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title: Setting up My Palm Desktop |
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date: 2024-10-02 |
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Vintage PDA Software on a Shiny Platter |
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Now that I have a working battery in the Zire, my next step is to |
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get it syncing with a computer to back it up, add software and |
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hopefully sync my calendar, contacts, notes and maybe email. |
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The Zire package included a Palm Desktop CD and the "Read Me First" |
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quickstart booklet had instructions installing it. Given that it's |
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2024, installing this software on a modern system wasn't really an |
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option, so I had to come up with a different solution. |
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Palm Desktop Software CD |
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But First Macintosh |
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In keeping with the theme of the challenge, my first idea was to |
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run Palm Desktop in the Macintosh emulator Basilik II under a |
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System 7 install I use for getting software setup for my Macintosh |
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Plus. |
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Basilik II |
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I found various versions of Palm Desktop, but they required PowerPC |
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and newers Macintosh OS versions that I don't have configured |
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already. Before getting to far, I wanted to verify that USB |
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passthrough would work on Basilik, but no matter what I did I |
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couldn't get the Zire, or any USB device, to pass through. This |
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saved me the effort of setting up a new System 9 VM and looked into |
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other options. |
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Palm Desktop on Macintosh Repository |
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Latitude 7320 Enters the Chat |
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I briefly thought about setting up an older Windows VM or something |
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else on my Macbook Pro, but then remembered my wife had given me an |
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old Dell Latitude 7320 laptop that her work no longer needed. I had |
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planned to setup it up as a workbench system and figured this was |
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the right time. |
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I'm partial to Linux Mint as my Linux Desktop Distro of choice, |
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since I prefer Debian based distros and don't really care for |
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GNOME3 or Wayland. Linux Mint fits my style of just installing it |
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and having everything work out-of-the-box without too much effort. |
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For laptops this is key if you want power management and wifi to |
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work well too. |
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Linux Mint |
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A download and USB flashing later I had Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" |
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running on the Latitude with everything (even the touchscreen) |
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working. I verified that the Zire showed up over USB with `lsusb`, |
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which requires starting HotSync on the Zire, otherwise it's USB |
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isn't active. |
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Zire with Latitude 7320 |
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lsusb |
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``` |
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Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub |
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Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub |
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Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub |
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Bus 003 Device 003: ID 1bcf:28cf Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc. |
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Bus 003 Device 004: ID 8087:0026 Intel Corp. AX201 Bluetooth |
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Bus 003 Device 012: ID 1050:0407 Yubico.com Yubikey 4/5 OTP+U2F+CCI |
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Bus 003 Device 018: ID 0830:0070 Palm, Inc. Zire |
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Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub |
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``` |
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dmesg |
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``` |
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usb 3-3: new full-speed USB device number 17 using xhci_hcd |
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usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0830, idProduct=0070, bcdDe |
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usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5 |
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usb 3-3: Product: Palm Handheld |
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usb 3-3: Manufacturer: Palm, Inc. |
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usb 3-3: SerialNumber: PalmSN12345678 |
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usb 3-3: USB disconnect, device number 17 |
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usb 3-3: new full-speed USB device number 18 using xhci_hcd |
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usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0830, idProduct=0070, bcdDe |
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usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5 |
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usb 3-3: Product: Palm Handheld |
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usb 3-3: Manufacturer: Palm, Inc. |
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usb 3-3: SerialNumber: PalmSN12345678 |
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``` |
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Searching for Palmy Fisher |
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Now that I have a working modern Linux platform, the next step is |
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finding the best "modern" Palm-like software to run on it. |
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After some searching and remembering from Linux days gone past, I |
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found a few software suites that could interact with the Palm, |
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kPilot |
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gnome-pilot |
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J-Pilot |
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My next steps are to begin testing these out and see what works |
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best. It seems gnome-pilot has a connector to Evolution, and if I |
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can get that working then I might be able to sync my Calendar, |
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Contacts, email and maybe even notes off my mail provider Fastmail. |
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This could streamline keeping the Zire up-to-date with minimal |
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effort. |
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Links |
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