wine users - Feb 2009 - Need assistance connecting Garmin GPS via USB in Mapsource

I am new to Linux, Ubuntu, WIne etc but despite all that I am operating in
Ubuntu 8.10, with  MapSource 6.13.6  installed via Wine 1.0.1.   I know there is
an issue in getting MapSource to recognize the GPS while connected via USB but I
am unable to understand the steps provided to solve this issue.

I've been advised to enter "sudo modprobe garmin_gps" in terminal
and to check the results.  So I connect the GPS and get a
"/dev/ttyUSB0" file.  I've been advised it should be owned by root
and dialup group and to change the ownership to myself.  However I don't
know how to do this.  I was also told to go to ~/.wine/devices and make a soft
link called com1 to /dev/ttyUSB0.   Again I don't know if this creates the
soft link or if I have to do something else.  I've done a number of
iterations of the above but still am unable to get MapSource to recognize my GPS
device.

Any help walking me through the process would be greatly appreciated.

On Sun, 08 Feb 2009 09:33:31 -0600, steveor wrote:
> I am new to Linux, Ubuntu, WIne etc but despite all that I am operating
> in Ubuntu 8.10, with  MapSource 6.13.6  installed via Wine 1.0.1.   I
> know there is an issue in getting MapSource to recognize the GPS while
> connected via USB but I am unable to understand the steps provided to
> solve this issue.
	If you're getting this advice a/o these steps from some public 
place, please specify it; I'd like to go study it.
 
> I've been advised to enter "sudo modprobe garmin_gps" in
terminal and to
> check the results.  So I connect the GPS and get a "/dev/ttyUSB0"
file.
> I've been advised it should be owned by root and dialup group and to
> change the ownership to myself.  However I don't know how to do this. 
I
> was also told to go to ~/.wine/devices and make a soft link called com1
> to /dev/ttyUSB0.   Again I don't know if this creates the soft link or
> if I have to do something else.  I've done a number of iterations of
the
> above but still am unable to get MapSource to recognize my GPS device.
> 
> Any help walking me through the process would be greatly appreciated.
	Not to discourage you, but I've been trying for ten years to get 
my Garmin GPSs to talk to my Garmin software under Fedora (and RedHat 
before it was called Fedora) -- and still can't quite. 

	Don't get me wrong; wine has made great strides in that time; 
MapSource really does install, launch, and run -- three great triumphs. 

	But the fourth and greatest, getting the hard- and software to 
talk to one another, still awaits resolution, afaik.

	There are people who claim it can be done with other means than 
wine -- such as vmware, for instance, which I haven't yet gotten around 
to trying. 

	Btw, it seems that wine's handling of serial ports a/o com ports, 
still leaves much to be desired. May they're out of date to everyone but 
us, and especially to the avid players of games, who seem to be on this 
list in large numbers. You'll find pointers toward some of the ways I've
tried in the past, with lots of help, in the archives of the 
CrossoverOffice list.

	And whatever you do, if/when you actually make it all the way, 
please post widely, including here, how you did it. Good luck!

-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck Linux Convert
Remember I know precious little of what I am talking about.

The source of my information was a series of emails between myself and one of
the users in AppDB who stated he successfully got MapSource to run.   In the
course of our emails he wrote:

"At this point you have the MapSource and the maps. Do a "sudo
modprobe garmin_gps" without the quotes. That kernel module is still packed
with Ubuntu, but it does not start out of the box. Check the results - hook up
your unit, start it up and see if there is a /dev/ttyUSB0 file. It should be
owned by root and dialup group. Change the ownership to yourself (or Garmin
would hang). Go to ~/.wine/devices and make a soft link called com1 to
/dev/ttyUSB0. This whole paragraph can be done anytime before starting the
interaction between the GPS unit and MapSource (even with MapSource running).
 
Run MapSource, and send some info to the unit than check if it was
installed."

I emailed him for more assistance on this matter but received no response. 
Perhaps he tired of my helplessness or my pestering.