Multimedia

Multimedia under Solaris: Audio, Video, PalmOS devices

PalmOS devices and Solaris

For all users interested to sync their PalmOS devices with Solaris via a serial cable I have created several Solaris packages.
All these packages are available for Solaris 9 x86 and Sparc.

What packages are included:

J-Pilot - A desktop organizer application for PalmOS devices
pilot-link - A suite of tools used to connect your Palm with Unix
txt2pdbdoc - Converts plain text and HTML files to Palm Pilot Doc formats
libpng - the official PNG reference library
libiconv - Converts between character encodings

For Solaris 8 users: at this moment there are no packages available, sorry for this!

I. Prerequisites

Before you start make sure you have installed the Solaris 9 Companion Software CD available from SUN under:
http://wwws.sun.com/software/solaris/freeware/index.html

Check that SFWrline package has been installed. Adjust your LD_LIBRARY_PATH to pickup all correct libraries:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/sfw/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

II. Installation

There are three main packages needed: libiconv, pilot-link and jpilot. You will find the latest version of these packages:
libiconv-1.9.2, libpng-1.2.5, pilot-link-0.11.8 and jpilot-0.99.7

Libraries

X86	Sparc
SPiconv-1.9.2-x86-s9.bz2	SPiconv-1.9.2-sparc-s9.bz2
SPpng-1.2.5-x86-s9.bz2	SPpng-1.2.5-sparc-s9.bz2

Applications

X86	Sparc
SPpdoc-1.3-x86-s9.bz2	SPpdoc-1.3-sparc-s9.bz2
SPpilotlink-0.11.8-x86-s9.bz2	SPpilotlink-0.11.8-sparc-s9.bz2
SPjpilot-0.99.7-x86-s9.bz2	SPjpilot-0.99.7-sparc-s9.bz2

Please start by installing: libiconv and libpng

# bunzip2 SPiconv-1.9.2-x86-s9.bz2
# bunzip2 SPpng-1.2.5-x86-s9.bz2

# pkgadd -d SPiconv-1.9.2-x86-s9
# pkgadd -d SPpng-1.2.5-x86-s9

After this install the core applications: pilot-link and jpilot

# bunzip2 SPpilotlink-0.11.8-x86-s9.bz2 SPjpilot-0.99.7-x86-s9.bz2
# pkgadd -d SPpilotlink-0.11.8-x86-s9
# pkgadd -d SPjpilot-0.99.7-x86-s9

You are all set. Just make sure you point your PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the correct destinations:

export PATH=/opt/PalmPilot/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/PalmPilot/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

III. Configuration

First of all you have to configure under jpilot: the serial port, the serial rate and a user interface skin what you like. Start jpilot application and click 'File-Preferences' from main menu. You will see a window 'J-Pilot Preferences' as defined below:

jpilot_figure1

Choose 'Settings' from the top level menu and you be able to configure the port, have access to change the serial speed and a lot of other features.
The most important at this moment are: Serial Port and Serial Rate

jpilot_figure2

Serial Port

Usually, under Solaris, the first serial port is defined as /dev/term/a (COM1). If you are using a laptop most likely
your configuration will be something like: /dev/term/a - Otherwise check and see where have you attached the palm serial cradle or serial cable. Check what serial port you are using. Configure under Serial Port the correct device name.

Serial Rate

Make sure you lower the speed for your serial link. Start by using 57600
From time to time you may notice several errors under /var/adm/messages regarding asy driver. Common errors are
something like:

asy0 : silo overflow.

From manual page of asy device driver: The hardware overrun occurred before the input character could be serviced.
If you notice, that everytime when you try to sync your Palm via jpilot, you get a asyN error message try lowering the Serial Rate.

After this you are done. Press Done. Press Sync from jpilot and as well start HotSync button from cradle.
You should be able now to sync your PalmOS device with jpilot on Solaris. This procedure is platform independent so same steps can be applied to sparc or x86 Solaris OE.