ANN: ZMacSync-1.5b1 available

[dhns]

Dear all,
there is finally an answer to your prayers...

This release is a completely reworked (well, reworked twice or tree times) version of ZMacSync. It is now properly syncing Addresses in both directions between Mac and Zaurus. And it is capable of keeping the Text Editor Notes synchronized with Apple Stickies. Calendar and Todo-Entries are already prepared but have a known bug so that they are disabled in this beta release.

Here are the new features compared to the 1.0a releases earlier this year:
* Really syncing Addresses between a Mac and a Zaurus
* Refreshed user interface
* Zaurus Text/Notes kept in sync with Mac Stickies (Mac -> Zaurus only)
* Change inspector
* Automatic detection of Zaurus connectivity (hot-sync)
* Log window

General features:
* Secure access of Zaurus through USB or WLAN
* Full Unicode support
* Configurable
* Automatic detection of Zaurus connection status (hot-sync)
* Individual enabling or disabling of data areas to be written to
* Data areas synchronized:
* Zaurus clock synchronization (assuming precise NTTP time on the Macintosh)
* Log window
* Delta-inspector (preview what has been detected as differences)
* Syncs with Sharp ROM (e.g. 5500 with 3.1 or C860 1.4)
* AJZaurusUSB driver included

This release is a free beta which is limited until end of November. After that time you can't sync any more.

More information (e.g. screen shot) and a download link: http://www.dsitri.de/wiki.php?page=ZMacSync

It was much more complex to make this software reliable and expandable as there are a lot of tricks to do for the Zaurus DTM database and even more on the Mac. Did you e.g. know how difficult it is to create a new Person record in the Mac address database with a given Unique ID? And that you can't write an empty string into ABMultiValue objects? Or that iCal does not write LAST-MODIFIED to the vCalendar records but simply modifies DTSTAMP?

We hope that we finally have created something as reliable and easy to use as you typically expect for Mac software and something we can improve even more with your help as beta testers and users. And we really appreciate your feedbacks!

-- hns
Project Manager ZMacSync
http://www.dsitri.de

[bgotori]

Hey dhns

Your post shows only SL5500 and C860, so this won't work with my SL5000 running Cacko 3.10 ROM or you haven't tried it with the SL5000???

Yea I know... SL5000 but its still working and does all the things I need to do, much better than a Pocket PC or Palm... Plus with a 512mb SD no running out of memory.

What else do I need to try this other than this one program??? Anything for the Mac or Zaurus???

Boy I hope this will work for me!!! Hope you get iCal working also!!!

Also is there away to send you a money order for development work(address).


Thanks!!!

Brad

[ashikase]

bgotori:

ZMacSync was designed to work with DTM-based PIM software, so it should work with any Zaurus that is using such programs (newer Sharp ROMs, Cacko Qt ROMs, Qualendar software, etc.).

It cannot be used with older Sharp ROMs or OpenZaurus, both of which use XML-based PIM software, nor can it be used with programs such as KO/Pi, which uses the vCal format.

In addition to ZMacSync, you will probably need the OS X USB driver, available at:
http://www.lucid-cake.net/osx_zaurus_usb/index_en.html

Note that I have not actually tried ZMacSync yet, though it looks very promising... especially with nice touches such as the builtin time synchronization.

- ashikase
  anpachi, gifu, japan

[dhns]

@bgotori:
The basic requirements are:

* any ROM with DTM database (not one using the older XML format)
* a working openssh-server

I do not know because we have not SL5000 for testing but if you can flash ROM 3.10 or similar into that machine it should work as well.

Memory capacity is not a major issue. A typical addressbook is some 50kByte large. And the tools openssh and dtm2xml also have a small footprint. Most work is done on the Mac by remote controlling the Zaurus.

If you want to support the project, you can use PayPal to send to sales@handheld-linux.com

@ashikase:

The AJZaurusUSB driver is included so you don't need a separate download.

-- hns

[jamesannan]

Thanks, that's great to see such progress.

Of course, what I'm really looking forward to is the calendar and to-do list synching...that would be incredibly useful for me. But I guess that means waiting a little longer ;-)

James

[ralphrmartin]

I see your web page is saying in future there will be support for syncing
Opera Browser  < - > Safari (Bookmarks).

What about NetFornt for those of us with c860s? Any chance? I guess this would be fairly easy. :-)

[ganoe]

Doesn't seem to be working very well for me.  It keeps trying to do a "Fetch" from "Zaurus-1" and then displaying this "Data from Zaurus-1 not available" message at the bottom of the Zaurus Mac Sync window.  It did at some point sync my addresses from my Mac over to the Zaurus though.  Nothing goes to the Mac though, and the added, replaced, deleted, total on the Zaurus side stays at zero for everything.  Seems like it should've had "added" as the number of addresses that were copied over to the Zaurus.

Eventually the OpenSSH server on my Zaurus must stop working as ZMacSync will start popping up a dialog "Zaurus ssh: connect to host 192.168.129.201 port 22: Connection refused Check open-ssh installation." which I then have to click OK on a dozen times to close.  From then on, I can't ssh to my Zaurus from the command line.  I have to restart the Zaurus to get the SSH server back (yeah, I'm sure there's a way to do this from the command line too).

Anyhow, the messages aren't very useful to me, and it annoyingly keeps trying to connect to the Zaurus without any action on my part.

Does it matter if you use the "root" or "zaurus" accounts on the Zaurus to connect?

My setup: Mac OS 10.3.6, AJZaurusUSB 2.8, Zaurus SL-5500, Sharp 3.13 ROM.  I installed the OpenSSH and DTM2XML provided in your package.

If there is extra info I can provide to help debug it, let me know.

[ashikase]

I gave it a try, and I, too, am having problems.

Basically, it fails when attempting to fetch data from Zaurus-1. Why it fails, though, is uncertain... the log file does not seem to provide any useful information beyond the status-line messages.

dhns, is it possible for you to provide a version with verbose logging/debugging information?

Also, I agree that the automatic attempts to sync by the program are a bit annoying... while it is making an attempt, the GUI becomes unresponsive.

- ashikase
  anpachi, gifu, japan

[twocargar]

I am looking forward to using your product and will be happy to pay $10 for a working sync solution. However I am having trouble getting the software installed. I am using an SD card and USB card reader with my Mac to get the files on to my Zaurus.

The OpenSSH file seems to install correctly, but the file dtm2xml_arm.ipk will not install on my Zaurus. I get an error that says "the file name of this package includes character this application can't handle. Please change the filename and retry install."

I tried renaming the file, but I still get this error. I have also tried unstuffing the TAR file again and starting again with a fresh install file, but that doesn't work either.

Any ideas? Thanks for all the hard work on this sync solution.

twocargar

SL-5500, Sharp ROM 3.13, PNY 256 MB SD, Netgear MA701 Wi-Fi, PowerMac G4, OS 10.3.6

[twocargar]

I figured out why dtm2xml wasn't installing:  I had put the file in a folder I had created on the SD card I was using, instead of dropping the file right into the Install Files folder created by the Z.

My problems don't stop there.  Now I get this in my zMac Sync log when I try to sync:

Data from Zaurus-1 not available.

Thanks,

TCG

[dhns]

calendar and to-do list synching

It is largely included in the code - but there is a bug with reading iCalendar files on the Mac. Depending on other bugs it might already be enabled in the next beta release.

-- hns

[dhns]

I see your web page is saying in future there will be support for syncing
Opera Browser  < - > Safari (Bookmarks).

What about NetFornt for those of us with c860s? Any chance? I guess this would be fairly easy. :-)

I also hope that it is as easy. But we have not yet compared the Bookmark data formats of Opera and NetFront.

[dhns]

@port 22 error:

I have experienced this sometimes after putting the Zaurus or the Mac to sleep and awaking back. Sometimes, the TCP protocol stack just hangs and I suspect it is an issue of the AJZaurusUSB driver. Did anybody experience the same issue when using WLAN?

Please try in this case to open a new ssh session to the Zaurus and check if it also issues the port 22 error.

A cure seems to be to switch off the Zaurus for some seconds and then back on.

@Data from Zaurus-1 not available:

Hm. That can have many different reasons. Is the Zaurus crossed out (this is detected by a background ping task)?
I will enable some of the diagnostic NSLogs in the b2 release today or tomorrow.

A different issue can be the user name and password. Using "root" or "zaurus" as the user name should make no difference but in case you have installed a password on the Zaurus, openssh-server required this to be correct. So it might be a bug in the documentation.

@Automatic fetch

Well, this becomes annoying of course if the communication does not work properly. Otherwise ZMacSync does a "Fetch" every 30 seconds so that it recognizes changes on the fly, e.g. if you change an address in Address Book it will prepare itself for the next sync. But it could be made a Preferences setting.

-- hns

[dhns]

It did at some point sync my addresses from my Mac over to the Zaurus though.  Nothing goes to the Mac though, and the added, replaced, deleted, total on the Zaurus side stays at zero for everything.  Seems like it should've had "added" as the number of addresses that were copied over to the Zaurus.

That seems to be half-way ok. "Added" means number of records added since the last successful sync. So if it has synced once, all these values should go down to 0. After that there is a "delta-sync" which means that only records added, changed or deleted are synced on the other side.

But for the first sync, there is a special case - where all entries are "added". It appears that this has failed for yet unknown reasons.

Please try the "File/Copy" menu entry. This has the logic that it does not only sync the deltas but sends all records that are not found on the other side. It is sort of a "full-sync".

Hope this helps,

hns

[ganoe]

@Data from Zaurus-1 not available:

Hm. That can have many different reasons. Is the Zaurus crossed out (this is detected by a background ping task)?

I'm not sure what you mean by "crossed out", but I left a ping going from my Mac to my Zaurus while I was doing a fetch as well as had myself ssh'd into my Zaurus pinging back to my Mac while doing it.  The pings never seemed to slow up any, and the "Data from Zaurus-1 not available" messages kept appearing.  I was still able to ssh into my Zaurus after a couple of these messages appeared.  I quit out of ZMacSync before the ssh server on the Zaurus would likely lock up.

Probably worth noting that it takes almost 10 seconds from the time I start to ssh into my Zaurus from the command line till the time that I actually get a command prompt.