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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."

25 of 854 comments (clear)

  1. But but but... by Markvs · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought Apple had embraced open source

    --
    46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
    1. Re:But but but... by sayfawa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And despite this, you'll still get told how good Apple is for open source in a few days in the next OSX vs Linux flame war.

      Anyway, this just makes it easier to say no to them IMO. I was already pissed off enough that my 2nd gen Nano couldn't load Rockbox, but now this.

      In TFA they make it clear they are going to try to get around this, and they probably will, but part of me just wants to say why bother? Fuck Apple. They don't want my money, good, they won't get it.

      --
      Free the Quark 3 from asymptotic confinement! Bring your charm! Don't get down! All colours and flavours welcome!
    2. Re:But but but... by arth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I never understood why the iPod became so immensely popular compared to other personal players in the first place. It locks you down to using iTunes, makes it difficult to use multiple machines or move music around, doesn't have particularly high sound quality, and doesn't support a lot of music formats. I see a crowd mentality at work here -- people buy and then vigorously defend having bought an iPod, not because it's better than the competition, but because it's what your friends have. Individuality is fine, as long as it's the exact same individuality as all your friends!

      Granted, I see some advantages to the bigger iPods -- lots of storage is a good thing, and halfway decent battery life likewise. But the smaller ones? Just because it's branded "Apple"?

    3. Re:But but but... by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Funny

      Careful! The last time I even suggested that Apple was not an open source friendly company here on Slashdot, I was modded down as "flamebait." Of course, I also reminded everyone that Apple's developers did not invent the mouse, object oriented programming, the GUI, and that those developers were also not capable of producing a preemptive scheduler, and the presence of those features in OS X represents Apple's team simply borrowing ideas from other people without contributing anything back.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    4. Re:But but but... by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 5, Informative

      Usability and simplicity. I've had three other music players, some of them having received very good reviews (cowon products). But I used my wife's iPod, and it is simply a better, more user-friendly experience. I was disappointed to go back to my old player; and will very likely be replacing it with an ipod when it dies.

      Itunes is another reason for the casual user. They don't care about formats. Most of them can't tell the difference in quality. They don't need to transfer it to a million different locations. They know they can hear a song they like, and own it, and enjoy it -- relatively cheaply, and without any headache or hassle. I'm not a fan of it for the reasons you mentioned, but the vast majority of the paying public doesn't really care about those issues. Most aren't even aware of them.

    5. Re:But but but... by xrayspx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, until very recently (this article), they DIDN'T lock you down to using iTunes. Amarok worked very, very well with my iPod, in fact, I loathe iTunes in comparison. Apple won't let you copy music from your ipod with itunes, Amarok allows this, case closed.

      I hate this decision, and see no benefit to Apple from it except to "drive eyeballs" to iTunes, which is horrible, and thus ITMS. So between that and making the recording industry feel more comfortable, since they just broke all the third party apps to let people copy THEIR OWN MUSIC off of their iPod, I'd say it's "Lose/Lose" to the users.

      Still happy I bought my Mac, still like my iPod, probably will skip a new one if this doesn't get fixed. What other players allow music to be Scrobbled when you plug them into your machine, and what apps support these properly? Amarok? I hope?

      --
      I like music
    6. Re:But but but... by ajs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple's trying to freeze out not only Linux, but any other player which tries to write to the iPod. Exactly. What they want to avoid is having to compete on the iPod-manager software front. They don't give a rat's whiskers about the Linux tools, but if Microsoft puts out their own tool that syncs the iPod up to the Zune Website and ships it with their OS... there goes Apple's user lock-in.

      On the one hand, I empathize with wanting control of the platform. On the other, I just can't work up any sympathy for them. They're certainly going to fail in the long-term, unless the invoke the DMCA... a move which would alienate them with the rip/burn crowd they've courted over the last many years, but might make them friends with the networks that they've lost.
  2. How many days until someone develops a work around by Traegorn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because I expect the Linux community to have one on my desk by Monday. Companies drive me crazy when they do this, I mean punishing someone whose a potential consumer of your product makes so much sense... yeesh. It's not like they're trying to hack the iTunes DRM - they just want to use a legitimate product they've purchased...

    --
    TRHOnline - Staggering Towards Brilliance
  3. Inevitable comment by interiot · · Score: 5, Funny

    I heard cannabis brownies were the way to go.

  4. Re:So I guess... by Thrip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You got it exactly backwards. Apple just gave a lot of people much more incentive to install a new OS on their iPod. (Including Windows users who don't like iTunes -- not just Linux users.)

    --
    I'm awake! The answer is BONK!
  5. 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.

  6. *sniff* by target562 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Application is using a non-public interface to access functionality... Vendor changes said non-public interface... Community is SHOCKED! WTF?

  7. design now defective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    so .. tell me again why I should buy an ipod? because its the hippest device on earth?

  8. Apple increasingly hostile to Linux users by Pausanias · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple is hostile to Linux, because it is beginning to compete with OS X in a much more serious way than Windows.

    It all started last year when with the release of iTunes 7, Apple purposely broke DAAP, ending the compatibility of their iTunes software with various media players. Now rhythmbox/amaroK/banshee users can't listen to iTunes shares, and no one has yet been able to break the hash that would allow it.

    So it comes as no surprise that the iPod is being further locked down. The closer our desktops get in usability to OS X (and they are not close yet, but making progress), the more of this we'll see.

    Disclaimer: I use an OS X desktop and a Linux laptop.

  9. Worst product launch in a long time by ahbi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What is going on with Apple?
    Let us count how bad this product launch is:
    1) 33% price cut for the iPhone, which threw early adopters in a fit, and then the $100 "rebate".
    2) iPod touch is crippled. The Bluetooth is physically there (supposedly) but not enabled. No editing calender appointments. No Notes app or the other apps from iPhone. Screen issues with the contrast & blackness versus the iPhone.
    3) iPod Classic, slower less responsive UI. Old Video accessories don't work with the iClassic.
    4) iPod Nano, the FatPod. Same slower UI as the Classic. No memory increase.

    Seriously, in 10 days Apple seems to have found a way to piss everyone off. Now they go after the Linux community. How badly have they bungled this product launch?

    1) As a non-iPhone owner or wanter, the brew-ha-ha over the $200 price cut irritates me not because of the price cut but the reaction is such that you better believe Apple won't ever make similar price cuts in the future.
    Plus you know a 16GB iPhone will come out as soon as the iPhone is released in Europe.

    2) Once again, the iTouch will be jailbreaked and the iPhone apps ported to the iTouch, but this type of needless product differentiation crippling cause bad will. And, this hacking may break whenever Apple releases a firmware update. For example, the Linux lock-out of this story.
    Apple could have just given people the product they want in the first place. As the screams of people have shown, there is a market for a phoneless iPhone.
    The screen issues are unfixable but possibly explained by manufacturing variables.

    3) The iClassic is the least changed and therefore least disliked of the new products. The software (DRM) incompatibility with video accessories is unnecessary.

    4) Now the FatPod is merely ugly. It is a shame about the less responsive UI. And really it was time to bump up the storage to 16gb. One wonders if the storage was capped at 8Gb in an attempt to differentiate this versus the iTouch. After all if they are needlessly crippling the iTouch why not nerf the FatPod?

    Is it just hurbis that has gotten Apple's head so far up its ass, or is this just a cyclical Apple implosion? If the latter, we are in for a few more years of Apple stupidity before they re-emerge with some new wonder product.

  10. Re:So I guess... by Leftist+Troll · · Score: 5, Informative
    That is, assuming this isn't defeated.

    Hop along to freenode #gtkpod if you have some serious technical expertise in this kind of thing and are able to obtain a new iPod Classic or Nano.
  11. MediaMonkey Is Much Better by rebmemeR · · Score: 5, Informative

    iTunes sucks. I have an iPod 160 and my library has 11,000 songs (and there are folks out there with 50,000+). I'm on Windows XP SP2 on a fast box with 2GB memory and USB 2.0. iTunes is entirely unscalable. It is very slow to do anything with my library, even with manual sync. Adding one song to the iPod is a 5-minute process. File transfer speed is not the problem. For sure iTunes wastes time doing unnecessary work. Ejecting the iPod alone takes over a minute. Also, the iTunes MP3 player is buggy. It has trouble with MP3/VBR and generates clicking in the audio output. MediaMonkey is a much better content organizer. It is very fast. But the Apple's file format change on the iPod Classic means the current version of MM can't handle the iPod filesystem. I hope the MM developers will have the problem solved soon.

    --
    Birth is the leading cause of death.
  12. Re:I hate iTunes by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just hate iTunes. I know other people like it, but it seems to me that non-tech people find iTunes easy, and tech folks don't. As a tech guy, iTunes drives me insane. It doesn't do what I want, doesn't do things my way, does things I don't expect, etc.

    I think much of it is a control issue. Techies tend to be control freaks. We also grew up with Winamp (or similar), and are used to devising our own directory structure for our music collection, expecting to have iTunes use our file management schemas. When I first started using it, I got confused. Where the hell are my music files? Why is it recopying what I just put over there? Why won't it let me play these files?

    After a day of this, I just said 'screw it' and let iTunes put shit where it wants to, and I decided it does a good job. That's the difference in perception - iTunes is a good system to get music from various sources and never have to worry about the notion that music is contained in 'files.' If you try to buck the system, you and iTunes will hate each other.

  13. Re:My wife was given an Ipod for Christmas.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    .trl

    It is a proprietary format for encoding troll posts.

  14. Re:So I guess... by The+Great+Pretender · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't believe Microsoft did this! What a bunch of evil, coporate money grubbers. M$ will use every trick in the book to make sure they protect their systems and force people into drinking the Kool-Aid. What a bunch of...what? Apple? Oh! Good for Apple protecting their rights and systems. Damn Linux pirates should respect the fact that the iPOD is Apples proprietry knowledge. I can't believe that Linux users thought they could get away with it...

    --
    A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
  15. 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.

  16. Re:Encrypted firmware prevents Linux on the new iP by E+IS+mC(Square) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    *time to lose some karma* >>I'm surprised there isn't as much of an uproar about this on Slashdot.

    I am not. When it comes to Apple, the fanatics will gang up on anybody complaining even a slight bit about Apple. They don't see the irony that Apple has become Microsoft of the DAP market. Force is very strong on them.

  17. Re:So I guess... by fratermus · · Score: 5, Informative

    iPods are highly overrated, and irritatingly restrictive. I have a sandisk sansa express (3gb after adding in the microSD) and the wife has a creative zen stone 3gb. Both were cheap and show up as USB drives on our respective Debian Linux 2.6.x boxen.

    --
    L.V.X., brother mouse
  18. Re:So I guess... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To All:

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html

    You know what to do. Complaining to the source is sometimes better than complaining to other people with the same opinions.

  19. Easily fixed. by berkus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Worry not, friend! Apple will fix this bug in the next iPhone revision.