On Sat, 2 Aug 2003 00:51:25 +0100 (BST) BenE mail@psychoferret.freeserve.co.uk wrote:

Can anyone help please?

I've just bought a zaurus SL-5500 and am trying to get it to sync with linux. I've got the qtopia desktop rpm to install but still can't access my PDA. Suse (haven't got rpm installed on my lfs system) seems to think the zaurus is a modem, but that doesn't seem right to me.

Could someone explain the hardware side of the process please? How to set it up?

Cheers,

BenE

Zarus could be a computer on the other end of a modem.

This is how I talk to my £40 palm sometimes. One can set up a point to point IP connection and then treat it like an Internet server/client (the Internet is a connection protocol not a software implementation). The software to the new budget Palm Zire model m150 is not yet 100% solid and the GUI stuff is broken, and its all taken quite a lot of effort. (Mainly learning the Palm/Linux applications capabilities)

I don't have a Zarus but If I wrote the work plan to do connect a Zarus to a Linux PC, Internet protocols like ssh and back end tools like rsync, tar and sockets is how I would do synchronization. (Security could be more user friendly, without compromising security, its the bain of my working life debugging security problems at the moment.)

If the Zarus had a VGA out and was a USB server rather than a USB client I would buy one, and use it as my desktop PC.

Thinking about it I could run the Palm emulator on a Zarus and then use all the great Palm software as PDA tools. Its amazing how bad the effect of learning and using a tool prejudices you toward something. Eg Me and my Palm, Me and Linux, but with Linux I have started to moan because I use it every day all day but its still better than ms-windows and Palm OS.

Regards

Owen