Re: syncing pda + phone on linux?

[William Ballard <40711.nospam@comcast.net>]

On Mon, Jul 26, 2004 at 01:23:34PM +0800, Arne Götje (?????????) wrote:
> 
> Sounds cool. can you give me more information on that? I was playing 
> with the idea of getting a Pocket PC (Asus A716 with integrated 
> Bluetooth and WiFi) and have the desire to do the same like you... 
> syncing addressbooks with my notbooks and mobile phone (also 
> bluetooth).
> Any infos about gotchas and success stories with Pocket PCs and Linux?

This is the best article on getting bluetooth sync working:
http://www.grinta.net/howto/bluez-ipaq.html

My scripts and C# app are at this point an utter hack utterly specific 
to me and my tastes, so my code wouldn't be any use to you.

I purchased a C# api called "Pocket Outlook" 
(http://www.inthehand.com/index.php?page=6&show=1,2) which lets you 
programatically create appointments and tasks.  For instance, for my 
list of family names, address, birthdays, I create a contact for each, 
assign it to the "Personal" category, and automatically create tasks and 
appointments 1 week before to buy them a card, but only if it's going to 
occur in the next two months.  Junk like that.  I blow away all the data 
on each sync and recreate it all, so it's always in a "good state."

I linked already to the GTK app I use on the Linux side to manage the 
data (which I wrote, and works well).  I also use it to view the diffs.  
Since it uses XML, when combined with xsltproc it's basically infinitely 
flexible.

I'll put my C# code up sometime.  Here's the script I use on the linux 
side:

if [[ "$1" == 'up' ]]; then
  echo Cleaning up...
  /etc/init.d/vsftpd stop
  mkdir -p /home/ftp/pub/{down,up}
  rm -r /home/ftp/pub/{down,up}/* 2>/dev/null
  mv /home/tom/share/down/* /home/ftp/pub/down 2>/dev/null
  chmod -R a+r /home/ftp/pub/down/* 2>/dev/null
  echo Exporting Data...
  /x/x/sync
  chown tom /home/ftp/pub/import.xml.gz /home/tom/share/down/* 
2>/dev/null
  /etc/init.d/vsftpd start
  /etc/init.d/bluez-utils start
  echo Waiting 2 seconds...
  sleep 2
  hciconfig up
  hcitool dev
  pand -s --role NAP
  dund --listen --msdun call dun
fi

if [[ "$1" == 'down' ]]; then
  echo Stopping services...
  killall dund
  killall pand
  /etc/init.d/bluez-utils stop
  /etc/init.d/vsftpd stop
  echo Saving data...
  mkdir -p /home/tom/share/{up,down}
  mv /home/ftp/pub/up/* /home/tom/share/up 2>/dev/null
  rm /home/ftp/pub/{import.xml.gz,books.html,serials.pwi} 2>/dev/null
  mv /home/ftp/pub/*.gz /x/d/h 2>/dev/null
  if [[ `ls /home/ftp/pub/down | wc -l` -ne 0 ]]; then
    dt=`date +"%y%m%d_%H%M%S"`
    mkdir -p /home/tom/share/bak/$dt
    chown tom /home/tom/share/bak/$dt
    mv /home/ftp/pub/down/* /home/tom/share/bak/$dt
  fi
fi

if [[ "$1" == 'ip' ]]; then
  ifconfig bnep0 10.10.2.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
  echo Waiting 4 seconds...
  sleep 4
  ping -c 4 10.10.2.2
fi

if [[ "$1" == 't' ]]; then
  ping -c 4 10.10.2.2
fi

The sequence of steps is:

(1) Run /x/x/dun up: which collects all the data, starts bluetooth on the pc,
and starts the ftp server.

(2) Start bluetooth on the iPaq and establish the bluetooth connection.

(3) Run /x/x/dun ip: assign an ip-over-bluetooth address on the PC side, and
make sure you can ping the iPaq.

(4) Run the C# app on the iPaq which connects to the ftp, pulls down the
gzipped xml, imports it, exports up some new xml, and also syncs files.

(5) Disable bluetooth on the iPaq.

(6) Run /x/x/dun down on the PC; which stops all the services, archives the
transferred files, archives the logs for diffing later.

Like I said, it's all a totally-specific-to-me grotesque hackfest, but it's
working pretty good.  It's still a newborn project: probably within a 
year I'll put some spit and polish on it and publish it.