Zodiac2 from GNU/Linux

From Wasteland

Sat 6 August 2005

I recently purchased a second hand Tapwave Zodiac2. As it is sadly common, the software to connect it to a computer has no GNU/Linux version. I used to run J-Pilot for the Palm m125, but this application has no Zodiac support for the moment. However, commands from the package pilot-link v0.12.0-pre4 "Anoxia" do work.

First we need to load the module "visor" in the kernel.

$ sudo modprobe visor vendor=0x12ef product=0x0100

With a simple script we can backup the data using pilot-xfer.

#!/bin/bash
 
BACKUPDIR=~/pilot-backup

DIRNAME=`date +%y%m%d-%S:%M:%k`
echo $DIRNAME

mkdir $BACKUPDIR/$DIRNAME
rm -f $BACKUPDIR/backup
ln -s $BACKUPDIR/$DIRNAME $BACKUPDIR/backup

pilot-xfer -p /dev/pilot -b $BACKUPDIR/backup

The Zodiac2 boasts a terrific colour screen with 480x320 pixels and 16 bits, so I have also tried to upload photos using pilot-foto, but to no avail.

$ pilot-foto -p /dev/pilot -i foo.jpg

Listening for incoming connection on /dev/pilot... connected!
  
Installing file foo.jpg
File format: JFIF, version 1.01
Image dimensions (width x height): 320 x 480   
Installed size: 48351 bytes...Unable to open PhotosDB-Foto
Could not install thumbnail for foo.jpg.pdb

Wed 10 August 2005

I subscribed to the mailing list pilot-link-general to see whether somebody could help me with the problem: zodiac2 pilot-foto error "Unable to open PhotosDB-Foto". Following David A. Desrosiers and Dennis Fisher's suggestions, I tried using pilot-xfer to transfer .mp3 and .jpg files directly to the Zodiac2's internal card, and it works! The commands I used are

pilot-xfer -p /dev/pilot -D /Internal -i camaron.mp3

pilot-xfer -p /dev/pilot -D /Internal -i foto.jpg

This lets you listen to camaron.mp3 in the application Tapwave Music v1.1 and see the photo in the application Tapwave Photos v1.1, both provided as built-in software in the Zodiac2.

What I still don't know is how to delete files from the internal card from the command line. At least you can do it with the palm, opening the menus in the music and photo applications.

The problem with .mp3 is that it is a proprietary format, and anyway my music collection is in .ogg Vorbis. Searching a bit I have found a free software application for palmOS, The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP). I have installed it and it works very well, even though the user interface is not that slick.

Another possibility is to use AeroPlayer, that is no free software even though it is gratis for .ogg and Speex.