While doing the changes and trying to find easier way to handle them than changing all occurences per hand (there is no find-and-replace functionality built into Firefox), I found the following nifty plugin – FoxReplace for – for exactly this purpose.

Just the MyLinkOrder was making trouble again – will have to check out in more detail what’s going on. Anyway, it seems its reconfiguration worked…

My profile name is lubos.vrbka. I know, not much invention… but it’s good to be consistent, at least sometimes.

Let’s see now how many people I know I am going to find there. So far I am quite impressed.

… it turns out, that it is necessary to re-configure My Link Order – it’s probably somehow connected with the fact that both WordPress and My Link Order were updated recently. But now, everything is as it should be.

As usually, the upgrade process went automatically and smoothly. The new version has an impressive list of new features… let’s hope it will work as good as the old one. There is no need to doubt it, since it WordPress has always worked for me without any problems.

At the same time, I made some changes to my Resume and also to the organization of the Research section (named now Professional). This should help to keep things clearer, particularly in the future…

… and since it isn’t OK and doesn’t fullfill my expectations and requirements, I deactivated it again. This means, that all new posts will have to be added manually to my Facebook Wall. This indeed sux, but it could be much worse…

The former categories Research and Teaching were merged with Professional. Culinary stuff and Photography are now separated from Personal. Technology includes posts related to this site and also to Linux, notebooks and other stuff.

This post is a direct continuation of my previous text concerning the USB connection. At the same time, for example the packages-to-install list is incremental, i.e., it’s expected that you already have all the packages installed which were discussed previously!

In addition to the pages referenced in the other post, I found another one quite useful.

Installation

There are some extra programs/utils that have to/should be installed. The command (issued as root)
aptitude install bluez-utils
will install everything you will need. I had to do one change in order to get the phone connecting to my computer. Everytime I tried to pair the devices, I got a PIN-request. Whatever PIN I entered, the process failed. Normally, after the PIN request is displayed on the phone, there should be another one displayed on the computer, which wasn’t the case on my notebook.

I solved this by modifying the following configuration file of hcid – /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf. The important lines are located in the section devoted to the HCId options:

	# Security Manager mode
	#   none - Security manager disabled
	#   auto - Use local PIN for incoming connections
	#   user - Always ask user for a PIN
	security auto;
	#security none;

	# Default PIN code for incoming connections
	#passkey "1234";
	passkey "XXXX";

i.e., you have to enter the PIN (numbers!) that is given in the hcid.conf file (and which I changed from the default value and replaced for the purposes of this post by X’s). Then it is possible to pair the phone with the computer. Don’t forget to restart the bluetooth stack by /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart.

Configuration

• to get the synchronization running, several steps are required. Firstly, a group has to be created, defining the way how the synchronization is done. I am using groupname nokiabt-evo, but you can use whatever you want.

  msynctool --addgroup nokiabt-evo
  msynctool --addmember nokiabt-evo evo2-sync
  msynctool --addmember nokiabt-evo syncml-obex-client
  

• The communication with the phone (syncml-obex) has to be further configured. Run msynctool --configure nokiabt-evo 2 and make the following changes to the file:

  identifier: PC Suite
  version: 1
  wbxml: 1
  usestringtable: 1
  type: 2
  recvLimit: 0
  maxObjSize: 0 

  Since there are problems with the synchronization of notes (probably not supported!), it is necessary to remove the contents of the note_db section. There are two BT-related setting that have to be made. Enable Bluetooth on your phone and run
  hcitool scan
  from the commandline. You should get something like

  Scanning ...
          XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX       Name of the phone
  

  which is the address of your phone and its name (can be set in the Bluetooth settings (Settings-Connection-Bluetooth). Furthermore, run
  sdptool browse XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
  replacing the X’s by the address of the phone obtained before. This will provide you with lots of output. Look for the following section

  Service Name: SyncMLClient
  Service RecHandle: 0x1001b
  Service Class ID List:
    UUID 128: 00000002-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000002
  Protocol Descriptor List:
    "L2CAP" (0x0100)
    "RFCOMM" (0x0003)
      Channel: 11
    "OBEX" (0x0008)
  Language Base Attr List:
    code_ISO639: 0x454e
    encoding:    0x6a
    base_offset: 0x100
  Profile Descriptor List:
    "" (0x00000002-0000-1000-8000-0002ee000002)
      Version: 0x0100
  

  and get the channel number (11 in this case). Put the address and channel to the respective sections of the syncml configuration file.

  Note that some of the information on the web states, that you should use the channel of the SyncML Server (here) or OBEX IrMC Sync Server (here, albeit for another phone). However, these services do not exist on my phone and the one called SyncMLClient works…

• Test the configuration using msynctool --showgroup nokiabt-evo
• Start evolution and perform the sync using msynctool --sync nokiabt-evo. I haven’t encountered the same problems as with USB yet (from time to time, particularly when synchronizing large amount of data, the process hangs). Anyway, I keep the previous setup and do the synchronization in parts (first contacts, then calendar).

    echo "contact"
    msynctool --sync nokiabt-evo --filter-objtype note --filter-objtype event --filter-objtype todo
    echo "calendar"
    msynctool --sync nokiabt-evo --filter-objtype note --filter-objtype contact --filter-objtype todo
    echo "todo"
    msynctool --sync nokiabt-evo --filter-objtype note --filter-objtype event --filter-objtype contact
  

  It is not clear to me, what the todo object corresponds to, since it seems to do the same thing as calendar (event). Note that notes (I am not sure what is meant by this, probably notes not associated with the calendar…) can’t be synchronized at the moment – it’s not supported and the synchronization usually hangs. The notes associated with a given date in the calendar are synchronized and shown in evolution without any problems.

So far it works for me over BT without problems, but you never know…

I found the following pages very useful:

• udev related stuff in order to get communication running even for non-root user – link
• Nokia-Evolution Ubuntu site – link
• msynctool-related info, filtering – link

The discussion in this post is based on the information I found in these links. Large parts of the document are taken from the pages above. I just want to have a copy here in case the original pages are not available any longer… and of course it’s easier for me to have all information on my web…

USB and udev

If you want to synchronize the phone using the USB cable, it is necessary to fix the permissions of the respective device. The first link shown above contains all the necessary information. Just brief:

• connect the phone, use dmesg to see if it was somehow recognized. I am getting something like

  usb 1-4: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 4
  usb 1-4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
  usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=0421, idProduct=041e
  usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
  usb 1-4: Product: Nokia 6680
  usb 1-4: Manufacturer: Nokia
  

• lsusb provides the list of all connected USB devices, for example

  Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
  Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0421:041e Nokia Mobile Phones 6680
  Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c00e Logitech, Inc. M-BJ58/M-BJ69 Optical Wheel Mouse
  Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
  

  This output indicates that the phone is the device 004 located on bus 1

• udevinfo -e will give you a long list of devices. Look for (in this case) usbdev1.4

  P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/usb1
  N: bus/usb/001/001
  
  P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/usb1/1-2
  N: bus/usb/001/003
  
  P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/usb1/1-4
  N: bus/usb/001/004
  
  P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2
  N: bus/usb/002/001
  
  P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.2/usb3
  N: bus/usb/003/001
  

• use the respective “P”-line in order to get the device info from udevinfo -a -p /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/usb1/1-4. You will get something like

    looking at device '/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/usb1/1-4':
      KERNEL=="1-4"
      SUBSYSTEM=="usb"
      DRIVER=="usb"
      ATTR{configuration}=="Bulk transfer method configuration"
      ATTR{bNumInterfaces}=="10"
      ATTR{bConfigurationValue}=="1"
      ATTR{bmAttributes}=="80"
      ATTR{bMaxPower}=="100mA"
      ATTR{urbnum}=="73"
      ATTR{idVendor}=="0421"
      ATTR{idProduct}=="041e"
      ATTR{bcdDevice}=="0000"
      ATTR{bDeviceClass}=="02"
      ATTR{bDeviceSubClass}=="00"
      ATTR{bDeviceProtocol}=="00"
      ATTR{bNumConfigurations}=="1"
      ATTR{bMaxPacketSize0}=="64"
      ATTR{speed}=="12"
      ATTR{busnum}=="1"
      ATTR{devnum}=="4"
      ATTR{version}==" 2.00"
      ATTR{maxchild}=="0"
      ATTR{quirks}=="0x0"
      ATTR{authorized}=="1"
      ATTR{manufacturer}=="Nokia"
      ATTR{product}=="Nokia 6680"
  

  which is everything you need

• modify the udev rules (I am using /etc/udev/rules.d/local.rules). The file should contain (configuration is based on the udevinfo output)

  BUS=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0421", SYSFS{idProduct}=="*", MODE="0660", GROUP="dialout"
  

  Then restart udev via /etc/init.d/udev restart

Installation

• install necessary software: aptitude install evolution multisync-tools opensync-plugin-evolution opensync-plugin-syncml libsyncml-utils
• running msynctool --listplugins should give you the following output

  Available options:
    syncml-http-server
    syncml-obex-client
    evo2-sync
  

Configuration

• to get the synchronization running, several steps are required. Firstly, a group has to be created, defining the way how the synchronization is done. I am using groupname nokia-evo, but you can use whatever you want.

  msynctool --addgroup nokia-evo
  msynctool --addmember nokia-evo evo2-sync
  msynctool --addmember nokia-evo syncml-obex-client
  

• The communication with the phone (syncml-obex) has to be further configured. Run msynctool --configure nokia-evo 2 and make the following changes to the file:

  identifier: PC Suite
  version: 1
  wbxml: 1
  usestringtable: 1
  type: 5
  recvLimit: 10000
  maxObjSize: 10000 

  The recvLimit and maxObjSize work for me with the value of 0. Since there are problems with the synchronization of notes (probably not supported!), it is necessary to remove the contents of the note_db section. The last setting to change is the value of the interface variable. Run syncml-obex-client -u. You should get something like

  Superuser privileges are required to access complete USB information.
  Found 2 USB OBEX interfaces
  Interface 0:
  	Manufacturer: Nokia
  	Product: Nokia 6680
  	Interface description: SYNCML-SYNC
  Interface 1:
  	Manufacturer: Nokia
  	Product: Nokia 6680
  	Interface description: PC Suite Services
  Use '-u interface_number' to connect
  

  Use the number of the interface called SYNCML-SYNC, i.e., interface would be 0 in this particular case.

• Test the configuration using msynctool --showgroup nokia-evo
• Start evolution and perform the sync using msynctool --sync nokia-evo. I encountered problems from time to time, particularly when synchronizing large amount of data. It proved useful to do the synchronization in parts (first contacts, then calendar).

    echo "contact"
    msynctool --sync nokia-evo --filter-objtype note --filter-objtype event --filter-objtype todo
    echo "calendar"
    msynctool --sync nokia-evo --filter-objtype note --filter-objtype contact --filter-objtype todo
    echo "todo"
    msynctool --sync nokia-evo --filter-objtype note --filter-objtype event --filter-objtype contact
  

  It is not clear to me, what the todo object corresponds to, since it seems to do the same thing as calendar (event). Note that notes (I am not sure what is meant by this, probably notes not associated with the calendar…) can’t be synchronized at the moment – it’s not supported and the synchronization usually hangs. The notes associated with a given date in the calendar are synchronized and shown in evolution without any problems.

The synchronization can be pretty tricky and it doesn’t always work 100%. I have from time to time problems with the calendar. The birthdays are not synchronized and shown. The contact list is, on the other side, working without any problems. In case that the synchronization hangs, just press Ctrl-C and restart the sync. The so called slow-sync will be performed, which should remedy the trouble (but it doesn’t always work, unfortunately). There is still a long way to go in the synchronization business in order to work flawlessly…

I plan to put some new stuff here in the near future, but don’t have time to do that at the moment… so stay tuned.