Gnokii beginner deeply discouraged

[Cameron Laird]

I'm getting (nearly) nowhere.

I'm trying to access a 6610 from a WinXP host.  I have both a DKU-5
and "Prolific USB-to_Serial Comm Port".  I've loaded drivers for both,
and they seem to want to be COM8: and COM4:, respectively.  When I
"gnokii --identify" with the former, I see ten "IO Pending" lines,
concluded by "Couldn't open FBUS device: No error ..."; with the
latter, it's just
  Couldn't open FBUS device: No error
  Couldn't open FBUS device: No error
  Telephone interface init failed: Command failed.
  Quitting.
I'm running out of constructive ideas.  Other gnokii users seem to
have the habit of reporting logfile contents, of the
  phone instance config:
  model: 6100
  port_device: COM6
  connection_type: 0
  init_length: 0
  serial_baudrate: 19200
    ...
sort.  I would happily do this, but I haven't been able to find a logfile
with such contents, nor does assigning {logfile = "\mylog"} in the
_gnokiirc seem to have any effect.  I am using
  model = 6610
  connection = serial
and essentially all other defaults.

I'm open to suggestions.  Will 0.6.7 solve problems of 0.6.3 (I didn't
notice anything pertinent in the release notes, but it's likely I missed
a lot there)?  Should I try a Bluetooth connection instead?  Is there a
good way I can verify I'm actually holding a 6610?  Are MacOS or Linux
hosts likely to give me significantly easier results than WinXP?  Is
there someone who'd take a modest bounty to help me through my confusion?
Should I use gammu instead?  Should I give up on intelligent use of 
libraries and try instead to sniff packets on the USB port?