palm, kpilot revisited

ok, opensuse 10 is diff from 9.3

/dev/ttyUSB? are created on the fly, they do not have non root
permissions so getting them to use for sync with reg user is problematic.

kpilot cannot autodetect my pilot, my pilot connects to usb0/1 on first
attempt, then tends to hop around to 2/3, 4/5 depending on what my
kpilot is trying to connect to, it always avoid kpilot on its own.

i create a ln -s /dev/ttyUSB1 /dev/pilot; chown :users /dev/pilot; chmod
666 pilot

issues with that are:
1) files get deteled every boot
2) when kpilot uses it file, pilot jumps away from that USB port on
connection.

9.3 was easier to deal with since it had file in /dev/ttyISB? that stuck
around so you could chmod 666 them and all synching worked better,
however kpilot caused the palm to jump USB ports if you were not
carefull, you had to press the sync button on the pilot before doing
much in kpilot. on 10, I almost never works, how can I get the pilot
to always use ttyUSB0/1 and keep the permissions on /dev/ttyUSB1 to 666
so all my userid's on a machine can use the port to sync.

Please help/advise,

Neal...

Neal Vadekar wrote:
> ok, opensuse 10 is diff from 9.3
>
> /dev/ttyUSB? are created on the fly, they do not have non root
> permissions so getting them to use for sync with reg user is problematic.
>
> kpilot cannot autodetect my pilot, my pilot connects to usb0/1 on first
> attempt, then tends to hop around to 2/3, 4/5 depending on what my
> kpilot is trying to connect to, it always avoid kpilot on its own.
>
> i create a ln -s /dev/ttyUSB1 /dev/pilot; chown :users /dev/pilot; chmod
> 666 pilot
>
> issues with that are:
> 1) files get deteled every boot
> 2) when kpilot uses it file, pilot jumps away from that USB port on
> connection.
>
> 9.3 was easier to deal with since it had file in /dev/ttyISB? that stuck
> around so you could chmod 666 them and all synching worked better,
> however kpilot caused the palm to jump USB ports if you were not
> carefull, you had to press the sync button on the pilot before doing
> much in kpilot. on 10, I almost never works, how can I get the pilot
> to always use ttyUSB0/1 and keep the permissions on /dev/ttyUSB1 to 666
> so all my userid's on a machine can use the port to sync.
>
> Please help/advise,
>
> Neal...
adding myself to the uucp group seems to have solved my issue of
connecting to the ttyUSB1 device, but there are several other questions
I posed prior that are still unanswered.

Neal...

Neal Vadekar wrote:

> ok, opensuse 10 is diff from 9.3
>
> /dev/ttyUSB? are created on the fly, they do not have non root
> permissions so getting them to use for sync with reg user is problematic.

This means udev is used. Have a look at /etc/udev/rules.d
Add a .rules file for the ttyUSB* or change the existing one to give 666
access.

Neal Vadekar wrote:
> ok, opensuse 10 is diff from 9.3
>
> /dev/ttyUSB? are created on the fly, they do not have non root
> permissions so getting them to use for sync with reg user is problematic.
>
> kpilot cannot autodetect my pilot, my pilot connects to usb0/1 on first
> attempt, then tends to hop around to 2/3, 4/5 depending on what my
> kpilot is trying to connect to, it always avoid kpilot on its own.
>
> i create a ln -s /dev/ttyUSB1 /dev/pilot; chown :users /dev/pilot; chmod
> 666 pilot
>
> issues with that are:
> 1) files get deteled every boot
> 2) when kpilot uses it file, pilot jumps away from that USB port on
> connection.
>
> 9.3 was easier to deal with since it had file in /dev/ttyISB? that stuck
> around so you could chmod 666 them and all synching worked better,
> however kpilot caused the palm to jump USB ports if you were not
> carefull, you had to press the sync button on the pilot before doing
> much in kpilot. on 10, I almost never works, how can I get the pilot
> to always use ttyUSB0/1 and keep the permissions on /dev/ttyUSB1 to 666
> so all my userid's on a machine can use the port to sync.
>
> Please help/advise,
>
> Neal...

In 9.3 there is a setting in the /etc/sysconfig/hotplug script for
turning dynamic device nodes on and off. If you set HOTPLUG_DEV_ON_TMPFS
equal to "no", udev will create the device nodes permanently so you can
make modifications that will persist over reboots. By default this
setting is set to "no" in 9.3. I'm not sure if it's handled the same way
in 10.0, but it'd might be worth a look. To get udev to create the
permissions for /dev/ttyUSB* for user access, you can modify the
/etc/udev/rules.d/nn-udev.rules (nn is a two digit number. On 9.3 it's
50. Don't know about 10.0) so that ttyUSB* nodes are 666 instead of 660.

Optionally, I guess you could edit the ttyUSB entry and add
OPTIONS="resmgr" at the end of the line. Then in /etc/resmgr.conf add a
line like "add /dev/ttyUSB* desktop" somewhere in the file. (I think it
will take wildcards, though if not then specify the correct node
number). This way resmgr is supposed to take care of access to the
device. Don't have a pilot, so I haven't tested this method myself,
though, theoretically, that's the way its supposed to work.

--
sktsee

sktsee wrote:
> Neal Vadekar wrote:
>> ok, opensuse 10 is diff from 9.3
>>
>> /dev/ttyUSB? are created on the fly, they do not have non root
>> permissions so getting them to use for sync with reg user is problematic.
>>
>> kpilot cannot autodetect my pilot, my pilot connects to usb0/1 on
>> first attempt, then tends to hop around to 2/3, 4/5 depending on what
>> my kpilot is trying to connect to, it always avoid kpilot on its own.
>>
>> i create a ln -s /dev/ttyUSB1 /dev/pilot; chown :users /dev/pilot;
>> chmod 666 pilot
>>
>> issues with that are:
>> 1) files get deteled every boot
>> 2) when kpilot uses it file, pilot jumps away from that USB port on
>> connection.
>>
>> 9.3 was easier to deal with since it had file in /dev/ttyISB? that
>> stuck around so you could chmod 666 them and all synching worked
>> better, however kpilot caused the palm to jump USB ports if you were
>> not carefull, you had to press the sync button on the pilot before
>> doing much in kpilot. on 10, I almost never works, how can I get the
>> pilot to always use ttyUSB0/1 and keep the permissions on /dev/ttyUSB1
>> to 666 so all my userid's on a machine can use the port to sync.
>>
>> Please help/advise,
>>
>> Neal...
>
> In 9.3 there is a setting in the /etc/sysconfig/hotplug script for
> turning dynamic device nodes on and off. If you set HOTPLUG_DEV_ON_TMPFS
> equal to "no", udev will create the device nodes permanently so you can
> make modifications that will persist over reboots. By default this
> setting is set to "no" in 9.3. I'm not sure if it's handled the same way
> in 10.0, but it'd might be worth a look. To get udev to create the
> permissions for /dev/ttyUSB* for user access, you can modify the
> /etc/udev/rules.d/nn-udev.rules (nn is a two digit number. On 9.3 it's
> 50. Don't know about 10.0) so that ttyUSB* nodes are 666 instead of 660.
>
> Optionally, I guess you could edit the ttyUSB entry and add
> OPTIONS="resmgr" at the end of the line. Then in /etc/resmgr.conf add a
> line like "add /dev/ttyUSB* desktop" somewhere in the file. (I think it
> will take wildcards, though if not then specify the correct node
> number). This way resmgr is supposed to take care of access to the
> device. Don't have a pilot, so I haven't tested this method myself,
> though, theoretically, that's the way its supposed to work.
>

Wow, great answer, I will look into this. Is there anyway to get a
USB device to be FORCED always to the same ttyUSBXX device. I have my
pilot skipping around from 1 to 3 to 5 depending on what mood kpilot is
in. I would like to force the pilot to only adopt ttyUSB01 as it's
device file. On another note, do you know how to get the
/dev/thinkpad device created to support tpctl program?

Neal...

Neal Vadekar wrote:

[snip]

>
> Wow, great answer, I will look into this. Is there anyway to get a
> USB device to be FORCED always to the same ttyUSBXX device. I have my
> pilot skipping around from 1 to 3 to 5 depending on what mood kpilot is
> in.

I'm not sure how to bind a specific, though dynamic, devicenode to a
module with all the new udev/hal stuff, but the following might work.
It's from the udev manpage, so who knows?

Create a rules file in /etc/udev/rules.d. Name it 25-pda.rules (or some
number less than number of the default nn-udev.rules file). Put the
following line in it.

KERNEL="ttyUSB1", NAME="pda", SYMLINK="palmtop handheld"

This should rename /dev/ttyUSB1 to /dev/pda and create two symlinks,
/dev/palmtop and /dev/handheld, pointing to /dev/pda.


> I would like to force the pilot to only adopt ttyUSB01 as it's
> device file. On another note, do you know how to get the
> /dev/thinkpad device created to support tpctl program?
>
> Neal...

If the thinkpad module is loaded, then a device node should be created
automatically. Is the module loaded? If it is, then you may have to
create a rules file for it. Put something like this in it and see if
that works.

KERNEL="thinkpad", NAME="%k", MODE="660"

I can tell you that on 9.3 with HOTPLUG_DEV_ON_TMPFS turned off (no),
/dev/thinkpad shows up automatically because of the entry in
/etc/modprobe.conf.

--
sktsee