Very short because my fully typed blog entry just did a
"session expired: on me :-(

 

See following entry on the technical issues, ubuntu bug #114565:

Make following entry to give permissions to user in Ubuntu Hardy:

  /etc/udev/rules.d/45-garmin.rules

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"

There are two kind of interfaces:

• Native USB interface (mostly supported, specify usb: for instance for gpsbabel)
• Serial interface using kernel's garmin_gps module

Note that Ubuntu has the latter one blacklisted as it disables the first one.

There is also a discussion going on over the Forerunner on Ubuntu Forum

 

Following linux tools:

• Viking (works directly with usb-babel but cannot import google maps as it should) 
• qlandkarte
• gpsbabel (command-line), outputs garmin XML format
• pytrainer (looks promising but version 1.5.0.0.1 looks like it's missing some essential garmin importing and file importing options)

Update: pytrainer seems to work OK, just use the version from Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon in my Hardy Ubuntu. If you get the error "Cant open garmin device" Make sure to make the following modification to get the Garmin working with Heart rate monitor (the one without works): (following is a patch file, you can also manually change the line with the '-' into the one with the '+'.

 # diff -u /usr/share/pytrainer/plugins/garmin-hr/main.py.orig /usr/share/pytrainer/plugins/garmin-hr/main.py--- /usr/share/pytrainer/plugins/garmin-hr/main.py.orig    2009-01-01 15:03:34.000000000 +0100+++ /usr/share/pytrainer/plugins/garmin-hr/main.py    2009-01-01 15:08:05.000000000 +0100
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 tmpgpx = "/tmp/reg.gpx"
 dummy = 0
 
-if not os.path.exists(options.device):
+if (not os.path.exists(options.device) and not options.device == "usb:"):
     f = os.popen("zenity --error --text='Cant open garmin device. Check your configuration or connect the device correctly.'");
 
 else :

One thing I'm still looking at is importing all my track at once.