Monday, August 18, 2008

Accessing Ipod with Linux: GtkPod

The first attempt to access my ipod with Linux didn't go very well: I was able to access it with amarok and to upload some files and playlists, only to find out that then the ipod did not see any songs and I had to restore it with itunes under windows.

Then, after upgrading my ubuntu distributions, since I heard that this problem was due to an old version of the libgpod library, I decided to try again, but this time with gtkpod.

The Ipod was soon found upon connection, and I had to set the right model:


Then I was able to access the songs, upload new songs, and delete other songs


Don't forget to save the changes before disconnecting the ipod, otherwise its internal database won't be saved.

Then all the songs were still in the ipod and I could play them.

However, there still seem to be some problems: after this operation, the cover gallery which automatically shows under the menu does not show anymore (you can see only the number of the songs). Thus, I assume that the database is not updated correctly... after a restore with itunes the gallery showed up again.

So, for the moment, I still can't access and modify songs on my ipod in satisfactory way under linux :-(

3 comments:

Unr3a1 said...

Yes, I have also experienced this problem. I don't know what is exactly causing the issue, but it looks like when you synchronize the iPod using gtkpod, Amorok, or Rythmbox for that matter, they modify something in the files just enough on the iPod to lose the cover art. It's not that the cover flow is not working, its that the album artwork is not there. Probably something to do with the way Linux formats it's image files on the iPod. It probably cannot read the files.

I was able to restore most of the album artwork using Rythmbox's ability to connect to a server and download the album artwork. I didn't get all the artwork only because I have some custom built albums for artists that I have full discographies for. But once I got the artwork synchronized back with the iPod, the album artwork floated like it is supposed to at the main menu when "Music" is highlighted. Hope that helps.

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