[trustworthy]

My 8100 syncs with a media card installed.

Originally Posted by mr_kitty

after reading a related thread on apple's developer forums (i still can't post links but if you go to.... http : / / lists . apple . com / archives / Apple-cdsa / 2006 / Sep / msg00015 . html ) it would appear that there is a bit of a device issue with pcscd and the blackberry pearl that is preventing the Application Uploader from working.

afaik, pcscd's job is to hang out until a pc card or smart card device is attached and then determine which drivers to use to mount it. when an "unknown" usb device is attached, it launches and attacks it with all it's known protocols and such until it finds a match.

from the behavior, it would seem like the internal memory of the bb 8100 is being seen as an "unknown usb device" and if you don't have a media card inserted -- as soon as you fire the application uploader -- pcscd is all over it and doesn't relent. ever.

if you have a sd micro media card in the phone, it senses that and decides the device is a sd micro card reader and goes away -- after it's blocked PM's ability to sync or communicate with the phone's internal memory!!

so the short of it is that 8100's aren't going to be able to sync when the media card is installed, and the application uploader isn't going to work at all with it.

from what i've read there are several bugs that have conspired to bring this to reality. the first is that RIM's hardware usb controller is seen as "unknown" by pcscd (this HAS to be the case, because otherwise it would ignore it the internal memory if no media card was installed), the second is that pcscd doesn't time out or quit (and you can't even sudo kill it), and finally.... well, i really wish someone would have tested this before it went to market. even a readme documentation would have helped. :/

[hughaston]

Very interesting comments Mr_Kitty.
You might be interested to know that I got this error *with* the SD Micro card installed. And on a couple of occasions without even starting PocketMac (shortly after attaching the Pearl) - supporting that its down in the USB driver level. However I did not systematically try to determine if saying "no" to enable mass storage triggered the bug or not. One thing for sure is that the bug was only triggered with my Pearl and not any other devices in my collection.

My strategy going forward is to uninstall PocketMac and stick with Parallels (the two interfere) and it pains me to say that I have advised Mac+BlackBerry friends to do the same. Its not about being a bad sport. PocketMac is very limited which maybe is acceptable in itself for now, but when it triggers a bug that requires a hard reboot we have to think about why we would accept such a risky proposition. One with comparitively little payback to running Parallels or bootcamp for that matter.

[artherd]

OK, replaced a working PM3 with PM4, horrible results.

PM4 WILL NOT start if my 7100i is connected. It hangs, and cannot even be force-quit! (kill -9 <processid> as root does work.)

If I start PM4 w/o the 7100i connected, and then connect it, PM4 never sees it.

If I try to sync, progress bar will go halfway, and stay there forever.

I cannot quit PM4 with the 7100i attached, it will hang and force-quit does not even work.

I get this in the log:
[10:28:29.586] BlackBerry device pin 0


I've tried deleting & reinstalling, deleting preferences file, etc.

Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz OSX 10.4.8

[mr_kitty]

Yeah, i've all but given up on it. I've taken the media card out for now, and refrain from trying to upload. I just plug and unplug until PM4 recognizes the device, then sync.

I've submitted bug reports to both blackberry's support and pocketmac's support. bb took 3 days to get back to me and told me to call tmobile about their IM application (even though i was asking them about uploading a third party software app) and when I clarified with them they sent me to that third party's support.

I grabbed a different installer (totally other vendor, other application) off the web and repro'd it with and mailed them back telling them the problem wasn't the third party software, but their uploader app and that they needed to address it. that was 2 days ago and im not very hopeful in getting a response from them.

PocketMac hasn't responded at all... that was three days ago.

At this point all i can do is submit a bug report to apple (pcscd is an os installed daemon and it isn't behaving correctly) and hope someone there takes enough interest to find and forward on to the appropriate developer.

mostly im waiting for the core 2 duo macbooks to upgrade, and then ill just install bootcamp for uploading. shitty workaround, but as a mac-tech consultant i should have bootcamp installed on one of my systems anyway (as much as i hate winderz).

Originally Posted by hughaston

Very interesting comments Mr_Kitty.
You might be interested to know that I got this error *with* the SD Micro card installed. And on a couple of occasions without even starting PocketMac (shortly after attaching the Pearl) - supporting that its down in the USB driver level. However I did not systematically try to determine if saying "no" to enable mass storage triggered the bug or not. One thing for sure is that the bug was only triggered with my Pearl and not any other devices in my collection.

My strategy going forward is to uninstall PocketMac and stick with Parallels (the two interfere) and it pains me to say that I have advised Mac+BlackBerry friends to do the same. Its not about being a bad sport. PocketMac is very limited which maybe is acceptable in itself for now, but when it triggers a bug that requires a hard reboot we have to think about why we would accept such a risky proposition. One with comparitively little payback to running Parallels or bootcamp for that matter.

[trustworthy]

mr_kitty

I've got mine working with the SD Micro Card. What I've found helps is to start PM 4 before connecting the BB to the Mac and having PM 4 set so it does not start by itself when a device is connected. Once the SD Micro Card shows up on my desktop I start PM 4 and it works. If it doesn't then I restart my Mac and it works. I now seldom have to restart. I thought this might be of some help.

[pipermalibu]

I have not had any problems with pocket mac AT ALL. it has a wierd sync issue with stickies, but other than that it does everything it should. I am using a new MacBook Pro 2.16 with 2GB Ram.

[artherd]

Still absolutely dismal resutls, PM4 not working at all. It will hang HARD if I start it with the BB (7100i) connected, and if I wait, PM4 does start but never sees any devices :(

Very fustrating, I've spent countless hours on this with no results. Getting to the point of impacting my business a great deal.

Any suggestions guys?

Thanks!
-Ben.

[lkb]

PM4 doesn't even see my Pearl. It never shows up as a device.

[ibrg]

If I understand mr_kitty correctly, he's referring to installation issue (installing new apps via PM 4), not synching issues.
I have no problems synching but I can't for my life install new apps via PM 4. (In fact, mr_kitty, I can't install apps via any Windows machines either... It almost as though the Pearl is locked. Any ideas?)

Originally Posted by trustworthy

mr_kitty

I've got mine working with the SD Micro Card. What I've found helps is to start PM 4 before connecting the BB to the Mac and having PM 4 set so it does not start by itself when a device is connected. Once the SD Micro Card shows up on my desktop I start PM 4 and it works. If it doesn't then I restart my Mac and it works. I now seldom have to restart. I thought this might be of some help.

[lkb]

I'm talking about not even being able to sync, personally.

I plug in my 8100, and nothing. See my "No Device!!!" thread if you're interested, and haven't read it already. I think PM4 is in public beta phase

[boiler10]

Originally Posted by fightdirrty

It still crashes when I try to sync my Ical to it. It doesn't even see the categories I use listed under advanced.

I had this problem also.. through the process of elimination i discovered that if I set the sync manager to ignore tasks (ie don't sync them) it stopped crashing every time and actually completed a sync.

There was nothing weird in the 2 tasks i had in ical, so i'm not sure what the issue is.

[ibrg]

Synching: no problem.
Installing new apps: Can't do.

Any suggestions?

[Hazzrdd1]

the sync doesnt work for me at all. I keep getting the "USB chargiing current is not sufficient..."

any sugestions? Im really sick of this thing already and ive had it for 2 days.

Also, I was able to transfer music files i downloaded off a site as mp3s through bluetooth to the phone. But when I try to open/ play them they show up as text only... the arent formatted properly. Does any one have experience with this?

I will check other forums on the mp3 issue, but thought id ask here too.

[hessles]

Originally Posted by trustworthy

mr_kitty

I've got mine working with the SD Micro Card. What I've found helps is to start PM 4 before connecting the BB to the Mac and having PM 4 set so it does not start by itself when a device is connected. Once the SD Micro Card shows up on my desktop I start PM 4 and it works. If it doesn't then I restart my Mac and it works. I now seldom have to restart. I thought this might be of some help.

mr_kitty,

I'm sorry, I'm not understanding your workaround. Do you start PM4 before physically plugging it into the mac? Your note says you start it before plugging it in, then you say you start PM 4 after the SD MC shows up. I'm hoping this is the fix for me, just need to know how you're doing it.

Thanks!

[artherd]

Still unable to sync (or to even launch PM4 when my 7100i is connected at all). VERY fustrating!

Anyone have an old 3.5 dist hainging around?!

I am a FOOL for upgrading!

[mr_kitty]

hessles - not my post, someone is quoting me.

personally, i haven't gotten a sync to complete with the SD Micro Card in the device. I tried these steps, and then pocketmac decided to stop syncing my device altogether, even after i had removed the card and rebooted. and then my system stopped shutting down & started kernel panicing, even if i never touched the accursed "Install to Device" option.


Obviously Blackberry's USB drivers are unstable (for the pearl at least). I just clean installed my system from a flat format. I need to reinstall pocketmac and get basic syncing back, but i'm sincerely hesitant to screw up my clean system... sniff.

oh btw. it's been over a week since blackberry support gave up on responding to my support requests. and pocketmac NEVER did respond to my request sent october 2nd. It's an uneasy peace, but the quiet is nice every once and a while.

[huilim]

Just got myself a Pearl this morning and synced it with my BB. After syncing the device, I noticed that calender entries that were after date November 16 2006 were shifted a day earlier than in the Pearl than in my iCal, i.e. an appointment in iCal would be on the 17th November but it would appear in the Pearl on the 16th November. Items prior to November 16 synced perfectly fine. Does anyone know why this happens? Pocketmac used to sync beautifully on my 8700g.

[hessles]

Hey mr_kitty and trustworthy, et al:

I have found that I can run the SD micro card in my BB Pearl and sync without the usb driver hogging everything IF I do the following:

Plug the phone into the usb port, let it mount in the finder. I got the insufficient power error. So I ejected the drive, turned off the phone, took out the battery, put it back in, powered it on, and plugged it back in. Then it charged fine and mounted. Then I booted up PocketMac Sync Manager (PM4) and did some sync-ing. Worked ok, with some errors that I'll discuss later. Then I quit PM4 and ejected the phone from the finder and unplugged it.

If I turn on PM4 then plug in the phone, and/or unplug the phone then quit PM4, the usb driver goes bananas, sapping all free processor capacity, and I have to hard reboot.

All that being said, I still have the following problems:

1) iCal events created on the BB will always sync to iCal with a funky alarm date in the long distant past, and have the floating time zone, no matter how I set this on the BB.

2) iCal events created on the mac then synced to the BB will arbitrarily also show up as tasks.

3) emails sent from the BB, when synced to Entourage, will not display the from address at all. This is bad because I have multiple email accounts on the BB an in Entourage.

I'm running a 1.5ghz 12"Powerbook G4 on OS 10.4.8, Entourage 12.2.1

Oh, and I still can't transfer files to or from the BB via Bluetooth.

Overall, I've spent about 24 hours working around all the syncing bugs, losing lots of Entourage data in the meantime. The phone is such a fantastic device, it's too bad this software is so crappy!

[Activator]

I've been wondering what the freakin' "pcscd" process is that's draining my Mac's processors... NOW I know!! Thanks mr-kitty!

My Mac was fine until I plugged the Pearl in and transfered some pictures from my media card, then the processor useage went crazy!

I tried to kill the process using the Activity Monitor, but it just locked up the Activity Monitor. I noticed that my external card reader is now VERY slow, as well.

The weird thing is that I didn't launch Pocket Mac 4 at all... just plugging in the Pearl in via USB did the deed.

Ugh. Now I gotta re-start...

NOTE that I CAN sync Addresses and iCal to/from the Pearl using PM4 with no issues. Using a POWERED USB hub seems to help.

[RPB3]

Woo Hoo. I'm stoked if it works like it should.