I finally was able to get my system to view the ipod after recompiling the kernel. Now my problem is I cannot get write access to it. The disk mode was enabled through Windows and I have tried accessing it as root. Still no luck. What coudl be the problem? Another question is the ipod itself displays 'Do Not Disconnect' continually. Is that normal or is there something else I"m doing wrong? The pod is Generation 4 40 GB running the version 3.0.2 and I am running Fedora Core 3 with Kernel 2.6.10. I am connecting hte pod USB style.

I've not had any problems mounting either of my ipods (mini and 4G). they are both FAT formated as yours are, and connected via USB.

How specifically are you mounting it? On my system, I have a simple fstab entry for the ipod that looks like this:
then mount by simply mount /mnt/ipod (the users entry in the fstab allows non-root users to do this).

The "Do not disconnect" will display on mine like you said. This you need not worry about, just be sure that you always umount and wait for all write processes to finish before unplugging the USB cable. I also read somewhere that if you umount the ipod, then do a modprobe -r usb-storage then the ipod will change over to "OK to Disconnect" This I have not bothered to try. They important thing to remember is to always properly un-mount before disconnecting.

Hope that helps.

after the umount do an eject on the device and you should be rid of the pesky "do not disconnect" signal
assuming you have an fstab entry.

Thank you both for everything, these things worked like a charm. Now that I can use the ipod under linux there is almost no more reason for me to even have Windows installed. GTKPod is working grand now too. =]

congrats
Music to my ears.

Great tip on the eject command, |2ainman.
I didn't realize that works with USB devices.

I guess you really can learn something new everyday.