[coldsync-hackers] Re: Problem with ColdSync and Visor/USB

[Andrew Arensburger <arensb@ooblick.com>]

On Wed, 20 Sep 2000, Nicolas Bouthors wrote:
> Yet, there seems to be big problems. During the syncing, I have lots of
> "Bad CRC" messages, and whatever I try, after a few seconds of transfer,
> the Visor says "lost connection with the PC" (while coldsync doesn't
> seem to notice anything). This makes it impossible to synchronise it
> fully (although part of the data got through down and up from the Visor).
> 
> I tried both -S and -F options with no difference.
> 
> Is there a known bug relative to this behaviour ? Anything I could do ?

	This is a known problem, but unfortunately, I don't know what the
cause is. There are two things you can try:
	1) Rebuild with "-funsigned-char":

	CFLAGS=-funsigned-char ./configure      (sh, bash)
	env CFLAGS=-funsigned-char ./configure  (csh, tcsh)

This seems to get rid of some compile-time warnings as to whether
"char" is "unsigned char" or "signed char".
	2) Make sure the speed is correct. If you run
		coldsync -dsync:3
when it establishes a connection, it will print something like the
following:

	===== Got a wakeup packet
	pconn->speed == 38400
	-> Setting speed to 38400 (38400)

Make sure that the two speeds match. The first line is what the Visor
wants; the second line says what ColdSync is setting the speed to, as
set by the .coldsyncrc .

	However, this probably won't help much. As far as I can tell,
when this happens, it's because ColdSync isn't reading the entire packet
that was sent from the Visor.
	I think this is fairly consistent. That is, if a packet is cut off
this way, then ColdSync won't acknowledge it, and the Visor will resend
it. The second, third, etc. packets will also be truncated the same
way. This leads me to believe that this is a software problem, and not
line noise.

	This could be a bug in ColdSync, but it could also be a bug in
whatever it is that does the USB-to-serial translation (sorry, I can't
seem to get to usbvisor.sourceforge.net to get the FAQ). Or it could be
both: I've seen similar problems under Linux with a plain old serial Palm
V.

> (I'm even ready to try and help you guys to patch if it's in the range
> of my programming abilities)

	The best way of figuring this out would be to monitor what is
coming in through the USB port and compare that to what is coming out of
the pseudo-serial port, and also to what ColdSync reads (at the SLP level,
in "libpconn/slp.c").
	If /dev/usb0 and /dev/usbSerial0 (or whatever) don't agree, then
there's a problem with the USB-to-serial translation. If /dev/usbSerial0
and ColdSync don't agree, then there's a problem in ColdSync.

	(On an unrelated matter, if you're a programmer and speak French,
then you could take a look at "i18n/fr.po" and criticize the translations
there. I've been trying to maintain it, but I don't know how to say
"line-buffered" or "signal handler" in French :-( )

> BTW, is there a mailing list of developpers for ColdSync ? 

	Yes. To subscribe, send mail to
<coldsync-hackers-requst@lusars.net> with the word "subscribe" in the
body.
	(I've Cc-ed this response to the list.)

-- 
Andrew Arensburger                      This message *does* represent the
arensb@ooblick.com			views of ooblick.com
			      Caffiend.



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