How to update a Garmin Nuvi GPS on Linux

[General Schvantzkoph]

Garmin doesn't support Linux which makes it difficult to do the map
updates if you are a Linux user. However there is a way to do it if you
have a Windows VM. I use Fedora 14 and I have a KVM XP VM, here is the
procedure to do the update using the VM.

1) Plug the Garmin into a USB slot, it will mount as a USB disk in Fedora.
2) Do an lsusb to find the USB port number, for example
lsusb
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 002: ID 03f0:171d Hewlett-Packard Wireless (Bluetooth +
WLAN) Interface [Integrated Module]
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 005: ID 091e:23cc Garmin International

3) In the KVM device manager attach the Garmin device by doing an Add
Hardware/Physical Host Device/USB port (where use select the port you
found with lsusb). KVM displays the port without identifying it as the
Garmin device which is why the lsusb is necessary.

4) Boot the XP VM

5) In the XP Device Manager scan for new devices, the Garmin will appear
as a disk drive

6) Goto my.garmin.com and do the registration and installation just as a
Windows user would.

7) The first thing it will do is update the software on the Nuvi and ask
you to disconnect the device so that it can complete the installation.

8) After the device has updated itself reattach it to the system.

9) You will have to reboot the VM because it forgets devices that have
been removed.

10) After the reboot, run GarminMapUpdater_v2.6.6 again and do the map
update.

11) On my system the map download took about 15 minutes (I have FIOS) and
the map update took 7 hours.

I tried to do this under WINE but I couldn't figure out how to make that
work. The Garmin device did appear as D: under WINE but the Firefox Garmin
plugin didn't find it. If anyone has figured out how to do this with WINE,
please post it here.

[David Brown]

I too have a Garmin device, and have to use a virtual machine to update
it. I use VirtualBox rather than KVM, which makes working with USB
devices a little easier, but otherwise my procedure was the same.

[JTF]

I do the same. HOWEVER, I don't know if this has changed, but the Open Source Edition (VirtualBox OSE) did not have USB feature. I know they have been changing the versions around lately....

You would need to get the newest from Sun.

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads

[David W. Hodgins]

On Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:03:33 -0400, JTF <jfl...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I do the same. HOWEVER, I don't know if this has changed, but the Open Source Edition (VirtualBox
> OSE) did not have USB feature. I know they have been changing the versions around lately....

It has changed. Now, after installing VirtualBox (OSE is now the same as
the download from VirtualBox), you then install the extpack, which adds
the usb feature.

> You would need to get the newest from Sun.
> http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads

Start at http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads instead, so you can
download the "VirtualBox 4.0.4 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack",
and then the appropriate os version.

The extpack can be installed using vboxmanage, or from File/Preferences/
Extenstions within the vb gui, with root password required.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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[David Brown]

On 11/04/2011 21:41, David W. Hodgins wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:03:33 -0400, JTF <jfl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I do the same. HOWEVER, I don't know if this has changed, but the Open
>> Source Edition (VirtualBox
>> OSE) did not have USB feature. I know they have been changing the
>> versions around lately....
>
> It has changed. Now, after installing VirtualBox (OSE is now the same as
> the download from VirtualBox), you then install the extpack, which adds
> the usb feature.
>

Although note that the extension pack itself is not open source - it is
free as in beer, but not as in speech. Still, unless you are
particularly fussy, then it's a good solution.

It is certainly nice to see the separation here. It means that if you
are interested in the development of VirtualBox, you can now track the
source code and build it yourself, and still use the USB extension pack
if you want. Oracle has had a bit of bad press since they bought Sun,
but VirtualBox is definitely a project where they have worked to the
best of the community.

(This is all due to the history of the code for USB in VirtualBox - it
contains third-party license code, and as Sun and then Oracle did not
own the whole code, they were unable to release it as open source.)