Mobile devices running Windows Mobile Operating Systems sync to Windows desktops using a proprietary software called ActiveSync. Obviously, this software is not available for Linux based operating systems and therefore Linux desktop users cannot sync their Windows Mobile devices with their desktops. However, there are software tools available to Linux users to achieve synchronization with their Windows Mobile devices. One such tool is SynCE.
About SynCE
SynCE is group of software tools which provide a means of communication and synchronization with a Windows Mobile device from a computer running Linux, *BSD or other unix-based systems using USB and Bluetooth. For more information about SynCE, visit the project homepage.
Although the information provided in this article can be modified to other linux-based operating systems and Windows Mobile devices quite easily, the following list of tool used is listed for reference and completeness.
Windows Mobile Device: Dell Axim X3i, Intel XScale 400MHz Processor with 64MB RAM.
Windows Mobile OS Version: Windows Mobile 2003 SE.
Desktop OS: Fedora 11 (64-bit), GNOME 2.26
SynCE Version: libsynce-0.14.1, synce-gnome-0.11-3
Installing SynCE
For other operating systems visit the installation instructions on SynCE website.
Install the necessary packages using
yum install libsynce synce-hal synce-gnome synce-sync-engine synce-trayicon synce-software-manager librapi
Any necessary dependecies should be automatically installed by yum.
Firewall Configuration for SynCE
Port 990 and Port 5679 are required to be unblocked for normal operation of SynCE. This can most easily accomplished by adding these two ports for tcp protocol in the Other Ports menu of System->Administration->Firewall configuration tool.
Using SynCE
After connecting the device to the computer, start the tray icon from Applications->System Tools->synce-trayicon.
Since Nautilus no longer uses gnomevfs (uses gvfs instead), Explore with Filemanager does not work at the time of writing. However, the command line tool pls works from the command line.
Add/Remove software can done from the Applications tab in the View device status window of the tray icon. Software manager can also be started from Applications->System Tools->synce-software-manager.
The Windows Mobile device is now ready to be used with a Linux desktop.