I’m new to openSUSE and I’m a little surprised that my new favorite OS doesn’t offer much out-of-the-box support for my iPod Shuffle (Generation 2).
I’ve heard that Amarok can handle my iPod, but I don’t see how it works. I’ve done some rummaging around the forums but haven’t come across anything that helps much. I have libgpod4 installed. I’m not sure if I need anything else, but I’d really like to get this mother working.
Does Amarok 2.1.1 support iPods and other media players?
Sorry to say. iPod is all about vendor lockin, you know who makes iPod:O
There is a possibility your iPod might work with an older version of amarok but as you are new here you might not want the complication of how to install that and maintain that installation.
I have friends who actually use WIN XP in Virtual Box on a Linux host for this:X…what? I hear you say…
‘It XP running inside openSUSE’
Hmm that’s a bummer. Is there really no simpler solution than running virtual Windows? That seems like a lot just for a silly mp3 gadget.
Perhaps theres another app I can install?
Like I said you could delete amarok 2
Add this repo
Packman kde3
Index of /suse/kde3/11.2
and
kde3 for 11.2
Index of /repositories/KDE:/KDE3/openSUSE_11.2
check to install amarok-packman
It will bring some extra packages in too
Banshee has supported iPods in the past, but there have been problems in 1.5. Your best bet is to dump the iPod for a player with mass storage support. This will work on any system.
Sorry. I meant aside from removing Amarok 2. Is there a different iPod client altogether? One that works well hopefully.
Yeah, I’m in full agreement. However, my wife LOVES her shuffle so here we are. If it were up to me, we’d sell it and get something twice as good for half the price.
I gave you the choices I know of.
I’ve been cruising around the web looking for alternative solutions to this, and I found some metion of the Media Devices Plugin for Amarok. Specifically the iPod plugin linked here.
Is this plug in something I need to install? Anyone have any experience with it? Does it work with Amarok 2? It seems like this is what I’d be looking for, but maybe not.
Old stuff for the old amarok
Hmm, ok. Well thanks anyway. Hopefully more support will be coming down the pipe soon.
Your thread was a while ago now and may be solved, but more recently I had same problems with this Shuffle and Amarok 1.4.10 and 2.1.1, see my post and solution in this thread here.
Hope that helps. 
I’m going to check my old iPod video…I’m thinking of running itunes in my xp vm I have anyway, and using my /home/dropbox/music folder for storage…I’ll try it.
Has anyone tried this from community:
clementine - A cross-platform Music Player based on Amarok 1.4
Clementine is a modern music player and library organiser. Clementine is a port of Amarok 1.4, with some features rewritten to take advantage of Qt4.
Features:
- Search and play your local music library * Listen to internet radio from Last.fm and SomaFM * Edit tags on MP3 and OGG files, organise your music * Cross-platform - works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux * Native desktop notifications on Linux (libnotify) and Mac OS X (Growl)
@caf4926
There appears to be at least two “community” KDE4 repos: Factory and Unstable. Clementine at slightly higher level in Unstable (I’ve never used it) and I haven’t used KDE4 Factory outside of 11.2 milestone testing. So not clear about any prereqs for doing this.
Which one did you have in mind? Do either require KDE 4.4 to be installed?
I’m not using it but I noticed it in community repo 11.2 factory:
Index of /repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/Community/openSUSE_11.2_KDE4_Factory_Desktop
along with the desktop repo of the same, providing kde4.4.1
Ok. Thanks for early info, which should be of interest to Amarok 1.4 fans. I initially went to OBS (11.2) for clementine and it listed the Unstable KDE repo, then I went to the wiki list of KDE repos and found it in Factory.
Needing Gtkpod additionally with Amarok just to update the iPod Shuffle’s content is unfortunate, but for now at least the more “stable” option. Anyway, I would be surprised if clementine had a better “Apple iPod Media Device” plugin for older Shuffles.
Have you tried banshee?
I’m not sure what kind of ipod my son has, but he’s using banshee to sync his ipod…
Also, there’s gtkpod
I too use Banshee now that Songbird has stopped working with ipods. I am on Banshee 1.6 and it works with my old nano. So not sure if it works with a new shuffle, but worth a try maybe.
Otherwise, is Rockport something that might work/that the wife could accept? It replaces the OS of the pod and should make it behave like any generic mp3 player as far as most programs are concerned. Have not used it myself, was very close to until I saw that Banshee would work.
Banshee is very buggy for me and resource-heavy. So I just use it to sync with my pod and as little else as possible.
Welcome to the forum.
The last time I tried Banshee was on 11.1 Gnome. Like you, I thought it was buggy. Couldn’t see what advantage it had over Amarok 1.4 that was hugely popular with KDE3 users. For many of those now on KDE4, Amarok 2.1 is adequate. I think a fan of Amarok might prefer to stick with it and just add Gtkpod to service the Shuffle G2. It’s a fairly small utility anyway.
That model of Shuffle is not new and has been superceded by G3. The battery on the G2 is probably not replaceable, as far as I know, leading to a relatively short life. Although Gtkpod doesn’t look very good on a KDE desktop (IMO), it does display plenty of info from the Shuffle’s iTune DB. That’s good as there is no display on that iPod.