I'm planning on making a full transition to Ubuntu very soon and want to transfer all my songs and media from iTunes and iTunes itself onto my Linux computer. I have yet to download WINE. Can someone explain to me how to set this up completely. I want to have the ability to sync my iPod Touch as well.

Is there a way I can get Total Commander on there as well?

Even with Wine its impossible to sync

Only option is to install windows in a vm, then install itunes in there. Again, no syncing.

Another option you might consider is transferring all your music via ssh, and then either playing it directly from your ipod or transferring it to your music library via MNPlight.

The above two options are if you want to aviod linux-based music apps at al times. The easiest way to sync music in linux (at least in ubuntu and its derivatives) is through amarok. Yo can read a help page at the ubuntu site (just search google) that tells yo how to set up your touch/iphone to work with amarok, and then you can sync wirelessly. Be careful, as the sync from amarok permanently destroyed my artwork cache - as in even after a restore, no album art will display/transfer, even from itunes in XP.

Good luck on the transition.

Only option is to install windows in a vm, then install itunes in there. Again, no syncing.

Another option you might consider is transferring all your music via ssh, and then either playing it directly from your ipod or transferring it to your music library via MNPlight.

The above two options are if you want to aviod linux-based music apps at al times. The easiest way to sync music in linux (at least in ubuntu and its derivatives) is through amarok. Yo can read a help page at the ubuntu site (just search google) that tells yo how to set up your touch/iphone to work with amarok, and then you can sync wirelessly. Be careful, as the sync from amarok permanently destroyed my artwork cache - as in even after a restore, no album art will display/transfer, even from itunes in XP.

Good luck on the transition.

:( I'm just going to have to rely on Windows for all my iPod related stuff.

:( I'm just going to have to rely on Windows for all my iPod related stuff.

If you're dual-booting, this isnt a problem. If you're going all-out linux, just use amarok. Once you set it up, it's realy easy to sync.

I've used my iPod touch with Linux for quite some time, and I strongly disrecommend it.

First of all: if you're gonna dump iTunes, you're gonna need to perform a jailbreak in order for it to work. It takes quite a lot of configuration actually.

Second thing: since there's no way to perform a sync using the USB port yet, you're gonna have to transfer all your files wirelessly. Believe me, it's SLOW as hell. Besides, this method requires you to install OpenSSH on your device. This application consumes an awful lot of battery life, even when you're not actually using it.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear though. :)

This is not available for public yet, but words have it that libusb, the one used in pwnage, is being ported for linux's file transfer over usb. If done proper, I think gtkPod will work awesome over USB :)

That's just one of the drawbacks that is finally being fixed. (I do realise that this is due to Apple's restrictive policy though.) Here's another one: play counts and ratings don't function correctly when syncing your iPod using Linux.

u can use ssh to transfer songs...ubuntu explains how in their website
transfer your library with windows..after that just update through ssh in lnx

. Be careful, as the sync from amarok permanently destroyed my artwork cache - as in even after a restore, no album art will display/transfer, even from itunes in XP.

Good luck on the transition.


This isn't true. Artwork is fine when syncing through Amarok. I've been syncing with Linux for weeks now and have all my album artwork. Yes there are times when you can "lose" it, but it's easily recoverable in Linux.

anybody heard of songbird...its still beta, but its a music player that runs on the mozilla platform, so it has like built in firefox which is used to download songs in the player itself of websites,does everything itunes does(aside from the itunes store)....if im not mistaken it can easily sync with your ipod....only downside is its still buggy, and i have no clue when the first non-beta version will be released....

I had the same issue as Parm289 my artwork cache was wiped and I cannot get it back

anybody heard of songbird...its still beta, but its a music player that runs on the mozilla platform, so it has like built in firefox which is used to download songs in the player itself of websites,does everything itunes does(aside from the itunes store)....if im not mistaken it can easily sync with your ipod....only downside is its still buggy, and i have no clue when the first non-beta version will be released....There no support for the iPod Touch and iPhone yet in songbird. But there is wifi sync via Amarok or any media player that can mount a Ipod.

Note that while you can still manually add the iPod extension to 0.5 it is known to exhibit issues. Fret not, the update will be released either in 0.6 or shortly after the launch (which should land in late May/early June.) So it just around the block for better Ipod support