Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device) Solved thx people

[jman01]

I have a Palm TX with an app called 'card reader', which allows the computer to see the Palm TX as a mass storage device. When I had Puppy Linux installed on my desktop a few days ago, the Palm TX functioned as a mass storage device and was mountable/unmountable as sda1.

However, I see that my HD (with a full install of kubuntu) is mounted at sda1. So, when I plug in my Palm TX via a USB cable, and run the 'card reader' application, The 'card reader' app says that its "reading" but nothing displays when I look at the mount/unmount icon on the taskbar.

How do I get the Palm TX to function as a mass storage device?

[mfabry]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

And what you can see in /var/log/messages and syslog?

[arist]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

I had the same problem (Kubuntu 7.04): for awhile I could connect the TX, tap "Enable" on CardReader, and Kubuntu would automount it. Then one day it just stopped recognizing it for no apparent reason. So here's the workaround I use.

Connect the TX, enable CardReader, then open a terminal and type

dmesg

You should see towards the end of the messages some recognition of the TX. Here's what I get:

[ 2830.754227] scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access   mStream CardReader    1.0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 2830.762205] SCSI device sdc: 3948544 512-byte hdwr sectors (2022 MB)
[ 2830.764197] sdc: Write Protect is off
[ 2830.764201] sdc: Mode Sense: 1b 00 00 00
[ 2830.764203] sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
[ 2830.769190] SCSI device sdc: 3948544 512-byte hdwr sectors (2022 MB)
[ 2830.771188] sdc: Write Protect is off
[ 2830.771192] sdc: Mode Sense: 1b 00 00 00
[ 2830.771195] sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
[ 2830.771201] sdc: sdc1

That last line tells me the device name that the system has assigned to CardReader. So then I mount the device where I want it:

pmount /dev/sdc1 /media/palm

I have to manually unmount it when I'm done.

I've written a script to reduce all of this to three keystrokes. It's named mp.sh.

#!/bin/bash

#This gets the device name assigned to the Palm and
#assigns it to the variable "R". The Palm must first be
#connected and CardReader enabled.

P=`dmesg | grep ": sd"`
Q=${P##*sd?: }
R=/dev/$Q

pmount $R /media/palm

if [ -d /media/palm/Documents ]
then
echo Palm is mounted as $R.
else
echo Mounting failed.
fi

In .bash_aliases I put this line

alias mp='/scripts_directory/mp.sh'

Now after connecting the TX and enabling CardReader I just open a terminal and type

mp

No icon on the desktop, have to unmount manually, but unless someone here has figured out how to get CardReader to automount, I can manage.

[JerryG]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

I have a similar issue using 8.04 (AMD64) on an HP a810n, and a Treo 755p with Card Reader. It recently stopped working automagically... :P

I just pop open Yakuake and run lsusb twice, then I get the select function dialog box, and the desktop icon after I have it open the SD card in Konqueror FM mode.

HTH,

-JerryG

[arist]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

I just pop open Yakuake and run lsusb twice, then I get the select function dialog box

Don't mean to drift too far off topic, but this puzzles me. When I run lsusb twice, I get the same thing both times, a simple list of USB device ID's. The TX shows up as

Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0830:0061 Palm, Inc.

Has lsusb been modified in Hardy to provide dialog boxes? (I'm running Feisty.)

[mfabry]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

I'm using "Card Export" application to attach my TX as a card reader. No problem whatsoever. Card in Palm is properly recognized. Unfortunately "Card Export" is a third party soft and non free. And of course you can't access internal memory of the device. I'm using Hardy 64bit.

[JerryG]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

I just pop open Yakuake and run lsusb twice, then I get the select function dialog box

Don't mean to drift too far off topic, but this puzzles me. When I run lsusb twice, I get the same thing both times, a simple list of USB device ID's. The TX shows up as

Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0830:0061 Palm, Inc.

Here's my systems output -

jerryg@Eagle:~$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 058f:9360 Alcor Micro Corp. 8-in-1 Media Card Reader
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 051d:0002 American Power Conversion Uninterruptible Power Supply
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
jerryg@Eagle:~$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 011: ID 054c:80da Sony Corp.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 058f:9360 Alcor Micro Corp. 8-in-1 Media Card Reader
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 051d:0002 American Power Conversion Uninterruptible Power Supply
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
jerryg@Eagle:~$

Sometimes it shows up like this -

Bus 003 Device 010: ID 0830:0061 Palm, Inc.

Go figure...

Has lsusb been modified in Hardy to provide dialog boxes? (I'm running Feisty.)

No, IMHO, lsusb hasn't been modified. I think that somehow querying the USB device chain makes hald wakeup and realize there's a new device to pay attention to. Then the normal KDE Mount Daemon dialog shows up, with choices to open in a new window, download photos with digiKam, or do nothing.

Regards,

-JerryG

[jman01]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

After fooling around with the settings, here is the setup that finally works for me.

1. Download 'gnome-pilot' through the add/remove program. Then open up gnome-pilot from Applications>Settings>gnome-pilot

The first screen, I kept the defaults (skipped, I believe) Next

Name: Cradle (default)
Type: USB
Timeout: 2 minutes (default)
Device: usb:
Speed: 57600 (default)

2. Download 'storage device manager' through the add/remove program. Run the card reader, and then open up storage device manager from Applications>System>storage device manager. The Palm TX should show up.

[JerryG]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

Great!

Question - what version of Kubuntu are you using?

-JerryG

[jman01]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

Release 9.04 (Hardy)
Kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
Gnome 2.22.2

I forgot to mention that I downloaded the app labeled 'PalmOS Devices' from the add/remove app.

[JerryG]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device)

Hmmm... some confusion may be caused by the fact that Puppy Linux was assigning sda1 to your TX. Your first hard disk/partition would probably have been hda1.

Under (K)ubuntu (and I'd venture you're using Ubuntu 8.04, not Kubuntu), your first hard disk will be called sda1...

When you have your TX connected, run the mount command in terminal, and see what shows up (as opposed to when it's not connected).

Any questions, please do ask...

HTH,

-JerryG

[arist]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device) Solved thx people

Hmmm... some confusion may be caused by the fact that Puppy Linux was assigning sda1 to your TX. Your first hard disk/partition would probably have been hda1.

I think those names are determined by whether the hard disk is a SATA or SCSI drive (sd) or an IDE drive (hd).

I tried Storage Device Manager and it works: recognizes and mounts the Palm. However, I won't be using it, for this reason. If I want to choose the mount point (/media/palm) and have it be the same each time, I have to save the setup as the default, which SDM then writes to fstab. However, that assumes the Palm always gets assigned the same device name (e.g. sdb1). But this causes two problems. If I use more than one USB device in a session, the Palm might be assigned the name sdc1 or sdd1 when it's connected later, and it won't be in fstab then. And, after I disconnect the Palm, the name sdb1 may be assigned to another USB device later. So, for example, after using SDM and then unmounting the Palm, I plugged in my digital camera, it was assigned sdb1, and it didn't automount as usual because it didn't match the fstab entry. After I deleted the entry in fstab and restarted, the camera automounted again.

The virtue of the script is that it works on the fly without relying on fstab: it takes whatever device name the system gives to the Palm and mounts it where I want it.

[JerryG]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device) Solved thx people

I'll have to check your script out.

FWIW/FYI - I believe the switch from "hd" to "sd" for drive designation took place with version 7.x of (K)Ubuntu. It's probably in the install notes/readme. I started using Linux with Red Hat 5.2 (with KDE 1.1.2 <grin>), and recently switched from OpenSuSE 10.2, which used "hd", and I have no SCSI drives in this system -

jerryg@Eagle:~$ mount | grep hd
jerryg@Eagle:~$ mount | grep sd
/dev/sdb1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdb7 on /backup0 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sdb3 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda8 on /hm102 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sdb5 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda6 on /mnt/xfr type reiserfs (rw)
/dev/sda7 on /rt102 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sdb2 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /win_rcvr type vfat (rw,utf8,umask=007,gid=46)
/dev/sda2 on /win_xp type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,allow_other,default_permi ssions,blksize=4096)
jerryg@Eagle:~$

Cheers,

-JerryG

[arist]

Re: Palm TX (help make it function as a mass storage device) Solved thx people

I believe the switch from "hd" to "sd" for drive designation took place with version 7.x of (K)Ubuntu.

You surely are right. I have an SATA drive whose two partitions are sda1 and sda2, and an IDE drive whose partitions are hda1 and hda2. But those designations must have been carried over when I upgraded from Edgy (6.10) to Feisty (7.04). My information, like my system, is outdated.