Recently bought an ipod and I am having problems reading / writing to the ipod. I have done a lot of research on this issue, and here is what I know (at least think is correct):

First, I believe my ipod has a HFS+ (hfsplus) formatted disk. When I type in "dmesg" I receive the following info:

****************************************************************************************************
Vender: Apple Model: iPod Rev: 1.62
Type: Direct-Access-RBC ANSI SCSI revision: 00
sda: Spnning up disk.......ready
SCSI device sda: 39063024 512-byte hdwr sectors (20000 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 08 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through
SCSI device sda: 39063024 512-byte hdwr sectors (20000 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 08 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through
sda: [mac] sda1 sda2 sda3
sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 14
hfs: write access to a journaled filesystem is not supported, use the force option at your own risk, mounting read-only.
SELinux: initialized (dev sda3, type hfsplus), uses genfs_contexts
metacity[7873]: segfault at 0000000000000008 rip 00000000004542f9 rsp 00007fffffc017a0 error 4
metacity[8493]: segfault at 0000000000000008 rip 00000000004542f9 rsp 00007ffffffbe620 error 4
****************************************************************************************************

When I hook up the ipod via firewire, FC5 recognizes it. I can then right click and "Mount Volume". I have full access to view the file system. I am unable to copy any music directly to the drive. As I understand I am unable to do this anyway.

I successfully installed gtkpod. Additionally, Rhythmbox Music Player also automatically recognizes the ipod. Of course, if I click on the ipod in Rythmbox, no music is displayed.

When using gtkpod, I can add files to the "iPod" folder . . . and after I click the "Sync" button, nothing really happens (I think the iTunesDB on the desktop is updated, but no files are transferred to the ipod).

As I understand, I may need to turn off or "disable journaling" on the ipod? Several forums have suggested using a mac based code to disable journaling. I don't have a mac, nor do I have access to one.

#1 - is there a way to turn off journaling through either Linux (FC5) or Windows XP Pro?

#2 - if I am unable to turn off journaling, how can I get my ipod working through linux?

Also, I am running Fedora Core 5 x64 on an AMD Athlon 64.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I'm sure others are having similar poblems.

- SD

Your post says the device is mounted "read-only" so you cannot copy any data to it ("Sync") before you mount it read-write. For this you might turn off journalling, if that's what other iPod users say. I myself have a FAT-version of iPod Shuffle, and it works perfectly. Theoretically you could re-format your iPod to use FAT system, but that's out of my hands; I'd ask Apple about that. Though Linux should be able to use hfs too..

Now after you've managed to get read-write access (possibly by turning off the journalling, if it's possible), gtkpod (and other apps using libgtkpod or other working means) should be able to "Sync" the data. You can copy music directly to the iPod, but you cannot play it; this is because what gtkpod does in addition to copying the music files, it edits the iPod database. So everything you "just copy" to iPod is recognized as "data", so you can't play it. That's why you use gtkpod and not Nautilus/Konqueror/command line/your favourite file copying program. Oh, and rhytmbox can't probably add music to your iPod yet; last time I checked, they were able to read but not write.

So basically what your problem/worry is, is to get the write access. Study the journalling-system a bit to see how you could disable journalling, or if you could use FAT filesystem on your iPod instead. You can actually, if it's a certain kind of iPod, install a Linux operating system on it (that works for the hfs system!) so that could be an answer too; then you would be able to play .ogg files too, for example, but your warranty would be void then.

So..search for hfs, disabling journalling, reformatting your iPod (voids varranty) and possibly installing Linux operating system on it (voids warranty), if it's the right kind of iPod (check out "iPod for Linux").

All ipod shuffles are fat formatted.
I have the same problem.
I have been able to write to it, but not anymore, it all seems pretty random. It didn't work at all in windows, itunes said "can't read or write...".
The store exchanged my first one which had the same issues.
If it works flawlessly for you, could you post your mtab when it's mounted.
Are you able to chmod files. (I just tried it out of curiosity - I thought it was peculiar that all the files were owned by root. - It gives me "operation not permitted" - Yes I was looged in as root.)