Ipod Nano 5G with linux?

[MauritsMB]

So there is still no Linux compatible app that works with nano 5g ?

[thegeologician]

...seems the developers of gtkpod are working on it, which is good news.
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func...73&atid=519276
(link goes funny often...)

The guy just doesn't have an iPod nano 5th gen himself yet, and as far as I gather, any donations would be highly appreciated... (no, I'm not affiliated to the project and I don't know him, but I strongly believe in OpenSoftware, so I did my share - unfortunately I can only afford a small one...)

IPod support in Rhythmbox and Amarok (and others) is by libgtkpod, as far as I understand, so this should solve our problems...

[murderslastcrow]

So wait- the solution for the iPhone/iTouch 3 firmware in the official community documentation is the same database fix that would work for this nano, too?

I sure hope they can package it soon, since my friend is getting this nano for Christmas and is under the impression that, like the gtkpod site says, it supports all iPods up to the 5th Generation. So I guess the Nano and Touches are the only ones not functioning perfectly yet, but it will be here so soon!

They tried so hard to block us out, but it will never work for long. It's just a pain in the butt to use iTunes.

[jenkinbr]

I sure hope this gets fixed soon, because the VirtualBox method isn't working for me.

My Nano keeps getting disconnected from the VM then reconnected :'(

Really annoying

[DJGibbon]

According to Some Guy On The Internet, the latest git code works fine with the Nano 5G

http://twitter.com/antilo0p/status/6641803288

Not sure how long this will take to be pushed out into packages. Does anyone know if there's a libgpod / gtkpod nightly PPA? Had a quick Google and couldn't see anything.

murderslastcrow: iPod generations are different between different model lines - a 5G iPod is not the same generation as a 5G Nano. In terms of Linux support, the 5G nano has got more in common with the iPhone than an iPod Classic, thanks to Apple being awkward buggers.

[__j__]

According to Some Guy On The Internet...

Clearly that kind of credibility is too strong to ignore. So I compiled libgpod from the latest git sources and gave it a go with my new Nano 5G. It's very encouraging, but not quite working. Here's what I'm seeing:

Once the iPod is properly initialized [1,2], transferring songs with metadata to the iPod and reading them back works using gtkpod or amarok. Both the iTunesCDB (used by libgpod and, as I understand, the iTunes desktop app) and the *.itdb SQLite files (used by the newest iPods) are updated.

Unfortunately the iPod itself shows no music. This thread seems to suggest that it's due to the Locations.itdb.cbk not being correctly hashed. But the thread is a few months old now, and the current libgpod source is writing SHA1 hashes to that file... Hmmm...

Anyone else seeing anything interesting here?


[1] Make sure 'iTunes_Control/Device/SysInfo' has the 'FirewireGuid' property set. Without this the database files are created locally, but not transferred to the iPod. More info here.
[2] Make sure 'iTunes_Control/Device/HashInfo' has been written to your iPod. You can generate the hash here.

[Rob_H]

Once the iPod is properly initialized [1,2], transferring songs with metadata to the iPod and reading them back works using gtkpod or amarok. Both the iTunesCDB (used by libgpod and, as I understand, the iTunes desktop app) and the *.itdb SQLite files (used by the newest iPods) are updated.

Unfortunately the iPod itself shows no music.

That's the symptom I see with the "shipping" libgpod (0.7.2) and gtkpod. Are you sure you're not still running the old code?

[__j__]

That's the symptom I see with the "shipping" libgpod (0.7.2) and gtkpod. Are you sure you're not still running the old code?

Yes. I put a bunch of extra debug print statements in, and I see their output at the console.

dpkg -l | grep gpod
ii  libgpod4                             0.7.3-git-20091222-1

Also I don't think the 0.7.2 version has support for the Nano 5G or the new SQLite database format at all.

So are you saying that the behavior I'm seeing has been fixed in the current source tree...at least hypothetically?

[Rob_H]

So are you saying that the behavior I'm seeing has been fixed in the current source tree...at least hypothetically?

I'm not saying that, but Some Guy On The Internet seems to be.

[__j__]

I'm not saying that, but Some Guy On The Internet seems to be.

Depending on what he's saying...

http://twitter.com/antilo0p/status/6641278100
http://twitter.com/antilo0p/status/6641803288

It sounds like he may be reading from an Nano 5G that already had a valid database on it (i.e. written with iTunes).

It's been noted a few different places that you can use a third party tool (e.g. libgpod) to read/write content on the iPod, and then use iTunes to touch the iPod's library in some minor way, causing it to update the check block, after which the iPod will show all the transferred content. Haven't tried this yet personally...I don't have an OS X or Windows install handy.