If you have a Linux PC on a TCP/IP network, and a Palm device that has a PPP stack, (the Palm Vx, for example), you can reach the internet from the Palm device by connecting it to the PC’s serial port. You can use either a serial cable or a serial port cradle to connect the device to the serial port.
If you’ve never re-built your kernel, never mind this part. The kernel that was distributed with your system probably has all the appropriate switches turned on.
If you’ve re-built your kernel, you may have to turn on PPP, /proc
filesystem support, and IP forwarding. In xconfig, turn on
Networking options/Network packet filtering and
Networking options/IP: Netfilter Configuration/Connection tracking, IP tables support
Use the System->Prefs application to configure the Palm device.
Make a new connection, name it something like PPP Serial.
Connection Method should be Serial to Modem.
Under Details, Speed you may have to play with, but it should be the same as in the Linux setup. I use 115,200 bps. Flow Ctl should be Automatic.
Service should be Unix
Connection should be the new connection you created above.
Under Details,
Connection Type should be PPP
Query DNS should be off
Primary DNS should be the IP address of the
Address of your network’s Primary DNS Server. Likewise for the
Secondary DNS.
IP Address : Automatic should be off and
the address should be a new address for the Palm device on
your network. Make sure it’s unique!
ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/palm
Add a line to /etc/inittab:
palm:2345:respawn:/usr/sbin/pppd /dev/palm 115200 local-host-ip:serial-host-ip proxyarp persist local noauth silent nodetach ms-dns dns-ip
where
line-speed is one of the standard line
speeds 115200, 57600, 28800
etc. You may have to experiment.
local-host-ip is the IP address of the Linux
box
serial-host-ip is the IP address of the device
on the serial port.
dns-ip is the IP address of the DNS server.
Type telinit q to have init re-read the /etc/inittab file.
Type ps aef | grep pppd to get the process ID of any running ppp daemon
Type kill -9 pnum where pnum is the process ID of the ppp daemon. The daemon will now restart with the new settings from /etc/inittab.
At this point, it should be possible to ping the device on the serial port, and to run a Linux telnet session on the device via PPP.
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
If you have the Linux kernel source installed, see /usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt .
To turn forwarding on each time the machine boots, edit
/etc/sysconfig/network to include a line
FORWARD_IPV4=true
You can make a PPP connection using System->Prefs, under Network. Most web browsers on the Palm will start up a PPP connection themselves.
Note that you won’t be able to HotSynch your Palm so long as the PPP daemon is running on the serial port. In order to HotSynch again, you’ll have to delete the line from /etc/inittab and run telinit q to free the serial port before you HotSynch again.
Also see
Handspring-Visor mini-HOWTO