Virgin Mobile Praise + Ubuntu and iPod Nano 3g
I have nothing but praise for Virgin Mobile. Certainly the best carrier I have been on as they are backed by T-Mobile’s rather good network. (Can’t remember when I was last without signal and I tend to go to remote places.) Anyway remember my post about Virgin Mobile’s recent offer if you take out an 18 month contract at £25 or more a month (new or existing customers) you could choose from an iPod nano, PSP Slim or £100 credit? Well they’ve turned up the goods before Christmas.
Even better is that they rang me on Wednesday to say that it was going to be dispatched and confirm it was the iPod I had chosen. Excellent service.
So yesterday I went over to Newhaven to get it. On the way I understood why Yahoo’s Weather had been telling me on Worthing.gov.uk that the weather was FOG. It seems the whole of Shoreham, much of Brighton & Hove and East Sussex beyond that was covered in some of the worst freezing fog we’ve had in a long time. Couldn’t see bloody 3ft in front of me in the car. Anyway got back safely and have unwrapped it. The packaging is a lot smaller than when I used to work selling Apple gear and iPods in ‘05. I remember iPods coming in big cube shaped boxes (mostly because Apple actually included the accessories you need.. another story) and I was there for the iPod nano’s first generation’s launch and those boxes were in themselves pretty tiny compared to the iPod 4g’s and Minis. Now it’s stupidly tiny!
Anyway I’m no fan on iTunes on Windows. The last time I used it was on Mac OS X 10.4.8 I would guess and iTunes 7 actually ran perfectly fine on a G4 1.4GHz but on Windows, I have yet to see a PC that bats it around like a little play thing. It’s a dog. Plus I don’t wish to be locked into DRM either. So iTunes is a no go.
Especially when my ThinkPad runs Ubuntu and to top it all; my Dell GX240 runs Windows 2000 now (another thing to write up) and the iPod Classic and Nano 3g require Windows XP SP2 or Vista. Long and short of it is that to remain legal and to keep my Nikon Coolscan LS-30 working I have to stick with Windows 2000.
Easy ways to get iPod Nano 3g/Third Generation and Classics working without iTunes:
Windows:
- MediaMonkey 3 (Currently on RC-5) — very good. Works on Windows 98/ME/2000/XP and Vista. Much more lightweight but very full features. Supports iPod Nano 3g and Classic out of the box. Freeware with paid for version offering all features. Download Version 3 Release Candidate. (Version 2 does not support the new iPods)
Ubuntu / Debian Linux in general
THIS IS ONLY NEEDED FOR iPOD NANO 3rd GENERATION or iPOD CLASSIC MODELS (FALL 2007 MODELS)
- Download from here: ftp://64.22.103.45/packages/ubuntu/gutsy/libgpod/ the following packages:
libgpod-dev_0.5.3+actually0.6.0-0.1_i386.deb
libgpod2_0.5.3+actually0.6.0-0.1_i386.deb - Install them in that order (double click their icons)
- Plug in the new iPod with the supplied USB docking cable
- Open up a shell/terminal
- Enter the command df (press enter) and look for the line that has /media/IPOD/ at the end at the very start of the line should be something that reads /dev/sdb1 or similar. Make a note of this.
- Enter as root user with: sudo bash and enter your password. (Ubuntu)
- Run the following:
/usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-extended [/dev/xxxx] /media/IPOD
Where [dev/xxxx] is the /dev path you made note of in step 5. E.g. my iPod registered on /dev/sdb1 so I would enter:
/usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-extended /dev/sdb1 /media/IPOD
- Eject the iPod (right click on the iPod icon on the desktop and select Eject), close the terminal.
- Plug in the iPod again, Rhythmbox should automatically run and now you should be able to manage your new iPod through Rhythmbox again.
Why and Final Words
You have to do this as Apple added a layer of encryption to lock you into using iTunes which I personally think is wrong. What is wrong Apple with me using a player that I like? Two faced-ness abounds from Apple on such matters considering their rhetoric on Microsoft and the Windows empire.
But the good thing is that both Windows and Linux users now have an alternative to iTunes and also for Linux a way of actually being able to use their new iPod.
Plus you don’t absolutely have to run Windows XP or Vista on the Windows side. I appreciate XP and Vista account for about ~85% of the Windows marketplace these days but Windows 2000 still takes a sizable 8% of that according to web statistics I collect, which is more than the Mac accounts for, so Windows 2000 isn’t too insignificant to ignore yet!
Thanks for the excellent writeup on getting iPod nano video working with Ubuntu.
It worked just fine for me, after I had wasted several hours trying to manually build libgpod/Rhythmbox etc.
/Simon
Simon Wilson
December 26, 2007 at 3:25 pm
KUDOS! This worked perfectly! I had to install the files in the OPPOSITE order of that listed here, but it solved the problem without pain. Most other sites I googled had problems, but no solutions, and I was considering returning the iPod. This worked beautifully, thank you so much!
Matt Warnock
December 27, 2007 at 6:31 am
Ok. This rocks. It works. I also did in opposite order but it works as well.
cannot thank you enough.
Rich Durant
December 28, 2007 at 7:27 am
Jesus Christ, thank you very much!! The iPod Nano Guide Worked as a charm…
Cheers!
Pedro Guerra
December 28, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Thank you for this tutorial ! This is great
!
But I keep having trouble to put video and photo on my ipod, I dont manage using Rythmbox to do so, any idea ?
Thank you,
Caroline
Caroline
December 28, 2007 at 10:48 pm
I’m getting this error:
Couldn’t write SysInfoExtended to /media/PL_iPod
Help?
Phil
December 29, 2007 at 4:02 am
i just installed the packages as you said and followed the steps. my ipod shows up when attached to the computer and rhythmbox automatically opens and shows the ipod. the only problem is, there doesnt seem to be any options to sunc or upload new songs. all i can do is play the songs currently on the ipod. any ideas?
jon
December 29, 2007 at 6:49 am
immediately after posting that reply i realized that i actually can now drag files from my library over to the ipod and they sync. but i still cannot move over playlists. any ideas on that matter?
jon
December 29, 2007 at 7:02 am
Wondering,
Does this apply to the “a1236″ model 8GB?
I have been reading sites for the past 8 hours with multiple tries and no success.
I am having the problem of read but no write. From what I can tell I should not have hooked it up to my sisters mac first to test it out.
When I did this it seems to have journalled the file system.
Does the method you suggest fix the problem I am having or is it only for non journalled file systems?
Thanks For your help.
Joe M
Ubuntu 7.1.0 i386
iPod nano 8Gb a1236
joe M
December 29, 2007 at 10:17 am
My thanks for this, I was wanting to use Banshee though because cover art / lyric features.
Overall, I would NOT purchase any iPODs, get creative zen micro, or other portable media device, you’ll be much more satisfied with it, believe me.
webdr
December 29, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Thank you! My sister’s new Nano’s database didn’t update when my brother showed her how he uses Amarok for his iPod Video. I figured it had something to do with Apple’s “let’s be jerks and make it not work without iTunes anymore. Can’t let people think Linux is *viable,* then we couldn’t get all the people who run from Windows” thing. I’m going to try this out, and if it works you’re definitely getting a link on my blog.
Mackenzie
December 30, 2007 at 5:22 am
Thanks! This worked perfectly, I had to install the files in the opposite order as well, and the dev package also has 30(!) file dependencies that needed to be installed as well.
Cameron Morrison
December 30, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Ummm, I just upgraded libgpod and gtkpod to the latest version and it all worked as expected. Rhythmbox likes the new libgpod and works nicely, too.
It’s a bit of effort, but in the long run it always works out best, in my view.
What would really make my day is finding out why gpixpod hasn’t managed to put a picture on my 3G ipod nano. Well, it did, but it didn’t display as it should.
cookieninja
January 1, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Worked for me as well, and like Matt I had to install the two .deb package in the opposite order than how they’re listed.
I still get a brief popup warning me that I’ve ejected the device while there’s still data to be written, but after a couple of seconds it’s replaced with a success popup.
Drew Boyles
January 1, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Thanks for the effort in documenting how to get the 3rd gen iPod nano working. Until Ubuntu catchup and get the latest libgpod package in their sources, this just works! Thanks again.
Nigel Burman
January 2, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Thanks for this info, I have been searching high and low for a solution for getting a new 8GB video Nano to run on Ubuntu. My questions is, does anyone know if this will also work for Feisty or is it only good for Gutsy? I don”t really want to updgrade to Gusty if I don’t need to at this time, would rather wait for Hardy.
Big thanks for any help…
Brent Whaley
January 2, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Thanks for this solution! It is the ONLY solution that I have found on the Net that worked!
Dheeraj Mahtani
January 3, 2008 at 5:32 am
Do you know whether this will work for versions of Ubuntu older than Gutsy Gibbon? (I guess I will have to try it and see)
Alex McLintock
January 4, 2008 at 12:57 pm
just asking now how can i sync videos and pictures ? on ubuntu an idea
Jocelyn Habib
January 4, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Thanks, it works perfectly in Rhythmbox. Do you have any suggestion to make it usable in Amarok too?
Music I copy into the Ipod nano by Amarok doesnt show up in the device.
Viktor
Viktor
January 5, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Excellent!
I’ve been looking for info on doing this for weeks now, I’ve found lots on what to do,, but not how to do it! I’m now up & running!
Thank you
(Oh, and Matt is right, the files need to be installed in the opposite order listed.)
Reece
January 5, 2008 at 1:41 pm
it work’s
thanks so much
khaled
January 9, 2008 at 7:34 pm
hi, and thanks for all th work.
My question is this:
I’ve been loading music onto my new Ipod clssic/80gb from a windows xp workstation, and my friend used his mac to put video on.
Will i still be able to retain and use all the stuff i’ve put on the ipod up to this point?
Is there support for Cover Flow? Podcasts? I absolutely love the Amarox software.
mr show
January 11, 2008 at 8:05 am
@Viktor: You need to uninstall(I personally purged, you might not need to)/Reinstall amarok…
after i did that it “just worked”(c)
Paul
January 12, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Thanks, it works.
Viktor
January 15, 2008 at 6:07 am
Thanks for this. I’m seriously considering switching from WinXP to Ubuntu very soon, and I found this while researching potential trouble spots.
Can I assume this works for podcasts as well? (I suppose I’ll have to resubscribe, but that’s no biggie.) Also, do I need to wipe the iPod and start from scratch, or can I plug it in as-is (full of iTunes synched stuff) and it will figure it out on its own?
blork
January 19, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I wasn’t able to install them in the order stated (first and second step). There was a dependency issue that was only taken care of if I installed the second file first….is this bad?
Joel
January 19, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Thanks a lot!
Aldo
January 21, 2008 at 5:49 am
COMFIRMED: PACKAGES WORK WITH FEISTY
Similar results, installed packages in reverse order. Ran the commands, unmounted, and it all worked out.
If you end up adding songs, and causing your ipod to not recognize the database, don’t worry. I was able to save mine. I loaded up in GTKPod, and it went through my database and updated the database accordingly. All is well, songs are back! Rhythmbox works great.
Mark Hayes
January 21, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Thank you soooooo much! I can’t believe this site didn’t pop up more often in my Google searches. This worked like a charm! I really appreciate it!
Chris
January 22, 2008 at 9:30 am
[...] Victoria Lamburn has a nice little “howto” for making a new (Fall 2007 edition) iPod work with Ubuntu. She has the new libgpod packaged up and gives you the commands needed to update the database [...]
New iPod This Gift-Giving Season? | Ubuntu Linux Help
January 25, 2008 at 8:28 am
Yeah baby! Totally awesome dude. I spent way too much time jerking around with this 3G Nano Video 8gig. Nice solution. DAMN Non-Compliant APPLE gizmos
TheGuru
January 25, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I LOVE you, man. You just validated my 150 dollar purchase.
Happy
January 26, 2008 at 1:11 am
I installed the packages and I was able to issue the commd. Now what do I do? My son bought the ipod nano. How do you put music onto it? What about podcasts and videos?
Art Edwards
January 26, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Thanks for the Ubuntu writeup!!!
You rock and now so does my IPOD.
KJAY
January 27, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I’m using Ubuntu 7.10 (Kernel linux 2.6.22-14-generic GNOME 2.20.1). I tried to instal both bgpod-dev_0.5.3+actually0.6.0-0.1_i386.deb and libgpod2_0.5.3+actually0.6.0-0.1_i386.deb but I have got a error message: “error: dependency is not satisfaible”. I have got 3rd generation nano ipod. Please help.
Michal
January 27, 2008 at 9:48 pm
worked for me as well
i was pointed here by the smart folks in Freenode > #ubuntu , and per the instructions (and installing the 2 files in reverse order) it works perfectly on my ubuntu 7.10 Fiesty Fawn box.
thanks for posting this info!
… Good Karma to you …
laughzilla
January 30, 2008 at 7:08 am
The ubuntu site
some good info
about videos etc.
has alink to this page which is awesome!
Doug
February 2, 2008 at 3:52 am
oops i forgot the link
copy and paste this
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PortableDevices/iPod?action=show&redirect=IPodHowto
Doug
February 2, 2008 at 3:54 am
Or just click on it, whatever
Thanks for your help
cya
Doug
February 2, 2008 at 3:55 am
reece’s
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read.
reece's
February 2, 2008 at 7:15 am
Couldnt load these files because Im running Ubuntu 7.10 on the 64-bit PC (AMD64), I get:
Error: Wrong architecture ‘i386′
***
Any changes in that this packages will be available for 64-bit version ?
/ Al
Al
February 3, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I’ve spent hours just trying to get my iPod working, and with this guide it worked PERFECTLY!
Anton, Sweden
Anton Nyman
February 4, 2008 at 7:29 pm
[...] laufen bringen will, kommt um ein paar kleine Trix nicht rum. Die nötigen Schritte finden sich in diesem Blog. Das ganze funktioniert auch mit der aktuellen iPod-Firmware 1.1 – “have a lot of fun!” [...]
iPod nano 3.g mit Ubuntu : pindarsign|blog
February 4, 2008 at 8:02 pm
[...] Men, idag hittade jag denna sida med en enkel guide hur man ska göra. Tack Victoria! [...]
Internetvision » Blog Archive » iPod+Linux
February 4, 2008 at 9:31 pm
THANKS
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
ilove you
i spent like 30 houers trying to sync my ipod
but now i can
alex
February 5, 2008 at 4:19 am
TIP:
if you get this error:
root@ubuntu:~#
/usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-extended /dev/sdb2 /media/disk/
Couldn’t write SysInfoExtended to /media/disk/
root@ubuntu:~#
then you probably initialized your iPod Nano on a Mac. This formats it using HFS+ file system. Linux does have drivers for this but they are read-only. This means you can’t write anything to the iPod, even the stuff this hack needs.
So… fire up a Windoze VM or borrow someone’s PC for a second and use iTunes or so to reinitialize. Then follow these instructions again.
Chris
February 8, 2008 at 11:06 pm
There is now an error in the -dev package, as of 04Feb08. Will need to manually install one of the dependecies. <> is no longer available and has been replaced with a more recent file: <> . You can get it here: http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-source-2.6.22/linux-libc-dev_2.6.22-14.51_i386.deb
This will need to be installed BEFORE the libgpod-dev~ package.
James
February 9, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Thanks for the tip, dude.
Got my last generation Ipod nano working on gutsy.
Highly recommended
Vinicius
February 12, 2008 at 10:58 pm
[...] Victoria Lamburn has a nice little “howto” for making a new (Fall 2007 edition) iPod work with Ubuntu. She has the new libgpod packaged up and gives you the commands needed to update the database [...]
New iPod This Gift-Giving Season?
February 14, 2008 at 9:47 am
Thank you very much!
Regards.
Joel
February 17, 2008 at 4:42 pm
it doesn’t work for me :’( i have installed the 2 packages and i have my ipod on /dev/sda1 and /media/DRUPOD
root@drushhome:~# /usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-extended /dev/sda1 /media/DRUPOD
bash: /usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-extended/: No file or directory
drush
February 23, 2008 at 1:09 pm
my mistake it works great!!! i had forgot to download the two libraries here because I thought that were the same of the normal repository XD
drush
February 23, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Thank you! As soon as I installed the the packages in the right order it worked fine. The IPod works with both amarok and Rythmbox now.
Dan Pettersson
February 25, 2008 at 1:11 pm
it work perfectly for me…. this is the only solution that actually works…. i’ve had about 8 hours looking around and ruin my brand new ipod nano… jajaja but thanks to you now i’m hearing my favorit song in this gadget (paranoid android, radiohead), thank you again and again and again….
Victor
February 26, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Many thanks! Works just fine!
Dmitry
March 5, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Thanks for the instructions. It finally worked for me, but in the beginning I had a problem so I report it here in case somebody else has the same:
After following the instructions, rhythmbox would still not open when my ipod (nano, 3rd gen) was connected. It was crashing on startup without any messages.
Then I tried gtkpod, which gave the following message on startup:
“Could not find iPod directory structure at ‘/media/IPOD’. If you are sure that the iPod
is properly mounted at ‘/media/ipod’, gtkpod can create the directory structure
for you.
Do you want to create the directory structure now?’”
In the beginning I thought it’s a problem of the library. But it turns out that if the iPod has never been used with iTunes (I don’t have a windows machine) then it lacks some index files. This is normal. So clicking “YES” (and selecting my ipod model) gtkpod created these files and now my ipod works perfectly (and also works with rhythmbox).
Kostas
March 8, 2008 at 7:30 am
I really thought this guide was the answer to my problems. But, of course, I ran into a problem that no one seems to have run into. Of course.
root@mhall:~# /usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-extended /dev/sdb1 /media/MARTINS IPO
Couldn’t resolve Device directory path on /media/MARTINS
Any ideas on this one? Could this depend upon the fact that I’ve named my iPod “Martins iPod” and the fact that that name includes a space? If so, what to do about it? I can’t seem to change the name of the damn thing without iTunes and I don’t have access to a Windows computer.
Martin Hall
March 22, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Does anyone have any success on 64-bit Gutsy? All these packages are for i386
Ryan
March 23, 2008 at 4:28 pm
When I try /usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-extended /dev/sdb1 /media/IPOD
I get
Couldn’t resolve Device directory path on /media/IPOD
I also tried, instead of “IPOD” at the end, “iPod” as that is how it is listed in the /media directory.
For the moment I’m going to run itunes in a virtual machine but has anyone experienced this?
Graham Macleod
March 26, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Thanks! solved my problem, here are the details in case it helps anyone else…
ipod: 3rd gen nano 8gb blue (model: a1236)
os: ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy)
initial problem: recognized and mounted fine, transferred files using gtkpod, but the nano always said 0 music files after disconnecting
solution: as above
notes: i had to change the model number in the ipod options dialogue (an updated list of models is available after installing the new version of libgpod).
good luck
Adam.
Adam
March 29, 2008 at 7:06 am
guess i could have just waited for Ubuntu 8.04 – HardyHeron, coming out next month with libgpod 0.6.0
Adam
March 29, 2008 at 7:19 am
Thank you! Excellent advice- worked for me.
Giles Morant
April 4, 2008 at 4:54 pm
[...] get the iPod 3rd Generation Nano to work, you may find this article [...]
Use New iPod Nano with Ubuntu | Highub - Web Development Blog
April 13, 2008 at 7:59 am
For once a post that actually works, which is not something i experience often, usually its a combination of 10 sites telling me to do different things.
Thanks
Ewoudt Kellerman
April 13, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I’m about to try it out with amarok 1.4.8. I’ll post and tell you how it works out
oh yeah, ubuntu seems to be missing some dependencies. Oh well, time to update…
Adam
April 15, 2008 at 5:31 am
Thanks so much from me and my friend!
Benjamin
April 20, 2008 at 11:47 pm
People have apparently found this howto helpful also:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=611404&page=2
charding
April 21, 2008 at 3:00 am
Brilliant! I too installed libgpod2 before libgpod-dev and my 4 gig 3rd gen iPod nano now works with rhythmbox without getting bricked, and I can use Amazon MP3 (no DRM) in lieu of iTMS. Thanks for the tutorial!
Paul
April 22, 2008 at 2:14 am
Thank You! it work perfectly
Cheap iPod Nano
May 5, 2008 at 2:22 pm
unfortunately, Rhythmbox segfaults when I plug in my new ipod classic.
(followed the instructions above, running Gutsy)
however, i hadnt initialise my ipod , so i’ll try loading it up via Windoze iTunes first and see if that solves the issue.
Justin Flavin
May 17, 2008 at 6:27 pm
i have a really old version of winwows – 1998 i think? how do i get my ipod nano (3rd) working on it? is there any way?
saz
May 20, 2008 at 6:46 pm
thank you, for writing simple and working instructions that applied for my nano 3rd gen pink 8gb, connected to eee 701 running eeexubuntu! i too had to install the deb files in reverse order, but after that i could open the nano with gtkpod and correct the model number – everything is running smoothly and i’ve successfully uploaded and watched my first movie on the nano
thank you again!
thomas
July 8, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Thanks a lot, with the combo iPod nano fix 3g + Skype 2.0 with Video I can finally do EVERYTHING I need on Ubuntu!
Alessandro C
July 12, 2008 at 3:57 am
Thanks a lot!
Two days of search and unfortunate attempts finally led me to your post.
chook
August 3, 2008 at 4:41 am