Last updated on January 16th 2001
The GNOME integration of PalmPilot functions is superb and on par with it's Windows counterpart(s). The pieces involved are known as "Palm conduits" and are often installed as an additional package, but part of GNOME. Through the GNOME Control Center (gnomecc), under the "Palm Conduits" section - various configuration options may be set, depending upon your needs. Much like in Windows, you will have a hotsync icon in your panel, from which you can modify your settings, and it also indicates the status of the Pilot daemon (gpilotd).
As mentioned above, there are a number of conduits available that interface with the Palm. This is the "glue" between the Palm and your local system - whether it affects files stored on your local filesystem or integrates with applications. Below is a list of the current conduits in the GNOME Pilot suite.
- Backup conduit
- Backup bases or optionally only altered bases
- Optionally delete local bases if deleted on the Palm
- File conduit
- Can install files
- Can restore a entire directory to the pilot
- Memopad conduit
- Now being rewritten for Think interoperability
- Synchronizes to local files
- Email conduit
- Synchronize your Email to/from the Palm
- Expense conduit
- Copies your expense entries to CSV files (Excel, StarOffice importable)
- GnomeCalendar & GnomeCard conduits
- These are packaged in the gnome-pim package
- MAL
- A conduit that synchronizes with a MAL server
You can perform backups of the Pilot as a whole, or individual parts such as the expenses, memos, files, calendar and Email. You have the option of integrating your calendar and addresses into the the GNOME applications "GNOME Calendar" and "GNOME Card." Options include synchronization or one-way transfers.
You can initiate a hotsync by simply hitting the button on the cradle and the daemon "gpilotd" running in the background will catch the request and perform your configured operation(s). If you click on the panel hotsync icon, by default it launches the "gpilotd" control applet - but this can be changed, along with toggling the option to display notices. Right-clicking on the panel hotsync icon brings up a menu not unlike the first screenshot below - from which you can tackle most all functions.
To access your calendar or addresses, simply launch the GNOME applications mentioned above, and you'll find them synchronized right in! If you wish to install applications to your Palm, then simply copy the .prc files into a directory of your choosing and use the "pilot-xfer" command with the "-i" option, which is part of the "pilot-link" package. This can be done through a GUI in GNOME, as well.
Right clicking on hotsync panel icon
Screenshots of the GNOME Control Center under "Palm Conduits"
