iPod support on Linux
For at least a year I have been saying “I will buy an iPod nano when they release an 8Gb version” and unfortunately they have just released one.
I was hoping for the ‘just work’ integration I have come to expect from Ubuntu, and sadly it doesn’t ‘just work’, lets take the apps I have tried one at a time:
- Rhythmbox - this is what dapper (and edgy) fire up when the iPod is installed, it detects the iPod but you can’t copy music to it, and in any case it doesn’t like most of my music.
- Banshee - This doesn’t find my iPod at all
- gtkpod - One look at that UI and it was off my computer
- gnupod - It claimed to copy music, but my iPod didn’t find it
- ipod - this is a little command line tool to test the libraries - it claims Not a Valid iPod!
- VMware + iTunes - When I run iTunes windows crashes
All in all not a very satifying experience. It looks like I’m going to have to either get used to that rubbish gtkpod UI (and hope it works) or re-install windows natively onto my laptop.
Are there any other programs I should try?
Update: Rhythmbox on edgy ‘just works’, so I’m happy now 
Update 2:VMware + iPod works fine through a USB 1.1 hub
September 14th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
May be you should jump over the fence and try amarok instead? I’ve heard it works quite well out of the box
September 14th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Amarok?
September 14th, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Rhythmbox in Edgy should be better, they recently enabled iPod support:
* debian/rules:
- use –enable-ipod-writing and –enable-track-transfer
September 14th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
It’s also possible that the newest ipods have changed the on-disk metadata format, yet again. The underlying libraries that the enumerated programs use will then need to be updated.
September 14th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Bruce,
Wonderful! It just sort of works in edgy, no idea why I didn’t try that before, thanks!September 14th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
seriously, what did you expect when buying that highly propritary device?
but not all is lost:http://www.rockbox.org/ next time you could inform yourself beforehand about possible alternatives:
http://www.trekstor.de/en/news/index_detail.php?id=85
September 14th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Well that’s what you get when you buy vendor-lockin-wares. It’s kinda sad to see, really, FOSS devs actively wallet-voting *for* DRM and platform lockage.
September 14th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Does Rockbox (http://www.rockbox.org/) run on the iPod ? Being able to see your iPod as a real HD would be the solution to your problem…
September 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I use Rhythmbox with ipod write support and it works great but i can’t remove anything from it.
And you forgot two more apps that have ipod write support: listen and exaile (amaroK’s clone)
September 15th, 2006 at 12:04 am
If your iPod doesn’t work on dapper, please check whether you’ve hit this bug: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/37163
September 15th, 2006 at 12:26 am
Banshee uses ipod-sharp for syncing with iPods, which had a release Tuesday (http://www.snorp.net/log/2006/09/12/itunes-7/) for iTunes 7.
Although, right now only the version of Banshee from CVS supports album art.September 15th, 2006 at 1:06 am
Crispin,
Did you do an upgrade from to Edgy, or a fresh install? Did it go smoothly?September 15th, 2006 at 1:16 am
Look at http://www.snorp.net/log/2006/09/14/why-i-hate-apple-still/ to see why banshee fails
September 15th, 2006 at 1:57 am
http://listengnome.free.fr/
i dont know if it works with your ipod.. you can try
September 15th, 2006 at 5:03 am
did vmware + ipod work out of the box?
I never got my ipod to be recognised inside vmware. what versions of stuff are you using?September 15th, 2006 at 5:47 am
gtkpod’s interface may be weird. But it just works. Install gtkpod-aac package and you can do all the media transfer you want.
And for Rhythmbox to like iPod music you need to install gstreamer plugins. So I am assuming that you were being sarcastic.September 15th, 2006 at 7:39 am
Have you tried quod libet with the iPod plugin?
quod libet, imho is the best app for managing hefty music collections. http://www.sacredchao.net/quodlibetSeptember 15th, 2006 at 9:22 am
What’s wrong with the gtkpod UI??? I never had any major issues with it…
It’s no iTunes perhaps, but from the screenshots I’ve seen it does look better than rhythmbox.September 15th, 2006 at 9:30 am
screenshots of gtkpod @ http://www.gtkpod.org/screenshots.html
September 15th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
With gnupod utils you need to run the mktunes.pl script like this after using gnupod_addsong.pl
{{{gnupod_addsong.pl -m /mnt/ipod track1.mp3 track2.mp3
mktunes.pl -m /mnt/ipod
}}} Then your ipod will see the tracks, its still a pile of poo though but it works on my ipod using the ipod plugin for freevo.
September 18th, 2006 at 5:46 am
fl0yd,
Lets see … Why all the tabs, I can’t at first glance work out what they are all for and how the 2 panes at the top relate to each other. Never did I say that rhythmbox (or even iTunes) was a great UI, but at least I vaguely understand them …. (oh and it crashes on edgy with my ipod, but I think that is related to the fact that libipoddevice doesn’t know about it (this is being worked on). Karl, Ahh, I missed the ‘mktunes.pl’ step, that was obvious …October 4th, 2006 at 4:01 am
Give retune a try. its a little python script with which you can use you ipod just like a normal mp3 player. just copy your files to the pod with nautilus and then run retune to copy them to the ipod-database. works perfectly for me.