[SOLVED] Help with my iPod

[diamond]

I have recently installed Sabayon 3.3 Mini Edition off of the Live CD. So far things are going well, but the one stumbling block I've run into is with my iPod. I've installed gtkPod, because that's what I used in Ubuntu.

When I plug in the iPod, it is recognized as a generic USB drive. I got the udev rule to creat a /dev/ipod node for it, but it needs to be mounted to /media/ipod, because that's where gtkPod looks.

I can manually mount it at the command line (from root) with the following command:

Code: Select all

mount -t vfat /dev/ipod /media/ipod/ -o uid=<my username>,gid=users


This works, and allows gtkPod to read and write to the device. But I don't want to have to do that every time I plug it in. Is there a way to configure it to automatically mount to this directory (with the proper ownership) everytime it is detected? I know it's possible, because Ubuntu handled it flawlessly.

UPDATE: I've solved the problem. I just needed a few more changes. Here's what I did:

First, I needed a udev rule:

Code: Select all

BUS=="usb", SYSFS{manufacturer}=="Apple*", SYSFS{product}=="iPod*", KERNEL=="sd*
2", SYMLINK+="ipod", RUN+="/etc/hotplug/usb/ipod"


I saved this as /etc/udev/rules.d/60-ipod.rules. The kernel name of sd*2 is necessary, because the data partition of the iPod is the second partition, not the first one. Mine is Windows formatted; I don't know if this is different in Mac formatted iPods.

Second, I needed to add the following line to /etc/fstab:

Code: Select all

/dev/ipod  /media/ipod  vfat  async,nodev,nosuid,user,rw,noauto,umask=0000,noexec 0 0


(NOTE: This is for a Windows-formatted iPod. If it's formatted for Mac, replace "vfat" with "hfsplus".) This gives all users permission to mount /dev/ipod to /media/ipod by just typing "mount /dev/ipod" at the command line.

With these changes, I was almost there. I would plug in the iPod, the "removable drive" icon would show up, and all I had to do was click "mount" on the menu. However, there's one more step that makes it mount automatically to /media/ipod so gtkPod can read it. Notice the hotplug script referenced in the udev rule. That script is as follows:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

su <my username> -c "mount /dev/ipod"


The su command is important, because the hotplug script runs as root. Without this, it mounts the drive as root, and then you can only remove it by unmounting at the command line as root.

[ScottishDuckHunter]

Have you tried the Amarok or Songbird iPod support?

There both very good.

Amarok is pre-installed but to get songbird (which looks just like iTunes) you need to do this as root.

emerge layman
layman -a sunrise
emerge songbird-bin

When you first use it, it will ask if you want iPod support, say yes and it will install it for you.

[diamond]

Have you tried the Amarok or Songbird iPod support?

There both very good.

I tried Amarok briefly when I was using Kubuntu, and I didn't like it as much as gtkPod. I might give it another try, though.

But it doesn't handle the low-level stuff (i.e., auto-mounting the iPod when it's detected), does it?

Fortunately, I have solved the problem for the most part. As I said above, I already have the udev rule to make a /dev/ipod symbolic link when the iPod is plugged in. The other thing I did was add the following line to /etc/fstab:

Code: Select all

/dev/ipod  /media/ipod  vfat  async,nodev,nosuid,user,rw,noauto,umask=0000,noexec 0 0


Now, when I plug in the iPod and the Removable Drive icon appears on the panel, all I have to do is click it and select "mount", and it is mounted into /media/ipod with the proper permissions. So it's one extra step, but an easy one. I can live with that.

[dave_p_b]

Hi

Can't really answer your question but there's an app called aTunes found here http://www.atunes.org/ that looks quite promising. I use it regularly but I haven't got an iPod to test it with.

All the best

Dave