iPod usb mass storage

[NotJustANewbie]

Hello good people of JustLinux forums ;)

I was just wondering if any one here HAS SUCCESSFULLY connected their iPod to their linux box and used GtkPod or GuiPod with it to transfer songs etc.

I used the guide from here (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/answers.php?action=viewarticle&artid=327) and skipped the formatting part of the process (all my songs are still on the iPod and I have no backups). I did dmesg and rmmod usb-storage + modprobe usb-storage.

I tried:
mount -t vfat /dev/sda(with numbers ranging from 1 to 5 here) mnt/ipod
(where I had created the dir /mnt/ipod)

It says there is no recognisable FAT format on the iPod.
Any clues?
p.s. Im using Debian "Stable" and the iPod was plugged into the computer during the entire Debian install.

Thanks In Advance

[happybunny]

Well...the default format for iPod is not fat, but some (i think) propriatary Apple thing.

However, when you plug into a windows machine, it formats it fat.

How did the songs get on there?

I have a shuffle, which formated fat on my linux box and Gtkpod works fine.

[JayMan8081]

One thing to check is if you have a 4th generation iPod, check that the EFI_PARTITION option in your kernel is set to N. In Mandrake I had a problem where it would get I/O errors when I tried to mount it because the EFI_PARTITION is some experimental thing that causes problems for the newer iPods. Basically I had to compile a custom kernel then I could mount /dev/sda2 to /mnt/ipod and use gtkpod to get my songs off of it. I think you have to use sda2 because the first partition is kinda like the partition table on a normal hard drive. HTH. If you run into any problems try a G4L search on 4G iPod EFI and you should get meaningful results.

[ArgPirate]

Hfs is the filesystem your thinking of. i think. also are you trying to use a firewire cable or usb? it is possible to use hfs but i dont think its very fun here are the instuructions if you want to play with that...http://pag.csail.mit.edu/~adonovan/hacks/ipod.html#hfs

Does dmesg recoginize the cute guy is plugged in? when you do plug it in does your ipod say its connected or does it just show the little charge symbol...i know i had to play around with mine a little when i used firewire...but then again when i used usb i didnt have to do anything at all really.

[pezplaya]

Well...the default format for iPod is not fat, but some (i think) propriatary Apple thing.

However, when you plug into a windows machine, it formats it fat.

How did the songs get on there?

I have a shuffle, which formated fat on my linux box and Gtkpod works fine.

Ya. Your ipod doesn't come formatted with fat. Once you connect and sync it to a windows pc then it formats it. happybunny asked a very good question: how did you get the songs on your ipod?

I have an ipod photo 4th gen and it works perfectly with gtkpod.

this is in my /etc/fstab, its really nothing special:

/dev/sde1 /mnt/usb2 vfat noauto,users,umask=000 0 0

[NotJustANewbie]

I've just (yesterday) moved to Debian from Windows XP completely. I put my songs onto the iPod under Windows.
Im using USB 2 and the iPod does show the "do not disconnect" message when attached to the computer cable.

I did get somewhere after this post... Under Gnome (instead of my default KDE) it puts a link to the iPod directly on the desktop -> /media/(name of my iPod here)

I installed gtkpod successfully and used it to link to the path given above. I can see all the songs on the iPod and I am very pleased- but -I cannot write to the iPod because it says "Could not open file "/media/(my Ipod name here)/iPod_Control/iTunes/iTunesDB" for writing". Do I have to change permissions manually using mc or is it more complicated... Im scared to experiment in case I delete all of my songs. (iPod is my only backup)

*edit* just tried to change permissions and it says: Cannot chmod "iTunes DB" Read-only file system (30)

[happybunny]

if i remember correctly, my database didn't exist...i had to make one...but i forget how!

[ArgPirate]

have you checked /etc/fstab and made sure its mounted with write permisions? it should have the option rw in there somewhere. actually i think the rw option is on by default...just make sure you dont have ro in there
mine looks like this
/dev/sda2 /mnt/windows vfat umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,noauto 0 0

also you might make sure your using the newest version of gtkpod this is part of the newest change log

BUGFIX: Some iTunesDB files written by iTunes could not be read because of an error in the parse code (gtkpod would attempt to read beyond the end of the file).

[NotJustANewbie]

Thanks everyone.
I got it working, thanks.

[Barney_DK]

I got this same error about the database file not working. Can you let me know how you fixed it (was it the gtkpod upgrade?), so I can get itunes off my list of windows dependencies?? :)

Thanks in advance..

[ArgPirate]

yes, do tell.

[nikodell]

I have it working but I did nothing just plugged the thing in I run SuSE 9.3 ,allthough I did have to install gtkpod but all was automaticaly working

[NotJustANewbie]

I used my mom's Windows XP ;)

Sorry I cannot be of help... I just gave up :o