vB Easy Archive - DON'T install Kyocera Desktop!

Pages: 1

DON'T install Kyocera Desktop!
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: ozien

Well, this is interesting. Just for grins, I installed the Kyocera Desktop software. (Got the kit with the CD - was only $5 more than the cable alone and I figured it might be useful.) After installing it and downloading my contact database to my computer, BitPim was *UNABLE* to connect to my phone. Rebooting the computer didn't fix the problem, either. (Thought maybe Kyocera grabbed the Serial port and didn't let go after exiting...) I uninstalled the desktop software, power cycled the phone, and now BitPim is happy again. It may be that only one or the other of these (power cycle phone after using desktop or uninstalling desktop) is sufficient to make BitPim happy. But thought I would give a heads-up on this.

Posted by: xanthus

USB or serial version?

Posted by: xanthus

Just confirming your findings. You are right. When the kyocera desktop is installed, Bitpim refuses to work.

This is why it has never worked for me until tonight. However Gagin does work.

I'm using the serial cable BTW.

I was able to browse all the files with bitpim, however, I get exception errors when I try to do anything with files that are in the root directory. (not in a sub folder) I think they are protected by the handset.

Gagin only allows the user to browse the brew directory. It dosen't give full access like Bitpim.

Good findings Ozien.

Posted by: azn_wrx

where can i get bitpim, or what do i look for (file name)
and thanks for the advice xan i went to target but they had the newer version of the phone, so i ended up going to circut city where they had all old versions, any way you were right about virgin blocking access to our wap stuff (the virgin ringtones), pretty soon they probably will cut off the wap access

Posted by: ozien

I'm using the Serial cable. The USB cable is just a Serial cable with a Serial to USB converter in the middle, so I figured why bother with the USB version? I can always buy a USB-Serial adapter if I need to.

I just wonder how Kyocera managed to make the phone inaccessible to anything but it's own desktop software when installed. Must be something in the registry - maybe a background daemon or something....

Posted by: ozien

Quote:

Originally posted by azn_wrx
where can i get bitpim, or what do i look for (file name)

http://bitpim.sourceforge.net

Get the 0.62 stable version, unless you're really brave and want to alpha test the 0.7 version.

Just remember, BitPim was designed for use with the LG VX4400 phone, not the Slider. Most of the options, like Contact or Calendar sync, will not work on a Slider at all. The only thing that will work is the File System view, which is turned *off* by default. You'll have to go under 'View' and turn the File System view option on. But, it's not really that hard. Just don't try to put too many humongous files on your phone. There's an upper limit to the storage capacity of the filesystem, but I don't think anyone knows exactly what it is (yet). Overloading your phone apparently can cause wacky things to happen. Just download old ringers or graphics off your phone (save them on your computer somewhere) and delete them from the phone before loading lots of new ones

Rintones: Just put your ringtones in the /user/sounds/dnld folder on your phone. After loading a ringtone, you have to go to 'Settings - Sounds - Ringtones' to see them. If you go right to 'Settings - Sounds - My Ringtones' after loading one, you won't see it for some reason. Rintones need to be MIDI files (*.mid extension), or possibly 24kbps MP3 files (have not tried MP3 files myself yet).

Wallpapers: Put wallpapers or screensavers in the /user/mypictures folder, then use Doodler to assign them as Wallpaper or Screensaver. They need to be Doodler format (which appears to be proprietary, given that I can't open them with any graphics program I own, including IrfanView which can open damn near anything graphical) or Windows BMP format (128 by 116 pixels, 24 bit color). DO NOT try to edit them with Doodler! I got some wierd error when I did, and had to pull the battery to get the phone to restart.

Doesn't seem to have done any damage, but scared the bejeebus out of myself doing it.

Next on my list to try: MP3 ringtones and animated Screensavers. I grabbed the SK Teletek Data Manager off the web (forget where), but have yet to use the Animation editor to make any screensavers.

More Ambitious stuff: Scanning the config files for parameters that currently cannot be (re)set, like UP browser homepage, or UP.B settings. Would be very nice to make the '*' key go somewhere other than MTV, especially since I could get there anyway thru the VirginXtras page.

Unfortunately, I expect that info is stored server-side rather than in the handset...

Posted by: VMvirginmobile

Wirelessly posted (SE47/1.0.00 UP.Browser/4.1.26l UP.Link/5.0.2.9)

So what all can be access with bit pim ?

Posted by: ozien

Quote:

Originally posted by VMvirginmobile
Wirelessly posted (SE47/1.0.00 UP.Browser/4.1.26l UP.Link/5.0.2.9)

So what all can be access with bit pim ?

Ringtones, Wallpapers, and lots of other stuff I have no idea what it's for yet. There's several directory structures under the phone's root directory, some of which are configuration files for the phone (NAM info and stuff like that), some are temporary files (stuff like browser cache, current Doodle in the Doodler program, and so on), some are interface files (font files for the browser, sound files for Tetris or Race21, sounds for the various system buttons, open and close sounds, etc...), some may not even be real files. I'm not even sure how much of this can be modified, or modified safely. Fortunately, BitPim has a built-in HexDump feature for analyzing files. Can't search within BitPim hexdumps, but you can copy and paste the dumps to a text file for more parsing...

Why do I suddenly feel like I'm hacking through DOS 3.3 on my old Apple ][+ computer?

(Ya, I'm old)