TomTom ONE & Linux

[^rooker]

Just recently, someone bought a TomTom ONE (3rd edition) and was hoping to use it with Linux (since the TomTom itself runs Linux). He was wrong.

This post will contain my experiences with it and if we finally (hopefully) were able to use it properly (update maps, etc...)


1) Downloading TomTom HOME on Linux
Option (a) - The installer-downloader (BAD)

If you have a TomTom navi, just connect it to your computer (USB) and you will see it show up as mass storage device. There's a crappy installer-download-exe with a few kB. Fortunately it runs with WINE - unfortunately, it always downloads the latest TomTom HOME version. arrrrgh!

Version 1 seems to have worked using WINE, but version 2 does not detect the device - and you cannot do anything without the application "believing" there's a device detected. I hate that.

Execute the installer-download-exe on the navi itself. This has some drawbacks: Since the installation using WINE requires downgrading/upgrading WINE and stuff like that, you will end up installing TomTom HOME 2 more than once. So you would have to wait for the ~23 MB to download *every time* (That's why I don't like these youtube-like-installer-downloaders)


Option (b) - ZIPs of version 1 and/or 2 (GOOD)

Go to the TomTom support homepage. Now here comes a nice thing:
- If you're running Windows, you see a download option.
- If you're *not* running Windows (e.g. Linux), the download option is hidden from you completely.
(I've figured that out on a slower computer, because I saw it disappear...)

So: Open the page in your favorite browser, take a look at the source code and you should find URLs to TomTom HOME v1, v2 - and even optional .exe or .zip!

Here are the 2 zip links from today:
TomTom HOME v2
TomTom HOME v1