HOWTO: Get Your iPod to work with GTKPod

[Merc248]

I personally had a lot of problems trying to get my iPod to work correctly with GTKPod. It seems that GTKPod always made the vfat filesystem on the iPod read only every time I wanted to do an operation on it. However, I finally found out how to make it work correctly. Keep in mind that you will need an iPod already formatted in Windows through iTunes before you can proceed with this HOWTO.

First, I will explain how to get GTKPod up and running first, then I will go over the distinct problem that I was talking about.

If you want AAC support for GTKPod, type the following command in in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install gtkpod-aac

You'll need to make sure that you have the Hoary Backports repositories added to /etc/apt/sources.list in order to use the gtkpod-aac package. Check http://backports.ubuntuforums.org for more information.

Otherwise, type this in:

sudo apt-get install gtkpod

Keep in mind that you cannot have both packages installed at the same time, so I advise you to just use the AAC package.

You can likewise search for "gtkpod" in Synaptic and install it through there.

Next, in order for it to properly appear in the menu, type in:

killall gnome-panel

I'm assuming that GNOME or KDE will automatically create a mount point for your iPod under the /media/ directory. If not, edit fstab, and add a new entry into it. Here's what I personally added at the bottom of fstab:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

...

/dev/sdc2	/media/MERCPOD  vfat	nosuid,noauto,nodev,rw,umask=077,gid=1000,uid=1000,user,defaults,noatime,iocharset=utf8	0	0

That should be enough to get your iPod up and running.

When you go into GTKPod, go to Edit > Preferences, Input/Output tab. I personally didn't get the auto mount/unmount thing working, so I left it unchecked.

However, the most important field in that entire preferences window is the iPod Mount Point field in the Input/Output tab. Fill in the mount point field with the appropriate folder that GNOME/KDE created (or that you yourself created) for your iPod. With GNOME, it automatically created the folder /media/MERCPOD, MERCPOD being the name of my iPod that I entered in when I had it set up in Windows.

Restart the program. It will automatically fill the GTKPod database with all of the songs and playlists that you have stored on your iPod prior to setting up GTKPod.

However, here is the rub: GTKPod seems to work randomly for different people. It will work on one synchronization, yet it will stop working for subsequent synchronizations. Others will find that it will not work, period. There's a simple solution to that, actually; just type the following command in into your console app:

sudo dosfsck -a /dev/sdc2

sdc2 being the partition where your iPod data resides. Be sure to check out /etc/mtab with gedit in order to confirm which /dev/ node is being used for your iPod.

The above command will execute dosfsck, and automatically fix any errors encountered in the vfat partition.

After that, GTKPod should work flawlessly without your system automatically mounting your iPod as read only.

[poofyhairguy]

Good and needed how to. Thanks.

One thing, please make some kind of note that the gtkpod-aac is only in the backport repo.

[Merc248]

Whoops... didn't know. I added the backport repositories right after I installed Ubuntu, so I had no clue... I'll be sure to add that note, though.

[Sionide]

Reckon this will only work for iPods or any mp3player? I'm having trouble getting anything out of my Rio... Anyone got any links for Rio software which might work on Ubuntu?

[poofyhairguy]

Reckon this will only work for iPods or any mp3player??

just iPods. Any iPod.

[bored2k]

just iPods. Any iPod.

I soo wish I had one..

[RastaMahata]

I soo wish I had one..

I NEED one! and I need Angelina Jolie too, but, well, at least I can afford the iPod

[bored2k]

I NEED one! and I need Angelina Jolie too, but, well, at least I can afford the iPod

Tomb Raider for PS1 is cheaper than the iPOD.

[andlinux21]

my laptop doesnt have firewire anyone know if this card would work with Ubuntu (Compaq's PCMCIA cardbus offers 2 FireWire ports ). I would like to get it so that i can use my laptop with my iPod.

[ganatronic]

Thanks for the write-up.

Remarkably, I had almost no problems getting my ipod to make sweet love to this program. My gripe, however, is that I can't get my newly added playlists to alphabetise. They show up in the gtkpod playlist list in correct alpha order, but they don't sync that way.

I wish this program had more sorting commands. The general library list is in an unknown order - it makes it difficult to locate certain artists.

So, anyone have alphabetising and sorting advice? I could be missing something.