Nokia N900

[Tyson Sawyer]

On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 11:04 PM, Benjamin Scott <dragonhawk at gmail.com> wrote:
>  Unrelated to the "My GPS is faster than your GPS" discussion, but
> relevant to the "Linux friendliness" question:
>
>  It has an apparently standard USB mini B port on the back, which
> serves for both power input (to charge the battery) and PC attachment
> (for software/data updates).  One of the first things I did was (of
> course) plug it into my Linux home PC (Debian 5.0.4, kernel 2.6.26-2).
>  The GPS display showed the Garmin logo and a picture of itself
> plugged into a computer, but Linux was indifferent.  Looking at the
> kernel log, it appeared the GPS wasn't playing nice.  I either saw
> nothing at all, or just "over-current change on port".  I noticed that
> if I plugged it into the USB hub built-in to my Dell LCD, the hub
> would apparently reset, as the kernel would re-detect my mouse and
> flash card reader.

Reading your entire message, it seems possible that Window's didn't
work without a driver update and neither were able to work until it
had been plugged in for a while and recharged.  It may be that it
draws too much power when the batteries are low?  Removing the
batteries so that it wasn't charging, just powering the electronics,
might have made it work right off under Linux.

>  Updating the firmware purportedly requires installing some
> proprietary software from Garmin.

The instructions at this address _might_ work for your Garmin.
However, they are specific to the Colorado:

http://garmincolorado.wikispaces.com/Versions#Colorado Software
Versions-Updates using gcd files

There are links there for some other Garmin GPS's and a lot of
information that is likely useful for more than just the Colorado.

Cheers!
Ty


-- 
Tyson D Sawyer

A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent
of many bad measures.   - Daniel Webster