garmin etrex H linux ubuntu data lead not working

I bought a Garmin Etrex H for geocaching. Geocaching is the equivalent of finding buried treasure mapreading, using GPS coordinates instead of a map and directions.

I have ubuntu linux on my main computer, the other computers in the house are laptops with no serial ports.

You can purchase leads from Garmin themselves or resellers, although they tend to be prohibitively expensive.

I purchased a pfranc lead from http://pfranc.com – a great idea and it saved a lot of money compared to a Garmin lead.

Connecting it to my computer was easy – it just plugs into the serial port.

Getting it to work was anything but easy, but I finally figured out the problem today after months of arguing with my computer, stripping down leads and many sleepless nights.

The problem: Garmin etrex talks to the serial port at 9600 baud.

I tried several times to get the etrex to talk using the terminal command
[code]sudo setserial /dev/ttyS0 baud_base 9600[/code]
But that gave me no joy whatsoever.

The solution, and the reason for this post:
For some reason even though the garmin wants to talk at 9600 baud the serial port needs to be set at 115200 baud using the following command:
[code]sudo setserial /dev/ttyS0 baud_base 115200[/code]

Why I need to set the UART to 115200 baud is beyond me. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I understand serial ports and have done for many years down to the hardware level.

So, to recap:
[code]sudo setserial /dev/ttyS0 baud_base 115200[/code]

I use qlandkarte GT under ubuntu for all my geocaching needs, it works great with my etrex and it is free and open source.

One day I will write a howto on here for that program as it is a very tidy bit of code when used to its full potential.