Need help mounting an iPod that is formatted hfs+

ShaneK · 03-30-2005, 09:56 PM

Hi,

I have a friend of mine who runs a regular folk dance event who just bought an iPod. One of the other group members has an iPod also, and he helpfully added about 1200 songs to her iPod. Unfortunately, he formatted it as HFS+ (using his Macintosh computer). She owns a Windows computer, and wouldn't be able to add anything to the iPod without wiping the whole thing clean and starting over. I have been transferring a bunch of music for her on my Linux box from the original vinyl records to CD. She would also like to add some of these to her iPod.

I'm running Fedora core 3 updated to the 2.6.10 kernel. Supposedly, there is a new kernel module out for using HFS+ formatted disks with the 2.6 kernel from Ardis. I downloaded it from their webpage. (I'd put in the URL, but I don't have my 5 posts yet)

When I follow the instructions in the README, they don't work. Here's what I'm typing in:

Code:

[root]# make KERNELSRC=/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES

Here's what I get:

Code:

make modules -C /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/ SUBDIRS=$PWD CONFIG_HFSPLUS_FS=m
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES'
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `modules'.  Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES'
make: *** [all] Error 2

What target rule do I have to specify, or am I totally missing what's going on?

macemoneta · 03-30-2005, 10:05 PM

You don't need any specially built kernel or modules to use HFSPLUS with FC3; the standard kernels support it fine.

The "trick" with HFSPLUS is that the drive has multiple partitions, but those partitions are all used by HFSPLUS. When mounting, you specify only the device, not a partition. For example:

# mkdir /media/ipod
# mount -t hfsplus /dev/sda /media/ipod

I use this all the time with an HFSPLUS formatted iPod; no problems. Check /var/log/messages to see what device (sda, sdb, ...) the iPod is recognized as (it may change if you have multiple USB/Firewire devices). Just use the device listed in the mount command.

ShaneK · 03-31-2005, 03:21 PM

Woo hoo!

We're in business.

It turns out that I didn't need to do anything at all to mount it. Fedora Core 3 just picked it right up and mounted it. Not sure if it matters, but my version of FC3 is totally up to date. I could browse it right from the desktop, and drag files off of the iPod. When I checked out the properties of the mounted volume, it did, indeed, see it as a whole drive, and not as a partition. (in my case sd3)

I used yum to install GTKpod, and added a bunch of music. One thing I had to tell GTKpod was that FC3 mounts it as /media/Csardas (the name of the iPod - yours will probably be different), not the default /mnt/ipod/....

Thanks for the reply.

My folk dance teacher appreciates it too.

J.W. · 03-31-2005, 03:29 PM

Excellent - congrats on solving the problem and thanks for posting back ShaneK and likewise macemoneta for offering helpful advice. Having these kinds of successful resolution details will be a big help to future readers who may be encountering the same issue. Well done -- J.W.