Created attachment 78284 [details] [review]
patch for this bug

Jerry,
I'm not familiar with solaris, but how does gpilotd detect a USB device?  My understanding of the gpilotd code is that either we have HAL (in which case the above warning isn't compiled in) or we poll usbfs to see if a known device has appeared.  In this latter case, we display a warning if usbfs isn't found.

I'd like to understand how device detection happens on Solaris before applying your patch.

Sorry for slow responding.
I tested on my Suse Linux box, the file "/proc/bus/usb/devices" and the directory "/sys/bus/usb/devices" has already existed before I plugged in the Palm device, and there's no change for them after I plugged in the Palm and did a synchronization. The file "/proc/bus/usb/devices_please-use-sysfs-instead" didn't appear if I plugged in the Palm or not. So I think perhaps these codes didn't do what they should do.
#ifndef WITH_HAL
        } else if (device->type == PILOT_DEVICE_USB_VISOR) {
                /* check sysfs or usbfs is mounted */
                if(stat(sysfs_dir, &buf) != 0 &&
                    ((stat (usbdevicesfile_str, &buf) != 0 &&
                      stat ("/proc/bus/usb/devices_please-use-sysfs-instead", &buf) != 0) ||
                    !(S_ISREG(buf.st_mode)) ||
                    !(buf.st_mode & S_IRUSR))) {
                        str = g_strdup_printf (
                            _("Failed to find directory %s or read file %s.  "
                                "Check that usbfs or sysfs is mounted."),
                            sysfs_dir,
                            usbdevicesfile_str);
                        error_dialog (NULL, str);
                        g_free (str);
                        return FALSE;
                }
#endif

The file "/proc/bus/usb/devices_please-use-sysfs-instead" is, I believe,
specific to certain SuSE patched kernels.  It's probably obsolete now.

The /proc/bus/usb/devices file, if it exists, should contain an entry for a palm device while a sync is in progress.

This /proc/bus/usb/devices file was how gnome-pilot detected USB devices in all versions up to and including 2.0.13.  I'd be very surprised if the file isn't being updated when a new USB device appears.  It is, just about, possible that SuSE have broken the devices file interface, I suppose.  It is deprecated, which is why we've migrated to HAL and sysfs.

/sys/bus/usb/devices contains symlinks to (on my Ubuntu system) /sys/devices/ directories, so things like 'find /sys/bus/usb/devices' won't show details.  Again, if a new device appears, a new directory should appear there.
E.g. on my system, when I plug in a USB printer I get (in dmesg):
" usb 1-1.4: new full speed USB device "
and a directory: /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-1.4

So, check again whether a new directory appears in /sys/bus/usb/devices when you start a sync on SuSE.

you are right, a new directory appears in /sys/bus/usb/devices when a sync is in progress on my SuSE box.
However, there's no usb devices file and directory on Solaris which are similar with "/proc/bus/usb/devices" and "/sys/bus/usb/devices" on Linux. So it's not necessary to check them on Solaris.

Okay.

So how, on solaris, does gpilotd decide to sync?  Or does it attempt a sync every 2 seconds (i.e. every 'visor_devices_timeout') ?

Currently gpilotd attempt a sync every 2 seconds on Solaris. However in the future when HAL works well on solaris, gpilotd will use HAL to detect the devices automatically by enabling --with-hal .

Fixed in head (i.e. subversion trunk).

Thanks Matt.