suse mounts ipod mini, but gtkpod doesn't see it
 

I am using Suse 9.3 and a brand new (2nd generation) iPod mini that has not been used with a Mac or with Windows. When I first started gtkpod, it did recognise the ipod and I was able to upload a few .wav files to play around with.

However, that has been the last time that gtkpod recognised the ipod. Whenever I try to access the ipod, I get this error message "Could not open file /media/iPod/iPod_Control/iTunes/iTunesDB" for writing."

Suse 9.3 does find and mount the ipod and it is accessible on media/iPod. Extract from "dmesg" output:

usb 3-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 12
scsi11 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 12
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
Vendor: Apple Model: iPod Rev: 1.62
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 00
SCSI device sda: 7999488 512-byte hdwr sectors (4096 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 64 00 00 08
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
SCSI device sda: 7999488 512-byte hdwr sectors (4096 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 64 00 00 08
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
sda: [mac] sda1 sda2 sda3
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi11, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi11, channel 0, id 0, lun 0, type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0

Using the "eject" command and unconnecting/reconnecting to allow Suse to retry mounting does not seem to help.

Setting gtkpod to to "handle mount/unmount of ipod drive" does not seem to help.

I have not fiddled with manual mounting or etc/fstab because I am unsure whether inappropriate mount options might damage the iPod filesystem.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks, capitano

Perhaps I should add that gtkpod has the correct mountpoint in its preferences. I also tried deleting the whole .gtkpod directory from my home directory and reeinstalling the latest gtkpod release (o.88.2), but that didn't help.

Problem solved
 

In a communication outside linuxquestions, Jorg Schuler, author of gtkpod, suggested the file system of the ipod might be corrupted by disconnecting it before having unmounted properly.

As there also seemed to be trouble mounting it under Linux, I decided to reformat it from scratch using itunes under Windows. It worked fine afterwards when accessed by itunes.

When connecting it to USB on my Linux box the ipod was properly recognised and mounted, and handling it with gtkpod was absolutely smooth.

I would be interested to know if this could be a problem of HFS+ (the Apple filesystem). When you tried it the first time, the filesystem was the Mac default (HFS+) and after you formated it under Windows, the filesystem was converted to FAT. I am curious to know if someone managed to run the iPOD with HFS+ on SUSE.

To my knowledge hfs can be used in principle -- until you or the iPod currupts the filesystem. As far as I know there's no filesystem checker for hsf+ under Linux. If there is, please let me know.

The problem is that it's very easy to mess up the iPod's filesystem. It will happen, for example, if you disconnect the iPod before it was properly unmounted. To reduce chances of this happening, the mount option "sync" should be added to the fstab or autofs entry. Writing will sure be slower, but the write command won't return until the write is finished, so you know that the iPod is not done yet. Before unplugging I also always check with a 'df' or 'mount' whether the iPod is still listed or not.

OK, it's not too difficult to avoid trashing the filesystem yourself. However, the iPod also likes to trash it by itself. My experience shows that this happens easily when you run out of battery, the file 'PlayCounts' which is written by the iPod seemingly being the reason. Maybe this can be avoided by powering down the iPod manually -- something I never do and don't even know how to do. If that happens your only chance is to reformat the iPod -- or run 'dosfsck -a /dev/sdxx' if it's vfat, which is what I do. I didn't have to reformat my iPod a single time, but I had to run dosfsck many times. Of course, the playcounts since the last sync are gone in either case.

Cheers,


JCS.

I played around quite a bit while the ipod was crashed so I can't exactly say what was possible and what was not, however I do remember that Suse at least once mounted it on plugging it into USB and a few directories were visible. I don't remember whether it was possible to upload files, though.

Usually file systems are mounted read-only when they are marked "dirty" -- at least that applies to the ext filesystems, and it would explain why people say they can read from the iPod but cannot write to it.

JCS.

Use hfsplusutils-1.0.4-5 RPM for i386 to solf this problem
 

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...718&i=68333885

hfsplusutils-1.0.4-5 RPM for i386

"...In addition, I tried every combination of hpfsck after building it with the
above package. Didn't seem to make any difference at all. However mounting the
fs with "./hpmount /dev/sda3" and then unmounting with "./hpumount" fixes the
problem. Just fyi."

I am having this same issue. Yhe above post seems to be linked wrong. Any idea where that link is supposed to point?

Thanks in advance.

FC4 with ipod working
 

I've been having the same problems. I have FC4 in my computer and a ipod-shuffle. My ipod has never been in touch with a mac of windows pc.
When I downloaded gtkpod I added some music and ever since I haven't been able to add or delete any new music because of the "Could not open file /media/iPod/iPod_Control/iTunes/iTunesDB" for writing".
Now I have downloaded GNUpod. It is a bit more complicated, all the adding and deleting is done through the terminal, but it works!
I think this is because the GNUpod makes a GNUtunesDB which sort of replaces the iTunesDB. I do not exactly how this works.
You can find GNUpod at
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnupod/gnupod.html#SEC10
Hopefully you can use it now.