The Wobblin' Sprocket

Wow, this was rough.

What I wanted was a small pc I could carry with me during bike tours and use for, among other things, downloading data from my Edge 305.  I chose the eee pc because it was small and relatively inexpensive.  I didn’t realize at the time that Garmin did not support the Linux OS installed on the machine.  I called Garmin and they said “no can do” with Linux, but I hunted around for a solution.   I got it.  All the information needed is out in cyberspace…but you have to ferret it out thru a bazillion google searches.

In the hope of helping others trying to do this very thing, here is my path to success (I’m leaving out my many boo-boos, including those that forced me to reload Linux-Xandros from the reboot disk that came with the computer).

DO ALL THIS STUFF AT YOUR OWN RISK (I have an Asus model 701)

First, install the advanced desktop on the PC.  It’s better than the simple desktop and will allow you to install software, including gpsbabel using the “Synaptic Package Mgr”.  Instructions are here for installing advanced desktop (I used the first option):

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:getkde

Once you get the advanced desktop installed, go to “applications” and use the Synaptic Package Manager to install additional software.   You will have to add a repository (a site on the net with lots of software) in Synaptic to get gpsbabel.  I added this Debian Respository:

Type                   URI                                                    Distribution    Section(s)

deb                      http://ftp.debian.org/debian/       etch                 main contrib non-free

More info on all the clicks to add a repository are here:

http://linuxappfinder.com/addrepo

With the repository in place, do a search for “gpsbabel”.  This will give you version 1.3.2-2.  Not the newest version, but works fine for what I want to do.  If you want a different version of gpsbabel, you need a different repository.

Once gpsbabel is installed, you have to go back to the simple desktop and and and hit “control” plus “alt” plus “t” to get to get the terminal screen.  At this point, if you enter “gpsbabel -?” you should get a list of commands.  If so, you know gpsbabel is installed.

Now plug your gps unit into computer via a usb port.

From here you have to use cryptic gpsbabel commands in the terminal screen to do anything:

First you most likely will have to disable the “kernel module” your gps unit normally uses for connecting thru a usb port…type the following:

sudo rmmod garmin_gps

hit return

This will disarm the usb kernel.  If you reboot, you need to do this again.  More info on the kernel and how to work around are below.  The rmmod command  above is the easiest work-around.  I tried other more elegant solutions without success and was stumped for a long time.

http://www.gpsbabel.org/os/Linux_Hotplug.html

http://www.marengo-ltd.com/blog/?p=51

Now you can attempt to download your data.  Enter this command (followed by enter) on the terminal screen in order to download a gpx file with all your data into a file named “yeah.gpx”

gpsbabel -t -r -w -i garmin -f usb: -o gpx -F yeah.gpx

You will have to look around for the file under “home” or “my computer”.

I hope it worked for you.

In the gpsbabel documentation there is info on a bazillion additional options for commands.  The first 4 letters after “gpsbabel identify the data variables to be donwloaded.  If you just do one…e.g. -i  you will only get the waypoints.  That also messed me up for a time.  I though the download was truncating since it was so small.

The process is involved.  The thought crossed my mind a few times of just installing windows on the eeepc and then using the normal Garmin download utility, but then I tried the Garmin utility on my Windows desktop machine.  Guess what?  It didn’t work!

Have fun!

Best, Bob