Using an iPod Touch with Ubuntu |
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I'm collecting on this page some informations regarding the iPod Touch. Playing with this little device I found it is a lot of effort and research on the net to make it work like I want it.
iPod Touch & Ubuntu:
My first issue was: I'm running on my PC Ubuntu 7.10 AMD64, and there is no way to have iTunes 7.5 running with the Windows Emulator Wine. So configuring the iPod device for the first time or jailbreak it is actually impossible on a Linux system.
So for playing with the iPod firmware I recommend to have a Windows (XP SP2 or Vista) system and iTunes 7.5 available. I use an external SATA-disk for that purpose, so I can choose by the Linux boatloader grub which system I want to boot. Because of Ubuntu 7.10 can mount NTFS drives, I can also use the Windows disk as a second disk for the Linux system.
While my iPod 4th generation was working fine with gtkpod and libgpod, and to be honest: much better than with iTunes (I never have to reset the iPod because of problems to read the iTunesDB), it was not possible to connect to the iPod Touch. In fact when connected via USB the iPod Touch is identified as PictBridge (PTP) device, but not as a disk drive. It looks like actually there is no way to overcome this with USB connections.
The essential information you'll find here:
Using an iPhone or iPod Touch with Ubuntu
The way to connect an iPod Touch to the Linux system is with WiFi. After installing SSH on the iPod next step was to set it up for my Asus WL300g 802.11 router. I'm using WPA as a standard, and once the iPod knows the keyword it connects next time automatically.
So this was the first step to take control over the iPod. I'm using the gFTP client and SSH2 for connection. So I can work on the directories of the iPod, edit and copy files and do everything else.
Mounting the iPod via WiFi works with the "ipod-convenience" tool (see the Ubuntu documentation). It mounts the iPod like a disk drive. I recommend really to follow the setup procedure of the tool and not create directories manually, otherwise you will have easily trouble with the rights to access.
Then I tried to configure gtkpod. I compiled the recent libgpod 0.6.0, and updated to gtkpod 0.99.12. I've tried amarok 1.4.8 and gtkpod 0.99.12. Had different results on firmware 1.1.2 and 1.1.3. Setting the Firewire ID manually on 1.1.3 made gtkpod work fine, including the cover art feature. So I go with gtkpod:
gtkpod
SIP-VoIP:
Yes, Touchmod's SIP-VoIP 1.1 and the Touchmod microphone works! I use it with a Sipgate-Account. Beware, the settings are case-sensitive, so put your characters in the correct case into the settings (this counts also for the password!). Actually I'm able to establish outgoing calls. Incoming does not work, on the Sipgate-Webpage the iPod ist not registered as a "connected device". I have to sort that out.
The Touchmod microphone is cute and small, just plug it in, that's all.
Actually with the new SIP-VoIP 1.2 I have the same connection error messages like most people, so i'm searching a solution to solve.
Touchmods.net Weblog
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Other small hints regarding the iPod Touch:
Volume
The volume range of the iPod is controlled by the RegionalVolumeLimits.plist file. The iPod Touch for Europe is limited to a max volume of nearly 82% of his potential. To overcome this one have to edit the .plist-file and set all values to 1. On a Mac this is easy, but for Linux this is a problem because .plist is not a pure text file and there is no editor. But there is an online converter for .plist-files available:
Convert Apple Property List
The RegionalVolumeLimits.plist file is in directory /System/Library/Frameworks/Celestial.framework/
Earphones
I was not really happy with the standard earphones. I had a quick research on in-ear phones, and I've seen nice comments on the AKG K324P. There were bulk packs on eBay at around 30 Euros, which gives a real good price-value relation.
AKG Acoustics K324P
1.1.3/1.1.4 issues: ipod-touch-mount / ipod-touch-umount
The directory for the media storage has changed from var/root/Media to var/mobile/Media, so make sure you follow the guidelines in
Using an iPhone or iPod Touch with Ubuntu
I've changed the ipod-convenience script.
There is a bug in the latest ipod-convenience version 0.7, so don't upgrade! I'm running 0.5 which works fine after the correction of the script.
1.1.4 issues: various
Follow the recommendations on
The Essential Guide for A Working Ipod 1.1.4
VT100 Terminal:
Trying to download the VT100 terminal from Conceited Software caused in "package download failed" messages, so I've installed actually
Mobile Terminal 2.07