Our goal is to get the GNOME VFS URI “synce:///” to work. Nothing more, nothing less. Luckily for us, VFS is deprecated in Nautilus (read: it doesn’t work), so we’ll use another completely out-of-the-blue application called GPE File Manager to browse via VFS.

General notes:

• This works with Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid). I have no idea whether this works in any other release.
• Turn off the “password lock” feature in Windows Mobile; it causes problems.
• Make sure “Enable advanced network functionality” is enabled on your Windows Mobile device (under ActiveSync settings).
• Some of the packages listed below are probably unnecessary for browsing files. You can use them for syncing the device.
• Don’t confuse GNOME VFS with the Kernel’s VFS. Two different beasts.
• This post assumes you know how to install packages and run commands. No hand holding.
• You will need to have “Universe” enabled in package sources.

Install the following packages:

• multisync
• multisync-tools
• odccm
• opensync-plugin-file
• opensync-plugin-synce
• synce-gnomevfs
• synce-hal
• synce-multisync-plugin
• synce-sync-engine
• synce-trayicon
• gpe-filemanager

Run (in this order):

• synce-sync-engine
• synce-trayicon

Connect the Windows Mobile device to the computer. Ensure that the SynCE Tray Icon…err…icon indicates connectivity.

Open the GPE File Manager (“gpe-filemanager”) and browse to “synce:///”. You should see the files on your device.

Very nice!