I’ve installed ifuse and libimobiledevice and I can now access my iPod touch at /media/iPod. gtkpod is able to get R/W access to the iPod, but it wrecks my podcast play statuses. Rhythmbox, Banshee and Amarok don’t show any sign of recognizing my iPod.
Which apps are able to manage my iPod? Do they require additional libraries or configuration? I’m using firmware 4.2.1.
I haven’t used one with that new firmware, so it may be due to Apple proprietary filesystem lock in. They intentionally try to lock you in to a certain OS/software to use your Ipod. With my Nano (a gift, because I won’t support this behavior with my money) I can simply drag and drop files, but have never upgraded the firmware or let Windows/Itunes touch it. This is deb based, but might help: Linux and Your iPhone / iPod Touch
I don’t think that it’s a firmware issue. If gtkpod can get read/write access to my iPod, then why can’t other iPod management apps detect my iPod?
Gtkpod works, but it is pretty primitive in this respect, and is like a bull in a china shop. Apps like amarok and banshee have not caught up with the new firmware changes yet. They tend to be more conservative in this area to ensure your Ipod isn’t corrupted in the process.
Too bad. I also considered installing Android on my iPod to get around Apple’s rules, but unfortunately my iPod model isn’t supported yet.
My iPod touch suddenly showed up in Amarok. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to separate music from podcasts. But like you said, I’d prefer them not messing up my iPod over them implementing buggy support for other features.
The podcast feature would be a thing to fix in libgpod. The latest development version (>= 0.8.0) appears to make podcasts show up fine on iDevices so you should update to that once it is available. Also gtkpod 2.0 looks much nicer than the previous releases. Firmware updates do not matter that much since the underlying software uses native protocols. Infact, libimobiledevice has supported every firmware release since 2007 so far due to this fact (except 2 times were it needed a quick bugfix). Apps that should manage your iPod Touch 3G now should be gtkpod, Banshee 2.0, Rhythmbox, Amarok 2, Songbird, Clementine and basically everything else using libgpod.