# ipod/ipod shuffle woes (lack of permissions to edit files)

## Lechium

Hi,

I have an issue with ipod and ipod shuffle... for some reason the iTunes_Info directory on both of them is marked as read only and I cannot write files to it even as root!

When i tried showning the directory where shuffle is being mounted to user i got following situation:

# chown lechium shuffle/

chown: changing ownership of `shuffle/': Operation not permitted

Moreso while I can run gtkpod as root and remove/add songs upon removal I cannot use ipod/shuffle normally. Also the files I had removed from them before using gtkpod (and they do not show up anymore) are still physically on the drives...

Did anybody encounter similar problems or has a solution?

P.S. I followed the instuctions on gentoo wiki, so no need to redirect me there =)

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## Travers

Yeah, I had the exact same problem? Are you using hfsplus or vfat on it? I used hfsplus, and ran into the problems you did. Then I slapped vfat on it and all was good.

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## Lechium

Yeah I am using vfat....

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## Lechium

*shameless bump*

(note I tried everything I could think of yet again to no avail...)

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## Lechium

*yet another bump*

come on guys, I'm dying here!

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## Lechium

Bump yet again... would i have to re-format them or somerthing?

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## gtaluvit

I can only help with the shuffle.  What are your mount options or the line you use in /etc/fstab.  Who is the owner of the folder when you mount it?  What are the permissions on the mounted folder?

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## Lechium

Thanks! Actually it is not in my fstab, i just mount it manually. simple 'mount /dev/sda2 /home/sanzen/shuffle' does the trick. it is owned by root (only root can cd there), however i cannot chown it to user, or delete file from there manually even as root,

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## James Wells

Greetings,

   A simple change to your /etc/fstab should fix the issues your are describing.   Here is my fstab;

      /dev/sda2       /mnt/ipod       vfat            noauto,rw,users,exec  0 0

   Obviously your device spec will change, but the are to focus on here is the mount options.  By using the users entry, I can mount my iPod as myself, instead of using root and when I mount it as myself, the entire filesystem becomes owned by me, instead of root.   Because the filesystem is vfat, you do need to tell mount to mount the filesystem as read / write.   Hope this helps

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## ph03n1x

try mounting it with the option -o umask=0000

That should give you full access

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## gschinkel

I've been struggling with a similar problem with my brand new Ipod Shuffle. Everytime I tried to write or delete from the device I'd get 'read only' errors after a couple of writes or deletes. After a lot of troubleshooting I found out that the culprit was a corrupt filesystem. You can check for this in /var/log/messages. It should also say something like 'filesystem panic - setting read-only'.

My solution was a mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1 and only use gtkpod and not gnupod. 

A forum post by another guy (don't know where anymore) hinted at this solution because his vfat had gotten corrupt because of special character encoding that vfat doesn't support but somehow did get written to his disk (impossible?). And since gtkpod doesn't use the original filenames for the mp3 files but 'gtkpodxxx.mp3' instead this shouldn't be a problem with gtkpod.

Goodluck!

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## Lechium

thanks! I will try that.

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## arma

i have exactly the same problem except my dmes return weird infos...

```
sb-storage: -- transfer complete

usb-storage: Bulk data transfer result 0x0

usb-storage: Attempting to get CSW...

usb-storage: usb_stor_bulk_transfer_buf: xfer 13 bytes

usb-storage: Status code 0; transferred 13/13

usb-storage: -- transfer complete

usb-storage: Bulk status result = 0

usb-storage: Bulk Status S 0x53425355 T 0x38 R 0 Stat 0x0

usb-storage: scsi cmd done, result=0x0

usb-storage: *** thread sleeping.

 unknown partition table

usb-storage: queuecommand called

usb-storage: *** thread awakened.

usb-storage: Command ALLOW_MEDIUM_REMOVAL (6 bytes)

usb-storage:  1e 00 00 00 00 00

usb-storage: Bulk Command S 0x43425355 T 0x39 L 0 F 0 Trg 0 LUN 0 CL 6

usb-storage: usb_stor_bulk_transfer_buf: xfer 31 bytes

usb-storage: Status code 0; transferred 31/31

usb-storage: -- transfer complete

usb-storage: Bulk command transfer result=0

usb-storage: Attempting to get CSW...

usb-storage: usb_stor_bulk_transfer_buf: xfer 13 bytes

usb-storage: Status code 0; transferred 13/13

usb-storage: -- transfer complete

usb-storage: Bulk status result = 0

usb-storage: Bulk Status S 0x53425355 T 0x39 R 0 Stat 0x0

usb-storage: scsi cmd done, result=0x0

usb-storage: *** thread sleeping.

Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0,  type 0

usb-storage: queuecommand called

usb-storage: *** thread awakened.

usb-storage: Bad target number (1:0)

usb-storage: scsi cmd done, result=0x40000

usb-storage: *** thread sleeping.

usb-storage: queuecommand called

usb-storage: *** thread awakened.

usb-storage: Bad target number (2:0)

usb-storage: scsi cmd done, result=0x40000

usb-storage: *** thread sleeping.

usb-storage: queuecommand called

usb-storage: *** thread awakened.

usb-storage: Bad target number (3:0)

usb-storage: scsi cmd done, result=0x40000

usb-storage: *** thread sleeping.

usb-storage: queuecommand called

usb-storage: *** thread awakened.

usb-storage: Bad target number (4:0)

usb-storage: scsi cmd done, result=0x40000

usb-storage: *** thread sleeping.

usb-storage: queuecommand called

usb-storage: *** thread awakened.

usb-storage: Bad target number (5:0)

usb-storage: scsi cmd done, result=0x40000

usb-storage: *** thread sleeping.

usb-storage: queuecommand called

usb-storage: *** thread awakened.

usb-storage: Bad target number (6:0)

usb-storage: scsi cmd done, result=0x40000

usb-storage: *** thread sleeping.

usb-storage: queuecommand called

usb-storage: *** thread awakened.

usb-storage: Bad target number (7:0)

usb-storage: scsi cmd done, result=0x40000

usb-storage: *** thread sleeping.

usb-storage: device scan complete

```

th worst is now that i'm turn my ipod on, i've got a pic on my ipod representing some sort of warnig signal in front of a directory i can't even mount it (hfsplus neither vfat) ...

can i format it in vfat without fear ? (can i reformat in hfsplus if still wrong?)

help???  :Crying or Very sad:   :Crying or Very sad:   the ipod is a gift from my boss... i really want to use it

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## asiobob

in the worst worst worst worst case use the apple software to "initialize" the ipod which is pretty much a format

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