An iPod system for Linux - Part 5 - Unmounting the iPod
14 October 2006
In previous posts, we discussed the iPod, and iTunes in Linux. We then looked at how to get our songs from CDs and put them in our song library and then we mounted the iPod.
Not long to go now, all we have to do is let gtkpod recognise the iPod and to learn how to mount it uncleanly.
Letting gtkpod know the iPod
If you plug in the iPod now and then open gtkpod then it will bring up a little dialog like this screenshot:
- `.. image:: http://commandline.org.uk/images/posts/ipod/initialize-iPod.png
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alt: Dialog in gtkpod to choose the iPod model
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If you do not know what iPod you have got then look on the back for the model number or look it up over at Apple History.
That was pretty easy.
Cleanly unmounting the iPod
When you want to unplug your iPod, you should unmount it before; just in case you lose data that has not been written to the iPod yet. You can use the umount command, but I wanted to do something a bit more swish as I am expecting a non-technical user to be able to use this system.
I started writing a little GTK-Python program for this but decided in the end to just use a little bash. This one-liner has a few dependencies.
- Firstly, you need the 'eject' program. Some distros have it by default. Gentoo users can emerge eject, Debian and Ubuntu can apt-get install eject. The iPod seems to prefer eject to umount, as the iPod screen properly reacts with the former.
- Secondly, you need to install 'gksu' if you do not have it. Again emerge gksu or apt-get install gksu
Next, you need to right click on your desktop and choose 'Create Launcher'.
`.. image:: http://commandline.org.uk/images/posts/ipod/create-launcher- small.png
alt: Create a launcher for the ipod eject
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Fill in the values, something like as follows, or just click on the above screenshot and copy it.
Name: Eject iPod
Comment: Safely Remove iPod
Command: gksu "eject ipod"
Icon: Whatever you want
Now if someone double-clicks the icon, it will pop up a graphical box asking for the root password and it will then eject the iPod, as in the screenshot below:
- `.. image:: http://commandline.org.uk/images/posts/ipod/gksu-small.png
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alt: Pop up box from gksu
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If you want to customise the message, then add some text to the command:
gksu "eject ipod" -m "To Safely Remove your iPod, please enter your password."
This will look like this:
- `.. image:: http://commandline.org.uk/images/posts/ipod/gksu-1-small.png
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alt: Customised message
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With the exception of podcasts, we have now done all the basic work to get our system running, i.e. the system administration side. In the next post I will give a set of instructions for the end-user of this system.
1 Phill says...
Hmmm... on my version of Ubuntu (6), it will mount the iPod automatically. Come to think of it, Fedora Core 4 did that as well. Ubuntu also provides the "Eject" command by default for mounted iPods. as well as automatically starting up the music library which I never use (I always use GtkPod). Certainly beats Windows anyway! :D
Posted at 11:03 p.m. on October 14, 2006
2 Zeth says...
Well my system tried to mount it as /media/IPOD when it was a virgin HFS+ ipod and then /media/disk when I had used it once under Mac OS X. However once I had added it to fstab then it did what I wanted (my gtkpod seems to expect /mnt/ipod).
What program did Ubuntu start up as the music library? What graphical option does it give to unmount the Ipod?
Posted at 2:22 a.m. on October 15, 2006
3 Phill says...
When you plugin an iPod it loads up Rhythmbox. Also it puts an "iPod" icon on your desktop. When you want to 'eject' the iPod, just right-click on the icon and select "eject". That didn't work properly under Fedora 4 but it works fine on Ubuntu 6!
I like GtkPod, the only problem I had was with earlier versions (0.96 I think) which didn't seem to write the DB properly all the time - I would frequently lose songs. I upgraded it to version 0.99 and it was fine (this was on Fedora 4 by the way, in Ubuntu 6 I think the latest version is in the repository which is good).
Posted at 2:09 p.m. on October 15, 2006