techiehenry

One hurdle that some people face when migrating from other operating systems to Linux is the fact that some devices connected to their machines are not supported. Eventually though, somebody comes up with one that solves this problem. This is the case with the iPod. Someone went out and created support, either a a plugin for an existing Linux-based media player or as a stand-alone application. For years since, iPod users using Linux on their machines have been enjoying the support that only their Mac and Windows-using friends once had.

Then came iTunes on phones. It would have been safe to say that since it uses the same application as the regular iPods, Linux applications for the iPod would work out of the box with the likes of the ROKR, V3i, and the L7. That wasn’t what turned out. It appears that though the phones use the same application, the arrangement of the filesystem on the iPod and the iTunes phones were quite different.

Admittedly, support was slow in coming. It might be that the application developers do not have access to the device itself, or any other reason, but it was about a year before Linux support for iTunes on mobile phones was created.

I was one of those who waited for months for these applications to come by, and I’m glad to spread the word that support has already arrived. Now what application did I use and how?

1. Download the latest release of gtkpod and libgpod. Notice the date on the files? It’s been a month since its release! Pretty new, huh?
2. Extract the files in their own folder, and perform the following commands:

./configure
./make
./make install

These will compile the source codes and install the binaries in the appropriate directories.

3. If all goes well, at this point you can start gtkpod through a terminal window:

gtkpod &

The main gtkpod window would appear.

4. In the playlist column, you can see an entry called ‘iPod’. Right-click on it and select ‘Edit iPod properties’.
5. In the window that will be opened, refer to the entry for ‘iPod mountpoint’. This should be changed to the mountpoint of the mobile phone (the phone MUST be mounted before gtkpod can access it). As for my Ubuntu box, it appeared mounted at /media/<Memory card label>/.
6. At the entry for ‘Model’, select ‘xmobile1′ under ‘Mobile phone’. You may now close the window.
7. Again, right-click on ‘iPod’ and then select ‘Load iPod’. This would connect your mobile phone to gtkpod. You may now transfer music and add playlists.
8. To save your changes, click on ‘Save Changes’ on the toolbar. When the operation’s done, you may close gtkpod, unmount the mobile phone, and enjoy your music.

That’s all there is to it!