Synchronize SmartPhone with Evolution (Redux)

[krgottschall]

I am replacing my original post with this one. Since I left my first post, I have learned a little more but I still cannot synchronize my Windows Mobile 5 Motorola Q SmartPhone via USB to Evolution 2. I found a document on the web called "Hassle-free mobile phone syncing" dated February 3, 2009 so I followed those instructions as best as I could. They are aimed at users of the Mandriva Linux One 2009 distribution but give instructions for the Ubuntu/Debian users as well.

I removed everything I had installed prior to my first post. Using Debian Lenny's Synaptic Package Manager; I installed the following 16 packages:

Package Version
-------------------------- -----------
libopensync0 0.22-2
librapi2 0.11.1-1
librra0 0.11.1-1
libsynce0 0.11.1-1
multisync0.90 0.92.0~svn355-1
opensync-module-python 0.22-2
opensync-plugin-evolution 0.22-2
opensync-plugin-file 0.22-2
opensync-plugin-synce 0.11.1-2
python-opensync 0.22-2
python-rapi2 0.11.1-2
python-rra 0.11.1-1
synce-gnomevfs 0.11.1-1
synce-hal 0.1-1
synce-sync-engine 0.11.1-2
synce-kpm 0.11.1-2

Everything completed normally. Many of these packages are the ones I installed before. The main change is that this attempt uses "synce-hal" rather than the aging "odccm" daemon.

I opened my Multisync GUI and it remembered my group called "Evolution2 - WM5 Ken Moto Q" but no synchronization started.

I found that synce-sync-engine and synce-trayicon were not running and I could not start them manually. I went to Session Preferences and added them to Startup Programs then rebooted. I then opened a root terminal and entered "ps -e". Synce-sync-engine and synce-trayicon are now both running.

I tried starting the Multisync GUI again and nothing happened so I pressed the Refresh button. I got an actual error message this time saying "Error Synchronizing: Unable to connect to one of the members". That "member" is my WM5 phone. The Tray Icon further confirms by showing "no device connected". I started ActiveSync from my phone, made sure it was set to USB then pressed "Sync" on my phone, still nothing.

Further information from the http://www.synce.org/moin/SynceInstallation/Debian website says I need to add a Kernel Driver "usb-rndis-lite-0.11". The instructions they give are in command prompts. The website they gave to download the tarball is incorrect so using my Epiphany web browser, I was able to find and download a folder "usb-rndis-lite-0.11". I opened a root terminal, navigated to the folder and tried to continue from there. The next command was "make". I got an error message saying the make command is not available.

I realize that I was trying to recompile the Kernel with the new usb-rndis driver included. I also know I am out of my depth in trying but I am able to follow instructions. I don't know if the Debian Lenny distribution has that driver already. If so, reinstalling it shouldn't hurt. If not, I don't know how to add it. I'm not even sure that I need this driver. I DO know that my system recognizes the USB ports. I have a web cam and Cheese finds it and displays what the cam sees.

Here are the contents of my usb-rndis-lite-0.11 folder:
cdc_ether.c
clean.sh
Kbuild
Makefile
ndis.h
reload.sh
rndis_host.c
usbnet.c
usbnet.h

Here are the commands I am suppose to execute:
$ tar zxf usb-rndis-lite-0.11.tar.gz --(I have it extracted already)
$ cd usb-rndis-lite-0.11/ --(I can get to the directory)
$ make --(Command not available error)
$ sudo ./clean.sh --(apparently I'm not a member of the sudoer file)
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

How can I get this driver added to my Kernel?

Thanks, Ken

[krgottschall]

About 40 people have looked at my post but no one has commented.

Have I posted this request for help in the wrong place?
Was I too wordy?
Was I not specific enough?
Is my problem so stupid that it doesn't deserve a response?
Is there just no solution to this problem?

or is Linux just not yet ready for Prime Time?

Thanks, Ken

[Absent Minded]

About 40 people have looked at my post but no one has commented.

Have I posted this request for help in the wrong place?
Was I too wordy?
Was I not specific enough?
Is my problem so stupid that it doesn't deserve a response?
Is there just no solution to this problem?

or is Linux just not yet ready for Prime Time?

Thanks, Ken

40 people is not that many when you concider that your problem is not that common. Give it some time to see if anyone has some answers. Just remember that being sarcastic doesn't help you get answers it only puts people off that may have been willing to help.

[krgottschall]

Absent Minded wrote:
40 people is not that many when you concider that your problem is not that common. Give it some time to see if anyone has some answers. Just remember that being sarcastic doesn't help you get answers it only puts people off that may have been willing to help

Mea culpa, mea culpa. I didn't realize that Linux was above all criticism. Perhaps I can sacrifice a mouse before my graven image of Linus Torvalds and be forgiven for daring to suggest that Linux is less than perfect. (Now THAT is sarcasm)

I have been searching the Internet for answers since I first installed Debian Lenny because I understand I must be more proactive as a Linux user than I am as a Windows user. I have no skills at writing custom Linux Kernels, nor do I have a desire to learn that skill. Let me give you a little background about me. My first computer was a Tandy Radio Shack Model 3. I wrote BASIC applications to run on that system. I then built an IBM-XT clone. I became skilled with the dBase programming language. I have also programmed in FORTRAN and COBOL. I've installed hardware, drivers and other software and I've fixed computers for others. I mention this to let you know that I am not a computer novice.

I have become comfortable with MS Windows and all the applications that run on that operating system but I feel I have, to some degree, become a slave to Microsoft's OS and applications. I could choose to move to Apple but then I would be a slave to not only their OS and software but also their hardware. This is why I want to move to Linux but from what I have learned so far is that "open system" does not mean what I thought it did. The various distributions are NOT fully compatible with one another unless you know how to manipulate the OS code to make an application work. Open System means that you can have access to the source code and can "tweak" the OS to meet any particular need. I think this will lead to an ever increasing amount of incompatibility.

I want to synchronize my Windows Mobile 5 Phone with Evolution 2 running on Debian Lenny. I've found instructions on how to make that happen with Ubuntu, Mandrivia, SuSE and others but NOT Debian Lenny. I checked Opensync.org who has written the code necessary to sync various handhelds but even they don't have instructions for how to make their stuff work on Debian Lenny. All I really need is a concise set of instructions on how and what to install to allow me to sync my phone but I can't find that.

I've spent a LOT of time and effort trying to solve my problem and I'm tired and frustrated. Is it any wonder that I might feel the need to express that frustration? I think I was quite reserved in using sarcasm rather than profanity to express those feelings.

Ken

[Absent Minded]

Hi Ken,
If you could provide links to the tutorials you tried and try to let us know where things went amiss there is a better possibility that we can help you even if we are not completely firmilyer with your problem. I thank you for not resorting to profanity, I can understand your frustration. I have had a few problems myself here and there hehe.

[JohnDeere630]

Hi Ken...I definitely feel your pain! There are many times when I want to hurl my machine through the wall, followed by a good blast of buckshot for good measure. Also at various times I dearly desire 5 minutes with a baseball bat and the exposed knees of the developers of, in no particular order, grub, kde4, samba, the ieee1394 stack, wireless chip engineers, etc, etc... But, I always manage to calm my temper before I damage expensive equipment. Haha.

Anyway, as to your issue, I can't offer anything constructive except to say that pretty much anything that is possible with Ubuntu is also doable with Debian. As a side note, if you stick with Debian, you will most likely come to love it as most of here do. We may not always agree with each other, but we all pretty much agree that Linux, and Debian in particular rock! Also, I find it helps to repeat the following mantra to myself in times of stress: "Debian is not windows. The problem is not with Debian, which is perfect, but with my imperfect understanding of it's perfection"

[captaink]

The next command was "make". I got an error message saying the make command is not available.

First of all, install the package build-essential using synaptic or apt-get (apt-get install build-essential as root, use the command su and type the root password to start a command line session as root). This package will give you the make command, including the rest essential compilers. Don't forget to install the package linux-headers for your linux kernel, in order to install it correctly.
I am not sure however if the driver is needed. Try to install any packages refer to synce through synaptic (especially synce-hal which contains a library called hal-synce-rndis) and do a little more search using google (on your search include the phone model, if you like). Try to search this forum too and see if your issue is already solved.

Hope I helped, 'cause I don't have a Windows Mobile Device and so I couldn't help you more.

Sincerely,
captaink.

[krgottschall]

First of all, thanks to all of you for helping me try to resolve my synchronization issue.

Absent Minded:

Here are some of the links I found. The list of the 16 packages I currently have installed is in my post at the top of this thread. The problem is that my CE device (WM5 Moto Q) is never found.

http://www.brighthub.com/mobile/windows ... 30523.aspx
This link is dated 3/29/2009 but uses the older version of Multisync 0.82 which is no longer supported and says nothing about "odccm". This version and the related components can be installed using Debian Lenny's Synaptic Package Manager. I installed them and they do not work. This version of Multisync has a better GUI that the newer version.

http://tuxradar.com/content/hassle-free ... ne-syncing
This is the best instruction I've found so far. It is dated 2/3/2009 and this is what I currently have installed. It uses the newer Multisync 0.90 and a series of the newer OpenSync plugins for Evolution, SynCE, File, etc. This version and its related components can also be installed using Synaptic Package Manager.

http://old.nabble.com/WM5-MotorolaQ-on- ... 48372.html
This is a documentation of someone else's issues with the same phone I have. His problems are different than mine but someone trying to help confirms that "usb-rndis-lite-0.11" is part of the kernel since 2.6.25. Lenny is 2.6.26.

JohnDeer630:

I've read that Ubuntu is a Debian derivative so that speaks to the closeness of their relationship. That said, Ubuntu uses SOME different packages than Debian. I'm not knowledgeable enough to correctly make the translations so I have depended on Lenny's Synaptic Package Manager and I hope I got everything I need. You can see the list of the 16 "sync" packages I have installed in my first post. Synaptic selected many of then based on the choices I made.

captaink:

Thank you for explaining how to get "make" installed in my system. Of ALL the examples that use "make" as part of their explanations, "make" is just assumed to be there. I am using "synce-hal". (see the 16 packages I installed with Synaptic in my first post) The "hal-synce-rndis" lib is not on of the 16 packages I installed but it IS installed in my system. I think I've done everything correctly but my WM5 Moro Q is not recognized. One site I checked said that "usb-rndis-lite-0.11 was added to the kernel in 2.6.22 and fixed in 2.6.25. I am running 2.6.26

One of the sites I read said the firewall might be blocking the phone from being found. I don't think I have a Linux firewall running but I don't know how to verify that. I may not need a firewall at my Linux box as I am behind a router that uses NAT. How can I turn off my Linux firewall if one is running?

Thanks, Ken

[Absent Minded]

Thank you Ken and you are welcome. With your SmartPhone connected to your USB what is the output of "lsusb" (with out the quotes)? This will tell us if your phone is even being seen by the system. If not that will be the first place to start diagnostics. Even if you have the right firmware installed it won't do any good if your phone isn't being seen.

[krgottschall]

Absent Minded:

OK, this is encouraging. I ran the command isusb as you suggested. I have 2 USB ports on this machine and here is the output from that command.

ken@krg-desktop:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 22b8:7001 Motorola PCS Q Smartphone
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
ken@krg-desktop:~$

By the way I know the phone charges while connected to the USB cable even though sunce-trayicon reports "no device connected".

Even though usb-rndis-lite is suppose to be part of my 2.6.26 kernel, should I try to re-compile the driver into the kernel anyway?

Ken

[Absent Minded]

okay that is good then. Is your phone USB 1.1 backwards compatable? The reason I ask is that it says that you USB is only version 1, at least on that one port. I would like you to try loading the driver manually. I don't remember the easy way so here is what I would like you to do. Install modconf and then run it as root scroll down to the USB section and try to find the driver for your phone. I think it should be pretty self explanitory so I won't go into the mechanics of loading the driver. Hopefully, with you phone connected it will say it sucessfully load the driver and life will be good. If you phone is not USB 1 backwards compatable check to make sure that the USB 2.0 driver can be loaded. If not we are again stuck and will need input form someone with ore knowledge than I.

Best of luck,
AM

[krgottschall]

Absent Minded:

The manual for my phone does not specify that my USB connection must be 2.0 so that usually means it is 1.1 compatible. The fact that lsusb was able to determine that the device at the end of the USB cable is a Motorola Q Smartphone also seems to confirm that, but I'm not an expert on how lsusb works.

I installed and ran modconf. This first section includes everything that refers to USB.

Please select the category of modules.

kernel/drivers/leds .
kernel/drivers/pcmcia .
kernel/drivers/usb/storage .
kernel/drivers/usb/class .
kernel/drivers/usb/serial Drivers for serial USB devices.
kernel/drivers/usb/mon .
kernel/drivers/usb/misc .
kernel/drivers/usb/misc/sisusbvga .
kernel/drivers/usb/host .
kernel/drivers/usb/c67x00 .
kernel/drivers/usb/atm .
kernel/drivers/usb/core .
kernel/drivers/usb/image .
kernel/drivers/isdn/pcbit .
kernel/drivers/isdn/hardware/avm .
kernel/drivers/isdn/hardware/eicon .
kernel/drivers/isdn/i4l .
kernel/drivers/isdn/sc .
kernel/drivers/isdn/hisax .
kernel/drivers/isdn/act2000 .
kernel/drivers/isdn/icn .

<Ok> <Cancel>

I opened each and every item that begins with "kernel/drivers/usb/". None seemed to relate to any phone or PDA except "kernel/drivers/usb/serial", which is listed below.

The modules that are currently installed on your system have
a "+" character to the right of their name. Modules that aren't
installed have a "-" to the right of their name. In some modules,
you can read a page about possible options of a module and then
you can enable or disable it. To do so, use the up and down arrow
keys to move the cursor to the line for the module, and then press ENTER.

Exit Finished. Return to previous menu.

aircable - USB AIRcable Bluetooth Dongle Driver
airprime - USB AirPrime CDMA Wireless Driver
ark3116 - USB ARK Micro 3116 USB Serial Driver
belkin_sa - USB Belkin and Peracom Single Port Serial Driver
ch341 - USB Winchiphead CH341 Single Port Serial Driver
cp2101 - USB CP2101 UART Bridge Controller
cyberjack - USB REINER SCT cyberJack pinpad/e-com chipcard reader
cypress_m8 - USB Cypress M8 USB Serial Driver
digi_acceleport - USB Digi International AccelePort USB Serial Driver
empeg - USB Empeg empeg-car Mark I/II Driver
ftdi_sio - USB FTDI Single Port Serial Driver
funsoft - USB Fundamental Software Dongle Driver
garmin_gps - USB Garmin GPS driver
hp4x - USB HP4x Calculators support
io_edgeport - USB Inside Out Edgeport Serial Driver
io_ti - USB Inside Out Edgeport Serial Driver (TI devices)
ipaq - USB PocketPC PDA Driver
ipw - USB IPWireless (3G UMTS TDD) Driver
ir-usb - USB IR Dongle Serial Driver
iuu_phoenix - USB Infinity USB Unlimited Phoenix Driver
keyspan - USB Keyspan USA-xxx Serial Driver
keyspan_pda - USB Keyspan PDA Single Port Serial Driver
kl5kusb105 - USB KL5KUSB105 (Palmconnect) Driver
kobil_sct - USB KOBIL chipcard reader
mct_u232 - USB MCT Single Port Serial Driver
mos7720 - USB Moschip 7720 Serial Driver
mos7840 - USB Moschip 7840/7820 USB Serial Driver
moto_modem - USB Motorola Phone modem driver
navman - USB Navman GPS device
omninet - USB ZyXEL omni.net LCD Plus Driver
option - USB driver for GSM and CDMA modems
oti6858 - USB Ours Technology Inc. OTi-6858 USB To RS232 Bridge Controller
pl2303 - USB Prolific 2303 Single Port Serial Driver
safe_serial - USB Safe Serial (Encapsulated) Driver
sierra - USB Sierra Wireless Driver
spcp8x5 - USB SPCP8x5 USB To Serial Driver
usb_debug - USB Debugging Device
usbserial - USB Serial Converter support
visor - USB Handspring Visor / Palm m50x / Sony Clie Driver

<Ok> <Cancel>

Of these, only the Palm devices seem close. There is no reference to any SmartPhone.

Take a look at this link:
http://superuser.com/questions/45705/ho ... or-sunbird

This is another version of the instructions I followed to get to where I am now except I used Debian's Synaptic Package Manager to install the packages rather than apt-get. The author talks about the possibility of my firewall causing a problem. I am behind a router NAT firewall and could do without a software firewall running on my Linux box but I don't know how to find if one is running let alone shut it off. I could use some help with this. He mentions the sudo command but that command is not available to me as I'm not a member of the sudo'er list? Yet another issue.

Do you know how to open the TCP ports he lists to permit WM5-6.1 synchronizing?

Another issue is the driver usb-rndis-lite-0.11. This is required for WM synchronizing to occurr. My web searching tells me it was added as part of kernel 2.6.21 but didn't work right so there were patches for it until 2.6.25 when it was fixed. I am running 2.6.26 so I SHOULD be OK. While I was looking for my phones driver in modconf, I was also looking for usb-rndis but didn't find that either. Do you know how I can verify if that driver truely is part of my kernel?

If you're out of ideas, I know that there are designated "maintainers" for the many Debian packages.. As a last resort which "maintainer" should I contact for help. There are several "maintainers" for the various packages required for synchronizing WM SmartPhones.

Ken

[Absent Minded]

Since the support wasn't there it may be that it is removed from the Debian kernel if it was non-free. Have a look in the non-free section to see if maybe the support for it is in there. I am guessing that the firware is just not availible to be loaded yet. Once we get it into your system things should be fine.

[krgottschall]

Absent Minded:

I went to the Debian Package site and searched both free and non-free packages. I searched for variations of the name usb-rndis and for various combinations of Motorola Q Smartphone Windows Mobile 5. All searches turned up nothing. Debian wouldn't have changed the name of the driver making it unique for their distribution, would they?

I sent an email to debian-project@lists.debian.org asking for the status of usb-rndis-lite-0.11. In the mean time can you help he find if I have a firewall active on my "Lenny" box and if so, how do I turn it off?

Side Note: I see there have been 190 hits on this thread so far. Some are probably just curious but many may be folks following along to see what the solution will be so they can apply it to their situation. For me that makes this effort even more worthwhile.

Thanks, Ken

[Absent Minded]

okay, as far as a firewall goes unless you have set one up intentionally there shouldn't be one in place on a default install.

It is possible that a name change could have occured but it is not real likely. It is my guess that you are going to need to compile the firmware package for your phone. I am betting that it wasn't free "enough" to even make it into the non-free repos. There is allot of packages that can not make the standard. just being free to use isn't good enough. But I think we at least have the problem narrowed down now to the support for it just not being included in Debian. Debian has a high moral contract. I am no good with compiling things so if you don't already have a handle on it we may need some extra help.

[Absent Minded]

just to afferm your findings I tried to find the package myself in Debian and was unable to. It is my guess that the source may have to be Debianized although I a not sure how that works. Maybe if you build the source on your Debian system it works out fine. If not I am sure there is a tool available to do it. I am just not firmilyer with how that works.

[krgottschall]

Absent Minded:
captaink:

The http://www.synce.org/moin/SynceInstallation/Debian site gives instructions for downloading and installing the usb-rndis-lite-0.11 driver. I found the tarball but not at the site they show. I was able to extract the files. Thanks to captaink I download the packages linux-headers and build-essential which allowed me to execute the following commands from a root terminal.

$ cd usb-rndis-lite-0.11/
$ make
$ sudo ./clean.sh
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

I had to run these commands from a root terminal because as a mere mortal, I am not a member of the sudoer list.

I removed all the synce, opensync, multisync0.90 and associated files needed to accomplish synchronization because the synce.org site shows the usb-rndis driver being installed BEFORE those files are installed. I thought it possible that one or more of those synce packages might install differently if usb-rndis was not there first.

After installing usb-rndis, I reinstalled the other synce files using Synaptic. Installing usb-rndis DID make a difference. When I open the ActiveSync application on my phone, then plug in the USB cable, my phone says it is Connecting then in a few seconds it says Connected. The desktop synce icon application still does NOT see my phone and Multisync0.90 continues to fail.

The last stumbling block I can think of is the possibility of a software firewall running on my Debian Lenny box. This was mentioned as a possible problem on one of the sites i visited. Absent Minded says Debian does not install a firewall by default. If for some reason a firewall IS running, how do I find it and turn it off guys?

If the firewall is not the issue and you guys don't have any more ideas, then I am stuck. I've searched the Debian Forums for other incidents of folks trying to sync Windows Mobile Smartphones with Evolution and only found this string. I can't believe I am the ONLY Debian user who has ever tried this. Surely there is someone in our community who has made this work and can guide me over the finish line. How would I go about finding him (them)?

Ken