GNUpod : iPod on a Linux box

I got a nice 512 Mo iPOD shuffle for my birthday. Thank you guys ! :)

It took me 5 minutes to make it work under a FC3 Linux box.

At first it though it would act as a normal usb storage and then did this :

$ mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /media/IPOD -o sync

At this point, everything was ok. I could transfert whatever files on
the storage as it was a normal USB key thus I put couple of MP3''s to
give a try.  At my surprise the lights were switching from red to
green on the iPOD shuffle telling me there's an error. (Ok too easy
maybe... )

I found then the GNUpod package :

http://www.gnu.org/software/gnupod/gnupod.html

And after this everything worked well :)

Actually, the iPOD uses a database that needs to be initialized.( I'm
not gonna go in details in here about this. Go and read the manual !)

Basic examples :

Initialize the iPOD :
$ gnupod_INIT.pl -m /media/IPOD

Transfert songs :
$ gnupod_addsong.pl -m /media/IPOD/COX/Essential_Mix_03.05.00_live_from_golden-south_beach.mp3

Search Songs :
$ gnupod_search.pl -m /media/IPOD -a cox

Remove selected songs :
$ gnupod_search.pl -m /media/IPOD -a cox --delete

Synchronize
$ mktunes.pl -m /media/IPOD/

Unmount device
$ umount /media/IPOD

And that's it !

The manual explains how to do cool stuffs such as rating your songs,
edit playlists etc...

So no worry, if you are running a Linux box you can steal an iPOD it will work :)