Uwe Hermann - Initial Linux support for the 5g video iPod - video sync using gtkpod / libgpod [Update] - Comments

gtkpod

Uwe Hermann — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:10:53 +0200

gtkpod is a Linux program, you have to install it on your Linux system, then start it like you do with any other program.

Uwe.

how to use the gtkpod

Avi — Wed, 14 May 2008 08:03:16 +0200

How do I open the file gtkpod? Am I supposed to find a way of opening this file on the net or what? Thanks for your help.

gtkpod

Uwe Hermann — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 16:43:46 +0100

I don't use any scripts, the standard gtkpod download now includes my changes. Just use the latest gtkpod version...

Uwe.

link broken

marco — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 13:44:48 +0100

This link is broken, can you please post the script you use?

eject ipod

paul valentin — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:47:21 +0200

try "eject sda2",

it should work on every distribution.

gr, paul

Wondershare Video to iPod Converter

purchaseshareware — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 04:18:38 +0200

Wondershare Video to iPod Converter is a professional video converter for Apple iPod video.

http://www.purchaseshareware.com/multimedia-design-video/wondershare-video-to-ipod-converter8799-9.htm

How-to copy video file to an ipod 5G

karolus — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 01:15:43 +0200

I was wandering how to do this for a long time...

1) using GTKPOD create a PLAYLIST named "Videos"
2) put your file there
3) sync
4) enjoy

just wonder why i couldnt(and still cannot) find something like this in any readme file .... sad

Thank You.

Jake — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:39:38 +0200

Thank you for your help, Uwe. "umount" successfully unmounted the iPod, as verified by "mount".

Also, not like it matters, but the "Do Not Disconnect" disappears on my wife's iPod Mini. Sounds like different iPod HW behaves a little differently on Linux.

I really appreciate your help.

-Jake

sda1 vs. hda1

Uwe Hermann — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 19:47:20 +0200

Be careful, I think you mean /dev/hda1 is your hard drive, not /dev/sda1...

USB devices are usually called sda*, sdb* etc. Normal (IDE) hard drives are called hda*, hdb*, usually. However, there are exceptions (SCSI disks, for example)...

The iPod has multiple partitions, if I remember correctly, sda1 is the first (you cannot do much with that usually), hda2 should be the second one, which you can mount...

Ok, unmounting (as root)

Uwe Hermann — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 19:43:28 +0200

Ok, unmounting (as root) should work if you quit gtkpod before trying to unmount (not sure about eject).

The "Do Not Disconnect" will be there forever, it doesn't change on Linux, regardless of whether the iPod is mounted or not. If the umount succeeded (check with "mount"), it should be safe to remove the iPod.

Unable to unmount/eject iPod

Jake — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 17:08:21 +0200

Now that I am able to mount my iPod when it is connected directly to a USB port on my PC, I still need to unmount/eject it.

What happens now is that exiting gtkpod generates an error telling me that /mnt/ipod was not successfully unmounted. I tried:
[root@mainpc ~]# eject /mnt/ipod
eject: unable to eject, last error: Inappropriate ioctl for device

and
[root@mainpc ~]# umount /mnt/ipod
umount: /mnt/ipod: not mounted

The "Do Not Disconnect" message continues to flash on the iPod's screen.

The "umount" command works every time with my wife's iPod Mini. Do you know what else I can try? I can disconnect it while the "Do Not Disconnect" message is flashing on the screen, but that is asking for trouble.

Many Thanks,
-Jake

Hub?

Jake — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 17:00:07 +0200

Yes, I do have sda1 and sda2. sda1 is mounted at /boot (I'm assuming that this is my hard drive) and sda2 is throwing up the 'already mounted or /media/ipod busy' error.

The iPod works otherwise. I tried it with iTunes on Windohs 2000 and it worked fine.

Something that I've noticed is that my dmesg output mentions a hub. My iPod was connected to a usb hub and that hub was the issue. I was able to mount the iPod successfully after connecting the iPod directly to one of the USB ports on my PC. Synching works.

Now I have another issue -- unmounting the iPod. I'll start a new thread about this one...

Thank you for your help, Uwe.

iPod device

Uwe Hermann — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 23:46:20 +0200

Yes, I think you are ;)

The /dev/hcd7 is definately wrong, there's no such device (I guess you derived that from the "uhci_hcd and address 7", but that's wrong).

The "no configuration chosen from 2 choices" looks not so good, obviously the iPod is not really detected...

Here's what I see after 6-7 seconds after plugging in the iPod (it has to be turned on!):

usb 1-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
usb 1-8: configuration #1 chosen from 2 choices
scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 6
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
  Vendor: Apple     Model: iPod              Rev: 1.62
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 00
SCSI device sdb: 58605120 512-byte hdwr sectors (30006 MB)
sdb: Write Protect is off
sdb: Mode Sense: 6c 00 00 08
sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
SCSI device sdb: 58605120 512-byte hdwr sectors (30006 MB)
sdb: Write Protect is off
sdb: Mode Sense: 6c 00 00 08
sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
 sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3
sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sdb
sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete

I fiddled with my iPod quite a bit, I don't have a standard partition layout (I have /dev/sdb1 or something, you probably will have /dev/sda2 or something)...

The line you'll need to see is something similar to "sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3"...

Does the iPod work otherwise? Does it work with other OSes?

HTH, Uwe.

Checking dev location

Jake — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 22:16:28 +0200

Thank you for your response, Uwe. Per your suggestion, I typed in dmesg and here are the last few lines of the output:
usb 2-1.3: USB disconnect, address 4
usb 2-1.3: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5
usb 2-1.3: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
usb 2-1.3: no configuration chosen from 2 choices
usb 2-1.3: USB disconnect, address 5
usb 2-1.3: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 6
usb 2-1.3: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
usb 2-1.3: no configuration chosen from 2 choices
usb 2-1.3: USB disconnect, address 6
usb 2-1.3: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 7
usb 2-1.3: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
usb 2-1.3: no configuration chosen from 2 choices

As you can see I disconnected and tried reconnecting a few times, each time a different address was assigned.

I then tried:
[root@mainpc ~]# mount -t vfat /dev/hcd7 /media/ipod

Resulting in:
mount: special device /dev/hcd7 does not exist

Am I reading the dmesg output incorrectly?

-Jake

Hm, strange. Are you sure

Uwe Hermann — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 03:48:43 +0200

Hm, strange. Are you sure sda2 is correct? Plug in the iPod, then wait a few seconds, then type dmesg. There should be a line which says sda2 (or something else).

Also, try to quit gtkpod before mounting the device, and only start gtkpod after you have successfully mounted the iPod (just guessing)...

Uwe.

Initial Linux support for the 5g video iPod - video sync using gtkpod / libgpod [Update]

Uwe Hermann — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 17:43:18 +0100

OK, so I spent some fun time playing around with my 5g video iPod — time for more serious action now.

I have created two patches today which add support for the video iPod to gtkpod, a GTK+ based, platform independent GUI for Apple's iPod.
These initial patches allow you to sync m4v video files to your iPod and watch them there. I will add support for all other video formats which work on the iPod, soon. The patches will be sent to the gtkpod maintainers, of course, in the hope that they can be included in the next release.

Note: This is pre-alpha, barely-tested code! Use at your own risk!

Installation instructions:

Get the current CVS version of libgpod. Apply the following patch: libgpod_5g_video_ipod_support.patch. Compile and install libgpod.
Get the current CVS version of gtkpod. Apply the following patch: gtkpod_5g_video_ipod_support.patch. Compile and install gtkpod.
Mount your iPod (USB cable): mount -t vfat /dev/sda2 /mnt/ipod
Start gtkpod (possibly as root, depending on your system) . Maybe you need to edit the settings and adjust the mount point for the iPod (/mnt/ipod is the default).
Click on the "Read" button to read in the iTunesDB from the iPod, click on "Files" to add a video file (e.g. this Apple commercial from 1977), click on "Sync" to upload the file to your iPod.
Quit gtkpod, unmount the iPod (umount /mnt/ipod), disconnect the USB cable.
Profit!!!1

I get a "Destroying mmap buffer" error every time I sync the iPod, but that's probably a gtkpod bug, and it's non-fatal anyways.

If you happen to own a video iPod, please test the patches and report whether they work! Thanks!

Update 2005-11-19: The libgpod patch is in CVS now (plus a bug which caused MP3s to appear in the "Movies" list is fixed now, too). So you don't need the libgpod patch anymore! I have updated the gtkpod patch, you should now be able to sync almost any video format (m4v, mp4, mpg, mpeg, avi, mov) to your video iPod.
Update 2005-11-24: The current libgpod/gtkpod CVS now contains all the features of my patches, so they are obsolete from now on.