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title: Hotsyncing With J-Pilot
date: 2024-10-04
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Hotsyncing like it's 2010
 ===========================================

This is the start of a post on using jpilot to sync with the Zire.
It was started on the Zire first by writing with the stylus and
then hotsyncing the memo to the laptop to finish.

The above paragraph was written on the Zire using the stylus and
Graffiti, which I Hotsync to my laptop using J-Pilot, then 
copy/pasted it to this post to start things off.

I wanted to use it as a demonstration on moving data back and
forth between the two systems, but getting there was a journey
itself.

Installing Naughty Aughty Linux
 ===========================================

Back when I was using Linux in the aughties and having worked with
Palm Pilots at work (that's another post), I remember seeing
various software packages that I never had a use for. Specifically
KPilot and gnome-pilot that would get installed via dependencies
sometimes and show up in the applications menus.

KPilot

gnome-pilot

These were my first gotos when setting up the Zire to hotsync with
my Linux Laptop that I went over in the last post. I knew these had
some sort of syncing with other PIM apps like Kontact and
Evolution too, and I was hoping I could sync to with CalDAV, CardDA
and IMAP on Fastmail and then hotsync to the Zire. This would help
keep things relatively up-to-date as I could hotsync in the morning
and my Zire would reflect my daily calendar. 

This unfortunately had two issues.

1. Development of KPilot and gnome-pilot stopped around 2010
2. Older Linux distros no longer work on with modern https

Number 2 was important because I had hoped installing an older
version of Debian or another distro that still included all the
apps could be a workaround. While the apps do work, because of
the TLS versions Fastmail (and almost all other modern web
services) use, authentication refuses to work.

I tried a few workarounds, with an evening spent installing
older LTS releases that still included the PIM apps, but none
were able to speak the required TLS versions.

There was a bit of hope in CentOS 6.11, which received updates
to 2018 and included both KPilot and gnome-pilot. I was able to 
connect Evolution to Fastmail and sync my calendar, but because
it was running it in a VM it relied on USB pass thru to sync to the
Zire.

The Zire showed up as a USB device in qemu to passthru, and I
could see it show up in CentOS as a USB device, but it absolutely
refused to work with KPilot and gnome-pilot and never was able to
sync.

Eventually I gave up on this route, as using a VM with an older
distro added a lot of overhead, especially when there was a more
modern option available.

Switching to J-Pilot
 ===========================================

J-Pilot itself is still an older application, but it is 
maintained to this day. Following the setup guide, I added the apt
repository to my Mint laptop, and one apt-gt later I had to
running.

J-Pilot

Initiating a hotsync worked the first time without any issues, and
I could easily create/edit/delete calendar entries, memos and todos
back and forth with relative ease. It also has the option of fully
backing up the device, so I can do a restore if it ever fully loses
power or something else catastrophic happens and I have new Palm
PDA.

J-Pilot is going to be my main tool for using the Zire the rest of
this month, or at least it was until I found out there might be
another way, but it goes down a dark path.

One More Thing
 ===========================================

The start of this post was written on the Zire, but the rest of it
was written on my Macintosh Plus over telnet to a raspberrypi and
then via mosh to SDF.

Prior to getting the Zire, my summer project was setting up a
working "modern" Macintosh Plus so I could use it to for
limited Internet things like writing phlog posts, browsing
gopherholes and playing games.

I won't write every post on the Mac Plus, but will probably use it
occasionally.

Links
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