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Apple Cuts Off Linux iPod Users

Posted by Zonk on from the can't-stand-the-heat dept.

Will Fisher writes "New iPods will no longer be able to work with Linux. iTunes now writes some kind of hash (SHA1, md5?) to the iPod database which new iPods check against. If this check fails then the iPod reports that it contains 0 songs. This appears to be protection against 3rd party applications writing out their own databases. We haven't found out how to generate our own valid hashes (but we do know the hash includes the database itself, and possibly the iPod serial number), and are looking for help."

2 of 854 comments (clear)

  1. Danger, Will Robinson! DMCA Alert by querist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    First, I applaud your determination to uphold the implied freedom to do what one will (within reason, of course) with something that someone owns.

    However, if you are in the USA you are running the risk of Apple invoking the DMCA.

    I hope they don't. I hope you succeed. I firmly believe from a technical standpoint it can be done. My concern is the legal ramifications.

  2. Encrypted firmware prevents Linux on the new iPods by traindirector · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple just gave a lot of people much more incentive to install a new OS on their iPod.

    They've also made it currently impossible to use alternate OSes on the iPod by encrypting the firmware on the 2nd gen Nano and all subsequent iPods, which is a much more difficult obstacle to overcome. I'm surprised there isn't as much of an uproar about this on Slashdot.