Zaire still won't connect

[Kurt Wall]

Quoth Joel Hammer:
> I do have pilot link. It can be made to work. But, I see no way to integrate
> pilot-link with jpilot, unless this cryptic note is supposed to tell me how
> to do it (from the jpilot documentation.)
> 
>      USB Palms (m series) and Sony Clies will work, but require
>      pilot-link 0.10.1 or greater, which is still unreleased
>      at the time of this writing.  J-Pilot will autodetect
>      the newer version of pilot-link and build appropriately.

jpilot needs pilot-link installed in order to link against the 
libraries jpilot needs. It uses pilot-link functionality in order
to work properly.

> Does this mean:
> 1. Jpilot has to have a working installing of pilot-link when:
>         a.jpilot runs,
>                 or
>         b. when jpilot builds
>                 or
>         c. both a & b ?

The correct answer is c.

> 2. Do the debian provided packages build with pilot-link?

No idea.

> Well, it looks like the jpilot people expect I will install gcc, get the
> sources of jpilot,  get the sources for pilot-link, build the latter,
> somehow verify that pilot-link is "working" (What the heck does that
> mean? ), then build jpilot, hoping that it will build properly with

This is not an unreasonable set of expectations of Linux users.

> pilot-link. All this for a guy trying hard to believe in the debian
> package system and an EZ out of the box distro like lindows.

This is, for better or worse, an unreasonable expectation. At
this time. Linux is easier to install and configured than it 
has ever been, and I oughta know because I've been at this since
late 1992/early 1993 and worked for the company that made the
first graphical installer.

> All this just to do something pathetically simple in windows.

Guilty, I suppose.

> Who are the jpilot people imagining their target audience to be? It can
> only be one of people with nothing to do but fool with ridiculous minutiae
> on their computers.

"Ridiculous minatiae" no. "Willingness to tinker," yes.

> It looks like my only chance is to use pilot-link as a stand
> alone. Problem is, can I read my old data from jpilot with pilot-link. Who
> knows? Who cares. I'll just type it in. 
> 
> Just to show what a geek I am, I would go through all this hassle  just to
> make it work. But, I know that next time I buy a PDA, I will likely go
> through this same waste of time all over again.  I am through with this
> nonsense.
> 
> Sad but true, I will have to run windows just to sync my PDA. Geez. Maybe
> I can find a machine at work.

I hear that you're frustrated. I relate. Joel, I'm what most people 
people (wrongly) consider a Linux "expert," and *I* get frustrated. Worse,
<gasp, horror>I don't know everything, as my messages about moving my 
domain should make clear. 

It is stunningly easy to get overwhelmed and in the resulting
fluster and frustation (what we called "flustration" in the tech 
support and cook-to-order restaurant worlds) want to hurl the whole
mess in the trash heap.

You cheat yourself if you give up. Some things just work, others
require effort. To get my m515 working, I did the following:

1) Removed the existing pilot-link stuff from my system. Read docs.
2) Downloaded, built, and installed the latest pilot-link I could.
   Read docs.
3) Rebuilt my kernel to build a couple of USB modules I needed to
   hot sync with the Palm. Read docs. Found errors in docs. 
4) Loaded said modules. Read docs at Linux USB sites.
5) Built and installed JPilot, linking against my fresh new pilot-link
   libraries. Read docs.
6) Started JPilot, fixed some symlink and /dev/usb* entries, set
   some JPilot preferences. Read docs.
7) It worked. Cheered.

In a perfect world, I would have been able to slap my Palm into the
cradle and it would Just Work. I don't live in a perfect world, so I
muddle along the best I can. If you have the E ticket to the perfect
world, I'll be happy to send my snail mail address so you can send it
to me.

Kurt
-- 
I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked
at in the right way, did not become still more complicated.
		-- Poul Anderson