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Linux for iPod Matures
elinenbe writes "The Linux on iPod Project has just crossed a milestone. Currently their firmware works on all ipod models other then the new mini. Sound plays and for many people it has more features then the original iPod firmware!"
Why would one run linux on an ipod?
A Fatal OE Exception has occurred, Sig will now reboot.
...although, as the announcement says, "Most things seem to be working but there are still some problems with IDE & the framebuffer."
Wired has an article on this, too.
The Army reading list
Anyone know enough about the IPOD architecture to say if it would be possible to fix up this linux to play OGGs? All I want for xmas is a cool MP3 player that plays mp3s and oggs :)
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
How do you use a command line interface on an ipod?
If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
This is great, now that Linux can run on the iPod I can.... play music? Pretty good stuff. Now I don't have to rely on Apple's crappy interface or poor integration with iTunes.
Honestly, I know this projects are mostly for shits & giggles, but the iPod seems to be about the least-appropriate MP3 player to port Linux too. You're paying a premium for software design & integration with the iPod. Linux on the Dell version would seem to be a more natural fit.
Maybe apple really is an "open" company, they just didnt want anyone to know =)
Let me reiterate this for the last time.
On an MP3 player, the ability to run EMACS is not a feature. The lack of music-playing ability also seems like a pitfall.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
This is obviously a violation of the DMCA. I hope these criminals rot in hell.
lick my ass you monkey fucker
my Linux for iPod already has breasts and pubic hair. and still maturing every day.
No, you are wrong. Only *BSD is dying...
If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
Where are you getting "for many it has more features than the original firmware" from?
;) How's about automount picking up on another iPod plugged into the firewire bus and mounting it fat32, access it's database, copy the files over and naming them logically based on either id3 tags or on the database, and then update the localhost database? >:)
Seems to me everything is very basic, unless you count the ability to browse by file a new feature, but the datbase accessibility of the original firmware is conspicuously missing.
Still...I like it. The iPod has a usb bus. A firewire bus. Throughput is an issue, but I imagine some hotplug devices will get support.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Begun the "KDE looks better on iPod than Gnome" war has.
Windows XP SP2 told me to install third-party software that prevents viruses and protects stability... I chose Ubuntu
Please fix your gay and annoying sig. At least change the word "image" to "imagine"--that way it won't be annoying anymore.
people will think of putting Linux on a PC!
Don't get me wrong, I love Linux (I manage an 80-node Linux Beowulf cluster at work) for the things that it's good it. But why would you take a working iPod and install Linux on it? It's not as if you get a discount on your iPod for running Linux. And it's not as if the Linux community has produced a wealth of iPod "killer apps." Straight out of the box, the iPod does what it's supposed to do. And until Linux has native support for some of the consumer technologies that make the iPod so cool (i.e., DirectX) what is the point of installing Linux on it? I realize that there's a certain "cool factor" involved with being able to run Linux on (insert consumer electronics device here), but at what point does one cross the line from usability over to zealotry? The fact that I can run Linux on my toaster isn't going to help me make bagels in the morning.
3.3 Is there a OGG player
The Tremor player is running at about 80% real-time. Apparently an update is on the way so hopefully that will provide some speed-up.
Even though many of you ask, "Why??" the news of a new OS for the iPod does present some interesting possibilities. iPods could be used as webservers (a webserver in the palm of your hand) or fileservers. Now that would be cool.
"I know kung-fu" -Neo, The Matrix
BSD dying? Isn't Darwin BSD based? and thus OSX BSD based? In order to be slightly on-topic, I guess I could see the point of installing linux on an iPod. Imagine a beowolf clu.......
Mainly a "because we can" thing. Now all them nerds can make a Beowulf cluster while riding the subway.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Yes but....you'll like.....have the SOURCE
I would happily put linux on my iPod if it would record stereo tracks. I hear it is technically possible, but.........no one has anything other than those crap voice recorders (mono).
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
You don't need a full blown OS to run a web server. Indeed Microchip has an appnote showing how you can run a web server on a PIC micro. The whole thing fits in the backshell of a D9 connector. (ie. less than 1sq inch of real estate). Sure it is limited, but is is a web server.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Anybody know if he's claustrophobic? Such a little window, geez..
Next generation power for iPods.. Tux running on an exercise wheel?
Read; Write; Execute
You're new here aren't you?
Damn newbies and their ignorance to old slashdot jokes...
So I can run Mops anywhere!
Linux on an Ipod is basically pointless. Especially on this very device, which is what hip people buy in the first place (don't get me wrong, I have one). That doesn't mean people can't tweak with it, but it's not that useful, since the geek population using iPods is outnumbered by the common consumers.
On the other hand, what about making a file browser that allow you to go through the files you stored on your pod ? I usually store isos, books, games, and the like on my 30Gb, and I really would like to be able to rename, delete, transfer to my comp directly from the iPod...
Of course, I could move my ass, but I'm not a techie. My 2 cents.
Regards,
jdif
Let's overcome our weakness.
Hey, I don't really get why someone would ever spend so much time doing it, but if this ever really matures (it still looks pretty young) and impressive software is available for it this could be pretty cool. I think it's pretty neat that linux is that portable even though a lot of work was still put into modifying it.
When they start putting linux in toasters, that will be useless, but this could actually evolve into something interesting as an "iPod customization pack"
Good thing they make a 40 gig iPod, you'll need it to fit on Emacs! :-)
The fact that I can run Linux on my toaster isn't going to help me make bagels in the morning.
Yes, but if your bagles were $.99 a piece and you could enjoy independantly made bagles for much less, wouldn't you be glad to know you had the choice?
The sooner iPods can play higher quality ogg streams without the digital restrictions management is a "good thing". And the sooner the conversion process is streamlined for the average user to be able to de-DRM-ify their iPod, the better.
Perhaps the reason linux is ported to every hardware architechure is our undying desire to actually be able to do anything we like with the hardware we buy.
-Wes
Duh, everyone knows that Apple, like *BSD, has been dying for years. An Apple produced *BSD will only die faster...
I would mod you down but I used all my mod points this morning :(
I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
it has more features then the original iPod firmware!
I wonder if it has a spelling and grammar checker...
This is just great for all of us tweakers, but for there to be a real surge in people going past what is considered normal with their iPods, there must be one or two alternative GUIs that are... say it with me now... user-friendly.
Until then it'll be just us regular Slashdotters and geeks who will have any interest at all in this sort of thing. I still won't put it on, for the pure fact that it won't serve me well in day-to-day purposes, though it is cool.
Apple is dying too, of course. They make a good fit. :)
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
Maybe we people could write some new games for the Linux-on-iPod? You can't play Solitare and Breakout forever
don't even read this, just mod me flamebait, but isn't playing sound (perferably music) the entire purpose of a mp3 player? What exactly did the Linux on iPod do before? Display a cute penguin and nothing else? Forgive me if I don't consider playing sound a milestone.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
But if you could get that Beethoven conducted by a robot illegally downloaded onto your Beowulf cluster of Linux iPods and played it back through your sake-soaked wooden speakers as Cowboy Neal dances like an insensitive clod, I believe this site would somehow slashdot itself.
Windows XP SP2 told me to install third-party software that prevents viruses and protects stability... I chose Ubuntu
--------
WAP hosting
It's not necessarily about being zealious or anything like that. It's just a hobby project for now. Some Linux coders got to gether and thought it might be fun to do just for the hell of it. Just something to tinker with. Then again that's how Linux itself started out so who knows. I think it really does have some potential once it matures a little.
http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
...while this is certainly a technical achievement, is it a useful one? Yeah, who am I to be the arbiter of that, but my mind is boggling.
My microwave oven doesn't run linux yet; can someone get hacking on that?
Seriously, with all of the real projects that need coders, this falls way off the map into the "There be Dragons" category.
"Linux: We don't have a real UI yet, but it doesn't matter because your garage door opener doesn't need it."
[shakes head sadly]
Thanks for letting us know!
"then" != "than"
This doesn't seem complex enough to be a confusing thing, but many seem to get it wrong.
I guess Jobs was right in saying that Apple's competetiors don't "get it." The iPod Mini, for example, may seem like an absurdity to us /.ers because of its high price, low capacity, and low feature set. However, it was an instant bestseller, with so many preorders and subsequent purchases that supplies were exhausted in a matter of weeks. The truth is, the average person thinks differently from the average /.er.
After reading the forums on New Tool Cracks Apple's FairPlay DRM I thought the usefulness of linux on an ipod would be pretty useful given some of the limitations the ipod has regarding fileformats etc...
C3PO - We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life.
I have had 2 of the lovely little Karmas die on me. RMA'ed the first one after an HD failure only to have it replaced almost a month later by one that skips while playing most of my songs and has repeatedly required formatting just to get it to shut down.
Once I RMA this sucker for the 3rd time I will sell it and pick up the iRiver iHP-120 20 gigs of OGG, WMA, MP3, WAV, plus a remote with LCD, FM radio tuner, and can record into WAV or MP3 in realtime from a built-in mic or stereo line-in. Pretty kickass. Sure the Karma is about $75 cheaper, but for a unit that WORKS, it's worth it.
Plus, the Karma only has a 90 day warrantee. The iRiver has a 1-year warrantee.
Shouldn't You expect more from your DJ?
I made the mistake of buying a NetMD by Sony instead of an ipod. I was aware they only supplied drivers for Windoz, but I had assumed that there has to be a hack somewhere for Mac and Linux. Come to find out there are several, but none of them can write to the minidisc. This is a perfect pet project for Linux hackers. NetMDs are cheap, small, portable, hold about 3 full albums per minidisc and run forever on a single AA battery (No need to worry if the battery goes bad. Stop into any 7-11 and get a new one.) I have looked into it myself, but I know my own limitations when it comes to reverse engineering.
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
Um.... you're dumb. Do you know what a milestone is?
Would anyone consider installing it before it played sound? probably not.
Now? maybe a few.
Guess what that is? Looky! a pretty milestone!
Yeah. It's real great that Apple's willing to let me organize my music by Artist, Album, maybe Genre too.
F*ck 'em. I want folders.
I don't know how more clear to say it: When I get new music, I want it separated from my old music. I don't want to have to manage per-song playlists, and I certainly don't want to have to care about which single found its way into what Artist or Genre. The most insidious aspect of Apple's architecture (and that of the Rio Karma -- I had one of those too) is the degree to which it makes it so accursedly difficult to separate Singles and Albums, New and Old, Unfiltered and Validated, Fast Stuff and Slow. It's Apple's way or the highway.
Heh. Sort by purchase date, THEN tell me you've integrated iTunes well.
--Dan
When they start putting linux in toasters, that will be useless
You just wait.
It'll be able to download settings for all your foods and intelligently decide what you're giving it, and how long to cook it.
It isn't as far-fetched as it sounds.
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
The last time I heard it was after the ENIAC port which is after the PDP-7 which is after...
Karma whorin' since 1999
For an example of what a replacement third party firmware can do for an audio player, check out RockBox. It turns the obsolete Archos Jukebox 6000 series models into machines capable of playing music much better than the stock firmware, and also capable of doing other stuff as well.
The bottom line: iPodLinux is a work in development. When it reaches production quality, it WILL have more features than the stock firmware, and will support more formats as well. (ogg, anyone?)
Why has parent been modded down - this is an insightful comment
If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
na, I'll just buy ron popeil's set it and forget it rotisserie and "set it and forget it"
In Soviet Russia, Linux runs you!
does it run linux? :-p
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Just think of the possibilities... a Beowulf cluster made out of of iPods 8)
Amazing
The reason to have an alternative operating system for the iPod is to add new features! There are so many great things that can be done with the hardware in the iPod, that Apple is only beginning to scratch the surface of (or not even considering at all).
Not to mention adding features to the 1G and 2G iPods that are only available on the 3G firmware... I would run Linux on my 2G iPod if it provided functionality similar to the On-The-Go playlists on the newer iPods. Open-source firmware could even improve on these features, such as having the ability to name and save a playlist you've made away from your computer.
Finally, feature additions such as these might keep Apple on their toes - they couldn't let their own firmware become stale, because the alternative would always be improving. I think the Linux on iPod firmware is a great idea, and I wish the developers the best of luck.
flac is what sold me. I'm just waiting for someone to write a client that doesn't need java tho.
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
The ability to run Emacs is not a feature. I'd rather be using edlin on MS-DOS 2.11 than install emacs on my machine.
:wq! to agree, ^C-M-TV-VH-1-S-A_Q to disagree with the current buffer and open a new videoconference.
Press
- - How about using it to hold ISO's of your latest distro that you could use as a more direct form of data transfer
.....
Just to name a few ideasThis can be alot cooler than some of you are even starting to scratch the surface
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
Has anyone heard of an effort to get Linux running on any of the iRiver series of MP3 players? I know they don't have as large of a hard drive (mine has 256 for storage, but they go up to 1GB I believe), but their firmware is just plain crappy. It might be interesting to see support for the FM Radio Tuner on it, too.
Do you have links/references to backup your sig?
very curious...
tx
I'd be cool to see a small 65k color touch screen that could be put into this unit also. Then maybe a media player could play small videos from the hard drive as well.
I think the "Better features is a bust but the future holds promise"
iPod meshing would be cool to tie into your buddies iPod and access his files and maybe someone could make aftermarket jackets that would let the usb port power a 1xRTT or 802.11x card which could turn the iPod into a digital media device over a network.
With Linux the possibilities are endless!
well then its not for you.
and you should ignore it
because its for some peope that havea bit of intellect not like your pooping scenario
so duh
Come on guys. It works on all ipod models other "than" the new mini. And ... it has more features "than" the original iPod firmware!
Where did you learn English? Australia?
Troll or not, it started a good discussion which is now scattered all over the bottom of the page for most users browsing at 0.
Troll != "I don't agree with this person."
No links since the western media (barring the BBC, but they are very biased) ignores it. This is what it is about.
as for AI, they openly support these thugs and regualrly hold rallies in the capital.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Actually, as useless as that is to me, I still think it's wickedly cool that it can be done.
Random is the New Order.
asono sound hub
It has 20gig 1.8" HD, is small enough to slip into your pocket and plays
MP3, WMA, OGG files. It even has an FM radio. I love it....
Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies...
Oops, I forgot the one most people here care about: Add Ogg support! (Or WMP or FLAC or whatever)
Random is the New Order.
holy jesus testicles, did you just equate putting linux on the ipod with taking a big steaming shit on your neighbor's lawn?
god damn, you are one dumb shit, you know that?
must be time for bed.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
"You're paying a premium for software design & integration with the iPod."
You gain a bundle in name/fame recognition.
When you are doing for shits and giggles style points count big.
They're having troubles.
A lot of people are getting Hard Drive errors with their Karmas. I just got mine back from Warranty replacement (after a month-and-a-half wait and plenty of complaining). Mine broke after 2 weeks of use. Apparently, according to the folks at the Riovolution Forum a lot of people have had this problem (in the same time frame) and are currently going through Hell getting a replacement. I'm surprised I got mine so quickly.
Aside from that, I'm liking the Karma a lot. I just hope my replacement doesn't crap out the same as the first one did. If it does I'm aiming for an iPod.
Other than that, RMML (Rio Music Manager Lite) is a Java-based app that syncs up with the Karma over a dock that can be connected via ethernet. The coolness of this being that it's completely platform independent, and will run on any system that can run Java, including my fedora box. Its compatibility to be runnable on Linux is the main reason why I liked this. OGG and FLAC support are just extras. =)
Karma: Non-Heinous
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
holy jesus cum, that's great. 'fucking karma whore' in response to a post talking about the karma mp3 player...hahahaha
Create a smart playlist. Choose filter by date. Insert a start date. Insert another filter. Choose filter by date again. Insert an end date. Wonder at the rocket science involved. Feel like a moron for griping about the lack of a feature that's been there since they started selling the things...
the last few days a work mate of mine has been bagging the ipod because it doesnt support a number of features he wants...
....
i told him... frankly.. that apple will never supply the features he wants... but a project like this.. means he will be able to have a shot at implementing them himself...
like.... wouldn't it be cool if you could run a some voice synth software on you linux ipod... (using AT&T voices) that let you listen to long technical text documents... either with the voice synth running in realtime on the pod... or perhaps baking the audio to an mp3 if it turns out the ipod processor isn't fast enough... (yes you can do this on a desktop before transferring it to a laptop..., but it would cooler if all you needed on the pod was the original text)
i think its a safe bet that nobody is going to be doing this anytime soon commercially.... but it might have a chance of happening if there is a niche open os for the pod...
Ever since the iPod became redundant it's been crying out for a linux or netBSD port... what else is there?
This is flamebait, and I should mod it as such, but I think it'll make more of a difference if I explain why I would.
Who is going to go making playlists for every one of their folders and then update those playlists every time they add new folders? I see a problem here, one where the ipod playlists become a pain in the ass to keep up - why keep the same data in two places where they will surely fall out of sync without tedious manual synhronization?
I also use folders to make a custom nested format which separates songs by language, style, and year. You can't do that with playlists. A final plus for me is that browsing by folder avoids using ID3 tags, many of which aren't present on the the thousands of foreign language mp3s I have. The original ipod firmware lists a lot of songs as Unknown for me - I have to play them to figure out what the songs are - how useful is that?
The parent's response is similar to the many I saw on the ipodlounge forums. When people asked about browsing by folder, a bunch of apple zealots would shoot em down saying apple's way is better and that they should use it because it is easier. Well not in my case.
-----Some Ideas for the Ipod Linux
A neat thing that has been overlooked - wait till someone replaces the drive with a wireless CF card! We'll get an mp3 player that can be used anywhere around the house to stream music over the local network. We'll have to wait till the Linux firmware can actually play mp3s without skipping though, something the original article submission kinda implied could be done. It appears this is because they are relying on the processor to decode mp3s rather than whatever proprietary hardware mp3 decoder/encoder hardware is in there. Hopefully soon, if they do it at all, they will reverse engineer how to control the mp3 chip in there.
Another idea - what about streaming HDTV over the network and through through the firewire port? A TV with firewire port can do the decoding! Streaming mpeg2 to a firewire equipped HDTV wouldn't require the ipod to do any decoding, so it appears there should be enough procesing power to do this. It'd be nice to see an ipod docked next to the HDTV, and able to play video content from the PC. Didn't Netflix just announce downloadable rentals? Write a program that transcodes the rental into mpeg2 in real time and streams it through the IPOD onto a big TV screen. Pretty neat.
As closely as _legally_ possible
let me add some more.
:)
:)
* add SIDPLAY and MOD/XM support so that one can enjoy the full MOD galore without first going through the arduous task of converting them to AAC or MP#
* implement a pitch control with the wheel (so I can do some actual dj'ing on the device, or, rather, on 2 devices
what's more? there must be a lot more features I want to have. from file formats to fixing stupidities of the existing software
still running a x86? dinosaurs do exist!
Q: Can you imagine a beowulf cluster...
Brilliant!
What about a bunch of these linux based ipods wirelessly networked with 802.11 compact flash cards, recording synchronized audio streams to a master wireless laptop? Great for recording multi-track music or for film soundtrack. There is a huge market for this - digital recorders exist for these applications but a system with all the features ipod linux could offer is ridiculously expensive. The ipod is a mass produced, and thus a relatively low cost product that could be useful in bringing down costs for smaller productions that are willing to hack it. Heck, properly made, it wouldn't even have to be a hack.
Now we just have to wait and see if the ipod linux team can break the code of the proprietary mp3 encoder/decorder built into the ipod. Ipod linux doesn't quite record or play mp3s yet.
hehe... you're funny.
User Tools
The full uClinux distribution contains many basic tools (including Busybox) already patched for use with uClinux.
MAD is a MP3 player that does not require a FPU.
Tremor is an OGG player that does not require a FPU.
SoX is an audio processing application capable of playing a variety of music formats (.WAV is probably the most interesting here).
Intel's IPP package and IPP MP3 Sample program. Intel's IPP is a highly optimised set of libraries that includes MP3 processing. The sample program seems to work fine under uClinux.
Apple shut down the MP3 player for PDAs that had an iPod like interface, so won't they shut down this project now that it's copied (rather poorly) the iPod interface?
I for one am waiting for the protests and petitions demanding to be able to buy an iPod without an iPodOS tax...
What does the Apple iPod have to do with Microsoft DirectX?
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
- Jerome Klapka Jerome
When the next version of Ephpod gets released it will automatically make a playlist for every directory probed. My $5 in beer money in the works :)
Here's a suggestion: use the software you criticize, before you criticize it.
iTunes' smart playlists are automatically synchronized with the iPod, and boast features that your "custom nested format" wouldn't ever dream of achieving.
You can have:
Normal, every-day playlists, with playback order sorted by name, artist, time, album, genre, last played, rating, or random.
Or, you can have DYNAMIC, automatically synced playlists that update themselves based on any combination or exclusion of the following criteria:
Album, artist, song BPM, bitrate, comment, compilation membership, composer, date added, modified, genre, grouping, kind, last played, my rating, play count, sample rate, size, song number, time, track number, year.
That's a few more options than your "separates songs by language, style, and year" now isn't it?
The grouping and contextual modifiers are the following: contains, does not contain, is, is not, starts with, ends with.
This is presented as an arbitrary number and combination of graphical pull-down menus, easy enough for a novice user to use, yet powerful enough for someone versed in a language like SQL to understand and exploit to its fullest capabilities. What iTunes is doing is abstracting the presentation of your songs from the storage, which is what an mp3 player SHOULD do. The filesystem isn't smart, it isn't dynamic, and it isn't flexible. If you don't agree with this, then you're in denial. The very existence of playlists is proof positive that the abstraction is appropriate.
Your "case" is a strawman argument. You made this wild scheme of organizing mp3s because your software had no decent way of organizing music and organizing your playlists. Now that you have this half-baked limp solution for organization, you don't realize that better functionality has been designed into other players from the beginning. You're in the dark, buddy. Step into the 21st century. You want to browse by folders? Browse the Library on disk and double click to play your selected mp3. You want it organized some other way? Use dynamic smart playlists.
As far as ID3 tags go, it's nobody's fault but your own that your mp3s don't have that information in them. Another strawman argument. All of my mp3s have up-to-date ID3 information, either from CDDB or me typing in the info when I import something. Just because huge amounts of pirated mp3s don't contain correct information isn't a valid argument against the use of a useful technology like ID3.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
...that's great stuff, than...
Delicious you are!
From the original post:
The parent's response is similar to the many I saw on the ipodlounge forums. When people asked about browsing by folder, a bunch of apple zealots would shoot em down saying apple's way is better and that they should use it because it is easier. Well not in my case.
Then your reply:
iTunes' smart playlists are automatically synchronized with the iPod, and boast features that your "custom nested format" wouldn't ever dream of achieving.
Beautiful. Let me put it clear for you, the all amazing features iTunes has for making playlists mean squat to the original poster. As far as he's concerned, he doesn't give a shit about them, because he wants to organize HIS music in HIS own way, which is what works for HIM.
And not only that, I for one also organize my music in nested directories the way I see fit when I rip my CDs, and no whizzy ultra-featured playlist generator can beat my knowing exactly where in the directory tree things are because I organize them that way. I know quite a few people that do the same (although we all know how the plural of "anecdote" is not "data"). The point is that directory trees are an excellent way to organize all sorts of files, not just music, and it's totally retarded that something that simple is not supported.
---- Take the Space Quiz!
Why, pray tell, are the BBC biassed? Just wondering...
They mention that since the remote control is basically just working on a serial port they might be able to connect a keyboard that way.
And of course it all comes back to the answer to the core quesiton of "why run linux on anything", which , apart from "becaus eoit is cool" is also" because you can then relatively easily port mountains of existing FOSS onto your device.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
I want to use .ogg files for everything. I don't care about Apple's features so much ... but if I could put .ogg files on my iPod, use it as a disk, and still have playback capabilities on the road through a Linux interface, this would be ideal.
...
Not to mention that Linux on iPod makes a great stealth platform. From my iPod connected to a target network, I could launch all sorts of extremely useful processes
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
As long as we're talking about the original poster here, the original poster said iTunes' functionality lacked the ability to do things HE wanted.
Except he was WRONG, it has the exact functionality he wanted, plus the functionality he said DIDN'T exist.
Does this make any sense to you at all? My god. To recap:
iTunes functionality includes his "custom" scheme of presentation, as well as MUCH MUCH more. He was complaining that iTunes' organizational functionality EXCLUDED the way he does things.
Of course you can dream up of some inefficient, inflexible custom bullshit solution and complain that your solution doesn't exist in commercial software. That's the very definition of a strawman argument, which is what I'm trying to expose here.
I'm not going to berate your old school ways of doing things (I wrote perl and bash scripts to parse and organize my mp3 library back in.. uhh, maybe 1998, but I've moved on from that morass of bullshit and settled down in the modern world now) but I _AM_ going to correct assumptions made that are totally wrong!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
The iPod form-factor pretty much cannot be beat. My gen-1 iPod still functions extremely well, gets 8 to 10 hours worth of battery life, and fits in my clothes like no other device. It is 100% a bar of soap product.
...
This is a good form factor for computing. If I can put my POSIX apps on it -and there are lots of interesting apps for uClinux- then I have myself a portable music player which also functions as a working computing platform.
(Computing platforms do not have to be fast, latest and greatest, RAM-stuffed beheamoths in order to be a functioning, operational computing platform...)
For the, the biggest draw of iPod on Linux is the fact that the iPod just still, to this day, feels good. Give me a C compiler for it, and it will rock the world
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Well eventually you could be able to copy files from one ipod to another via firewire without the use of a computer. Now that and ogg playback would be cool don't you think?
Still waiting and hoping for a FLAC component for QuickTime.
Yes, that's nice, iTunes does that too. What if you want to change your separations? Spend an entire afternoon moving "thousands" of mp3s around? That's your business, I guess.
You can't do that with playlists.
Actually, yes you can do that, and much, much more. In other words, HE WAS WRONG. <---- MAIN POINT OF MY ORIGINAL POST, HERE!
A final plus for me is that browsing by folder avoids using ID3 tags, many of which aren't present on the the thousands of foreign language mp3s I have. The original ipod firmware lists a lot of songs as Unknown for me - I have to play them to figure out what the songs are - how useful is that?
There are many utilities that can take a filename and convert it into meaningful ID3 data. You can kill two birds with one stone, and use the features in your iPod to boot.
Did I make it clear enough for you what I was trying to point out?
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
The sooner iPods can play higher quality ogg streams without the digital restrictions management is a "good thing". And the sooner the conversion process is streamlined for the average user to be able to de-DRM-ify their iPod, the better.
I have an iPod, and I have no DRM on it at all. People seem to forget that you can load MP3s & AACs on it, not just songs from the iTunes Music Store.
Just as well, since iTMS is only available in the US!
Liked this comment? Why not buy me something nice
There are literally dozens of utilities written for every platform to go through any number of mp3s and take information from the filename and construct usable ID3 tags out of it. Again, just because you didn't know about it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Ignorance is funny like that. They're fairly smart in the translation, too, in case you're going to say some shit like "all my mp3 files are named in a different format with different symbols separating all the artists and titles and blah blah oh my god it's hopeless."
I'm simply suggesting that you FIX YOUR PROBLEM, instead of resorting to ridiculous methods of kludgingly organizing your masses of broken files into a semi-useable format, and then criticizing well-designed software for not supporting your horrible method of organization.
As for having a life - yes, I've got one, and I don't spend it organizing my thousands of mp3s into neat little directories on disk. Although that's what I used to do _six_ years ago, and I feel your pain.
I'm not an Apple nazi, I'm a misinformation nazi. I do the same thing with Linux and BSD when I run across people who really just don't know what they're talking about. I like to play this game to see how rude and arrogant I can be with ignorant people that are obviously wrong before they get so pissed off that they start calling me names.
Have a nice day.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Geez!
I realy don't like to use Itunes for uploading my mp3's. Is it possible with this Linux Update to use an alternative?
Piethein Strengholt
It could be the starting point for automatically connecting the usb/firewire of the ipod to a digital camera and uploading all the memory in the camera to the ipod. You could now go on long holidays with just a 128MB memory card and your ipod, and comeback with thousands of crappy photos to show to your friends.
__
Sig: Marine Stock Photos
Your analogy is pretty bogus.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
.... the leaked Windows NT code is too big and buggy?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
It's just the internet. It's nothing personal.
And I'm the one that got called a Nazi and a prick. Personally I find typical polite and fruity Slashdot banter to be kind of lame. I'm just trying to inject a little spice into everyone's day!
p.s. If you read my other posts, you'll see I fully understand why he hasn't tagged his MP3s, or they didn't come tagged (he pirated a boatload of them, and now is too lazy to fix it, just like I did/was many years ago - come on, the situation isn't exactly hard to figure out), and offer suggestions in two (2) separate posts.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Given that people like the parent poster equates reality with a design decision taken by MS or Apple, I am very happey to stick to my "ideological reasons" to have a choice of UI in the Linux world.
Sad how wo many people have given up choice and freedom to be mouthfed whatever theit IT overlords decide is "reality".
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
> A neat thing that has been overlooked - wait till someone replaces the drive with a wireless CF card!
That would only work if the iPod has a full PCMCIA/CF controller, which is rather unlikely. CompactFlash (which is just PCMCIA in a smaller form factor) is a superset of IDE. A CF card can use IDE mode, emulating a standard IDE hard disk. It has a flash-memory mode, which is used by many cameras. Most CF memory cards implement both IDE and flash memory (the microdrives in the mini iPods just do IDE, which is why they don't work in cameras). Finally there is IO mode, which is used for CF modems, (wifi) lan, and others. The iPod probably has just an IDE controller to interface with the disk, so a CF Wifi card will never work.
You don't have to take offense every time someone finds an issue with your pet product.
Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
Of those. That's not a "Linux Beowulf cluster", that's a "Beowulf cluster of those".
Noob
To enjoy Linux on the iPod even more, here are some links to free music.
Though I don't know of a Linux port for other MP3 players, here are some informations how to connect different MP3 players, e.g. the Nomad or the Rio players.
Well, running a GPL firmware has advantages. Archos users who do that benefit from more features, more stability than with the original firmware.
The neighbor's dog crapped in my front yard last night. Before I could get out there to shovel it up, a half-dozen l337boys were porting Linux to it.
I'd like to see playlists that work by album. I hate building a playlist from albums and then trying to navigate the playlist by song.
Unless things have changed alot in the last few months, you need windows or mac osx to initialize the ipod. I supppose that putting Linux in the firmware is overkill, but it addresses the the issue of the lack of Linux/OSS freindlyness in the unit.
Mind you, an iPOD can do a whole lot out of the box, but why not let it do a whole lot more?
Kinetic stupidity has a new brand leader: Allen Zadr.
Output the desired audio from the mother computer to an FM transmitter, and use an AIWA FM radio to listen wirelessly. :
h tm l
:
c tv iew.jhtml?sku=AI065
Engineered Audio sells a USB FM transmitter, here
http://www.engineeredaudio.com/products/aurius.
The AIWA is quite a bit smaller than even the mini iPod, and works very well. I've used mine daily for four years. My only complaint is it uses a single AAA, but if you stock up on
rechargeables, then you just swap batteries out.
Sharper Image sells the Aiwa, here
http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/produ
Add some Etymotic Research or Shure or Sony earplug-type earphones, and you have a sweet setup.
I'm delaying a purchase of a car for a few months to save up for the iHP-140. It kicks ass up and down the block, let me tell you. It's like the Karma, but a nicer form factor and more robust. Oh yeah, it has a wicked fast USB 2.0 transfer rate (mass storage... simple). So I can do away with all those USB memory keys.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Say you have an iPod and a digital camera, both of which speak USB. Why not have a way to plug the two together (via gphoto2, for example) and dump the camera's contents to the iPod? Linux on an iPod could be useful for that when a desktop/laptop isn't handy.
If someting out there already does that, then I apologize for my ignorance on the topic.
Unless you have a different understanding of "real time" than I - yes, yes it does play music when you tell podzilla to play music.
Kinetic stupidity has a new brand leader: Allen Zadr.
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
I also use folders to make a custom nested format which separates songs by language, style, and year. You can't do that with playlists.
No, that's what id3 tags are for.
A final plus for me is that browsing by folder avoids using ID3 tags, many of which aren't present on the the thousands of foreign language mp3s I have. The original ipod firmware lists a lot of songs as Unknown for me - I have to play them to figure out what the songs are - how useful is that?
That's not Apple's fault. Tag your files. The filenames reflect the proper artist & title, do they not? Use MP3 Tag Studio or something similar to create id3 tags from the filenames. It takes all of 5 minutes. Real easy to do and your songs won't be unknown any longer.
Once you've done this you can use the same program to mass tag any other fields you wish and use those to help you sort it out on the iPod. Example, I have a "techno" folder with several thousand songs. When I initially transferred them to the iPod, a large number had "blues" as the genre. So I batch tagged that entire directory, giving every song the correct genre. Now when I want to play my techno directory on the iPod, I just browse -> genre -> techno. Done.
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
- and cut the delay between consecutive songs to ZERO. I *hate* that pop of silence between two tracks that have a seamless transition, like the one between "A Month of Sundays" and "Sunset Grill" on Don Henley's "Building the Perfect Beast." I would *pay* for that feature.
:-)
Then, add beat-mixing.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Well, it seems the BBC is going on the offensive. Apparently Bush is the source of our problems in Nepal. Certainly news to me. I like how there is ZERO mention of the things that the Maoists do. The only time it is mentioned it is when quoting the US ambassador. On the other hand, apparently, the army lines up civilians and kills them. This is certainly sensational stuff certainly far from impartial. Also note the commies have been killing people since 1996..the army just got involved 2 years ago.
9 3849.stm
US courts Nepal as anti-terror partner
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/35
believe what you want about AI or the BBC. Personal opinions dont really alter facts. I think that if your home was raided, your family killed and village burned, you too would see my point of view.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Yup, I was thinking that cross-fade would encompass that. On iPod forums, there are a LOT of people that want those two features.
Random is the New Order.
http://www.alpine-usa.com/company_info/press_relea se/010804_ipad.html
info by akis jiouchas (http://homepage.mac.com/accenture/public)
...is a compliment?
You want a Jimi Hendrix song and a Jimi/Morrison to be under Jimi Hendrix?
Put the two songs into a playlist. Organize at your desire.
Your "MENTAL ORGANIZATION" doesn't need to stop just because you start using ID3 tags. Get over it.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I would further like
If only the firmware was open source, but it ain't, so the next best thing is to replace it with one that is...
LAST POST bitches! suck on this, l0sers!