[COLUG] HINT: Linux and the new iPod Shuffle

[Joshua Kramer]

Howdy All,

I have a hint for anyone who wants to use one of the new iPod Shuffle 
music players under Linux.  (This is the latest Shuffle, which is barely 
larger than a small metal clip and fits inside of a matchbox...)

There are various programs available for getting iPods to work under 
Linux.  I downloaded and installed one, gtkpod, but at first it wasn't 
working.  When I tried to sync a playlist to the device, it would just sit 
there... and sit there... and I couldn't even kill-9 the app.  The only 
way to get it "un-stuck" was to pull the USB plug.

Linux sees it as mass storage, so I tried to copy a file to the device. 
Same thing.  So, I perused my kernel messages, and found a bunch of 
messages like these:

SCSI error : <1 0 0 0> return code = 0x10000
end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 11192
Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical block 2798
lost page write due to I/O error on sdb
scsi1 (0:0): rejecting I/O to offline device
Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical block 2799
lost page write due to I/O error on sdb

The iPod worked fine on my work laptop (which runs XP professional).  Not 
wanting to go out and buy Winders, I tried a few other things.  There was 
one thing that did work: using and old dusty USB 1.0 hub between the USB 
port and the iPod.  It seems that the iPod isn't 100% compliant with the 
USB 2.0 standard to the point it won't work with Linux; but if you can 
force USB 1.0 mode on the port, it works fine.

Cheers,
-Josh