usb-irda sweex dongle to connect to palm

[Mario Frasca <mfrasca@interia.pl>]

hi everybody,

I'm trying to connect my palm to my linux box via a sweex usb-irda dongle.
my computer has no true serial ports so I cannot connect the palm to the
box directly via a serial port.

I remember I had done it in the past, but I never wrote a script for it
and I don't manage to get it to work again.  maybe when it worked I was on
kernel 2.4...  can't remember.

my system is:
Linux 2.6.11-powerpc #1 Fri May 13 15:47:19 CEST 2005 ppc GNU/Linux

I modprobed irda and it does complete successfully, but my /dev/ttyUSBx
are not attachable via irattach (says the device does not exist).

if I modprobe usbserial and attach to /dev/ttyS1 (S0 being the internal
modem), the box completely freezes.

(I don't think it is a specific iMac question, but I'm crossposting to
that newsgroep as well)

any hints?

thanks,
Mario