Syncing iPod to iTunes in VMWare Windows Guest

[rpkehoe]

I have a new 3G nano video. It doesn't really work at all in VMware.

When I plug it in and check the VMware check box, it shows up in Windows. However, starting iTunes causes a nice friendly BSOD in VMware, and Windows restarts.

@$&%@

I have been having the same problem since I got a nano 3g. I have tired just about everything, vmware, vbox, various versions. I also briefly tried the new vmware beta, but I found it to be clunky and very slow (no more client, all web based). For awhile I thought this was a ubuntu issue with /proc/bus/usb being gone, but it sounds like a more complicated issue than that.

Thanks for all your suggestions in this thread, I have already corrupted one ipod and am trying to avoid doing that again, so I am being a little more careful. I have even broken down and down what I really didn't want to, which is dual boot. Unfortunately, it is the only reliable method right now.

Keep the advice coming.

[rpkehoe]

I am trying so slightly different voodoo to try to the ipod to work in the vm. I mounted the ipod in ubuntu as normal, then remounted it with --rbind under my home directory (which is setup as a samba share so I can access it in vmware). I can then map the ipod as a network drive in windows, but itunes does not recognize it as an attached ipod.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how I might trick itunes to using the network drive or to fake xp as treating a mapped network drive as an attached usb drive?

[phillywize]

I am trying so slightly different voodoo to try to the ipod to work in the vm. I mounted the ipod in ubuntu as normal, then remounted it with --rbind under my home directory (which is setup as a samba share so I can access it in vmware). I can then map the ipod as a network drive in windows, but itunes does not recognize it as an attached ipod.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how I might trick itunes to using the network drive or to fake xp as treating a mapped network drive as an attached usb drive?

Clever; unfortunately I don't have any ideas. iTunes is a pretty tough customer when it comes to managing ipods.

[phillywize]

Tried VirtualBox 1.5.4 and XP -- same problem; iTunes recognizes an iPod in "Recovery mode." Windows, on the other hand, seems to have recognized the iPod and installed drivers. But it did this under 1.5.2.

Windows 2000 continues to work like a charm under 1.5.4.

[flaggh]

I am trying so slightly different voodoo to try to the ipod to work in the vm. I mounted the ipod in ubuntu as normal, then remounted it with --rbind under my home directory (which is setup as a samba share so I can access it in vmware). I can then map the ipod as a network drive in windows, but itunes does not recognize it as an attached ipod.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how I might trick itunes to using the network drive or to fake xp as treating a mapped network drive as an attached usb drive?

I have also considered the possibility of doing exactly this. I'm sure it's not impossible to trick iTunes into thinking a folder or drive is an ipod but how to implement it is beyond the scope of my knowledge. If anybody has more information on doing this, I would be very interested in giving it a try.

[airtonix]

curious: you guys doing this becuase you like the user interface of appleOS on ipod? or you need the extras like vcard, ical and snazzy photo transitions?

i've replaced mine with rockbox, only thing todo now is to get the rockbox dev team making a vcard viewer and ical viewer.

wont need anything to do with apple apart from the ipod itself then.

ps: rockbox can zoom into jpeg images, whereas the appleOS cant.

as far as a i can see, only thing the appleOs has going for it is :

battery usage is efficient,
has vcard viewer
has ical viewer
photo viewer has transitions.
user interface feels like osx (tiger?)

[rpkehoe]

i've replaced mine with rockbox, only thing todo now is to get the rockbox dev team making a vcard viewer and ical viewer.

Rockbox is not out yet for the nano 3g. Once it is, I would be willing to give it a try.

[ntetreau]

...and you do not want to use rhythmbox, amarok, gtkpod or others?

[rpkehoe]

I have already bricked one nano using gtkpod. Until .6 is in the repos and I don't have to compile (which I have already done but I am not using), I have decided to be safe and stick to itunes. It comes down to the new database in the 3g, and I am erring on the side of caution.

[flaggh]

curious: you guys doing this becuase you like the user interface of appleOS on ipod? or you need the extras like vcard, ical and snazzy photo transitions?

i've replaced mine with rockbox, only thing todo now is to get the rockbox dev team making a vcard viewer and ical viewer.

wont need anything to do with apple apart from the ipod itself then.

ps: rockbox can zoom into jpeg images, whereas the appleOS cant.

as far as a i can see, only thing the appleOs has going for it is :

battery usage is efficient,
has vcard viewer
has ical viewer
photo viewer has transitions.
user interface feels like osx (tiger?)

At one point I actually did, with much enthusiasm, install rockbox after reading all about it. Loved the fact that I could just drag and drop files onto the ipod. At first I found the user interface a little complicated, but was willing to overlook this fact since it made syncing everything so much easier. The main problem I had was my ipod (photo) kept on freezing on me. I had to reset it frequently and the battery life was horrible.

I'm very impressed with what the rockbox devs have done, and I think I gave it a very fair chance, but until its a little less buggy I'd like to stick with the stock OS. Plus, with my older ipod, I don't anticipate them doing much work to improve the port to it.

As for gtkpod, amarok, banshee, etc, I've tried these and find that they handle the metadata differently from itunes causing the artists and songtitles to be mislabeled on a good portion of my music.

What I've been doing, since I have an XP work laptop, is I set my music directory up on my ubuntu box as a samba share, mount it on my XP work laptop, set that directory as my itunes music folder, and then sync it from there. This works great except for the fact that it can be really slow, but I don't sync that frequently for it to matter much.