Thanks Brad for the info.  Yes, it's an HFS+ formatted iPod, and hence my problem.  I'll try the "touch test" test you suggest.  I have a feeling though, I may be out of luck.

Doug




brad <maitre@ccs.neu.edu>
Sent by: wlug-bounces@mail.wlug.org

09/18/2007 10:24 AM
Please respond to
Worcester Linux Users Group <wlug@mail.wlug.org>
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Worcester Linux Users Group <wlug@mail.wlug.org>
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Subject
Re: [Wlug] Can Feisty Fawn solve an iPod problem?






On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:00:35 -0400, douglas.r.aker@verizon.com wrote:
> Is anyone in the group using gtkpod (iPod GUI) on Ubuntu 6.06 or 7.04?
>
I use amarok to sync my ipod, but i have used gtkpod in the past.

> I installed the gtkpod package yesterday on Ubuntu 6.06 and hooked up my
> son Dan's iPod Nano using its USB cable.  The iPod icon appeared on
> desktop automatically.  I checked, using mount command, to see if
> /media/ipod was mounted read-write, and it appeared to be.  I started
> gtkpod and was able to completely read the contents of the iPod, all 350+
> songs.  So far, so good.  But, when I tried, as an experiment, to create
a
> new playlist using gtkpod, and write that change onto the iPod, I got
> several error messages about write failures due to a read-only
filesystem.
>
> Anyone had a similar experience?  Any fix or workaround out there?  
>
I have had similar experiences using HFS+ (apple's filesystem) formated
ipods. What is the format of your ipod? When you plugin your ipod look at
the output of dmesg. Sometimes you'll see a message telling you that it's
mounting the filesystem as readonly. If the filesystem is HFS+ then you
will need to disable journaling on the filesystem in order to write back to
the ipod. As far as i know this can only be done from OS X.

Since i have run into this problem many times before, i always try to write
to the ipod using a terminal. Simply, 'cd /media/ipod', then 'touch test'.
This will try to create an empty file on the ipod. If you get filesystem
errors then the ipod is likely mounted read-only.

> I'm
> considering either finding another open source iPod utility, something
> other than gtkpod, or upgrading to Ubuntu 7.04.
>
I believe most (if not all) open source utils use the same underlying
library, libgpod. If you are seeing filesystem errors changing utils will
likely not help you.

> My ultimate goal is to 1) Transfer all the songs from the iPod to the
> Ubuntu laptop,
>
This should be possible even if the filesystem is read-only.

> 2) Reformat the iPod for use with iTunes running under
> Vista,
>
Also, this should be easy to do. If you plugin the ipod to a windows
machine that doesn't recognize the ipod's library, it will ask you if you
want to reformat it.

> 3) Transfer all the songs from Ubuntu back to the iPod.  I think I
> can do steps 1 and 2, but so far, step 3 is a problem.  And until I'm
100%
> confident that I can write all Dan's songs *back* onto his iPod, I won't
> try reformatting it.
>
Please check what filesystem that currently resides on the ipod. I have
done all these steps before several times.

> Why, you might ask, don't you just use the Apple eBook that originally
> wrote (via iTunes) to Dan's iPod?  'Cause that device now sits in my
> daughter Abby's dorm room 400 miles West of here (R.I.T.).
>
They can make pretty long USB cables now-a-days.

Good luck,
 - brad


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