Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

iPod on Linux... with GPLed software

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-thats-what-I'm-talkin-bout dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "gnuPod 0.2 has just been released. It's the first GPLed program that allows you to use your iPod under Linux. It has support for playlists and stores information in a XML file, so it's very easy to edit the data or write a frontend. Still a bit 'beta' but its ready for every-day-use and it works well together with iTunes. A mac-ipod2win-ipod howto is also included."

4 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. It won't be "gnuPod" for long by mithras+the+prophet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Considering that Apple, uh, "requested" that MediaFour rename the XPod software (now XPlay), and that the developers rename the xtunes jukebox (now "sumi")... I don't think "gnuPod" will be long for this world.

    --
    four nine eighteen twenty-7 thirty-nine forty-7 fiftyeight sixty-nine seventy-9 eighty-8 one-hundred-and-nine one-twenty
  2. Slightly OT but Important by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I started a petition at Apple's Discussion board for people to "sign" (reply to) if you support Ogg Vorbis decoding on the iPod. The CPU the iPod uses is based on an ARM7 core, and will work nicely with Xiph's integer based decoder, Tremor. Anyone who supports it, especially those for whom Ogg support would be the deciding factor in an iPod purchase, are invited to add a comment here.

    The only reason the iPod software revision 1.20 has Calendar, Contacts, EQ Presets, and track scrubbing is because users asked for it. So let's show Apple what it would take to convert all of us Freedom loving geeks! Support Ogg!

  3. 100% linux compatible mp3 player by Bj�rn+Stenberg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Archos Jukebox 6000 is a $199 6gig MP3 player and USB harddisk that has an open source linux driver and
    open source firmware.

  4. We already have linux support... sort of by kzinti · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Check out this HOWTO for using a Win-iPod under linux:

    http://www.cs.duke.edu/~geha/ipod/

    Executive summary:

    1. Build a kernel to support IEEE1394
    2. Mount the iPod as a vfat filesystem
    3. Use Wine to run EphPod.

    This is how I update my iPod, and it works, but it has some problems:

    * The linux ieee1394 drives sometimes don't recognize the iPod, and sometimes generate kernel Oopsies.

    * Some functions of EphPod don't work, must notably the "Add Directory" function. This is probably a Wine limitation, but it's still irritating. EphPod doesn't check the id3v2 Composer tags, so your iPod's Browse->Composer menu is empty. EphPod has the feel of an app with a lot of maturing left to do -- but it's better than nothing.

    * In general, the process is pretty klunky and needs lots of by-hand coaxing and prodding. I expect this to improve as the ieee1394 drives and Wine both improve.

    That said, it's really cool to see that someone's making native linux support for the iPod. If you check around, you can find that there are several efforts to do this underway, some more half-assed than others... a guy here who's written a perl script to dump the database, a guy there who's got a python script for the same. But it's pretty obvious that there's a lot of interest in seeing real linux support for the iPod, so I expect to see those disparate efforts coalesce pretty quickly. It'll be nice to have.

    By the way, I just love my 20GB iPod. 150 albums downloaded so far, and still 8.5GB left. You've just gotta get one of these things!

    --Jim