replacing ttyUSB0 with tty0. so far, OK, waiting for connect.
then i run synce-pstatus and there was a second error:
unable to initialize RAPI: unsuspected failure
rapi_context_connect: DCCM PID entry not found
well, I have no idea what to do.

previously, I tried to connect my palm with pilot-link, but also unsuccessfully- I just followed the advices I found on web, try to modify it when it didn't work, read the help...
I have Palm Zire 71 and the newest version of Ubuntu

I would appreciate any help
Heliix

[timczer]

I am at the same place as helix. I get to the partnership step and I get the following:
tim@ubuntu:~$ synce-matchmaker create INDEX
[synce_info_new:31] unable to open file: /home/tim/.synce/active_connection
[rapi_context_connect:88] Failed to get connection info
[main:23] Failed to initialize RAPI
I am not sure where to go next. Any help would be appreciated.

[Heliix]

just synchronized my palm!
look at
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/PalmZire31HOWTO
if you have another palm than Zire 31, there is a list of vendor/product IDs on
http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids
instead of gnome-evolution I used system>preferences>palm OS devices (from the main Ubuntu menu).
maybe you'll need first to reboot+ in bios allow USB devices (or sth like that, i don t remember the exact name...)
well, then i pressed the hotsync button and it works

hope it helps you as well
heliix (with double i; not "helix")

[maltje]

root@amilo:/home/maltje # sudo synce-serial-start
/usr/sbin/pppd: In file /etc/ppp/peers/synce-device: unrecognized option '/dev/ttyUSB0'

synce-serial-start was unable to start the PPP daemon!


this error I get

[maltje]

the second time I tried it,I have to use ttyUSB1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He has tried connecting but I got an error
Cannot start communication with the desktop computer,reconnect your device
this is the error I get on my Ipaq

[maltje]

Now I want to put some mp3's on my usbstick,and now the computer is doing this very slowly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Before trying to fix the ipaq I had no problems with the usbstick!!!!!!!
Help me please