PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide, Second Edition

KPilot

KPilot is a graphical Palm Desktop-type program that comes bundled with the K Desktop Environment (KDE). KDE is one of the newer desktop windowing environments available for Unix or Linux. KPilot and its companion program, KPilotDaemon, are conveniently located on the Utilities submenu of the K Start Menu. However, it is also available as a standalone package and, with the appropriate libraries, could be installed under other X Window managers. The most recent version available is labeled 3.0 and is based on the pilot-link package.

Installation Directions and “Gotchas”

If you’re not using KDE and must install it separately, the package comes in RPM format, which makes it easy to install. After installation, using superuser (root) privileges, you must create a symbolic link called pilot to the appropriate serial port in the /dev directory.

For example, if the cradle is attached to the second serial port (or COM2) of your PC, type:

                  /dev$ ln -s /dev/cua1 pilot

You should also change the permissions on the file so that the KPilotDaemon can read and write to the port, exactly as you do with the pilot-link package. Type:

                  /dev$ chmod 666 pilot 

or:

                  /dev$ chmod a+rw pilot

At this point, running either KPilot or KPilotDaemon brings up the Options dialog box (shown in Figure 5.1). Most of the default settings are fine; be sure, though, that Pilot Device: is set to /dev/pilot (the default) and that the Speed: setting matches the speed of your serial port. The only other setting to check ...