Have you installed Linux on your iPod? [Archive]

Vio1

09-19-2004, 02:06 AM

I have a question... what did i do wrong?

I downloaded the linux thing for the ipod, and installed it. When it was done i ejected the ipod and then the apple logo appeared on the screen of the ipod.. followed by a folder with an exclamation mark.. it then repeats... apple logo.. then folder icon with exclamation mark... over and over... each time the ipod makes a click sound.... anyone know what to do to get the linux to work?

EvilDude

09-19-2004, 02:46 AM

first of all, it's ONLY for <3G not mini or 4G.

baggss

09-19-2004, 04:58 AM

Why exactly would I WANT to do this again?

wattsy

09-19-2004, 05:36 AM

I have a huge problem! I tried this program and didn't like it, now when i tried to restore it's come up with a whole page of writing like it is the dos mode of the program. It is now frozen and i cannot: go back to apple firmwire, my computer doesn't recognise that its the ipod in the usb device and now i can't do anything wiht my ipod, I have a 3rd Generation 15 gb ipod, what should i do? Ill try and type some of the stuff on the screen

tts/1/dev/ttyS1
command: mknod/dev/
ttyp1 c 3 0
command: modprobe ts
b43aa82
Using/lib/modules/2
.4.24-ipod1/kernel/a
rch/armnommu/mach-ip
od/tsh43aa82.o

If anyone can help me it would be greatly appreciated, this is my lesson not to modify my ipod anymore!

baggss

09-19-2004, 05:43 AM

Well, at least I now know why I WOULDN'T want to do this......:o

wattsy

09-19-2004, 05:45 AM

Yeah i know,i wont be adding any extras once i get this fixed,i dont think its that serious just the program seemed not as good as apple firmware

wattsy

09-19-2004, 07:13 AM

Would this be able to go in under warranty? Because i still can't ge the ipod from unfreezing?

baggss

09-19-2004, 05:17 PM

No, I suspect that is one of those things that would not fall under any clause of the warranty statement...

alby4ever

09-19-2004, 08:29 PM

Why the heck would you install Linux on the iPod anyways? Unless you're an obsessed person with hacking everything you own, it's virtually pointless to install Linux. It's a freakin' music player.

And no, it's not covered by the warranty if you do something stupid like installing Linux on your iPod. You experiment on it, you pay the price.

kloan

09-19-2004, 08:58 PM

great first post.. thanks for the insight

smaceab

09-19-2004, 11:04 PM

Linux has some great possibilities for the ipod. Furthermore, Linux (for what it's worth) is not neccessarily for hacking, you attacking these people for trying this makes you ignorant.
The possibilities that ipod linux entails are great, it'll just take time to get the bugs worked out. Remember linux ipod is coded by people like you and me not some mac or windows certified guru. It's easy to see you've never used linux

smaceab

09-19-2004, 11:06 PM

smaceab

09-19-2004, 11:06 PM

wattsy

09-20-2004, 05:04 AM

"...Why the heck would you install Linux on the iPod anyways? Unless you're an obsessed person with hacking everything you own, it's virtually pointless to install Linux. It's a freakin' music player.

And no, it's not covered by the warranty if you do something stupid like installing Linux on your iPod. You experiment on it, you pay the price...."

Excuse me, I didnt ask for your judgement of me!! I love coming onto this forum and reading about peoples stories and problems solved from other peoples helped. I wanted more games on my ipod and Linux has more games to choose from. For you who care I did fix the problem and have my little gem back the way it was, I will still come here to enjoy the forum but arrogance of some people for example alby4ever just S***s me!

alby4ever

09-20-2004, 03:20 PM

Originally posted by smaceab
Linux has some great possibilities for the ipod. Furthermore, Linux (for what it's worth) is not neccessarily for hacking, you attacking these people for trying this makes you ignorant.
The possibilities that ipod linux entails are great, it'll just take time to get the bugs worked out. Remember linux ipod is coded by people like you and me not some mac or windows certified guru. It's easy to see you've never used linux

Wrong. I do use Linux. I've used many different flavors of Linux. But please, Linux of an iPod? Is that even practical?

kloan

09-20-2004, 03:40 PM

Yes it is. It seems more people are putting thought and care into THAT than Apple is into it's own firmware, at least for the neglected gen. iPods. I'm sure many people are sick of the lack of support of previous gen. firmwares, and Linux is the answer to that. The better it gets, the more reason to use it. It already has a faster menu system, and games have proven to be cool (for those who want games) and there is already a record function that's being worked on which allows you to use ANY microphone to record.. not just the overpriced junky ones and you'll at least be able to record at higher sample rates (why not, its a hard drive isnt it??)

I'm glad there are people out there that bother to try new things, and try to better what is already a great music player. All the power to them, and I'm certainly happy to try it out too along the way.

Harry Potter

09-20-2004, 04:06 PM

I do not understand why some people attacking other people for trying out the Linux. Some people like it some don't. If you are someone who doesn't good for you, no need to critisize. I for one would love to install linux on my ipod as soon as it is available for the 4th gen.

Apanther

09-22-2004, 04:53 PM

By Linux being open source, one day soon, it will blow the Apple Firmware out of the water. Some Computer Science grad student will use the iPod with Linux as his final class project and it will have games, advanced features and the whole 9.

phr3do

09-23-2004, 08:09 PM

man, who cares if people wanna install linux on their ipod. theres no need for negative comments.

i wish i could install linux on my ipod. but i got a 4th gen.

iDec

10-17-2004, 07:41 AM

I wish I could too, any news about Linux on the 4G's yet?

EvilDude

10-17-2004, 08:06 AM

Hehe yeah its all still beta, and right now it's a lot more interest for devs.

Right now advantages:
- better and more games
- recording for 3Gers at 44.1 khz. That's CD quality. And it's through mic port, no additional hardware. Records in wav files etc.
- can write notes on the iPod using a text editor (using wheel to scroll through letters etc)

And well not much more, but that's coz its a work in progress. Eventually it will have all those features people want in an iPod that aren't there, and who knows, maybe gapless may be there as well etc.

iDec

10-17-2004, 06:48 PM

Do you know if/when this'll be available for 4G's?

I hope it's sometime in the near future!

cpn.luckycharms

11-27-2004, 10:17 PM

I just need to know how to RUN it when it is on my iPod after I reset it... ANYONE?

usermike2098

11-28-2004, 10:33 PM

when the apple logo appears then hold the rewind button until a bunch of code appears

intlplby

01-10-2005, 09:18 PM

the fact that they are trying to add functionality that apple won't is why people hack the ipod to put linux on it'

the got mono 44k recording and hopefully will get stereo soon...... i'd pay another $80 to have the ipod be able to record 44k stereo to aac format....

the hardware is clearly capable of this, but apple wont implement it....... it's a shame really

Toxikated

01-10-2005, 10:32 PM

I'll definitely consider this once it's available for 4th gen iPods

ham_man

01-10-2005, 10:37 PM

No, seems pretty pointless and alot of work. However, it is cool that they did do something like this for the iPod. :)

-Andrew

camster

01-10-2005, 10:37 PM

i'll consider it when it's STABLE for 4th gen. i would love to use the microphone thing, and download new things for my ipod like it was a PDA, but seeing all these problems people are having...i don't know. it's cool though

CanaMacPod

01-11-2005, 06:35 AM

This sounds like a fun project. I'd love to try this on my 3G 'Pod, but I'm worried I'll have problems like some of the other users here. Does anyone know when they'll come out with the full (non-beta) version so I won't have to worry so much when I try this?
Oh, and someone said this is a lot of work. Is it actually, or is he misinformed?
Thanks for any info.

Spline32

02-16-2005, 01:20 AM

Finally, a good reason to register:)

I have been following the iPod linux project for some time. There have been 0 iPods that have been bricked by this project. None, zero, nada, zilch. Most of the people who claim to have had their ipods broken have often failed to do something basic, like reset their ipod. In the end, all of these have been fixed after somebody gave them a really long explenation how to hold down two buttons at once.

As for uses, we know the ipod has some very powerful hardware for what it is used for. Apple most certainly did not skimp on the power aspect of the pods. The new 4g and mini pods are a bit more powerful than the previous 3 generations which essentially were the same internally. With a working distro of Linux on the ipod, it gives dev's the ability to access the extra horsepower of the iPod to do some amazing things, games being obvious, but not the only limitation. Some things that are also very real possibilities (if not realities) in linux include PDA functions (calendar and such) and iPod to iPod file transfers (for whatever you may wish to transfer). As well as shuffling playlists instead of the meger albums or songs options we have now.

It becomes really interesting with the photo pods, clearly these are capable of outputting video in some form or another to a TV. The ipod may or may not be capable of outputting movies to TV as well, only time will tell. Though, I think it would be safe to say that any video we do see from the photos (and possibly even the 4g's) would be of pretty low quality due to the amount of processing that would need to be done.

Food for thought.

R32_Nakazato

02-16-2005, 08:02 PM

I'm not really understanding where the negative comments concerning linux are coming from but I think Linux is great. At first I only got if for the games, now ive been using the record function more than anything. I believe everyone has the right to change things as they see fit regarding something they own. I say, why not? It'll be interesting to see the capabilities of the ipod photos with linux installed.

ImNewAtThis

02-16-2005, 10:47 PM

Sooo, is there a SAFE 4th gen. Linux for iPod yet?

Spline32

02-17-2005, 01:44 AM

Originally posted by ImNewAtThis
Sooo, is there a SAFE 4th gen. Linux for iPod yet?

Safe? Due to the design of the iPod, you cant possibly "break" it by installing linux. If you manage to break it, all you have to do is reset apples firmware and away you go with a fresh ipod. You will have to sync up again though to get your music back on it, takes about 30 minutes to fully fill my 20GB. No real harm done. Of course, there is no installer for the 4g yet, so you will have to know a thing or two about compiling, you can find the latest release of iPod Linux for the 4g/mini at the CVS repository at sourceforge. There is no official release yet though, if you wait for that, you will get a more stable version that has all the features.

MOCKBA

02-17-2005, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by alby4ever
Why the heck would you install Linux on the iPod anyways? Unless you're an obsessed person with hacking everything you own, it's virtually pointless to install Linux. It's a freakin' music player.

And no, it's not covered by the warranty if you do something stupid like installing Linux on your iPod. You experiment on it, you pay the price. Completely agree. Say more they even do not have a stable version for 4g. May I ask when? When 6g will be out? Having Linux version of obsolete model? Why they can't ship Linux as only a new model out?So, when you buy iPod you just select a version, like you can do it when you buy PC. I can always select Windows or Linux and I will have Linux running on the latest PC model, not 2-3 years old.

Red Monkey

02-17-2005, 10:16 PM

So, I new to this

It makes your pod faster?
and
It adds Games?

Nice

Spline32

02-18-2005, 12:39 AM

Originally posted by MOCKBA
Completely agree. Say more they even do not have a stable version for 4g. May I ask when? When 6g will be out? Having Linux version of obsolete model? Why they can't ship Linux as only a new model out?So, when you buy iPod you just select a version, like you can do it when you buy PC. I can always select Windows or Linux and I will have Linux running on the latest PC model, not 2-3 years old.

Did you even bother to go to their website? I'll link it for you again, its at www.ipodlinux.org. If you look at the past developements, you will see it only took about 2 months to get a stable version on the 3g after its release. Then you ask why so long on the 4g, well, the internals on the 4g are very different from the 1-3g models, therefore a lot of stuff has to be redone (right down to the bootloader).

Apple considers the iPod to be a closed platform, which means they dont think you should be modifying it, and judging from the way your questions read, you seem to think that apple is making this iPod linux thing, they arn't, these are developers that are making this on their free time.
It is very likely that the 5g ipods will use the same insides as the 4g ipods, and therefor ipodlinux for the 4g's will be compatable with the 5g's as well (minus the controls which will have to be redone, but no big deal). Though why do you find it so offensive to make your MP3 player do a little bit more? Wouldn't it be nice to transfer music directly from iPod to iPod? How about more games? What about video functions? The point is that just because a product is meant for one thing doesnt mean it wont be great at another as well. As well, installing linux on the iPod doesnt remove apples firmware, you get to choose between the two when you turn the iPod on. If you go into apples firmware, its the exact same as before, no harm done, if you go into linux, you get the functionality provided there, win win!

Red Monkey,
Not faster, thats all hardware, but more functionality for sure.

MOCKBA

02-18-2005, 02:25 AM

Sure, I checked their site many times, however people reported that the version very unstable in compressed music play, so you can't do anything else when you play music. I agree with you that most popular game Tetris was initially developed for monochrome text terminal and gained a big success. So, iPod Linux games can find great success too. However I believe that better is enemy of good. From this point I do not see any advantages of Linux for iPod. I think my opinion is shared by many people, otherwise iPod Linux could become commercial product, like Suse and other Linuxes.

Spline32

02-18-2005, 03:29 AM

Originally posted by MOCKBA
Sure, I checked their site many times, however people reported that the version very unstable in compressed music play, so you can't do anything else when you play music. I agree with you that most popular game Tetris was initially developed for monochrome text terminal and gained a big success. So, iPod Linux games can find great success too. However I believe that better is enemy of good. From this point I do not see any advantages of Linux for iPod. I think my opinion is shared by many people, otherwise iPod Linux could become commercial product, like Suse and other Linuxes.
iPod linux is licensed under the GPL, it could never become a commercial product. If for nothing else, you can use IPL to record using just a standard mic (nothing expensive to buy). Ignore music playback all together, that feature alone makes it worth it to most. Can you think of a disadvantage of having it? I surely cant...

EvilDude

02-21-2005, 07:50 AM

I think people are missing one important point:

* iPodLinux can NOT damage your iPod at all. No iPod has been permanently damaged. and none will because of the way it installs itself and because of internal specifics of the iPod.

* iPodLinux is not meant to replace Apple. Not yet at least. You dual boot. Use Apple for normal and say you're bored, you can reboot, hold Prev to go into Linux on reboot, and then play a few games, or record some stuff etc.

* Again, NO disadvantage. iPod acts normal except the icon is of tux. Nothing else is different in apple. Goes to apple default, everything else works, just that you get to add iPodLinux as well for a bit of fun when you want.

Esenthiel

02-21-2005, 10:22 PM

The most obvious benefit of Linux on an iPod is... the ability to play currently unsupported file formats!

MOCKBA

02-22-2005, 01:26 AM

Ineed, supporting ogg and flac makes it very useful.

Deltablade

02-23-2005, 01:05 AM

I installed linux on my ipod and it was pretty cool. It operated faster, no delay between screens, a lot of cool options... The only problem? It can't really play music yet. That's right, when I selected a song it just skipped a bit then quit. Needless to say, the Apple firmware is good enough for me. I'd rather actually listen to music than look at slick menus.

I'm not knocking the guys who spent all that time writing the new firmware, its just not there yet.

MOCKBA

02-23-2005, 02:22 AM

I believe your music is in AAC with copy protection. I doubt that Linux will ever play it. Try to copy some MP3s. Tell us result.

Deltablade

02-23-2005, 04:22 PM

I'm confident that 95% of my music is mp3 and mpeg 4. Unless iTunes converts it all to AAC? Cause in order to sync with iTunes, the ipod boots the Apple firmware to do it. Then you can switch back to the linux after that.

-James

02-23-2005, 05:07 PM

I haven't done it. Too scared i'm gonna screw it up big time...

LinkinBoy

02-23-2005, 09:39 PM

The Dual Boot sounds cool. Once I hear that I was really interested. How much memory does it take?

MOCKBA

02-24-2005, 03:21 AM

You shouldn't worry about memory, since Apple isn't going to upgrade frimware of 3g anymore. 4g owners have certain risk, but Linux isn't ready for 4g anyway.

VeNT

02-28-2005, 09:21 AM

Originally posted by Deltablade
I'm confident that 95% of my music is mp3 and mpeg 4. Unless iTunes converts it all to AAC? Cause in order to sync with iTunes, the ipod boots the Apple firmware to do it. Then you can switch back to the linux after that.

that would be why
Itunes converts all tracks before puting them on your Ipod
would be so much better if it didn't tbh
can't wait until they have a working linux ver for Ipod mini

Spline32

02-28-2005, 07:53 PM

itunes does not convert all your music before it puts it on the ipod into AAC, and this claim is easily disproved. If I plug my iPod into my computer and open it in disk mode. After enabling the ability to view hidden files, I can easily find all the music files in there, all of them on my ipod as mp3 files, not AAC.

Deltablade

02-28-2005, 11:07 PM

Originally posted by Spline32
itunes does not convert all your music before it puts it on the ipod into AAC, and this claim is easily disproved. If I plug my iPod into my computer and open it in disk mode. After enabling the ability to view hidden files, I can easily find all the music files in there, all of them on my ipod as mp3 files, not AAC.

Cool, but then why was Linux not able to play any of my music?

nobodyweird

02-28-2005, 11:49 PM

I have a problem with the term "Linux" being thrown around. Linux is, as far as I can tell, the general term for a myriad of OS's. It's like saying your computer just runs "Windows" or it runs "Mac" There are different versions of these OS's laying around and they are not necessarily compatible with each other. iPodLinux uses a specific distribution of Linux that is not compatible with any other Linux applications you will find on the web. I don't understand why I see all these forums posting iPodLinux as the next great thing... Where are all the app's son? Where's the cool GUI? I mean, the recording functionality is a great, but is this what all the fuss is about? If every developer who posted on these sites actually devoted some of their time to actually developing Linux apps for the iPod, well... The OS that the ipod comes with is called Pixo and it does everything it's supposed to. I don't see why anyone who is not actively TESTING their Linux builds on the iPod would need this. So in summation, if you think kernels are for poppin', then just sit tight and wait. Now, a Linux hack that will enable me to plug my iPod into my iSight and record some video I would pay for and gladly post messages from the highest hilltops singing the programmers praises.

UNIX X11

03-01-2005, 12:23 AM

Yes, I did install Linux on my iPod. Now my computer wont detect it.

Spline32

03-01-2005, 12:44 AM

Unix, force your ipod into diskmode and do a restore. Also, did you try to install the GUI installer on a 4g? There are about a million warnings on the GUI installer telling you not to do this, but some poeple are persistant. Once in diskmode (hold the forward and back buttons when you see the apple logo after a reseting the ipod) you should be able to connect it to your comptuer and restore it.

nobodyweird, linux is a unified OS, iPodlinux is based off the 2.4 kernel and the fact that it opens the iPod up for development is what makes it cool, it is not the distribution of linux that limits what programs can run on it, but the limitations of the ipod itself. As well, realize, iPL is free, in other words, if you dont like it, dont get it, nobody wants you to get it if you dont want it. Furthermore, the developers have worked very hard on a peice of software that has in many people oppinions finally opened the iPod up to open source free third party modifications. This all aside, I am curious what is so offensive to you about modifications to the ipod that requires such a hostile tone from you to people who have done nothing but try to make the product your own a little better.

VeNT

03-01-2005, 06:37 AM

Originally posted by Spline32
Unix, force your ipod into diskmode and do a restore. Also, did you try to install the GUI installer on a 4g? There are about a million warnings on the GUI installer telling you not to do this, but some poeple are persistant. Once in diskmode (hold the forward and back buttons when you see the apple logo after a reseting the ipod) you should be able to connect it to your comptuer and restore it.

nobodyweird, linux is a unified OS, iPodlinux is based off the 2.4 kernel and the fact that it opens the iPod up for development is what makes it cool, it is not the distribution of linux that limits what programs can run on it, but the limitations of the ipod itself. As well, realize, iPL is free, in other words, if you dont like it, dont get it, nobody wants you to get it if you dont want it. Furthermore, the developers have worked very hard on a peice of software that has in many people oppinions finally opened the iPod up to open source free third party modifications. This all aside, I am curious what is so offensive to you about modifications to the ipod that requires such a hostile tone from you to people who have done nothing but try to make the product your own a little better.

well put that man
people seem to try and "put down" anyone trying somthing new with linux,
you say why should we put Linux on our Ipods I say WHY NOT?
for me linux is all about being free (asin speach rather than beer)
free to develop apps and systems that do what I want them to.
to create faster and smoother apps, with less gunf and less restrictions.
and if I want a monocrhrome image of a surfing penguin to appear when I start my Ipod then so be it!

MyPodRox

03-01-2005, 12:20 PM

While I will not put linux on my 40gb photo when I get it (yet). I am wondering if the 4g iPod linux will work on the iPod photo. If not do you think a working kernel will be developed? If they make one that is stable with a working installer I will use it. Thanks for the help.

CaLzA

03-01-2005, 01:52 PM

I've successfull put linux on (i think) Couldnt update anything though as the in built updater didnt work, how do i update the kernel etc? Also how do i actually load it? ive tried turning it off and loading it again but i get no option. Im asking here as the documentation on the site seems pretty crap and you seem to know what youre doin!

josh_arm

03-02-2005, 05:17 AM

ha ha ha a few weeks back i put linux on my ipod and its a 4g lol that interesting cause i deleted all my music off my computer but it worked out fine i went into the "hidden files" of my ipod and extracted my music then restarted like configured it

CaLzA

03-02-2005, 06:06 AM

mines 3g so it should deffinatley load, just don't know how to load it :S

nobodyweird

03-02-2005, 12:01 PM

Whoa whoa whoa... Please accept my apologies for the hostile tone that was percieved in my previous post.
iPodLinux is a wonderful OS that does indeed crack open the iPod to a world of possibilities, but should only be implemented by a person who will go through the process of reading the instructions fully. I am just a little frustrated that these forums continually reference the fully legible and comprehensive instructions that come free and included with the iPodLinux download. I am grateful for these forums and all who share their knowledge with the rest of us.

MOCKBA

03-07-2005, 03:50 PM

Originally posted by Spline32

...It is very likely that the 5g ipods will use the same insides as the 4g ipods, and therefor ipodlinux for the 4g's will be compatable with the 5g's as well (minus the controls which will have to be redone, but no big deal). Though why do you find it so offensive to make your MP3 player do a little bit more? Wouldn't it be nice to transfer music directly from iPod to iPod?
...

Ok, here is some info based solely on rumors. 5G iPod will use chip PortalPlayer PP5022 (notice current version for 4G is PortalPlayer PP5020). This chip is out, so you should start digging in it. Major changes it's increasing play time up to 54 hours for mini. The chip support FM radio, USB2 capabale be directly connected to digital cameras. This chip has IR interface and many other improvements. Source: www.portalplayer.com

MOXYGEN

03-23-2005, 12:53 AM

ok, ipodlinux seems very nice! But will it enable gapless playback? Can it enable gapless playback? Does the actual linux firmware for older ipods support Ogg Vorbis? And finally, when do we know when its safe?
Thanks for your answers!

kloan

03-23-2005, 01:15 AM

check the website, http://www.ipodlinux.org/Main_Page

mushroom5698

05-14-2005, 09:43 PM

Firstly, the word "linux" is not just being "thrown around". This is a linux distrubution; uclinux to be exact.

Secondly, any opensource software developed for linux (that is mean't to be globalized) can be ported to the iPod. Please, for chrissakes, this is new! You can't expect everything to happen instantly.

As for it taking a long time to get the 4g to work, well an installer is out -- that works. Sadly, it's only for windows, so I have to manually compile the packages :P But for those of you who have windows, you can run it. But, sadly, the sound doesn't work yet. They're working on getting the sound working.

It's not taking too long; they do this in their spare time. If you want it now, you do it, and stop complaining. When the 5g comes out, you'll just have to wait for them to develop it, or make it yourself. They said that the main reason the development of the 4g is taking so long is that not many of the devs have a 4g to work with and therefore can't test their code. So donate! ;)

BTW, this is an OPERATING SYSTEM. It cannot ruin your ipod. Just like installing linux on your computer can't ruin your computer; it can only ruin your partitions.

Mushy