OS and Software > All Things Unix > ipod nano video on linux

ipod nano video on linux

quote:

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Import of 'blah.mp4' failed: m4a/m4p/m4b not supported without the mp4v2 library. You must compile the gtkpod source together with the mp4v2 library.
The following track could not be processed (filetype is known but analysis failed):

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Ok there is a bug in gutsy gtkpod-aac that makes it not mp4 capable. I have fixed it but the updated package is in the gutsy-proposed repository

I will elaborate more once I am back on a real keyboard
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reply to justin
Is this the part where someone says "Well, that's what you get for trying to work with a purposely closed device that was designed to work only with its own proprietary software"?

I'm not attempting to discount your frustration; I understand that. However, I would think it wouldn't be too difficult to see these types of problems coming. Several years ago when I bought my first (and current) DAP I went out of my way to find one that supported what I wanted and operated as a USB mass storage device. That pretty much ensures I can use it with the vast majority of desktops or laptops in use today, regardless of the OS they use or the software they have installed.

But then you may have some perfectly legitimate reasons for wanting to use an Ipod, and my completely unhelpful post will only compound your frustration. :P

reply to justin
Not yet - but my kid is getting one for xmas, so I expect I will have to bite the bullet...

Saw this in wikipedia »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_classic

"iPods of the 6th generation (as well as the iPod nano and the iPod Touch) introduced an additional checksum in their song database, making it initially impossible (without reverse engineering) to use the iPod with 3rd party syncing programs.[6] This limitation was soon worked around by Gtkpod team.[7]"

As horrific as it sounds, you could try, er, a virtual machine that is capable of running itunes. MacOS or XP...
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reply to benyto
here is the thing though. The ipod isn't very complicated. It has a simple directory structure, acts as a disk when plugged into a usb port, it has an XML file for settings and a database file whose only tweak recently was for encryption with the ipod firewire address to tie the database to the device (a logical improvement, out there for some time now, that yet required me to download the recompile source for libgpod). It plays widely understood file formats (mp3s, mpeg-4) as well as the apple DRM encoded ones that originate from the apple store.

It appears that one of the reasons that amarok, which appears to be the most together interface for ipod integration, doesn't support video are simply that the developers don't have a video capable ipod! I mean, come on.. amarok has a music storefront!

meanwhile you can't even use itunes under wine because wine doesn't properly surface the USB interface? So is wine still being recommended for linux converts? I hope not..

There is no real competition for the current nano, or even the ipod touch.. and there is definitely good money in consumer linux. If the mozilla foundation can haul almost $100 million a year into a bank account for sticking a google search box on the default home page then there is plenty of money to be made from writing a linux interface that Just Works.

Yeah partly I blame apple - it would cost them the profit they make at the apple soho store in just a week to produce a linux itunes - but who really expects them to step up? they want an OSX world why should they help linux (it isn't clear to me that they are actively hindering it, though).

It sounds from jdong that this is just a temporary glitch but really even if gtkpod worked as it once did or is supposed to do, it still seems flaky. User forums (un-ending topics starting with 'help..') confirm my experience that reliable a/v under linux still requires skills of an "unstable release" source guru who can keep in their head the approx development state of about 15 separate sourceforge libraries.

reply to justin
Justin, the new nanos expose a mass storage device interface??

I have an iPod Touch which doesn't even do that.
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Ubuntu MOTU Developer and Forums Council

reply to justin
Right, but you're still using a device that requires the use of specialized software to function ('specialized' being a highly subjective term, of course). If the device vendor doesn't release a Linux version of its software then you are at the mercy of third-party developers to keep up with the current landscape so you don't have these problems.

Alternatively you can use a device which requires no external software whatsoever to operate and you'd have nothing to worry about. Copy your media files over and then use the player's OS to play them.

Certainly such usability issues should be a consideration when purchasing a device, no? And I'm not just talking about usability issues solely from the Linux user's perspective. A device which requires no external software for proper operation must have some appeal to users of other OSs, I'd imagine.

reply to jdong

When I plug in the ipod, I have /dev/sdb1 which is a directory tree and all the ipod manipulation programs do is manipulate files in that filesystem, so for instance new music files go in FXX sub-directories. Shrug. The ultimate low level utility is gnupod which is a bunch of perl that offers command line utilities for pushing files to the filesystem and updating gnutunes.db (made from itunes.db).
I thought it was always like that, and I have an old ipod mini that does the same thing? where is the super proprietary tricky code here?
The type of the filesystem is different for "windows" init ipod vs "mac" init ipod, thats about it?

One of the points I'm trying to make is that the use of an Ipod requires external software to operate at all. Whether you see it as simplistic or not is largely irrelevant. Any upstream change has the potential to make your current software environment stop functioning, causing you to go through this again sometime in the future.

I suspect I'm in the minority here, but when I bought my player I made sure it absolutely required nothing else in order for me to use it. As long as computer's OS supports USB mass storage devices I am able to get media on to and off of the device, and the device can play it without any problems. No file structure limitations, no need to update a database.

Your beef is legitimate. I'd be frustrated, too.

As for the Ipod USB mass storage issue, I was under the impression that the units did not operate as a standard USB HDD. One that you could plug in to a computer without Ipod-specific software and use as a storage volume. Perhaps my impressions were incorrect.

reply to justin
(1) The iPhone and iPod Touches do *NOT* expose a mass storage device at all

(2) The iTunesDB file on the 6th generation has another hash field that must be updated else the DB gets rejected.

(3) See the GTKPOD section of »help.ubuntu.com/community/Portab···s/iPhone

This new release of gtkpod apparently is required for the iTunesDB hash field to be generated
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Ubuntu MOTU Developer and Forums Council

this is an ipod nano, not a touch or an iphone..

The hash part is fine, I checked the XML file on the exported mass storage file-system. It isn't a problem of files getting loaded but not getting indexed (which would be the hash getting set incorrectly), it is that gtkpod doesn't work with video files (refuses to deal with the mp4/m4v file) and amarok doesn't even have the concept of video.

In case anyone else finds this topic, here is what I've done so far.

1. Despite the gtkpod being updated for video support at the end of 2005 .. ( see »www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/initial-···-libgpod ) the ubuntu gtkpod and gtkpod-aac programs do not understand video, and give a message normally associated with gtkpod being told to deal with an AAC file.

2. gtkpod is a bear to re-build manually from a normal ubuntu install. I had to google each configure failure to identify the missing packages. Several pulled in whole rafts of others. Here is the minimum path:

apt-get install libmp4v2-dev
apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev
apt-get install libglade2-dev
apt-get install libgnomecanvas2-dev
apt-get install flex
apt-get install libid3tag0-dev
apt-get remove gtkpod-aac
       (download 'stable' gtkpod source)
       (./configure)
       (should be clean and pickup libmp4v2 library)
       (./install)
 

mp4info blah.m4v 
mp4info version 1.5.0.1
blah.m4v:
Track   Type    Info
1       video   MPEG-4 Simple @ L3, 2867.064 secs, 400 kbps, 320x240 @ 29.970032 fps
2       audio   MPEG-4 AAC LC, 2866.967 secs, 128 kbps, 44100 Hz
 

reply to justin
Justin, read my first post. The gtkpod-aac not supporting aac bug is known and the fixed package is in the proposed repository. I was the one who worked on the fix.
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Ubuntu MOTU Developer and Forums Council

I did read your first post, but was waiting for the elaboration.

How long was it broken for, because gtkpod-aac supported aac (audio) files at some point, obviously.

There is/was a terminology confusion.. my problem was with video, not apple audio format. Should gtkpod-aac really be called gtkpod-aac-mp4? Would an mp4 video file with mp3 sound have been accepted by gtkpod-aac? Why doesn't vanilla gtkpod Just Work (with video).

reply to justin

reply to justin
The terminology is confusing. The aac variant actually just means it can parse mp4. This was broken just in gutsy because our libmp4v2 was too ancient and lacked an API call that gtkpod wanted. I prepped the fix for this a month or so back. There issl a separate aac variant because the mp4 parsing lib was deemed non-free but mp3-only users didn't want the entire gtkpod demoted to multiverse
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ok, I got it, thanks.

btw do you know how to tell ubuntu to not fire up rhythmbox when it automounts the ipod, and instead fire up gtkpod?

System->Preferences->Removable Media, Multimedia tab
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Ubuntu MOTU Developer and Forums Council

reply to justin
I for one am pretty happy to see at least three geeky people fixing this (esp for Deb-style systems).
I like using linux, love how far it's come since redhat 6, but will never have the time/knowledge to actually figure something like this out.
Saki's on me.
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