# &kpilot; User's Guide

Adriaan de Groot

    groot@kde.org

Dan Pilone

    pilone@slac.com

1999 2000 2001 2002 Adriaan de Groot
&FDLNotice;
2002-01-19
4.3.0

&kpilot; 4.3.0 is the &kde; version of the Desktop &HotSync; software for the &ThreeCom; &PalmPilot; and similar products.

KDE KPilot kdepim palm pilot synchronisation

## Introduction

&kpilot; 4.3.0 is the latest version of the Desktop &HotSync; software for &UNIX;. After several releases and many contributions from users &kpilot;, along with &korganizer;, has evolved into a rather complete replacement for the &Windows; Desktop provided by &ThreeCom;. &kpilot; offers a few internal tools for viewing and manipulating data, and a convenient API for developing ways of sharing data with other applications. &kpilot; supports the &ThreeCom; &PalmPilot; and similar devices, like the &Handspring; &Visor;.

There is a web page for &kpilot;: the Official &kpilot; Home Page . The KDE-PIM website also offers useful information on the subject of PIM in general. &kpilot; shares the kde-pim mailing list, kde-pim@kde.org. See the mailing lists page for more information on subscribing and unsubscribing from the list.

A word about version numbers: &kpilot; 3.x versions are for KDE 1. With the release of &kde; 2 &kpilot; 3.x is obsolete and &kpilot; 4.x has become current.

This document still reflects &kpilot; version 4.2.2. The descriptions may be inaccurate and the screenshots misleading. Updated documentation will be released after the &kde; 3.0 release.

### &kpilot; Revision History

- New in 4.3.0 - a new architecture, USB support, and possibly a VCal (&korganizer;) conduit that isn't dead slow.

- New in 4.2.2 - (There were versions 4.1.x and 4.2.1 for KDE 2, but we never updated the documentation to reflect this. These revision notes apply to the change between &kpilot; 4.0.0 and 4.2.2.) Many compilation and portability fixes were applied. Those changes do not affect the visible appearance of &kpilot;. What has changed is the GUI. We now use the KDE 2 XML GUI. This means that menu names have changed again but we feel it should be obvious where things have ended up. This has the advantage that you can now easily customize the toolbar and that the &kpilot; user interface behaves more like the rest of KDE 2. Tool tips (also called balloon help) have finally been added.

  There are two new external conduits: one for &kaddressbook; (and hence kab, the KDE 2 address book) and one for the expenses application on the &PalmPilot;.

  What's missing: The expense conduit is rather experimental as of may 2001, but should improve vastly before the KDE 2.2 final release. The FastSync vs. HotSync is not fully functional yet. There have also been problems reported with the KNotes conduit.

- New in 4.0.0 - &kpilot; is now a KDE 2 application. A lot of work has gone into making the main &kpilot; application compatible with the new KDE 2 standards. The stability of the program as a whole has improved as well, with lots of bugfixes under the hood. The most important visible new features are:

  - There is a new &knotes; conduit that synchronizes the memo pad with &knotes;.

  - More intuitive conduit installation and setup.

  - The documentation has been brought mostly up-to-date.

- New in 3.2.1 - more bugfixes. &kpilot; 3.2.1 is also the last version of &kpilot; for KDE 1. Development on the 3.x series has stopped.

- New in 3.2.0 - &kpilot; has been polished sufficiently for a new public release. The infamous application-category bug has been squashed along with other bugs.

- New in 3.1.14 - New configuration options Backup Only: and Skip have been added to avoid database corruption for some Handbase databases — and possibly other products as well. The documentation for &kpilot; — in english only — has been vastly expanded.

- New in 3.1.13 - You can now HotSync - experimentally - with &UNIX; style mailboxes. The popmail conduit will read a standard mailbox and copy it to the &PalmPilot;. The &GUI; has been improved and some issues with various OS distributions have been dealt with. See the buglist for more information.

- New in 3.1.12 - This release of &kpilot; has only been tested with KDE 1.0, 1.1 and 1.1.1. Previous versions of KDE are no longer supported. &kpilot; 3.1.12 has a number of new features compared to 3.1b9. It also includes a large number of bug fixes.

  The most important new features are:

  - Now supports debugging output, just start &kpilot; by hand from the command line with ``kpilot` `--debug 1023`` and you will get loads of debugging output. Useful for reporting bugs. See the FAQ for information on the parameter to `--debug`.

  - Addresses can be sorted by company, name or by lastname, firstname.

  - A new (demonstration) conduit has been added that does nothing. For programmers, mostly.

  - The &GUI; has been cleaned up.

  The most important bugs that have been fixed are:

  - SMTP support

  - Daemon startup

  Note that the debugging code hasn't spread to the whole of &kpilot; yet. The daemon and conduits do have some debugging output, which may also be useful if &kpilot; doesn't work perfectly on your system.

- New in 3.1.9 - This is the fourth release of &kpilot;. The major change in this release is conduit support. There are currently two included conduits, a &korganizer; conduit (vcal syncing) and a PopMail conduit (this fixes the email bug with &kpilot; 2.1). Also fixed in this release is the Address/Memo off by one bug. This release requires KDE Beta 4 or better.

## Using &kpilot;

Once &kpilot; is installed it needs to be configured to match your hardware. The conduits need to be configured as well. After that you can use &kpilot; to synchronise your &PalmPilot; with your &kde; desktop or view data from your &PalmPilot; with the builtin applications.

### Configuring &kpilot;

Once &kpilot; is installed it is easy to set up. Run &kpilot; from either the panel menu or from the command prompt and it will prompt you with a dialog box asking you to configure it for the first time. This configuration dialog can be requested later from the Settings Configure &kpilot; menu or by starting &kpilot; from the shell as follows:

    $  kpilot --setup

In addition, if you upgrade &kpilot; and some new configuration options require your attention, this setup dialog will reappear.

A full description of the setup dialog can be found below.

Once &kpilot; is properly set up, pressing OK will bring up the main &kpilot; window. The first thing you should do is make a full backup of the &PalmPilot;. Do this by selecting File Backup or the toolbar icon Full Backup . When you do, the status bar will ask you to press the &HotSync; button on the cradle. Assuming everything is set up properly you should see the &PalmPilot; begin to sync and a message box telling you what databases are being backed up. This will back up your entire &PalmPilot; into your local directory. Note that this may take a little while, however a normal &HotSync; operation is significantly faster.

#### General page

This is a setup page that contains options describing the &PalmPilot; hardware, you, the user and how you want the various parts of &kpilot; to be started.

General page
The General setup page

The General setup page

Pilot Device

  This is the serial port that the cradle is connected to. By default it is set to `/dev/pilot` which should be a symbolic link to the proper serial port. Make sure the serial port has the correct permissions. It must be read/write by all if &kpilot; is intended to be used by a normal user! This is done by doing a ``chmod` 666 device` where device is the correct serial port. See also the FAQ for more information about setting up the &PalmPilot; device. &Handspring; &Visor; / &USB; cradle users see the FAQ as well!

Speed

  This indicates the speed of the serial connection to the &PalmPilot;. For an older model &PalmPilot;, choose 9600. Newer models may be able to handle speeds up to the maximum listed, 115200. You can experiment with the connection speed: the &PalmPilot; manual suggests starting at a speed of 19200 and trying faster speeds to see if they work.

Pilot User

  This is the user name of the &PalmPilot;. By default this name is the same as your log on name. When you first sync with the &PalmPilot; &kpilot; will check to see if this name matches the one on the &PalmPilot;. If they do not, you are asked to pick which you will use. If you pick the local name, the &PalmPilot; will be changed to match. This is also used to store the information synced from the &PalmPilot;. For example, if I were to HotSync my &PalmPilot; on your machine, it would store the data into a subdirectory named `pilone`.

Start HotSync Daemon at login

  By enabling this a link to the daemon is placed in your autostart folder and will be started automatically. Note that this is not normally needed if the daemon is docked in the panel.

Start KPilot at HotSync

  When the &HotSync; button is pressed on the cradle (assuming the daemon is running) &kpilot; can sync without actually starting up the &GUI;. However, by enabling this option the daemon will start up the &kpilot; &GUI; when the &HotSync; operation begins.

Show Daemon in &kicker;

  This option lets the daemon place a little HotSync icon HotSync icon . in the &kicker; system tray. This icon has a menu that can be brought up with the right mouse button, for performing a &HotSync; and the like. Without this option, the daemon is not visible to the user at all.

Stop Daemon on exit

  Setting this option will cause the daemon to exit when you quit &kpilot;, leaving the serial port free for other &PalmPilot;-syncing tools such as malsync

For a fully visible &kpilot; installation, enable Start KPilot at HotSync and Show Daemon in &kicker; while disabling Stop Daemon on exit. To make &kpilot; all but invisible, disable all the options except Stop Daemon on exit.

#### Address page

The address page contains settings specific to the built in address book viewer. Note that this address book has nothing directly to do with the &kde; address book, your email address book, or anything else. Connections with those address books could be provided by conduits. The kaddressbook conduit can sync your &PalmPilot; with the &kde; address book.

Address page
The Address setup page

The Address setup page

Import Format
Export Format

  &kpilot; can import and export the address database to or from a text file. These two fields determine the format the file is written in (for export) or must have (for import). You can list the fields of the address book, separated by commas. The names of fields are described below.

  Noone really uses the CSV import and export for the address book, so leave it alone.

Address display

  This set of radio buttons determines how addresses are displayed and sorted in the address book. This is similar to the setting in the &PalmPilot; itself where addresses can be sorted based on company or on last name.

Both the import and the export format are lists of field specifiers separated by some delimiter (usually a comma). Note that all fields must be separated by the same delimiter. For import formats: Field specifiers are three-character strings that begin with a %. Field specifiers %CC are used to indicate that in the imported data the data for the corresponding field is to be found there (as a string that does not contain the delimiter character). The following field specifiers are supported:

Address Format Specifiers

Specifier | Field
--- | ---
%LN | Last name
%FN | First name
%CO | Company
%P1,%P2,%P3,%P4,%P5 | Phone numbers 1 through 5
%AD | Address
%CI | City
%ST | State
%ZI | Zip (Postal code)
%CT | Country
%TI | Title
%C1,%C2,%C3,%C4 | Custom fields

#### DB Specials page

This page contains settings specific to the &PalmPilot; databases &kpilot; works with.

DB Specials page
The DB Setup page

The DB Setup page

Show Secrets

  In your &PalmPilot; you can mark some records as private. By default, &kpilot; does not display these records on the screen. If you want to see them, turn this option on.

Backup only:

  This text field can be used to list databases that should not be synced, only backed up. Note that you have to fill in the database creator, not the name of the product, so for Handbase databases you fill in `PmDB`. Multiple databases should be separated by commas. See the FAQ for a list of databases that should be listed here (the default should be OK though).

Skip

  This text field lists databases that should not be backed up nor synced, in the same format as the backup only field.

Changing the contents of the Backup Only: or Skip fields, in particular removing the databases already listed there, can damage those databases when you perform a &HotSync;.

#### Sync page

The sync page contains preferences relevant to the &HotSync; operation on your &PalmPilot;.

Sync page
The Sync page

The Sync page

Sync Files

  When this is enabled any files dropped into the file install (either the icon docked on the panel or into the file installer in &kpilot;) will be installed on the &PalmPilot; during the next HotSync.

Local overrides Pilot

  When a record has been modified on both the &PalmPilot; and the local side, only one can be kept. By default &kpilot; assumes the &PalmPilot; has the most recent information and will keep that. By enabling this option &kpilot; assumes it has the most recent information and will overwrite the &PalmPilot;'s copy.

Force first-time sync every time

  Under some circumstances — you have many PCs and many &PalmPilot;s — you may want to perform a "cleaner" HotSync every time instead of the "quick-and-dirty" HotSync that &kpilot; does if you just have one &PalmPilot; and one PC. Just when you want to enable this option is a matter of personal preference.

Do full backup when changing PCs

  If you have more than one PC and synchronise your &PalmPilot; with each of them you may want to disable this option. When you change PCs it is a good idea to perform a full backup, since otherwise your KDE desktop will not reflect the state of your &PalmPilot; accurately. (This is a limitation of the &PalmPilot; itself.) On the other hand, performing a full backup can be time-consuming and annoying, which is why you can disable such a backup here.

Prefer FastSync to HotSync

  While a HotSync is faster than a full backup, a FastSync is faster still than a HotSync and synchronises only those databases that have conduits. This means that any database without a conduit is not backed up and not synchronised. This also means that if something goes wrong with your &PalmPilot;, you may not be able to recover databases with no conduit. This is a classic trade-off between speed and safety.

### Main Window

The main window in &kpilot; just contains the &kpilot; logo. You can switch to one of the builtin applications by using the View menu.

&kpilot; Main Window
The Main Window

The Main Window

The main window contains the application menu, which we will deal with here.

File HotSync

  Starts a &HotSync;. You should press the HotSync button on your &PalmPilot;'s cradle.

  It is not possible to cancel a &HotSync; once the request has been made.

File FastSync

  (not available with all installations) Starts a FastSync in the same way that a &HotSync; is started.

File Backup

  Performs a full backup of your &PalmPilot;. This is like a &HotSync;, but can take several minutes.

  The first thing you should do after starting &kpilot; for the first time is make a full backup.

File Restore

  This copies all the data on your PC to your &PalmPilot;, replacing whatever data was there. Use this if your &PalmPilot; suffers some catastrophe (or is replaced by a new one).

  Doing a restore will erase all data on the &PalmPilot; before restoring the information from your PC!

File Quit

  Quits &kpilot;, closing the main window and stopping the daemon if that configuration option is enabled.

The View menu allows you to choose a database viewer or &kpilot;'s main page.

View &kpilot;

  Displays the &kpilot; logo page. This puts &kpilot; in the state shown in the picture above.

View Memo Viewer

  Displays the internal memo viewer. See below for more information on the memo viewer.

View Address Viewer

  Displays the internal address book viewer. You can view and edit addresses with the address book viewer. See below for more information.

View File Installer

  Displays the file installer. You can drag files onto the file installer to install them on your &PalmPilot;. See below for more information.

### Builtin Applications

The builtin applications can be selected : by selecting the application from the Conduits menu, for example Conduits Memo .

Selecting one of the builtin applications will cause that application to appear in &kpilot;'s main window. Any changes you make to the &PalmPilot; databases with the builtin applications (such as deleting a memo) do not take effect on the &PalmPilot; until the next HotSync.

#### The Memo Application

The memo application allows you to view the memos on your &PalmPilot;, export them to text files, import new ones to be installed the next time you &HotSync;, or edit existing ones.

Memo Application
The Memo Application

The Memo Application

The memo application has a drop-down box for the memo categories defined in the &PalmPilot;. Here category "All" is selected. Underneath the drop-down box is a list of memo titles. These are the first lines of the memos, just like in the &PalmPilot; memo application. Clicking on one of the memo titles in the list box will display it in the text box labelled Memo Text: to the right.

When a memo is selected you can use the buttons Export Memo and Delete Memo to export the selected memo to a file or to delete the selected memo. Exporting a memo requires you to give a filename; the memo is written to that file. Take care not to overwrite existing files with this action. Deleting a memo does not affect the &PalmPilot; until the next &HotSync;.

The Import Memo button allows you to read a text file and add it — as a memo — to the &PalmPilot;. Importing a memo does not take effect until the next &HotSync;. Note that if you import a memo and decide that you do not want to have it on the &PalmPilot; you must perform a &HotSync; (copying the memo to the &PalmPilot;) and then delete the memo from the &PalmPilot;. It is not possible to delete newly-added memos from the builtin memo application.

#### The Address Utility

The address viewer lets you view, import, export and edit addresses to and from the &PalmPilot;. The import and export format is configurable via the settings dialog. Note that the first field in the import format is used as the Key Field. That is, if Use Key Field is turned on in the settings dialog, when importing if &kpilot; sees another record with a matching Key Field the existing record is updated to reflect the new data being read in. If no such record exists, a new record is created. The default is not to use the Key Field, so every record read in from the import file is created and added to the database.

The Address Application
The Address Application

The Address Application

The address application resembles the memo application; the drop-down box, list and text area function exactly the same, allowing you to select and view an address as on the &PalmPilot;.

You can use the buttons to enter new records into the address book, delete addresses or changes addresses. The button Import List lets you read a text file containing records in comma-separated-value format (with the fields in the particular order described by the Address Import setting) and add those records to the address book. The Export List writes all the addresses in the address book to a file in the format given by the Address Export setting.

#### The File Installer

The file installer supports dragging and dropping of files into the file list area or just hit the Add File button to add a file if you are not. These files will be installed on your &PalmPilot; during the next &HotSync; if Sync Files is checked in the settings dialog. If you choose not to install the files on the &PalmPilot;, just hit Clear List to remove any pending files.

An internal copy of the file is kept, so you can even drag and drop &URL;s from &konqueror;!

Also, if you are using the &HotSync; Daemon you may drag and drop files or &URL;s onto the docked icon on the tool bar. Provided Sync Files is checked in the settings dialog they will be installed the next time you HotSync.

The File Installer
The File Installer

The File Installer

### Conduits

Conduits can be external programs, written by third parties, to interface your &PalmPilot; to any application imaginable.

Conduits can be set up by selecting Settings Configure Conduits . This allows you to select which conduits to run during a &HotSync; and to configure those conduits. A window similar to the following will be displayed: The Conduit Setup Dialog

The Conduit Setup Dialog

The Conduit Setup Dialog

You can drag-and-drop conduits between the two branches of the tree (from Available to Active and back again). Only those conduits listed under Active will actually run during a HotSync. Click on a conduit to configure it.

#### Mail Conduit

This conduit allows you to send and receive email. The configuration of the Mail Conduit is fairly complex. Setting up the Mail Conduit

The Mail Conduit Setup Dialog

The Mail Conduit Conduit Setup Dialog

There are two tabs in the setup dialog for the Mail Conduit, one for Sending mail and one for Receiving mail.

##### Sending Mail

Setting up the Mail Conduit
Choosing the Send Method

Choosing the Send Method

Depending on which send method you choose, different fields will be activated in the remainder of the tab, allowing you to enter the necessary information.

Setting up the Mail Conduit
General mail configuration: who are you?

General mail configuration: who are you?

Your email address can be entered in the Email Address field. This is the email address that goes in the From: line in outgoing mail. If you enter a file name in the Signature File field then that file will be appended to each outgoing mail as a signature.

Setting up the Mail Conduit
&Sendmail; configuration

&Sendmail; configuration

The configuration of the &Sendmail; method of sending is fairly straightforward. Check the path to your installation of &Sendmail;, for example by typing ``which sendmail`` in a &konsole; window. The options to &Sendmail; should not need to be changed, but you can if you like.

&Sendmail; is not provided with destination addresses on the command line, so you must specify the `-t`. If you are using a non-&Sendmail; MTA like Postfix then the equivalent extract recipients from message headers option must be given.

Setting up the Mail Conduit
SMTP setup

SMTP setup

To use SMTP sending you need to specify the name of the machine which runs your SMTP server, and the port number to connect to. The default port number of 25 is almost always correct.

&kpilot; does not use the SMTP configuration of the SMTP IOSlave. This may change in a future version of &kpilot;.

Setting up the Mail Conduit
&kmail; sending

&kmail; sending

When sending mail through &kmail;, &kpilot; automatically places it in your &kmail; outbox. &kmail; saves mail in the outbox until you request that those pieces of mail are really sent. Check the Send mail through &kmail; immediately to let the Mail Conduit tell &kmail; to send all mail from the outbox as soon as it it done HotSyncing. This has the side effect of also sending any other pieces of mail that may be in your outbox.

##### Receiving Mail

Setting up the Mail Conduit
Choosing the Receive Method

Choosing the Receive Method

Depending on which send method you choose, different fields will be activated in the remainder of the tab, allowing you to enter the necessary information.

#### Calendar Conduit

This conduit will synchronize your &PalmPilot; with &korganizer;. The conduit needs two pieces of information: the filename of the calendar file (this will usually be a file that ends in `.vcs` under `.kde/share/apps/korganizer/` under your home directory) and whether or not to ask before changing data in that calendar file.

The Calendar Conduit Setup Dialog
Calendar Conduit Setup

Calendar Conduit Setup

You can usually leave Prompt before changing data off.

#### To-do Conduit

This conduit synchronizes with &korganizer;'s todo list. The configuration dialog looks exactly the same as the configuration dialog for the Calendar Conduit.

#### &knotes; Conduit

The &knotes; Conduit is a partial replacement for the builtin memo application. It keeps the notes you write with &knotes; synchronized with the memos you write on your &PalmPilot;.

Setting up the &knotes; conduit is very simple, since there is only one configuration option. &knotes; Conduit Setup

&knotes; Conduit Setup

&knotes; Conduit Setup

#### &kaddressbook; Conduit

The &kaddressbook; conduit allows you to synchronize the &PalmPilot; address book with your &kde; address book.

#### NULL conduit

The NULL conduit is included as a programming example and has no practical function whatsoever.

## &FAQ;

### &kpilot; Startup Problems

What do I put after `--debug`?

The number after `--debug` indicates what kind of messages you want to see; 1023 indicates all messages. The exact numbers you can use are as follows:

Debug Values

Value | Meaning
--- | ---
1 | List the name of *every* function called. Very tedious.
2 | Major &GUI; operations (⪚ Creating windows).
4 | Minor &GUI; operations (⪚ Adding visual elements).
8 | All &GUI; operations (⪚ Filling list boxes -- this is very tedious).
16 | Major database operations.
32 | Minor database operations.
64 | All database operations.
128 | Major sync actions.
256 | Minor sync actions.
512 | All sync actions.

Just add up the numbers of the kind of messages you want.

&kpilot; says Can't connect to pilot

This can have various causes. Check that:

- The pilot device (usually `/dev/pilot`) exists and points to the serial port the &PalmPilot; is actually connected to.

  To link the &PalmPilot; device to the correct serial port, you can either fill in `/dev/ttySn` in the Pilot Device field in the setup dialog or (preferably) link `/dev/pilot` to `/dev/ttySn` with the following command (as root): ``ln` `-s` /dev/ttySn /dev/pilot` Here `/dev/ttySn` is the name of the serial port; replace n with the correct number (usually 0 or 1).

- Check that you have permission to read and write to the serial port. The permissions for the serial port should be such that you can write to it. This is most easily done by running the following (as root): ``chmod` `666` /dev/ttySn`

- Try starting the daemon by hand before starting &kpilot;.

- (For &Linux-Mandrake; 7 systems) Check the system security level: settings higher than 3 prevent some forms of inter-process communication which are necessary for &kpilot; to operate correctly.

  (&Linux-Mandrake; security information courtesy of Jay Summett) To set your MSEC (Mandrake SECurity) settings to not block the &kpilot; socket (for connections to localhost) you can login as root and type ``/etc/security/msec/init.sh` `3`` Which will set your MSEC level to 3 (regular security). For more information about the various security levels, etc, see: the Mandrake reference guide.

### Database Questions

This section answers questions commonly asked about particular databases and how they interact with &kpilot;.

Databases become corrupted after a sync, what should I do?

Certain databases (from third-party software manufacturers) appear not to follow the standard database layout. If you can find out what the creator id of the database is, you can add it to either the Backup Only: list or the Skip list in the settings dialog.

The following table shows which databases should be skipped or backed-up only:

Databases needing Special Treatment

Database | Creator ID | Action
--- | --- | ---
Launcher (the &PalmPilot;'s main menu) | lnch | Backup Only:
Arranger | Arng | Backup Only:
(unknown) | PmDB | Backup Only:
AvantGo | avgo | Skip (Mostly because there's no point in backing up the news articles that AvantGo gives you)

Is there a conduit for &Netscape; Calendar?

No, there isn't. Neither are there plans to include support or write a conduit for &Netscape; Calendar.

### Special HotSync Questions

This section lists questions about HotSync methods that differ from the usual direct serial link method.

How do I do an infrared (IR) HotSync?

First of all your &PalmPilot; has to actually support IR HotSyncs. This can be achieved through various means: &PalmOS; 3.3 and higher include support for it; there is an IR enhancements package for older &PalmOS; versions; IrLink from IsComplete apparently has the same capabilities. Check out the Palm web pages for more information.

Assuming your &PalmPilot; now has PC HotSync support and it is setup to do IR HotSyncs (in the HotSync preferences on the &PalmPilot;), we can turn our attention to the PC you will be syncing with. It needs an IR port. For laptops, this is trivial, desktop PCs may require some extra hardware.

Your &Linux; kernel will need to support IR and the IRCOMM protocol. For stock &RedHat; systems, the following command should setup IR support (as root):

    # modprobe ircomm

Other distributions should follow the `IR-HOWTO`. Once IR support in the kernel has been activated, you need to make devices for the IR ports. The `IR-HOWTO` suggests (as root):

    # mknod
    /dev/ircomm0 60 64
    # chmod
    666 /dev/ircomm0

Next we need to start some daemons for IR services:

    # irattach
    /dev/ttySn
    # irmanager
    -d 0

Here `/dev/ttySn` is the serial port the IR port is using. n could be 0, 1, or some other number depending on your hardware setup. Follow the instructions in the `IR-HOWTO` for assistance (for desktop machines, it's usually a setting in the BIOS).

Once you've gotten this far, just make `/dev/pilot` point to `/dev/ircomm0` and you're ready!

The IR-HOWTO and other useful information on using IR may be found at http://mobilix.org/howtos.html and http://mobilix.org/software/irda/.

Can I do a &HotSync; with my (USB) &Handspring; &Visor;?

Yes, you can. I don't have definitive information, but postings on the &kpilot; mailing-list have stated that you can point `/dev/pilot` to the USB device and everything will work fine.

Is there any support for remote HotSyncs?

No, not yet. Maybe later.

## Credits and License

&kpilot; Program copyright 1998-2000 by Dan Pilone pilone@slac.com

Contributors:

- Adriaan de Groot adridg@cs.kun.nl

- Preston Brown pbrown@redhat.com

- VCal and Todo Conduits by: Herwin Jan Steehouwer, Kenneth Albanowski, Michael Kropfberger

- Popmail Conduit overhaul: Marko Grönroos

- &kaddressbook; Conduit: Greg Stern

- Patches by: Robert Ambrose, Jörg Habenicht, Philipp Hullmann, Dag Nygren, Scott Presnell, Heiko Purnhagen, Chuck Robey and Jay Summet

Documentation copyright 2000,2001 Adriaan de Groot adridg@cs.kun.nl

&underFDL; &underGPL;
&documentation.index;