I run Fedora Core 2 with the 2.6.6-1.435.2.3 kernel downloaded via yum. I recently purchased an ipod mini and started trying to get it connected to my linux machine. The problem is that when i try to mount it, it fails
mount: /dev/sda2: can't read superblock

while diagnosing - i also noticed that i cannot even look at the partition tables via fdisk
Unable to read /dev/sda

further, I noticed in the log file that when you first plug in the ipod, messages lists a bunch of IO errors
scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jul 12 18:56:15 sirius kernel: Vendor: Apple Model: iPod Rev: 1.61
Jul 12 18:56:15 sirius kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jul 12 18:56:16 sirius kernel: SCSI device sda: 7999488 512-byte hdwr sectors (4096 MB)
Jul 12 18:56:16 sirius kernel: sda: assuming Write Enabled
Jul 12 18:56:16 sirius kernel: sda: assuming drive cache: write through
Jul 12 18:56:17 sirius kernel: sda:end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 7999480
Jul 12 18:56:17 sirius kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 999935
Jul 12 18:56:17 sirius kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 7999480
Jul 12 18:56:17 sirius kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 999935
Jul 12 18:56:17 sirius kernel: sda1 sda2
Jul 12 18:56:17 sirius kernel: Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jul 12 18:56:17 sirius kernel: Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0, type 0
Jul 12 18:56:17 sirius scsi.agent[5609]: disk at /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.2/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/host1/1:0:0:0Jul 12 18:56:38 sirius kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0

Any ideas on what to try next would be greatly appreciated

maan, you forgot to modprobe it first (remember, to linux an ipod is just a firewire -or usb- harddrive so you need to mount it like them).

Please check out gnupod's docs http://www.gnu.org/software/gnupod/

By the way you need some software like gnupod or gtkpod in order to upload the songs, if you don't use them you won't be able to play the new mp3s on your ipod (the ipod has a database with the mp3s it can use, check gnupod page for details)

Good luck


P.s: Well i hope you kept reading here is the website that really applies to you
http://www.freedos.org/jhall/ipod/
there is a howto based on fedora.

I've tried many of these things, but they're firewire focused. As I lack a firewire port in my laptop, that's severly limiting.

I have setup the ipod mini under windows.
When I hook the ipod up, I get:
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.2-2, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x5ac/0x1202) is not claimed by any active driver.
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: Apple Model: iPod Rev: 1.60
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
USB Mass Storage support registered.
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 7999488 512-byte hdwr sectors (4096 MB)
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 3, frame# 1345
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 7999480
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 7999480
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
unable to read partition table
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 2, frame# 1849
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0

but fdisk shows:
# fdisk /dev/sda

Unable to read /dev/sda

I would modprobe it like the previous poster suggested, but that seems to be focused on if you use the firewire side of things.

I'm running the 2.4.21-226-default kernel on Suse 9
Anyone with any suggestions? I'd hate to have to move my MP3's over to windows.

it sounds to me that you are trying to directly mount the ipod, as if it was formated in a linux (ext3) disk format, i haven't tried on linux with usb, but in freebsd you have to mount the ipod as if it was a windows 95 partition (fat 32 format), the command in bsd is mount_msdosfs /dev/da0 (or something similar)
good luck.

I thought that in the begining.
However, fdisk should still show the hard drive there.
fdisk doesn't even register a hard drive

I am actually having the same issue with a new out of the box 4g ipod. I went through all the steps from the docs on GNUpods but am getting a 'can't read superblocks' error. Are the ipods out of the box formatted to anything in particular? I heard something about having to initialize it but I don't know anything about ipods

cheers

Well, From what I've read (and please dont take my word for it - mine still does not work) they come default formatted for a Mac from the factory.
What I saw recomended was to hook it up to a windows box, and do the initial setup.

Hmm, I changed my fstab file from:

to

And it complains about being the wrong FS type. So I changed it back and now it's only giving me the 'can't read superblocks' error.

My dmesg doesn't really have anything too useful either:

I figured I'd pass along all the data I've got. In case anyone else see's something I missed.
For what it's worth, Suseplugger (the hot plug agent in suse) detects the iPod as a hard drive, but when you go to configure it, /dev/sda (where it says it should be) is not to be found.

Kernel:Suse 2.4.21-226-default
lsmod | grep usb
usb-storage 65312 0
usbserial 19580 0 (autoclean) (unused)
usb-uhci 22224 0 (unused)
usbcore 58668 1 [usb-storage usbserial hid usb-uhci]
scsi_mod 97524 6 [sbp2 sd_mod usb-storage st sr_mod sg ide-scsi]

Dmesg Output:
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.2-2, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x5ac/0x1202) is not claimed by any active driver.
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: Apple Model: iPod Rev: 1.60
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
USB Mass Storage support registered.
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 7999488 512-byte hdwr sectors (4096 MB)
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 3, frame# 750
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 7999480
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 7999480
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
unable to read partition table
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 2, frame# 220
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
sbp2: $Rev: 1018 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
scsi singledevice 0 0 1 0
scsi singledevice 0 0 2 0
scsi singledevice 0 0 3 0
scsi singledevice 0 0 4 0
scsi singledevice 0 0 5 0
scsi singledevice 0 0 6 0
scsi singledevice 0 0 7 0
scsi singledevice 1 0 1 0
scsi singledevice 1 0 2 0
scsi singledevice 1 0 3 0
scsi singledevice 1 0 4 0
scsi singledevice 1 0 5 0
scsi singledevice 1 0 6 0
scsi singledevice 1 0 7 0
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:1d.2-2 address 2
sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
sda : status = 1, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 08
Info fld=0xa00 (nonstd), Current sd00:00: sense key Not Ready
sda : block size assumed to be 512 bytes, disk size 1GB.
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 2097144
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 2097144
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
unable to read partition table
Device not ready. Make sure there is a disc in the drive.
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Device not ready. Make sure there is a disc in the drive.

Additional stuff:
#insmod sbp2
Using /lib/modules/2.4.21-226-default/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/sbp2.o
*this is where I think the issue is. This is the module for an iPod, but it's firewire dependant*

Additional info:
# sh ./rescan-scsi-bus.sh
Host adapter 0 (ide-scsi) found.
Host adapter 1 (usb-storage-0) found.
Scanning hosts 0 1 channels 0 for
SCSI target IDs 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 , LUNs 0
Scanning for device 0 0 0 0 ...
OLD: Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: HL-DT-ST Model: RW/DVD GCC-4240N Rev: E112
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Scanning for device 1 0 0 0 ...
OLD: Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: Apple Model: iPod Rev: 1.60
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
0 new device(s) found.
0 device(s) removed.

# fdisk /dev/sda

Unable to read /dev/sda

I too am having the same problem with mounting my iPod mini in Mandrake 10.1

here is messages log:

Mar 1 13:18:07 dhcppc2 kernel: usb 5-2: new high speed USB device using address 5
Mar 1 13:18:07 dhcppc2 kernel: scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Mar 1 13:18:07 dhcppc2 kernel: Vendor: Apple Model: iPod Rev: 1.62
Mar 1 13:18:07 dhcppc2 kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: sdc: Spinning up disk.....ready
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: SCSI device sdc: 7999488 512-byte hdwr sectors (4096 MB)
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: sdc: Write Protect is off
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: /dev/scsi/host3/bus0/target0/lun0:end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 7999480
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc, logical block 999935
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 7999480
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc, logical block 999935
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: p1 p2
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 kernel: Attached scsi removable disk sdc at scsi3, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Mar 1 13:18:10 dhcppc2 scsi.agent[5682]: disk at /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb5/5-2/5-2:1.0/host3/3:0:0:0
Mar 1 13:18:11 dhcppc2 perl: drakupdate_fstab called with --auto --add /dev/sdc1
Mar 1 13:18:11 dhcppc2 perl: drakupdate_fstab called with --auto --add /dev/sdc2

here is lsmod:

Module Size Used by
isofs 33180 1
binfmt_misc 9992 1
md5 4576 1
ipv6 249412 10
nls_iso8859-1 4672 2
rfcomm 34456 0
l2cap 22368 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 42436 4 rfcomm,l2cap
snd-seq-oss 33728 0
snd-seq-midi-event 7328 1 snd-seq-oss
snd-seq 52560 4 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event
snd-pcm-oss 51080 0
snd-mixer-oss 18592 2 snd-pcm-oss
snd-intel8x0 31660 2
snd-ac97-codec 70736 1 snd-intel8x0
snd-pcm 86948 2 snd-pcm-oss,snd-intel8x0
snd-timer 22724 2 snd-seq,snd-pcm
snd-page-alloc 8392 2 snd-intel8x0,snd-pcm
gameport 4416 1 snd-intel8x0
snd-mpu401-uart 7168 1 snd-intel8x0
snd-rawmidi 21188 1 snd-mpu401-uart
snd-seq-device 7336 3 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-rawmidi
snd 49028 13 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-pcm-oss,snd-mixer-oss,snd-intel8x0,snd-ac97-codec,snd-pcm,snd-timer,snd-mpu401-uart,snd-rawmidi,snd-seq-device
soundcore 8288 2 snd
8139too 22816 0
mii 5216 1 8139too
af_packet 17864 2
floppy 57168 0
eth1394 18792 0
tsdev 6848 0
joydev 9056 0
evdev 8672 0
usbmouse 5216 0
ide-cd 38528 1
cdrom 38844 1 ide-cd
ohci1394 32676 0
ieee1394 294872 2 eth1394,ohci1394
loop 13896 0
ntfs 149980 0
supermount 36528 1
usbhid 43328 0
nvidia 3465116 12
intel-agp 20608 1
agpgart 29036 2 intel-agp
usb-storage 67040 0
sd_mod 20320 0
ata_piix 7652 0
libata 39556 1 ata_piix
scsi_mod 107428 4 usb-storage,sd_mod,libata
ehci-hcd 27972 0
uhci-hcd 30448 0
usbcore 107396 7 usbmouse,usbhid,usb-storage,ehci-hcd,uhci-hcd
ext3 123496 2
jbd 56600 1 ext3


and when I try to look at partitions I also get that error:

[root@dhcppc2 rca36]# fdisk /dev/sdc

Unable to read /dev/sdc

anyone have any ideas?

edit: This iPod was formatted in Windows XP and works fine there.

Think I may have found a solution in another thread here:http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=272392

Seems you need to rebuild the kernel without EFI support. I am in the process of rebuilding now so we shal see...