HOWTO_PDA

Introduction

This howto is about how to sync a Sony Clie, but it should work with others PDAs syncing using USB.

Kernel Options

We need USB support working, and the following options must be in the kernel.

CONFIG_USB_SERIAL=y
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_VISOR=y
USB_FILESYSTEM_SUPPORT=y

USB_MASS_STORAGE_SUPPORT=y
VFAT_FILESYSTEM_SUPPORT=y

I have them compiled into the kernel, but if you want modules you can do it, just remember to add the modules in your /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6.

Configuration

Sync

To get the PDA working, we need to create symlinks from the USB device to /dev/pilot, something like this: /dev/pilot –> /dev/usb/tts/1

ln -sf /dev/usb/tts/1 /dev/pilot

Now is time to set permissions correctly, remember that the device only apears when you press the sync button.

chgrp users /dev/usb/tts/1
chmod 660 /dev/usb/tts/1

You may also need to add the user, who is syncing, to the usb group. For this you can use gpasswd -a [user] usb, replacing the obvious, omitting the brackets.

Thats all, by now you should be able to sync your Clie.

Access The Memory Stick

If you want to access your memory stick, mounting it like you do with other devices do this:

mkdir /mnt/usbstick
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbstick

If you want to add it to your fstab, the line is something like this:

/dev/sda1 /mnt/memstick vfat user,noauto,umask=0077 0 0

The original version of this Howto is here (in Spanish)