« Earlier Projects | Electric Magic Portfolio | Newer Projects »

March 2009

ZooLib BBDaemon

The ZooLib BBDaemon lets multiple Mac applications talk to USB-connected BlackBerrys concurrently. Obviously this is something that Research in Motion could make possible, but as they haven't we're posting a pre-built installer that takes the pain out of getting things working.

If you're using Missing Sync for BlackBerry 2.0.1 and iMobimac Modem then this is what you need.

BBDaemon runs as a user-space process, not a kernel extension. The installer simply puts the executable in /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools and a launchd control file in /Library/LaunchDaemons.

RIM's own Mac applications (PocketMac for BlackBerry and BlackBerry Media Sync) take a different approach. They each install a kernel extension which grabs any USB-connected BlackBerry, and prevent any other application (including each other) from being able to talk to it.

The installer we've posted was built with revision 533 of ZooLib. You can check out the source and build it yourself:

svn export -r 533 https://zoolib.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/zoolib/trunk/zoolib

svn export -r 533 https://zoolib.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/zoolib/trunk/zoolib_samples

cd zoolib_samples/BlackBerry/BBDaemon/osxpackage

sh build.sh

The executable and launchd file must be owned by root/wheel, so the build.sh script uses sudo to change the ownership – thus you must be logged in with an administrator account and you may be prompted to enter your password.

March 2009 Projects

Project Archives