[Gpsbabel-misc] trouble downloading data from garmin etrex venture serial version

[John L. <lip...@gm...>]

I'm using sabayon linux x86_64 with gpsbabel 1.4.4.  My gps is an older garmin
etrex venture serial (not usb).  I have the serial data format set to
garmin in the gps settings.

I've tried with and without the garmin_gps kernel module.  With the
module, I get the following in dmesg:

[ 4093.157294] usbcore: registered new interface driver garmin_gps
[ 4093.157410] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for Garmin GPS
usb/tty
[ 4113.840127] usb 2-2: new full-speed USB device number 2 using
uhci_hcd
[ 4114.007069] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0557,
idProduct=2008
[ 4114.007078] usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2,
SerialNumber=0
[ 4114.007097] usb 2-2: Product: USB-Serial Controller D
[ 4114.007103] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc. 
[ 4114.009473] pl2303 2-2:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
[ 4114.021681] usb 2-2: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0

As you can see I am also using a serial to usb converter for which I
have built the driver into the kernel:
 
 $ zgrep 2303 /proc/config.gz
 CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303=y

[    1.769551] usbcore: registered new interface driver pl2303
[    1.771672] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for pl2303

I've read the info regarding troubles garmin gps's at:
http://www.gpsbabel.org/os/Linux_Hotplug.html

But after looking at that page again maybe that info is only relevant to
usb units.

The output I'm seeing with and without garmin_gps:

$ sudo gpsbabel -D9 -w -i garmin -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o gpx -F waypoints.wpt.gpx
Password: 
GPSBabel Version: 1.4.4 
Tx Data:10 fe 00 02 10 03 : ...(PRDREQ  )
[ERROR] GPS_Packet_Read: Timeout.  No data received.
GARMIN:Can't init /dev/ttyUSB0

I've also tried it as a normal user and that user is in the uucp group.

$ ls /dev/ttyUSB0 
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 188, 0 2014-07-08 10:37 /dev/ttyUSB0

It looks like I once had this working in a linux OS using gpsbabel in
June of 2011 (based on memory and a wiki entry), but what distro and
what version of gpsbabel I cannot recall.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

John