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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. Oh boy by MoOsEb0y · · Score: 1, Troll

    good thing rockbox will continue to present a normal mass storage device that's about 300x easier to perform simple file operations with than iTunes.

  2. My wife was given an Ipod for Christmas.. by AmazingRuss · · Score: 1, Troll

    ..unsolicited, and while its a cool device, that proprietary format sucks. I have a massive CD collection ripped sitting on a shared drive, and everytime she wants something she has to let Itunes convert it and store another copy of the song.

    I think apple makes dealing with existing collections difficult so you are pushed to buy from their store. In my case, it pushes me away from buying IPods.