, 4 min read

Syncing with J-Pilot via Bluetooth

Probably I am a little bit old-fashioned, but I still use J-Pilot on my PC and my Tungsten T5 and sync them. It mostly serves as a kind of backup so I have my valuable address and datebook data on separate media. So in case my PC gets inaccessible then I have my data on this device at least.

These are the commands I use.

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
/usr/bin/dund --listen --channel 1 --pppd /usr/sbin/pppd call dun
hciconfig hci0 piscan

File /etc/ppp/peers/dun is

debug
115200
noauth
nopersist
local
passive
netmask 255.255.255.0
192.168.178.118:192.168.178.119
ms-dns 192.168.178.1

Local address 118 of my PC is mapped to 119.

On the Palm you have to configure your bluetooth connection. Below are screenshots of this.

Go to preferences and choose Connection. Photo

Here is the Connection screen. Photo

Photo

Photo

Photo

Photo

Photo

Go to HotSync screen and open the menu, i.e., third symbol after home symbol at the bottom. Photo

In this menu you choose which conduits to sync. If you sync all of them this could take too much time. So I deselect most of them. Photo

Now you can go to your HotSync screen and tap the HotSync symbol.

syslog should look something like this:

May  1 23:11:27 chieftec dund[7515]: Bluetooth DUN daemon version 4.101
May  1 23:14:02 chieftec dund[7528]: New connection from 00:07:E0:52:6D:9B
May  1 23:14:02 chieftec pppd[7529]: pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0
May  1 23:14:02 chieftec pppd[7529]: using channel 1
May  1 23:14:02 chieftec pppd[7529]: Using interface ppp0
May  1 23:14:02 chieftec pppd[7529]: Connect: ppp0  /dev/rfcomm0
May  1 23:14:02 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1    ]
May  1 23:14:02 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [LCP ConfRej id=0x1 ]
May  1 23:14:02 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x2   ]
May  1 23:14:02 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x2   ]
May  1 23:14:05 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x2   ]
May  1 23:14:05 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x2   ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x2   ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [LCP ConfAck id=0x2   ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [LCP EchoReq id=0x0 magic=0x0]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec kernel: [47219.276506] PPP BSD Compression module registered
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [CCP ConfReq id=0x1   ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x1  ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec kernel: [47219.291545] PPP Deflate Compression module registered
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [IPCP ConfReq id=0x1    ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [IPCP ConfNak id=0x1  ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [LCP EchoRep id=0x0 magic=0x0]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [LCP ProtRej id=0x3 80 fd 01 01 00 0f 1a 04 78 00 18 04 78 00 15 03 2f]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: Protocol-Reject for 'Compression Control Protocol' (0x80fd) received
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x1 ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2  ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2    ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [IPCP ConfAck id=0x2    ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [IPCP ConfAck id=0x2  ]
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: local  IP address 192.168.178.118
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: remote IP address 192.168.178.119
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: Script /etc/ppp/ip-up started (pid 7543)
May  1 23:14:06 chieftec pppd[7529]: Script /etc/ppp/ip-up finished (pid 7543), status = 0x0
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [IPCP TermReq id=0x3]
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: IPCP terminated by peer
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: Connect time 1.9 minutes.
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: Sent 47601 bytes, received 70809 bytes.
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: Script /etc/ppp/ip-down started (pid 7555)
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [IPCP TermAck id=0x3]
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: rcvd [LCP TermReq id=0x4]
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: LCP terminated by peer
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: sent [LCP TermAck id=0x4]
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: Script /etc/ppp/ip-down finished (pid 7555), status = 0x0
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: Modem hangup
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: Connection terminated.
May  1 23:15:58 chieftec pppd[7529]: Exit.

This follows mostly what was written in handhirn or in ArchWiki: Hotsync over Bluetooth.

There is an interesting article on the Palm history in Palm, a Silicon Valley soap opera, on its rise and demise. Palm went though a series of brands, from Palm, U.S. Robotics, 3Com, Handspring, Palm Computing, PalmSource and palmOne, ACCESS, finally HP. Some quotes from Palm, a Silicon Valley soap opera

What else might HP get? The management team? Seriously? Have you seen how Palm's management team managed Palm? What about the webOS engineers? Well, if HP had waited a few months, Palm would have imploded, and those engineers could have been picked up for a mere recruiting fee.

Added 14-Jul-2023: