[Palm OS] Syncing (Hotsync) & software registration problems with GarnetVM

[kgingeri]

Hi all,

I am having issues get my files to sync and am not able to register my Palm programs either. Hotsync happens but nothing changes in GVM.

It seems my Username and ID (numeric value) are not registering in GVM. I downloaded ChangeName and installed it but noticed that a registration screen from Dragonedit still doesn't show my Username in GVM.

Any thought or ideas?

ChangeName download link (http://www.mulliner.org/palm/changename.zip)

[TA-t3]

Don't use ChangeName, I tested it earlier and it looks like it will set the hotsync name in slightly the wrong place.

Hotsync should set the name itself. Try scratching the /home/user/.gvm directory and maybe also re-installing the gvm, to get an empty, clear non-named installation (this is to fix the slight damage that ChangeName did), then hotsync again with your Palmdesktop set up correctly with your intended hotsync name.

[kgingeri]

Thanks TA-t3, but it didn't work :( I uninstalled and made sure the .gvm folder was gone via xTerm (it was)).

I was getting complaints in the hotsync log about DocsToGo, so I created a new user, copied my Palm backup folder contents (less programs I wanted in GVM) and I got a sync. :p Oh yeah and I opened DocsToGo and told it not to do any syncing with the new user. I did have to restart GVM to see apps I could now launch (maybe there's a refresh somewhere?).

Now all that said, it won't let me register some apps cuz I hav a different user name, so I'll have to move aside my PC files create the same user name with apps I want, and then hotsync that folder - and then move back my Treo username when done. That should do it. I'll post back when I know...

Thanks Again!
Karl :)

[TA-t3]

That's great, thanks for posting! I haven't tried synching yet, I don't normally synch. But one of these days I'll probably try to see how the low-level pilot-link tools work (can't do that yet, I used to interact with the T3 through bluetooth but that's not an option with the gvm, and my computer isn't on the same wi-fi network as the N800).

[kgingeri]

Here's a bit of an update:
I am finding GVM to be very unstable :( I did get apps to register properly with my suggested procedure above but at times when I start GVM, it takes forever and I'm back at no apps but the defalts - like it reformats the memory. I'm reserving 64M and formatting it specifically. I am also loading some large ebook like files.

I have only gotten 1 successful Hotsync and only that after stripping out a wack of files, turning off the 'Backup' option in Hotsync (so apps just get installed and not backed up back to my PC).

Anyway the biggest grief is after all that work it doesn't seem reliable. I can work for a while and then booom - no apps at all ;(

[TA-t3]

That's very strange. What I see is that either the apps work, or they don't work at all. I haven't seen any corruption of the installed setup, save for my initial forays into applications needing mathlib.prc - that definitely locked everything down. Still, nothing like you describe.

It would be interesting to see if we have the same version - you mention "reserving 64MB", which doesn't seem to be an option for the version I have. Could you please try the following:

Open an xterm
Enter /usr/bin/gvm/gvm --help | head -1

My version prints 'Garnet (tm) VM v1.0 (Prod-Release) - Build 564139 (Nov 12 2007-17:46:49)'

[kgingeri]

Heres my info...

Garnet (tm) VM v1.0 (Prod-Release) - Build 564139 (Nov 12 2007-17:46:49)

Same as yours :) The 64M option is in the settings window - accessed from the Settings button. I have a ton of stuff loaded in my original PDA (Treo650) but I rebuilt a new user and and have yet to do another successful hotsync. I can do a partial one - enough to get my user name loaded (I think) - as I've at least gotten some apps registered now. This new setup is still very unstable. I have put together some scripts to backup everything as I loose it so often.

Here's my backup script (for those who may want it):

edited: sorry - looks like indentation gets lost in the HTML rendering :(

#!/bin/sh
# gvm-bkup for GarnetVM
#
DEST=/media/mmc1/GVMFiles

if [ -d $DEST ]
then
echo
else
mkdir $DEST
fi

echo -n "Backing up GarnetVM files to [$DEST]:

Are you sure!? (y/[n]): "
read RSP
if [ $RSP"es" != 'yes' ]
then
echo "
OK, Nothing done.
"
exit
fi

cd ~/.gvm
for SRC in *
do
echo ' '$SRC' to '$DEST'...'
cp -rf $SRC $DEST
done

echo '
All done.
'

and here the restore script:

#!/bin/sh
# gvm-rstor for GarnetVM
#
SRC=/media/mmc1/GVMFiles
DEST=~/.gvm

if [ -d $SRC ]
then
echo
else
echo 'No backup directory found!'
exit
fi

echo -n "Restoring GarnetVM files from $SRC.

Are you sure!? (y/[n]): "
read RSP
if [ $RSP"es" != 'yes' ]
then
echo "
OK, Nothing done.
"
exit
fi

for SFILE in $SRC/*
do
echo ' Restoring '$SFILE'...'
cp -rf $SFILE $DEST/
done

echo '
Restore complete.
'

edited: OK I've edited this about 4 time now :o - anyway, I put these scripts in the .gvm directory so they get backed up along with other files - create the and do 'chmod a+x gvm-*' to make them executable, then run them using './gvm-bkup' - for those who may not know how to create shell scripts

Here another VERY INTERESTING THING! I was hand installing everything because I couldn't Hotsync and discovered that if I have the emulator running the installs and refresh are almost instant as opposed to installing without the Palm emulator started, just in GVM. I initially figured it would be better to install apps in GVM without the emulator actually running as it may lock files etc - but I guess not.

The GVM screen occasionally (at least 3 times this has happened) hangs up my entire N800 and I have to pull the battery to get it back!! I cannot get an xterm or any response whatsoever. Maybe if I waited hours - not sure - I've waited at least 15 minutes and then got impatient ;)

It seems once I've installed stuff and am just running the emulator things are fairly stable - not sure I can trust it yet tho - time will tell.

BTW, I have very recently reflash back to OS2007 from a OS2008 trial on my N800,
unless that has something to do with it. I highly doubt it tho. Maybe I should try it running 2008 :P

Don't feel obligated to help TA-t3, it's not a critical issue - just kinda interesting.

Karl :)

Edited: Oh yeah one other thing... I noticed after one crash that the .gvm/gmv_settings file "storage Heap" value had gotten reset back to 16M. Changing that and reunning GVM got all my apps back. But this is not always the case - only happened once.
Also, my hotsync always chokes when backing up .prc apps - sync data ok.

[TA-t3]

Here another VERY INTERESTING THING! I was hand installing everything because I couldn't Hotsync and discovered that if I have the emulator running the installs and refresh are almost instant as opposed to installing without the Palm emulator started, just in GVM. I initially figured it would be better to install apps in GVM without the emulator actually running as it may lock files etc - but I guess not.
That _is_ interesting. I'm assuming you mean you have a Palm app running in the emulator and then you switch back to the launcher?

As for registrated applications - did you see my other posting about manually executing the emulator? http://internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=100147#post100147
It seems like it should be possible to do something like:
/usr/bin/gvm/gvm --hotsyncid=MyHotsyncName:1234 --appcreator=ABCD
where the :number is the numerical id (I'm not sure where to see that number on the Palm or desktop - I can see it when I connect to my T3 with the pilot-link tools). ABCD is the application ID which you can find with e.g. FileZ. In any case, without it you can still just click Home and switch to the (registered to your hotsync name) app from there. NB: I haven't tested this yet, just noticed the options.

[kgingeri]

Thanks for the other post,TA-t3, I was going to look into the direct launch thing and never got around to it. I figured it might be possible with command line args. I suppose we should formulate a .desktop file so people could put it right into their main menu (apps launcher) :P

And yes, I did mean if you run some other Palm app in the emulator - so you start GVM, launch an app, come back to GVM and do the installs while the app is running .

here's a thought related to your other post... I wonder if we could use a different ROM image file for GVM? Not likely, it looks like this one has special hooks and is trimmed down for reasons. ;)

[sjgadsby]

Do those of you who are successfully syncing GarnetVM with HotSync on Window have both your N800 and your Windows computer in the same subnet? GarnetVM can't connect to my Windows desktop at work, and I'm trying to figure out why.

[TA-t3]

here's a thought related to your other post... I wonder if we could use a different ROM image file for GVM? Not likely, it looks like this one has special hooks and is trimmed down for reasons. ;)
Yeah, I thought about the same and I concluded the same.. it seems to be a ROM specially made for the Garnet virtual machine.

[rcsteiner]

I'm using Garnet VM on a 770 running OS2006...49-2, and also Palm Desktop 4.1 with network HotSynch installed.

The OS on the PC is Win95 OSR2, so shoot me. I like my old IBM IntelliStations. :-)

Anyway... I can use pTelnet and EZftp in the VM, so I know its network stack is functional over a Wifi connection, but the VM's hotsynch doesn't appear to see my copy of Palm Desktop running on a local 192.168.x.x address. The other two clients see it fine.

Is Palm Desktop 4.1 too old to work with this? :-( I have a few Palm IIIc's lying around, and that's the newest version of Desktop that I have installed.

My main desire is to get the address book, calendar, and Todo stuff from my Palms into the VM. Everything else seems to be transferrable via MaemoFTP and VM's "install" function.

[kgingeri]

@rsteiner
Hmmm, not sure - I don't have nearly the same setup. You can download the most recent desktop software from Palm (at least you used to be able to) - you could give that a try?

BTW I have pretty much given up on the GVM stuff. Hotsync always fails as soon as I try and load some large Bible files in GVM. It will reset my whole GVM environment and go back to no apps and no data installed - very frustrating (even if I load them all by hand!). The files are Laridian files for NIVSB and NAS with Greek and Hebrew x-ref info. I think I have hotsync'd successfully maybe twice (out of 20 times) but then I get resets and have start all over ...arrrg! These files also have associated notes and high-lites and are the main reason I wanted to use GVM. Oh well :(

[rcsteiner]

@rsteiner
Hmmm, not sure - I don't have nearly the same setup. You can download the most recent desktop software from Palm (at least you used to be able to) - you could give that a try?

Yeah, I can try that sometime soon.

BTW, you can copy the files from ~/.gvm to an mmc card to back up the GVM memory image and icon desktop. Copying those files back will recover things if it decides to reset itself. That saves a lot of time. I have something like 30 games and apps installed on my GVM now, and reinstalling those one at a time got really really old. :( Now I don't care if it resets. :D

I use mc (Midnight Commander) in osso xterm to copy the files; it seems to work very well under OS2006, anyway, and is even stylus-friendly (common file operations and pulldowns can be done in the mc port with the stylus directly).

http://www.visi.com/~rsteiner/screenshot04.png

The above screenshot appears to predate my GVM installation, though. Heh. It's there now. Really!

[bblackmoor]

Hotsync should set the name itself.

Agreed: it should. However, it doesn't.

[bblackmoor]

Do those of you who are successfully syncing GarnetVM with HotSync on Window have both your N800 and your Windows computer in the same subnet? GarnetVM can't connect to my Windows desktop at work, and I'm trying to figure out why.

Mine were. I could successfully initiate a network hotsync from the n810 every time, but the n810 would disconnect somewhere in the middle every time.

[TA-t3]

[hotsync should set name]
Agreed: it should. However, it doesn't.
I haven't tried hotsyncing (I don't hotsync my Palm normally either), but others have reported success with this.
However, there's another method:

Start GVM directly from the command line, and specify your hotsync ID there: /usr/bin/gvm/gvm -u "your name:dddd" where dddd is your numeric ID (sometimes that value doesn't matter though). Then your session will be executed with that hotsync name. I've tried starting gvm this way with different IDs and FileZ tells me it works.
/usr/bin/gvm/gvm --help will show you all the options.

[migs]

The easiest method to add your Hotsync name to Garnet VM is installing an free app called changenamePRC worked for me. Just make sure your Hotsync name is properly aligned taking into account any spaces.

Website http://www.mulliner.org/palm/changename.php



Download here
http://www.mulliner.org/palm/changename.zip

[TA-t3]

migs: See posting #2 above. ChangeName is _not_ safe to use with GVM. It mis-aligns the hotsync name. It's possible to fiddle with it to make it appear to be ok, but then you'll overwrite some part of the GVM image file. Nobody knows that that part does, but a hexdump of the image file shows that the mis-aligned characters (which will not be visible in the name shown by registrated apps or FileZ) are there, in the wrong place.

[Lexapro4]

Hi: Newbie internet tablet user here. I'm also having troubles syncing with Garnet. I have an N810 and although it syncs, nothing shows on the N810. First it said that there wasn't enough room on the N810 now it just doesn't show any synced information. (I'm just looking to sync my datebook and addresses. How do you look in the gvm directory? Is it through xterm? I tried that to see the user name the N810 had and it said that permission was denied.

[jhoff80]

What about something similar to changename, like MultiUserHack?

[shtevie]

I get successful sync message, but data doesn't show up on the n800...any ideas?

[sungrove]

I get successful sync message, but data doesn't show up on the n800...any ideas?

This Garnet VM is very odd. I get a 'sync failed, lost connection ' message but it has totally succeeded. Go figure. BTW, another oddity: I forgot to register my DateBk5 software but I find that I can now just use the Date Book that came with GVM and the Data migrates over to Datebk5 and then syncs to my desktop 4.1.4 software.

Neil

We'll see if this continues. The Datebk5 software says that some things will only work in the first half of each month.