Q: My Palm got reset, and when I synched with ColdSync, all my stuff got deleted! Help! A: First of all, don't panic. This is the so-called Bargle Bug. 1) Make a backup of your .palm directory: cp -rp .palm .palm.backup This isn't required, but is prudent in case you mess up your .palm directory. 2) Make a restore directory, say mkdir /tmp/restore 3) Copy your applications (.prc files) to the restore directory. They should be in ~/.palm/backup/Attic . 4) All of the contents of your record databases (.pdb files) should be in the archive files in ~/.palm/archive . These files are in archive format, not .pdb format. Convert them to .pdb format using the `archive2pdb' tool, available at http://www.ooblick.com/software/coldsync/archive2pdb Note that `archive2pdb' is very rough and unfinished, which is why it isn't part of the standard distribution. It will copy all of the records in the archive file to the .pdb file, including all of the stuff that you deleted months ago, which means that you'll have to delete it all over again. 5) Restore your .pdb and .prc files to the Palm: coldsync -r /tmp/restore 6) Clean up. Delete (on the Palm) all of the old stuff that you didn't mean to re-upload. All of your application categories will have been lost as well, so you'll need to recreate them again. Q: Are these *really* frequently-asked questions? A: No. ColdSync really doesn't have enough of a following for any questions to have been asked often enough to become tedious. But if I had called this the "AQ", people wouldn't find it. Q: Have all of these questions really been asked? A: No. Some of the questions in this list have been added to prevent their being asked. But if I had called this the "Q", people wouldn't find it. Q: Is ColdSync better than pilot-link? A: Well, *I* think so, otherwise I wouldn't have written it. Seriously: technically, pilot-link is mainly a library of funnctions for talking to Palm devices. ColdSync includes such a library as well. I think that the ColdSync library is better-written, in the sense of being more readable (and hence more easily maintained), better documented, and more robust. The ColdSync library is not compatible with pilot-link, nor was it ever intended to be. At the same time, they are designed for similar purposes, and so share some similarities. It should be possible to port an application like KPilot to the ColdSync library without superhuman effort. ColdSync the application... that's a matter of taste. Most of the syncing applications out there seem to be clones of existing Windows-based applications; they require you to be logged in, and to have X running. That wasn't what I wanted. I wanted something more Unix-y. When it grows up, ColdSync will be a daemon started at boot time that you'll never need to interact with directly. If that's not what you're looking for, well, there are plenty of other applications out there. Take your pick or write your own. Q: Does ColdSync do X? A: Depends on the value of X. Q: Why doesn't ColdSync do X? A: Depending on the value of X, there are three possible answers: 1) I haven't had time to add it yet, and nobody's volunteered. 2) I've considered it and rejected it. 3) I haven't thought of it. Q: I've set "speed 9600;" and now all I get is timeouts. A: This is a known, if not understood problem. The immediate problem is that the Palm isn't transmitting at the speed that ColdSync expects. Why this is so I don't know, since ColdSync is supposed to dictate connection speed to the Palm. Under PalmOS 3.3, you can set the connection speed under HotSync -> Connection Setup -> Direct Serial -> Edit -> Details -> Speed Under earlier versions, you can play with HotSync -> Modem Setup -> Speed Q: Why the Artistic license? Why not the GPL? A: Philosophical answer: because I want ColdSync to be freely-distributable, without the limitations that the GPL imposes. I believe that all software, free or otherwise, should stand or fall on its own merits, and not because it matches someone's agenda. Real answer: because I don't really care that much. What I'd really like to say is "Do what you like with this. Just give credit where credit is due." ColdSync is not commercial because, quite frankly, I have neither the time nor the inclination to run a business. I also wanted to use a "canned" license, one that many eyeballs have debugged. The Artistic license was closest to what I was looking for. Q: I added a new ToDo/Memo/whatever category on the Palm, and it hasn't shown up on the desktop. A: Yup. This is an unsolved problem. Categories are stored in a database's AppInfo block. The AppInfo block can't be synced the same way as the data records. The Palm doesn't report when the AppInfo block has changed, the way it does for data records. There doesn't seem to be a good way to synchronize the AppInfo block without risking losing information. Q: Why doesn't ColdSync synchronize my preferences? A: Preferences, such as your e-mail signature, your preferred time and date format, and so on, are kept in .prc files. .prc files do not lend themselves to syncing, for many of the same reasons as the AppInfo block: they don't have flags indicating whether they've changed since the last sync, and you can't have more than one copy of each one. Q: Does ColdSync work with the Handspring Visor? A: From several accounts, yes, at least under FreeBSD and Linux. Under FreeBSD 4.x, use /dev/ugen0 as the device, and specify "listen usb" in your .coldsyncrc . ColdSync should find the Visor on its own. Linux users can follow the instructions at http://usbvisor.sourceforge.net/Handspring-Visor-mini-HOWTO Then sync with /dev/ttyUSB1. In the .coldsyncrc, use "listen serial", since ColdSync won't be accessing the USB port directly. (Thanks to alert reader Shawn Sorichetti for this information.) Q: Does ColdSync support syncing via the infrared port? A: Not directly, but yes. You need to install an IrCOMM handler, which will make your IR port behave like an RS-232 serial port. As far as I know, the only OS with a working IrCOMM implementation is Linux. Several people have reported being able to sync over IR, though I have so far been unable to duplicate their success. You should probably start with the IR-HOWTO that comes with the Redhat distribution. Q: ColdSync doesn't detect my Visor's serial number correctly. A: As far as I've been able to determine, the Handspring Visor does not allow one to get at the serial number in software. The Visor appears to support reading ROM tokens, which is the way one reads the serial number in software. It even appears to have an "snum" ROM token. However, the contents of this token are not a 12-character string, but a set of 12 0xff bytes. # This is for Emacs's benefit: # Local Variables: *** # mode: auto-fill *** # fill-column: 75 *** # End: ***