August 30, 2025

Garmin 66i, USB, and Linux - 2025

It has been about a year since I last did this. I now have my new 66i unit and want to do this to complete checking it out.

I begin with the 66i powered off, connect a USB cable and plug it into my linux machine. After a few seconds, the 66i lights up and after showing a first screen, settle down to just showing the USB symbol on the screen.

It took a few minutes to type this, and now I look and see a "GARMIN" icon on my screen. I click on the icon so linux will mount the device. Linux shows me a "Thunar" graphical display of files that I don't care about.

I do this: 

cd /Projects/Garmin/Files
make pull
cp -var /run/media/tom/GARMIN/Garmin/Activities .
'/run/media/tom/GARMIN/Garmin/Activities/2025-08-20 11.55.54.fit' -> './Activities/2025-08-20 11.55.54.fit'
'/run/media/tom/GARMIN/Garmin/Activities/2025-08-26 19.10.44.fit' -> './Activities/2025-08-26 19.10.44.fit'
'/run/media/tom/GARMIN/Garmin/Activities/2025-08-27 13.24.46.fit' -> './Activities/2025-08-27 13.24.46.fit'
cp -var /run/media/tom/GARMIN/Garmin/GPX .
'/run/media/tom/GARMIN/Garmin/GPX/Current/Current.gpx' -> './GPX/Current/Current.gpx'
That seems to have worked and was easy and predictable. Most certainly the new 66i unit is working fine.
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's backpacking pages / tom@mmto.org