Dave Mills wrote: [...]
I'm using the paranoid serial cable from the wiki: http://wiki.earth.li/Serial_cable_for_the_paranoid
Ah --- I see the problem!
The E2 and the E3 need *different* serial cables! The E2 uses TTL, while the E3 uses *inverted* TTL (0V for logic 1 and 5V for logic 0).
(In fact, strictly you should use a MAX232-ish circuit for the E3 as well; it emits 0V for logic 1, which isn't <-3V as the RS232 spec decrees, but most PC serial ports seem to cope anyway. I just plug mine straight in with no circuitry, using a cable for an old Canon digital camera --- sorry, can't find it to get the exact pinout; the cable, with a 9-pin serial plug on one end and a stereo jack on the other, would have had exactly the right pinout had I not chopped it up to look at the wiring.)
I'll give pblq2 a try again to see if that talks to the E2, with my setup. It didn't compile with gcc4 when I tried, then I saw your update was out and didn't try again with pblq2.
If you're playing with an E3 you're probably better off with pbltool. It does pretty much the same job, but is known to work on an E3, and is all nicely streamlined into the Linux distro.