Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

susskind · 2019-04-16 07:00:03

Hi!
I've got an old GPS device ( Mio c250: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mio_Technology) whose OS is Windows CE (core 5.0).
It's working great after 10 years but the maps are obsolete now...

It's well detected by the PC when connected by USB

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 009: ID 3340:043a Yakumo Mio A701 DigiWalker PPCPhone

On Windows XP, it was using a program called ActiveSync (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActiveSync).
On Arch, I've found this wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SynCE

The problem is that all the programs in this wiki are way obsolete (more than 10 years for some).
What is the current way to connect to this type of device?

Thanks a lot in advance

twelveeighty · 2019-04-17 00:02:13

susskind wrote:

The problem is that all the programs in this wiki are way obsolete (more than 10 years for some).

That Wiki page was updated as recent as Oct '18 and the AUR packages still seem to exist? Which ones are obsolete?

mmdamin · 2019-04-17 00:28:40

This program sync data with a remote server. are you sure the server is still up?

susskind · 2019-04-17 05:06:30

twelveeighty wrote:

susskind wrote:
The problem is that all the programs in this wiki are way obsolete (more than 10 years for some).
That Wiki page was updated as recent as Oct '18 and the AUR packages still seem to exist? Which ones are obsolete?

Each one is broken in fact:

- Synce-Core:
Trying to run it:

$ odccm
bash: odccm: command not found

- synce-kde:
When building, dependency pygobject is not found. It should depends on python-gobject instead as noted in the comment.

- synce-sync-engine:
Trying to run it:

$ sync-engine
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/sync-engine", line 45, in <module>
    import SyncEngine.config as Config
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/SyncEngine/config.py", line 32, in <module>
    from formatapi import SupportedFormats,DefaultFormat
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/SyncEngine/formatapi.py", line 21, in <module>
    import formats
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/SyncEngine/formats/__init__.py", line 21, in <module>
    import parser
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/SyncEngine/formats/parser.py", line 25, in <module>
    import conversions
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/SyncEngine/formats/conversions.py", line 29, in <module>
    import pyrtfcomp
ImportError: No module named pyrtfcomp

Last edited by susskind (2019-04-17 05:14:17)

susskind · 2019-04-17 05:10:16

mmdamin wrote:

This program sync data with a remote server. are you sure the server is still up?

I don't see it on the tutorial. After installing the 3 programs, I'm only launching the programs and connecting my GPS device via USB as noted in the tutorial:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … your_phone

1. Start odccm:
# odccm
2. Start sync-engine. You can use "sync-engine -d" to have it running in the background as a daemon.
3. Start synce-kpm
4. Connect your WM phone.

Last edited by susskind (2019-04-17 05:12:56)

Mr.Elendig · 2019-04-17 08:38:46

I would strongly consider replacing the device with something more modern, or a cheap tablet + google maps / osm. Specially if the device can't handle the recent gps clock rollover.

But please post the output of pacman -Qs synce

Last edited by Mr.Elendig (2019-04-17 08:40:53)

susskind · 2019-04-17 11:38:37

Mr.Elendig wrote:

I would strongly consider replacing the device with something more modern, or a cheap tablet + google maps / osm. Specially if the device can't handle the recent gps clock rollover.

I know, but that'd be a shame since it's working great as a GPS. It's just that I've got new maps that I'd like to put into.

Mr.Elendig wrote:

But please post the output of pacman -Qs synce

$ pacman -Qs synce
local/librtfcomp 1.3-2
    SynCE librtfcomp library
local/synce-core 0.17-4
    provide a means of communication with a Windows CE device - libraries
local/synce-kde 0.16-5
    Provide a means of communication with a Windows CE device - KDE tools and integration
local/synce-libmimedir 0.4-8
    provide a means of communication with a Windows CE device - library that parses MIME
    Directory Profile.
local/synce-rra 0.17-3
    provide a means of communication with a Windows CE device - rra libraries for synce
local/synce-sync-engine 0.16-3
    SynCE sync-engine

I've managed to install synce-kde:
I've edited the PKGBUILD file by modifying the line where there's pygobject to python-gobject.

and I've managed to install synce-sync-engine:
I've used rpmextract to get the .so files from ubuntu deb packages I've found (It was missing pyrra.so and pyrtfcomp.so) and I've put them inside /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/:

But for synce-core, I still have when running:

$ odccm
bash: odccm: command not found

Last edited by susskind (2019-04-17 11:53:36)

snakeroot · 2019-04-17 14:46:20

(a) I believe that both man synce and the wiki indicate that odccm needs to be run as root (assuming of course, that you can find odccm).

(b) If it exists, odccm is not on your path (which is why you're getting that error). I suspect it's probably not on root's path either, but you can try.

(c) You may want to look through the files installed by the various synce components to see if you can find odccm ($ pacman -Ql [name of synce package] | grep odccm) and, if you can, run it from command line as root.

(d) My speculation is that dccm is the new odccm (at least when synce-core is built with "--enable-odccm-support" as the PKGBUILD does) and thus you won't find odccm. This suspicion is fortified by the fact that the synce dbus service (/usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.synce.dccm.service) calls dccm not odccm.

susskind · 2019-04-17 16:33:41

We are going somewhere!
Indeed, it was dccm, not odccm:

$ sudo pacman -Ql synce-core | grep dccm
[sudo] password for susskind: 
synce-core /etc/dbus-1/system.d/org.synce.dccm.conf
synce-core /usr/lib/synce-core/dccm
synce-core /usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.synce.dccm.service

(sudo pacman -Ql synce-core | grep odccm returns nothing)

So:
1) I've run dccm:

$ sudo /usr/lib/synce-core/dccm

No return, but no error neither, so it's good maybe ...

2) then launching sync-engine:

$ sync-engine
SynCE sync-engine starting up
2019-04-17 18:21:48,480 DEBUG syncengine : running main loop
2019-04-17 18:21:48,480 DEBUG syncengine : creating SyncEngine object
2019-04-17 18:21:48,486 DEBUG syncengine : installing signal handlers

3) and synce-kpm:

$ synce-kpm
Running dataserver
running the GUI Part
Initializing DataServer
Finished with init

And finally, the synce-kpm GUI is displayed!

https://imgur.com/UlYCSh6l.png

But clicking on the green button doesn't do anything (I've connected by USB the GPS just before): the tabs on the bottom stay greyed, with no data about my GPS device. The terminal doesn't show any errors neither.

moderator edit -- replaced oversized image with link.
Pasting pictures and code

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2019-04-17 17:42:43)

snakeroot · 2019-04-17 19:18:04

Note that you can run dccm with loglevel set to debug (dccm --log-level=6), which is what /usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.synce.dccm.service does.

I'm not certain whether dccm is intended to be run from the commandline or only via dbus (I suspect the latter).

susskind · 2019-04-18 03:49:29

So I've run:

$ sudo /usr/lib/synce-core/dccm --log-level=6

and it returns, but with nothing more. No error apparently but no data neither.

For dbus, I've run:

$ sudo dbus-launch /usr/lib/synce-core/dccm

and it still returns, with no errors or anything.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-04-16 07:00:03

Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#2 2019-04-17 00:02:13

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#3 2019-04-17 00:28:40

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#4 2019-04-17 05:06:30

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#5 2019-04-17 05:10:16

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#6 2019-04-17 08:38:46

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#7 2019-04-17 11:38:37

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#8 2019-04-17 14:46:20

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#9 2019-04-17 16:33:41

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#10 2019-04-17 19:18:04

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

#11 2019-04-18 03:49:29

Re: Current way to connect to OLD pocketPC (Windows CE based GPS)

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