To get the Garmin forerunner working under linux (Ubuntu 8.04 in particular) take care of the following:

There are two different drivers to access it:

• A native usb driver, for tools like gpsbabel specify usb: as device
• A serial-to-usb convertor driver, supported by a kernel module called garmin_gps. Note that this module is blacklisted by default in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist (See bug #114565)

To make sure your GPS program can access the usb port of the garmin without being (or acting as) root, install the following udev-rule:

Create /etc/udev/rules.d/45-garmin.rules file:
SUBSYSTEM!="usb", GOTO="garmin_rules_end"
ACTION!="add", GOTO="garmin_rules_end"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="091e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0003", MODE="0660", GROUP="plugdev"
LABEL="garmin_rules_end"

The following program support some GPS functionality:

• viking (managed to import directly from Garmin, but was unable to import google map data as well)
• qlandkarte: Did not manage to import from Garmin
• pytrainer: Looks promising, but seems I'm using a version (1.5.0.0.1)where some functions are missing like importing from file or from garmin.
• gpsbabel: Command-line tool that was able to import and show the Garmin XML format.
• www.bikexperience.de : Not yet tested, screenshots look okay.