# ipod mini and linux?

## asiobob

I'm really thinking of getting an ipod mini.

I'm no expert in this area.

IIRC they come formated in HFS right? I've heard I can format this to FAT32.. do I need a windows box to do the format or will the dos formatting tools on linux work?

Also can I use gnupod and gtkpod to manipulate the ipod mini?

Anything to watchout for?

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## Silvervain

Hi,

I've not played with the IPOD mini but unless you really want to reformat it to fat32 you can leave it as HFSPlus. I've got my mac formated IPOD hooked up to my Gentoo box and quite happily transfered 25Gig of music last night without a hitch.

I'd assume (but maybe completely wrong) that GTKPod would work as the mini is just a smaller version of the standard IPOD but it might be worth checking on http://www.ipodlounge.com/ I find those forums pretty good for info.

My personal preference is to the use firewire rather than usb to connect and with udev it's pretty much pop an entry into fstab plug in and go. Only thing to remember is that you have to remove the sbp2 module otherwise after unmounting the IPOD still doesn't show ok to disconnect.

Regards

Silvervain

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## asiobob

thanks for the response.

Is the sbp2 module only for the firewire connection?

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## asiobob

Okay I got a mini it works with gtkpod and USB.

Unfortunatly once I plug the USB in it shows the "do not disconnect screen", then I mount the pod and use gtkpod, Then I unmount the pod. But he screen keeps saying do not disconnect, 

I suspect if I unload the usb module (like you do the firefire) it will be okay but thats compiled in the kernel and I don't want to unload the module because I have other devices in use. So basically I do disconnect it as I figure if its not writing anything and is unmounted its okay

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## Sgaduuw

to get rid of that message, unload the sbp2 module:

```
rmmod sbp2
```

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## asiobob

I thought sbp2 was for firewire (I'm using usb) ? I don't think I have spb2 even enabled in the kernel

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## HighOnBonsai

@ASIO_BOB: Try

```
eject /dev/sda
```

Replace sda with your iPod device! This worked for me and I am using my iPod via USB

Christopher

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## asiobob

the humble eject! I forgot about that  :Smile: 

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## dat

 *ASIO_BOB wrote:*   

> Okay I got a mini it works with gtkpod and USB.
> 
> 

 

What does your directory structure look like with the mini?  I'm trying to setup the mini w/ gtkpod and firewire, but I don't seem to be having much luck.  If I load songs in windows, it puts it in directories with a ~1 at the end.  Such as ipod_c~1 instead of ipod_con (Probably because its fat32).  Anyway, gtkpod uses ipod_con instead of ipod_c~1.  

Basically, the end result is that no matter what songs I copy over with gtkpod, they don't play on the mini.  The playlists don't even show up.

BTW, I can mount the ipod fine (rw).

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## asiobob

I allowed the gtkpod to create the directory structure.

```

sura@synapse sura $ ls /mnt/ipod/ -l

total 16

drwx------  2 sura users 4096 Aug 22 15:15 Calendars

drwx------  2 sura users 4096 Aug 22 15:15 Contacts

drwx------  2 sura users 4096 Aug 22 15:35 Notes

drwx------  5 sura users 4096 Aug 22 15:15 iPod_Control

```

```
ls /mnt/ipod/iPod_Control/

Device  Music  iTunes
```

```

ls /mnt/ipod/iPod_Control/Music/

f00  f02  f04  f06  f08  f10  f12  f14  f16  f18

f01  f03  f05  f07  f09  f11  f13  f15  f17  f19

```

inside the f* directorys I have mp3 files, that start with gtkpod gtkpodXXXX.mp3 where X is a number

----------

## dat

Strange.. 

This is what happened:

```

dat@grendel dat $ mount /mnt/ipod

dat@grendel dat $ cd /mnt/ipod

dat@grendel ipod $ rm -rf *

dat@grendel ipod $ ls -la

total 8

drwxr--r--   2 dat  users 4096 Sep 21 20:06 .

drwxr-xr-x  12 root root  4096 Sep  6 15:49 ..

```

Here is where I created the directories via gtkpod

```

dat@grendel ipod $ ls

calendar  contacts  ipod_con

dat@grendel ipod $

```

Even though gtkpod says it's making Ipod_Control, it ends up being ipod_con.  Does this have something to do with me using firewire?  What would cause this?

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## asiobob

hmm interesting, what version of gtkpod are you using?

I dobut its due to firewire.

If anything contact the developer of gtkpod, he responds quickly

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## dat

 *ASIO_BOB wrote:*   

> hmm interesting, what version of gtkpod are you using?
> 
> I dobut its due to firewire.
> 
> If anything contact the developer of gtkpod, he responds quickly

 

My version of gtkpod is 0.80-2

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## asiobob

okay thats what I have as well, I tihnk you should visit http://gtkpod.sf.net and email the author or mailing list. The only difference between you and I is that i'm using USB2. I'm using the fat32 for the filesystem

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## dat

 *ASIO_BOB wrote:*   

> okay thats what I have as well, I tihnk you should visit http://gtkpod.sf.net and email the author or mailing list. The only difference between you and I is that i'm using USB2. I'm using the fat32 for the filesystem

 

What does your fstab entry look like for it?  Mine looks like this:

```
/dev/sda2               /mnt/ipod       [B]auto[/B]            noauto,users

0 0

```

I just want to make sure it's not something stupid going on my end before I bug the developer.

UPDATE:

It looks like I did have a little error in my fstab.  auto should've been vfat.  If I mount it as vfat, I do get this now:

```
dat@grendel ipod $ ls

Calendars  Contacts  Notes  calendar  iPod_Control  ipod_con

```

The extra folders are a bit strange (calendar and ipod_con), but I'll have to wait until I can get home to try the "Create Directories" in gtkpod again.  Hopefully, that was my problem.

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## asiobob

ahh I'm using vfat in fstab.

I suggest deleting the directories, and then using gtkpod to recreate them, hopefully the correct set will be made

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## dat

 *ASIO_BOB wrote:*   

> ahh I'm using vfat in fstab.
> 
> I suggest deleting the directories, and then using gtkpod to recreate them, hopefully the correct set will be made

 

It looks like that did the trick.  I went back, blew everything off the ipod again.  Made sure it was mounted as vfat, recreated the directories, and copied over music.  This time though, the music actually showed up!

I wonder what it was mounting it as if it wasn't vfat.

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## asiobob

probably mounted it with a fat 8.3 fs, notice that ipod_con is 8 chars long, much like calandar

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