Linux and...well the iPod Nano?

tribalmasters · 09-16-2005, 12:30 PM

Hello there! I don't know if this has been asked before ya know, rush rush!

Anyway, I have Ubuntu Linux installed on my computer which is equipped with the necessary USB2 port to use Apple's new iPod Nano. I also happen to be very interested in that tiny white gem! Is it possible to use my Linux box to load the iPod with music or will I be needing iTunes?

I am looking forward to listening to the Linux questions podcast on my shiny new toy!

daihard · 09-17-2005, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tribalmasters
Hello there! I don't know if this has been asked before ya know, rush rush!

Anyway, I have Ubuntu Linux installed on my computer which is equipped with the necessary USB2 port to use Apple's new iPod Nano. I also happen to be very interested in that tiny white gem! Is it possible to use my Linux box to load the iPod with music or will I be needing iTunes?

I am looking forward to listening to the Linux questions podcast on my shiny new toy!

I don't see any problem using an iPod nano with Linux. I use gtkpod to transfer music between my Linux box and my iPod mini via USB 2.0, and I don't see how it's different with the iPod nano.

tribalmasters · 09-17-2005, 05:51 PM

I see there is an option for iPod in Music Player would that work? I tried apt-getting gtkpod but it threw up security error or something!!

heema · 09-18-2005, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tribalmasters
I see there is an option for iPod in Music Player would that work?

amarok supports ipod

Zaventh · 09-18-2005, 04:10 PM

Last I heard... amarok didn't support the ipod nano. Anyone confirm using the nano on linux works though? I'm about to buy one if it does...

aysiu · 09-18-2005, 04:19 PM

In my experience, AmaroK and Rhythmbox support iPods. Also, there's GtkPod.
But most Linux distributions don't have an easy way to unmount iPods properly. If you just "unmount" the iPod, it will still say "Do not Disconnect" on the screen. You have to actually "eject" the device to get it to unmount properly.

tribalmasters · 09-19-2005, 09:55 AM

Well I got Amarok! I decided not to go for the NANO and get the colour iPod with more space instead! I'll pick it up at the airport duty free in a week and a half and let you know how I get on! Hope I can eject it tho!

--EDIT--

Got GTKPod now too!

McCloud · 09-19-2005, 10:08 AM

I eject my iPod by manually unloading the module used to access the iPod. I think it is the sbp2 module or something like that. If you unload that module using rmmod, you will get the "It's now save to disconnect" message in the iPod window.

I had written a cool script to load and mount the iPod and unmount and unload it. My disk crashed however and the script is gone forever. It isn't really difficult to code, maybe I'll do it again sometime.

Have fun with the iPod

tribalmasters · 09-20-2005, 02:43 AM

Thanks for the reply! So I type rmmod sbp2 at the terminal? I'll note that down!

Zaventh · 09-20-2005, 09:42 AM

If you have the >=2.6.12 kernel I'm pretty sure it supports ipods much better. I got my ipod nano yesterday and all I do is plug it in and mount it. To remove it, I just type

Code:

eject /dev/sda2

And that's all. And btw, it works well with gtkpod but amarok crashes when syncing.

macewan · 09-23-2005, 11:55 PM

I use gtkpod with my ipod mini (Ubuntu Hoary is the distro)

http://www.gtkpod.org/about.html
The new iPod nano is supported as well, but you need to call 'File->Create iPod's Directories' once before syncing. This restriction is lifted in the latest CVS version.

unholy · 09-24-2005, 09:39 AM

Code:

[root@loneswan unholy]# eject /dev/sda2
eject: unable to eject, last error: Invalid argument
[root@loneswan unholy]# rmmod sbp2
ERROR: Module sbp2 does not exist in /proc/modules

Im running Mandriva2005LE with the 2.6.11-6 kernel. Does anyone know what could be wrong there?

Thanks,

unholy

McCloud · 09-24-2005, 12:01 PM

I don't know about the eject command, I've never used it, gonna try that one tonight.

About the 'rmmod sbp2' thing. I think that you've compiled sbp2 into your kernel instead of as a module. So, you can't remove it. You need to recompile the kernel and compile sbp2 as a module.

Robert Saunders · 09-26-2005, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tribalmasters
Hello there! I don't know if this has been asked before ya know, rush rush!

Anyway, I have Ubuntu Linux installed on my computer which is equipped with the necessary USB2 port to use Apple's new iPod Nano. I also happen to be very interested in that tiny white gem! Is it possible to use my Linux box to load the iPod with music or will I be needing iTunes?

I am looking forward to listening to the Linux questions podcast on my shiny new toy!

Anyone tried YamiPod (www.yamipod.com)? I'm having a go with Ubuntu 5.04. It's supposed to support the iPod nano.

Robert

jorgy · 12-13-2005, 07:32 AM

I've tried YamiPod with the nano and it managed to browse the music collection and play it without any trouble. When I tried to sync however, it crashed. Yamipod seems to have a lot of functionality, (notes, calender, lyrics, etc) but i dont think it's that stable yet. Also, it's packaged wierdly, no source, jst a binary file.

Amarok 1.3.7 can also browse the nano but it crashes whenever it ry to put songs on.. i've heard that the cvs version works but it's not advised in its current state (it wiped someone's entire database and he had to reinstall firmware and the likes..) so we've got to be patient till amarok 1.4 i think..

i tried gtk 0.94 but that also failed (the 'cant find F01 F02, etc' errors i think arise from the fact that the nano's file system is actually in lowercase 'f' instead of F, chosing 'create ipod directories' fixed that. bt that was on a shuffle) anyway, 0.99 was released yesterday bt there's no rpms yet (suse 10 and right now i dont hav my dvd to install some packages required before i build from source.. bt will do tonight.

cheers for now.