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Media (Apple) Businesses Media Apple

Apple iPod on Linux Project 21

Posted by pudge from the where-there-is-a-financial-investment-there-is-a-way dept.
lotion writes "I'm trying to get the Apple iPod to work with Linux. I want to be able to read/write MP3s, songlists, and so forth. Since I don't own a modern Mac, I'm stuck with a $400 mirror until I get it working. Now if that's not incentive ..."
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Apple iPod on Linux Project More

Apple iPod on Linux Project

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  • I'm a little out of my element, but aren't they just firewire harddrives? Shouldn't you be able to mount them and read/write to them as such?
    • That is correct. However, the file system is HFS+. On Windows for example, you need something like MacDrive to mount it...

      • Re:FireWire Harddrive? (Score:4, Informative)

        by jasonwileymac.com ( 560445 ) on Monday March 18, 2002 @10:42AM (#3180991) Homepage
        Only for files and folders. You can't just fill up the HD with music and expect the iPod to play it. When connected to iTunes, it creates a hidden folder with it's own database of music, and that is the only way the interface itself will see the tracks.
        • there are easy easy hacks to reveal that "hidden mp3 folder"..... it's Apple's lofi way to discourage mass swapping of MP3s from the ipod (apple legal called for it maybe?). in general Apple's take on the MP3 issue is that the file format should not be blamed for the illegal activities of some users..... anyway i have a few friends with ipods and they all did the hack... though since they are all mac owners, i do not know how that helps it play with linux.

          if you did not yet buy one, you might want to hold on a little... the company that makes the HD is supposed to ship a 10 gig drive any day now, and a 20 gig version in about a month. we might see these in the ipod as soon as MacWorld Tokyo (this thursday). ok, that info is mostly from rumor sites, but the ipod has been out about 5 months now and these days that seems to be about how often Apple tweaks hardware. anyway my point is if you were going to buy one tomorrow, wait till thursday to see what happens.

          granted 20 gigs of MP3s is an insanely high amount, but the thing also is a portable hard drive, and can be used as a boot drive for macs. kinda cool for a diagnostic tool.
  • I don't claim to know anything about this type of hacking, but it seems to me that using an app courtesy of VMWare and NT is just an added layer of complexity.

    Are there open source programs available for Windows that interface to the iPod or any other mp3 player? I'd be inclined to look through that code and try porting it to Linux.

  • Darwin must have HFS+ code (Score:4, Informative)

    by Whatchamacallit ( 21721 ) on Monday March 18, 2002 @10:53AM (#3181041) Homepage
    Take a look at the Darwin HFS+ code. http://publicsource.apple.com/

    Also look to http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-hfsplus

    Nothing is complete or very useable yet, but if you are a programmer, I am sure they could use all the help they can get.
  • you go here
    http://neuron.com/~jason/ipod.html

  • not as easy as just writing mp3s to disk... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    the iTunes:iPod combo doesn't seem to just write to disk. If you mount the iPod on a normal Mac's desktop and write mp3's as files to the thing, they won't show up in the iPod's library of songs to play. They're treated as files.

    The synched mp3's are there in some other format. Possibly as a single file, or probably just as hidden files or something.

    You should figure that out before going any further. Because big deal if you get a 5gb firewire hd working in linux. You can buy those for a lot less than an iPod's price.
    • the problem with them not showing up is not how they're stored, it has to do with the iTunes database.

      the iTunes database is a binary proprietory format from Apple that stores much the information that the ID3v2 tag in your MP3 stores. This allows iTunes and the iPod to sort through your mp3 files quicker and the such.

      In order for files copied into the iPod to show up on the playlist, they need to updated in the iTunes playlist stored on the iPod's harddrive.

      This would require someone to figure out how to parse the iTunes database format and update the database when the files are copied over, so you would need some sort of tool to do this automatically for you on Linux.
  • Either port the framework (and make someone else's future projects easier) or communicate with the iPod as an external firewire drive.

    I, myself, don't have an iPod, but it has been said that the music is located in an invisible folder on the iPod.

    Why not just write some perl code to create playlists from a list of datafiles?

    Their "proprietary format" for datafiles can't be too obscure of a format.

    For reference sake:
    /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Frameworks/iPodS upport.framework/Versions/A/iPodSupport

  • It doesn't look like you're getting a lot of help from the Slashbots on this one, unfortunately...

    If anyone with good programming skills is in the mood to help, the best way to help out would be to get reliable write access to HFS+ filesystems, either through the kernel module [sourceforge.net] or the user-mode utilities (the author's page is here [penguinppc.org])

    Anyway, back to Jason, your webpage has listed, for at least a couple monthe now, several people who are "working on" things like write support in hfsplusutils and iTunes database manipulation, but there is no indication of what the status is on those projects. What's happening along those lines?

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