Using an iPod in Linux

The market for portable MP3 players has exploded in the last few years, and Apple's iPod is considered by many to be the gold standard to which other players are compared. Despite the fact that Apple does not offer a flavor of its iTunes music application for Linux, the iPod still is a good MP3 player for Linux users everywhere.

As I write this, I've used a 20GB fourth generation iPod with click-wheel and the iPod Shuffle; the software described in this article, however, should work with all iPods. To use the slick GUI of GTKPod, you will have better luck with a newer Linux distro. If you're a fan of the command line, though, you should have no problems getting GNUpod to work on almost anything that runs Perl.

With GTKPod, the open-source answer to iTunes, you can rock and roll all night with your iPod and Linux. GTKPod is the slick GUI that allows you to transfer MP3, WAV and M4A non-DRM-infected AAC files from your PC to your iPod. You can add files one at a time or you can add an entire directory at one time. You can create and edit playlists, normalize the volume on single tracks or multiple tracks at a time. You also can edit the ID3 tag of files on the iPod or files on your computer. GTKPod is even smart enough to know not to upload files that already exist on your iPod. And, naturally, GTKPod lets you delete songs from your iPod should you start running out of space.

GTKPod is built on GTK2. Originally developed for use with The GIMP, GTK now is used widely in many applications and is the set of tools used to build the GNOME desktop. As sure as GTK is slick software, it also is complex software with a raft of dependencies, inter-dependencies and various requirements so byzantine that compiling the stuff yourself from source code is asking for a trip down the rabbit hole. Lucky for us all, everything you need to use GTK applications such as GTKPod should be on your computer already if you're running a recent distribution of Linux.

If you're already using your iPod, you probably have everything you need to use it in Linux: the iPod itself, a PC with Firewire or USB 2.0 support and a relatively recent Linux distribution. You'll also need a copy of GTKPod (see the on-line Resources). On the GTKPod site, you should find a lot of documentation and links to the source code, as well as GTKPod packages for SUSE, Debian, Gentoo, Mandrake and other popular Linux distros. More RPM packages can be found by searching rpm.pbone.net or rpmfind.net.

Because the iPod simply is a fancy removable hard drive, to use it with GTKPod in Linux, your kernel needs to support fancy removable hard drives. This kind of support has been in the kernel since 2.4, and it has been refined in the current 2.6 kernel. Almost all current distributions use the 2.6 kernel, and removable hard drive support usually is compiled in the kernel or is available as loadable kernel modules. Therefore, you shouldn't need to do anything to your system to make it see the iPod.

You can connect the iPod to your Linux box through a Firewire connection or a USB 2.0 connection. USB 1.1 also works, but we don't recommend it because the connection is so much slower. Another drawback of using USB 1.1 is the iPod can't charge while it's plugged into your PC.

Installing GTKPod should be no problem whether you're compiling the source code or installing a precompiled binary package. GTKPod requires the libid3tag library, and the libmp4v2 package is required if you plan on using AAC files (see Resources). The source code for GTKPod compiles easily with the standard

./configure
make
make install

commands. A precompiled binary for your platform should install even easier than that and provides tighter integration with your existing desktop.

Once the iPod is formatted with FAT32 and GTKPod is installed, plug the supplied Firewire or USB cable into your PC, and plug the other end into the iPod. If Linux sees the iPod, you should see the iPod's screen flash the message “Do Not Disconnect”; on the iPod Shuffle, the status light blinks orange. If your iPod doesn't do this, try unplugging it and plugging it back in. I'm using Firewire instead of USB on my 20GB iPod, because the majority of on-line resources provide directions for using it. Also, if you only have the one Firewire device active, it makes things a little easier when disconnecting the iPod. The iPod Shuffle connects as easily and predictably as a USB thumb drive. See the Troubleshooting section of this article if you have problems getting Linux to see your iPod.

If you're using a disk-based iPod that's already FAT32-formatted (see Sidebar), there are two partitions on the drive. One is about 40MB and holds the iPod's firmware operating system, and the second is a huge partition that holds all of your music. If you're using an iPod Shuffle, you have only one partition, and it's already FAT32-formatted from the factory.

Every computer is going to be slightly different, so I recommend tailing your /var/log/messages file, or the analogous file for your Linux distribution, to watch what's happening behind the scenes when you first connect your iPod. The log file should indicate that your system has recognized the iPod and assigned it the next available SCSI drive letter, /dev/sda if you're running nothing but IDE drives. Some systems use the fstab-sync utility to edit automatically the /etc/fstab file to include a mount point for the iPod. Others require that a specific entry in your /etc/fstab file already exists. If you're tailing the /var/log/messages file and you don't see something like this fly by:

fstab-sync[4284]: added mount point /mnt/ipod for /dev/sda2