Support for Palm USB Hotsync - wine-devel

22 Jul 2004


      Hi,
I am new to this list (albeit not to Wine :-) my Wine usage dates back
to 1993 when I interviewed Bob Amstadt in his home... )
Anyway - I have a problem with Palm USB hotsync which could perhaps be
solved on the userspace level. As you all know, the Linux USB kernel code
creates an in-kernel device (in this case, ttyUSB1) only when a connected
device actually talks. With a Palm, this is only the case if one presses
the hotsync button. This keeps me from running Hotsync permanently which I
need to sync my Palm against Lotus Notes. As soon as I start Hotsync, it
complains that the device is not there at all. Even if I press "hotsync"
and start Hotsync immediately after that, no communication takes place.
(pilot-xfer -p /dev/ttyUSB1 works just fine)
Now, for Wine / Cxoffice, ttyUSB is merely a serial device. Wouldn't
it be possible to modify the Wine code in a way to fake the open() call
and return success to the caller, poll the actual device and open it as
soon as it actually comes up? I would be willing to hack this in but I
have no real idea where to look regarding the sheer size of the code. I
suspect it's in server/serial.c but I am not sure. Any hint is welcome.
Or does somebody have an idea how to work around this problem? Until
recently, I used a serial hotsync cable but my new notebook has no serial
port any more... and carrying an USBserial converter isn't really an
option on the road.
(IrDA could be an alternative but I couldn't get this to work with my T41
either, at least not with FIR).
-- 
Try to be the best of whatever you are, even if what you are is no
good.