I have a problem trying to import data from a Garmin Forerunner 305 USB device. dmesg shows the following:

usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 3
usbcore: registered new driver usbserial
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for Generic
usbcore: registered new driver usbserial_generic
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial Driver core v2.0
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for Garmin GPS usb/tty
garmin_gps 1-2:1.0: Garmin GPS usb/tty converter detected
usb 1-2: Garmin GPS usb/tty converter now attached to ttyUSB0
usbcore: registered new driver garmin_gps
drivers/usb/serial/garmin_gps.c: garmin gps driver v0.23

However, if I try to do a cat /dev/ttyUSB0 it just hangs and the cursor doesn't return. Google Earth is also supposed to be able to import the data, but it hangs also.

Any ideas?

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

this is just a guess, but, wouldn't you need to initiate something on the actual device for data to be transferred?

Not that I know of. I gave the device to my buddy who imported the data into Windows. He didn't have to initiate anything from the watch. The only solution may be for me to install Windows for a dual boot. That would be a sad state of affairs.

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I've recently got a Garmin GPS with a USB connection and had exactly the same problem with /dev/ttyUSB0. After much searching and puzzling I found the only way to fix it was to blacklist the garmin_gps module.

This module seems to be broken and unsupported, is there a good reason to keep it in Mandriva or should it be removed by default?

I was finally able to get the data off my Garmin Forerunner 305. I don't know anything about blacklisting. Which device do you have? I Googled around and found some scripts that I was able to modify.

Don't know anything about scripts.
I've got a Garmin etrex vista hcx, connected via USB. When I plug it in and switch on, the garmin_gps module is automatically loaded and I get a device on /dev/ttyUSB0. However when I try to use either garble or gpsbabel to extract data from it, it intermittently hangs. Waypoints are usually ok but when the track has more than a few tens of points in it then it will probably take a few goes to download it.

If I rmmod garmin_gps then I can use the usb: device in gpsbabel and everything works fine, every time. If I blacklist garmin_gps then it doesn't get loaded and it all works. There's a whole page about how to blacklist garmin_gps on gpsbabel's site: http://www.gpsbabel.org/os/Linux_Hotplug.html