iPod Linux

[geekgurl]

http://www.ipodlinux.org/Main_Page Anyone tried this? I'm too broke to buy an iPod right now - kids to feed and that kind of stuff, but it looks like it might be cool to try if you had one.

gg

[SimonDesaint]

broke too

http://www.ipodlinux.org/Main_Page Anyone tried this? I'm too broke to buy an iPod right now - kids to feed and that kind of stuff, but it looks like it might be cool to try if you had one.

gg

I am too broke to buy one now too. I've been unemployed about a month now living off of my income tax refund. I kinda don't want to jump on the ipod bandwagon. but if i get some ends to spend I'll give it a try.

[lil_freak]

Yeah, thank you Geekgurl
I had not heard about this till I saw your post. Sometime this weekend when I have free time I will play around with it.


/me is happy I now have a good reason to use my ipod (gen 1)

[bascule]

It makes for a really great iPod workalike with extended functionality. Unfortunately I have a Mini and last I checked the iPod Linux kernel doesn't even boot on the minis, I've only seen others with Linux powered iPods. There's been a lot of work at optimizing Tremor, the fixed point Vorbis decoder, to work on an iPod, and last I checked they were at about 80% realtime...

[allentrace]

http://www.ipodlinux.org/Main_Page Anyone tried this? I'm too broke to buy an iPod right now - kids to feed and that kind of stuff, but it looks like it might be cool to try if you had one.

gg

Goes to show Linux will run on anything.

[KeLviN]

Yeah, thank you Geekgurl
I had not heard about this till I saw your post. Sometime this weekend when I have free time I will play around with it.

keep us updated, i wanna see the results

[theprez98]

It worked, sort of.

I have a third generation IPod, a 15GB model and I figured what the heck so I installed IPodLinux on it.

I first connected my IPod and waited until it updated. After that was complete, I downloaded the (Windows) installer program, unzipped to a temp directory, and ran ipodlinux-installer.exe.

It searched for and downloaded the updated kernel. I chose linux as the default boot (it leaves the original apple firmware intact and can be uninstalled without problems).

At this point it will prompt you to close ITunes or whatever else is connected to the IPod. It then installs Linux and took all of about 15 seconds or so on my computer.

When it's finished, it asks you to disconnect your IPod, upon which it should (and did) reboot. If it doesn't, holding menu and play for 5 seconds will manually reboot.

Upon the reboot, the familiar apple logo shows, followed by the familiar Penguin logo. After that, the screen scrolls quickly as Linux boots up. A few seconds later, your new Podzilla menu is loaded. To load the non-default, reboot and hold the rewind button. The apple logo will appear, followed by the Penguin, and then instead of scrolling through the Linux boot-up, the "normal" Apple firmware loads.

Here are some problems I encountered:

1. Playback was a different story. I chose a few songs at random: some played ok, others played too fast, some played with significant delays and static, some didn't play at all. Seems like none of my "Purchased" music plays correctly. I either get a "malloc failed" or the song tries to play in mono and all I get is static.

Are playback issues related to the overall quality of the MP3? I have no idea.

2. Also, I haven't had luck using the rewind/fast-forward buttons while a song is playing, i.e., you can't use the fast-forward button to skip ahead or goto the next song.

3. Further, when one song ends, it just returns to the song selection list rather than playing the next song.

4. The power meter showed full in Linux despite the fact that the battery was nearly dead. Rebooting to Apple showed correctly, an almost dead battery.

My initial verdict is that IPodLinux is fun to play around with and test out, but if you want to be able to play all of your songs without problems, boot to the Apple firmware. I plan to keep playing around with it to hopefully discover what might be causing the playback problems...stay tuned.

Feel free to email me or ask any questions.

[KeLviN]

awsome. thanks for the review

[theprez98]

awsome. thanks for the review

I'll try to post more info as I get it. I tried to take some digital photos to post some screenshots but they didn't really turn out so well...

[geekgurl]

Other Features?

Did you get a chance to play with the other "features" that it installs?

[ndex]

Can we clone you?

<snip uplifting worthwhile post>

Every once in a while, when I'm just about ready to give up hope someone like you joins the forums and makes a worthwhile post.

Thank you and Welcome!

[theprez98]

Every once in a while, when I'm just about ready to give up hope someone like you joins the forums and makes a worthwhile post.

Thank you and Welcome!

Hey I'm just happy to be able to contribute. Hopefully tomorrow (when I'm sober) I can play with the other features and let you know how they are...but now its bed time...