The pilot-link suite of software tools allows you to download
programs onto your Pilot, and transfer data for the Pilot's various built-in
programs between the linux system and the Pilot.
While these programs are not quite as seamless as the desktop
software that comes with the Pilot, 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.
The
PilotManager
software is built on top
of pilot-link
and provides a more integrated solution, which
typically includes full synchronization of the various types of data.
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 port of
pilot-link version 0.7.2 from
ftp://ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/hamm/hamm/binary-i386/otherosfs/pilot-link_0.7.2-1.deb
.
Install this file in the normal manner and skip to
Using the pilot-link software.
You can get the RedHat Linux port of
pilot-link version 0.7.6 from
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/i386/pilot-link-0.7.6-2.i386.rpm
.
Install this file in the normal manner and skip to
Using the pilot-link software.
For other versions of linux or unix, download the version 0.8.2 of
pilot-link from
ftp://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/pub/PalmOS/pilot-link.0.8.2.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.0.8.2.tar.gz
This will create a directory (pilot-link.0.8.2
) containing the
source.
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.
Most of the programs in the pilot-link
suite are conduits,
that is they transfer data into or out of your Pilot.
Each time you use of one of these programs, press the HotSync button on your Pilot's cradle. This will initiate the Pilot 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.
For the pilot-xfer
program, for example, type
man pilot-xfer
at your unix shell prompt.
If you are going to use PilotManager
, you may not need to
bother learning to use these (more primitive) tools.
Possibly the most useful program in the pilot-link suite,
pilot-xfer
allows you to install programs on your Pilot, make
a backup, and restore that backup.
To install a program:
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -i program.prc
To backup your Pilot:
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -b backup-directory
This will copy all of the databases on your Pilot, (including programs?)
to a directory called ``backup-directory'', creating it if it does not
already exist.
To restore data to Pilot:
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -r backup-directory
Generally, you will only need to do this if your Pilot loses power
or if you have to do a hard reset.
To list the programs on your Pilot:
pilot-xfer /dev/pilot -l
Install a linux file onto the Pilot 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 Pilot.
This program grabs each memo from the Pilot and prints it out in standard mailbox format.
To view your memos:
memos /dev/pilot
pilot-addresses
Transfer the address database to or from the Pilot.
To write your address data to a linux file from your Pilot:
pilot-addresses /dev/pilot -w storage.file
To read your address data from a linux file onto your Pilot:
pilot-addresses /dev/pilot -r storage.file
One short-coming of the Pilot's built-in memo program is that it
does not deal well with large documents.
To compensate for this,
Rick Bram wrote
Doc, a document reader for the Pilot.
(See
http://www.concentric.net/~rbram/doc.shtml
).
Documents can be converted to the Doc format with MakeDoc
,
by
Pat Beirne.
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
.
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 Pilot 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>
The file that you wish to convert.
The name of the resulting file. (End the name
with ``.prc
''.)
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.
PilotManager
is a generalized tool which allows
multiple databases to be synchronized in a single HotSync session.
I have not been able to build and install PilotManager
in time to
write about it for this version of the Pilot-HOWTO.
A few links that might be helpful:
http://playground.sun.com/~bharat/pilotmgr.html
ftp://ftp.orbits.com/pub/Pilot/pilotmgr,v1.009-BETA-3.patch
tar -xvzf pilotmgr,v1.009-BETA-3.dev.tar.gz
cd pilotmgr,v1.009-BETA-3
patch -p1 < ../pilotmgr,v1.009-BETA-3.patch
I hope to be able to install this software soon and report about it in a
future version of this document.