Palm support on 10.3

[mkwilson68]

I've upgraded to Panther, and am unable to get Palm Desktop to run, so syncing with my Tungsten T is now dead. I contacted Palm who told me that 'this issue is not supported - Palm Desktop is not compatible with Panther'.

Great piece of customer support.

Anyone had any luck getting it to run, or know anything about Palm sorting it out?

 

[xjohn]

no problems here

I did a clean install of Panther, downloaded and installed Palm Desktop 4.1, and have been using it with no problems.

Not sure why it works for me.

 

[Remus]

I aslo downloaded Palm Desktop 4.1 and was able to sync with my old Palm Vx, after I turned off syncing pictures and voice memos. Also using Panther...

 

[mkwilson68]

G5 related?

Thanks all - I have a G5: not sure what systems you're running on. I'm going to run a clean install of Panther (rather than an upgrade) and see what I get.

 

[stcanard]

Not G5 related. I tried installing Palm dekstop 4.1 on my G4 powerbook with Panther and got told there was a permissions error.

I tried again running it with sudo, and still got a permissions error.

I've read elsewhere (macosxhints? I think) that Palm has confirmed a compatibility issue with Panther.

 

[mkwilson68]

Still not working

I've tried a clean install of Panther, upgraded to 10.3.1 even, and still no joy - will not install now at all.

 

[Spock]

I got a Palm over a PPC so I could sync with the Mac, this is stupid.

 

[Westside guy]

Originally posted by stcanard
Not G5 related. I tried installing Palm dekstop 4.1 on my G4 powerbook with Panther and got told there was a permissions error.

I tried again running it with sudo, and still got a permissions error.

I've read elsewhere (macosxhints? I think) that Palm has confirmed a compatibility issue with Panther.

This is probably a "stuffit expander" error. Not everything inside of the installer has been correctly marked as executable (I ran into this exact error installing Palm desktop on 10.2.8).

I don't use Palm Desktop now (I use iCal) but the way to fix it is simple, as long as you're comfortable with the command line. If the installer is called, for example, "palminstall":

1) Open a terminal window
2) Go into the directory above the installer. For example if it's on your desktop then the installer is in /Users/yourname/Desktop
3) type this: chmod -R a+x palminstall.app (replace "palminstall" with the actual filename of the installer)
4) Now try the install again

 

[stcanard]

Originally posted by Westside guy
This is probably a "stuffit expander" error. Not everything inside of the installer has been correctly marked as executable (I ran into this exact error installing Palm desktop on 10.2.8).

Thanks. It turns out the permissions were probably correct, (I finally did a chmod 777 just to be sure), but your hint got me thinking that I did have it running on Panther at one time.

So here's what finally fixed it for me (while now cursing how badly designed an app palm desktop is; it leaves a mess of files everywhere):

In Finder, I did a search for "palm".

I took all the palm related files in system folders and trashed them (this was cursing part; it turns out the files were in more than just Applications/Palm, Library/Palm et al).

Tried the installer again, and this time it worked.

Now I can go about re-enabling the iSync integration.

So far all thePanther users who cannot get Palm Dekstop 4.1 working, scour your entire hard-drive for palm files. That would appear to be the problem.

Thanks again, the hint didn't work, but it sure got me moving in the right direction!

 

[mkwilson68]

Success!

Thanks all - have finally got it working. I unstuffed using Expander 7, deleted all existing files (this didn't work on its own) and re-installed everything.

Come on Palm sort this out.
Come on Apple - why do we need Palm Desktop anyway???

Definitely buying a P900 next.

 

[maradong]

As I am planning on buying me a tungsten...
can't they be synced using isync ? That would be interesting. ( syncing with addressbook and ical ... )

 

[stcanard]

They can be synced with iSync no problem.

But you first need to install the conduit, which required the palm hotsync manager installed.

Easiest way to do that is with palm desktop.

 

[scat999999]

Same here only with Palm Desktop 5.0.

Works fine.

Originally posted by xjohn
I did a clean install of Panther, downloaded and installed Palm Desktop 4.1, and have been using it with no problems.

Not sure why it works for me.

 

[filmcutter]

From the Brighthand Forums:

If you use NetInfo Manager (in /Applications/Utilities/) to enable the root account, log out, log in as root, install Palm Desktop, log out, log in as yourself, relaunch NetInfo Mgr and disable root, it works fine.

This worked for me. I haven't had any problems - running X10.3.1 with Palm OS 5; Pismo PB and Tungsten E.

 

[cubist]

No, logging in as root is a bad suggestion. Not only does the install fail, but now all the files belong to root, and I have to track them down and delete them. Echh! What a mess!

 

[flamingcrumb]

Palm OS is definitely NOT compatible with latest Panther

Officially, Palm OS devices work on Mac OS X up to 10.2.6 only and this is stated in the product specs. The reality was that you could get way with running the Palm software on the first version or 2 of Panther. But, when I updated to 10.3.4 my Palm software became unusable. I had to do a clean install of 10.3 to get it working again. In short, Palm do not formally support 10.3 and all development & support for the Mac will be completely discontinued for the upcoming Palm OS 6. This will mean there will be NO currently marketed Mac compatible PDA. Unfortunately, I think this is simple ecomomics, not any anti-Mac sentiment by the developers. They want to make money and stay in business. If you develop for Mac as well as PC you double your software development costs to chase after only the extra 2 percent or so that the Mac client base represents. I just don't think they can make their money back. Same thing is happening with Epson - no Mac support on their least expensive printers anymore. Personally, I have both a Powerbook G4 Titantium and a sub-compact 10 inch Fujitsu PC running WIndows XP Pro. I had been an absolutely solid Mac person for 16 years. I feel sad that my loyalty to the Mac had come to actively block my workflow. 5 years ago Mac OS rocked and totally beat Windows. But, now with Windows XP, there is just nothing you can't do. Unfortunately, due to compatiblity issues, I find there is a LOT my Mac cannot do. Plus the PC laptops are just so much faster, not to mention much cheaper. I feel terribly let down by Apple. I feel they have been failed their loyal customer base. It really is a shame.