Ubuntu Geek pointed this program out to me. I haven’t tried it with my iPod, but if I like the way it works with that, I may have found myself a new media player. The player itself is pretty slick, I enjoyed the layout, though I think some people might find it too busy or overwhelming. It runs off Java, so it is actually compatible with any system that can run Java (if I understand it correctly)

You can download an installation file here. If you want to install it in Ubuntu, grab the ‘Deb Package’. As a warning, my installation failed because I hadn’t installed Java in my system, so I would suggest using Synaptic or the Ubuntu Software Center to install Java first and then try to install the Deb Package.

The only drawback I can find in the player is that, (I believe) since it runs in Java, it really doesn’t interact with the OS, so any widgets which might allow you to view/control any media you might be playing won’t detect it. Overall, though, very nice player.

Well, managed to snag myself a used iPod after Christmas. I could only afford a 5th gen 30 Gb model, but I figured it would do for a few years – my music collection is only at about 17.5 Gb so far.

When it came in the mail, I was all excited – until I plugged it into my Ubuntu (Intrepid) laptop and was only able to read (not write) the iPod. After an hours worth of searching online I figured out that my iPod had originally been initialized on a Mac, and thusly it’s file system was of the HFS+ format with journaling enabled – and that linux can only read a file system set up thusly.

Well, what to do? In the course of my research, I thought of a simple solution: plug the iPod into a Windows machine and fire up iTunes. Hopefully it would detect the file system discrepancy (HFS+ is not compatible with Windows, to my knowledge) and reformat or re-initialize it so it would work with Windows, which would make it able to work with Linux.

And it worked.

Now, after plugging it into the laptop, Intrepid recognized it perfectly. I fired up Amarok. It wouldn’t detect it automatically (though I have a feeling if I had been booted up in Kubuntu (KDE) it would have).  But if you go under Settings -> Configure Amarok, choose the “Media Devices” section (on left).

I used the “Add Device” button, filling in the appropriate information as follows:

Plugin -> Apple iPod Media Device
Name for Device -> [whatever you want to name it]
Mount point -> /media/IPOD

that last one will be wherever the mount point for your iPod is. The “/media/” folder is where Ubuntu mounts most of your USB devices, and “IPOD” should be replaced with the name of your iPod (whatever it shows up on your desktop as being called).

After filling in the information, click OK. Some sort of confirmation dialogue should pop up in Amarok, and you can close out the Settings dialogue box.  Under the devices tag in Amarok you should now be able to choose the ipod as a device. Click “Connect” and you should be good to go.

By right-clicking on any artist, album, or song in your collection you can add them to the device upload queue. When you’ve picked all you want, you just hit “transfer” and they should be uploaded.

I’m considering attempting to install Rockbox on the iPod, and I’ll post that adventure if I decide to undertake it. But for now, Amarok seems to be able to meet most of my iPod management needs.

One note: I have had a few problems reconnecting to the iPod. But all I’ve done is delete the old device configuration and basically redo it. It does pop up an error message stating something about a file named [something]lock, asking if you want to delete it. I did, and it then connected with no problem, without losing any data or anything.