Linux friendly portable music player like an ipod.

[Dapper Dan]

Hi y'all.

This is an area I know almost nothing about and need some input and possible solutions. My daughter wants an "ipod" for Christmas although I'm sure she would settle for anything similar as long as she can upload and listen to songs. What is an ipod type player out there that can be interfaced with Linux and will play .ogg files as well as .mp3? Please educate me about this. All help appreciated.

[bigtomrodney]

Well I recently switched to iPod but that won't help you with ogg vorbis...

Previously I had an iRiver. It was a great machine but I'm not sure what the current models are like. Mine was the H140 (or iH-140) model. I know the Cowon/iAudio play ogg too.

If you do get stuck having to get an iPod it's not the worst. Unfortunately a lot of the half decent ones that play more than mp3 and wma cost a lot more too. On the iPod side of things the iPhone and iTouch don't really work yet but all of the others work fine. I'm using the 120GB iPod Classic. I never even connected it to iTunes to set it up and it just works. Now I'm just waiting for Rockbox support then I can play any format!

[techieMoe]

I'm looking into a Sansa Clip 2GB. They basically work like a USB stick; drag-and-drop your songs onto it, no software needed. I've been told they also support OGG, but it's not anywhere on the retail packaging. They're also a good clip (no pun intended) cheaper than an iPod.

[TTIO]

Just had a thought, and found this: iTunes on Linux Petition

And there I was thinking iTunes was already availible for Linux...

[flipjargendy]

I didn't want an iPod for a while because they only play MP3s.... or so I thought! Check out Rockbox - Open Source Jukebox Firmware. When you use RockBox you just have to upload your music/video files and then restart your iPod so it can update its database. Then all of your songs/videos show up in your list of media. I like Rockbox because you can play all of the media types you want.

This way you can just mount the iPod as a drive and upload/download files. You can then use it as an external drive as well.

My favorite thing is the customizable gui though. Check it out. You will either like it or not like it. You will be able to play whatever music files you want and probably the same goes for video files.

[techieMoe]

I didn't want an iPod for a while because they only play MP3s.... or so I thought! Check out Rockbox - Open Source Jukebox Firmware. When you use RockBox you just have to upload your music/video files and then restart your iPod so it can update its database. Then all of your songs/videos show up in your list of media. I like Rockbox because you can play all of the media types you want.

Rockbox only runs on certain models of iPods, so caveat emptor. The models supported are listed on the site. My current iPod is one of the models not supported.

For the record, the stock iPod will play MP3, WMA, AAC, and WAV. It's a little more than just MP3s.

[bigtomrodney]

For the record, the stock iPod will play MP3, WMA, AAC, and WAV. It's a little more than just MP3s.

Do the new iPods support WMA? I always thought that iTunes converted wma to mp3 but if they've started supporting them that's a bonus. Although I did just flush my system of old WMAs and reimport hundreds of CDs as mp3.

[techieMoe]

Do the new iPods support WMA? I always thought that iTunes converted wma to mp3 but if they've started supporting them that's a bonus. Although I did just flush my system of old WMAs and reimport hundreds of CDs as mp3.

Actually, it looks like I was wrong about that one. Requires a conversion. Whoops.

[TTIO]

Hi y'all.

This is an area I know almost nothing about and need some input and possible solutions. My daughter wants an "ipod" for Christmas although I'm sure she would settle for anything similar as long as she can upload and listen to songs. What is an ipod type player out there that can be interfaced with Linux and will play .ogg files as well as .mp3? Please educate me about this. All help appreciated.

Just remembered, I was reading up about Banshee the other day. Seems pretty good, though I can't get adept to accept it as a software source (so I can't download it )

[Dapper Dan]

I'm happy to report I hit a grand slam by choosing the Element Electronics 2GB MP3 Player, (Model Number GC-831) at least as far a Linux compatibility goes. I bought it at Kmart for around $30.00.

I didn't realise these things are essentially a USB memory stick with an embedded player and controls so I treated it that way. Here's what I did:

1. Got rid of the Windows installation CD.
2. With the AAA battery removed, plugged the device into a USB port and waited for its light to come on.
3. Opened a terminal and did:

dmesg | tail

...which showed me where the device is found. (Mine was at /dev/sdg but it may be different for you).
4. I mounted /dev/sdg to an existing directory in /mnt... (I already had "card" in /mnt so I mounted to that):

mount /dev/sdg /mnt/card

(If you need to create a directory to mount to, just do):

mkdir /mnt/whatever_you_want to_call_it

5. Opened file manager (in my case, Tux Commander) and copied sound files to inside /mnt/card. When done, I disconnected the device from the USB port and replaced the battery. (See its instructions for how to play back sound files.)

Here's the really neat thing... I copied some .ogg files over to it as an experiment and they played!

My daughter is happy with it and doesn't seem to care that it isn't a true "Ipod."