Linux on 4G Ipod

Standard Toaster

Managed to install ipodlinux on my trusty U2 Ipod and now can play video with it among other things.

Main interface:


U2 clip:


Family Guy!:


Also, fans of the original Doom game will love this:





Pretty nifty eh? :cool:
This is still early days...the 4G colour LCD was only added a few days ago. The video & sound needs to be uncompressed atm so that results in huge filesizes but again, it's early days.
Also, I can still boot into my regular Apple OS and play as normal.

mp3guy

battery life?

WizZard

The_Edge wrote:

This is still early days...the 4G colour LCD was only added a few days ago.

Did you install it yourself? Or is it the newer colour U2 iPod? I have an original U2 iPod that I wouldn't mind doing this with.

Standard Toaster

mp3guy wrote:

battery life?

The hdd is spinning all the time during video playback (video probably like over a 1.5mb a sec) so don't expect long life there.
Otherwise it seems fine. You can set the backlight timer to knock off.

WizZard wrote:

Did you install it yourself? Or is it the newer colour U2 iPod? I have an original U2 iPod that I wouldn't mind doing this with.

The newer one. It will work fine on the grayscale lcd I believe.
Doom looks shít b/w though.

Khannie

V. nice.

The_Edge wrote:

Family Guy

Surprising....don't think I've ever seen that clip.....could it be that.......you......no.....you wouldn't.

Standard Toaster

It will play upsidedown mind...

Darkwing Duck

Not to ask a stupid question but is there a good Linux port for a 1st/2nd gen iPod?

steveland?

Darkwing Duck wrote:

Not to ask a stupid question but is there a good Linux port for a 1st/2nd gen iPod?

http://ipodlinux.org/Main_Page

Should answer some of your questions

Fenster

I need to try this on my Nano sometime...

SouperComputer

FCUK me I want to play Doom!

Darkwing Duck

Minor problem...I've installed iPodLinux on mu pod, all went well and happy days, but my pod is a wee bit funny with usb recognition. Basically when it was just a normal pod it was being piucked up as an iPOd device, with some usb quirks, but now that the iPod interface bit is gone and its just linux, its only being recognized as a malfunctioning usb device. Any suggestions on how to get around this cause I cant put anything on off it till I do? I also cant boot into Apple firmware, maybe I'm doing wonky ways...

HomunQlus

The_Edge wrote:

Managed to install ipodlinux on my trusty U2 Ipod and now can play video with it among other things.

Pretty nifty eh? :cool:
This is still early days...the 4G colour LCD was only added a few days ago. The video & sound needs to be uncompressed atm so that results in huge filesizes but again, it's early days.
Also, I can still boot into my regular Apple OS and play as normal.

"Well, Hello Mr. Fancy Pants!"

No seriously. Now that I see this, you really make me think if I should buy an iPod Photo.....

Darkwing Duck

Never mind got i sorted now, think it was just due to some gremlins lurking in the buttons......

Standard Toaster

Some clips of it running. (No sound)

Linux Booting on Ipod
Doom loading on U2 Ipod
Family Guy loading and playing on Ipod
U2 vid playing on U2 Ipod

I'll do up a step by step for anyone who wants to try. It's fairly easy tbh.

Standard Toaster

Ok, here's what I did from scratch.
Download the modified installer here.

Unzip to a folder.

Get the lastest Kernal and lastest podzilla from:
http://ipodlinux.org/builds/

The files you need are 2005-11-11-podzilla.gz & 2005-11-11-kernel.bin.gz (At the time of writing)

Unzip "****-**-**-kernel.bin.gz" and copy the extracted kernel binary to your installer folder (iPod Linux Installer Modded) and rename it linux.bin, replacing the old original.


Unzip "****-**-**-podzilla.gz" and rename the file "podzilla"....with no extension. Place the file in with the other files.


Now, with your Ipod connected and in "Disk mode" (from iTunes) copy all the files to you Ipod except for the "iPod Linux Installer Modded" folder.


Now, run "ipodlinux-installer.exe" in the "iPod Linux Installer Modded" folder.
Uncheck "Check for online updates" and next.
Leave "Original Apple firmware" checked and next.
Good idea to make a backup so hit next.
Next through to finish.

Before you disconnect your Ipod, set your hold swicth to the on position (left)
As the Ipod reboots you should see culinux loading and then Podzilla kicking in.
Now it's installed. Easy

To switch between Apple OS or Linux OS, use the hold switch as you power up. (Left for Linux, right for Apple)
To reset the iPod at any time to do this, Hold the "Menu" & "Select" buttons together for a few seceonds during boot.

Now, to get them games on their download "Floydzilla" from dansfloyd.com
Floydzilla is just a modifed podzilla but with games etc. This setup is straight forward.
The Iboy games don't work at the moment but that will hopefully be sorted for the 4G photo iPods soon. Other models you mileage may vary.
Be sure to check the sites every so often for updates etc.
I'm not sure this will work on your Nano of new video iPod but I believe it's safe to give it a try without ruining the iPod. (Don't hold me to that!)

If you what to undo the install (Or messed up install!) at any time, follow the steps here.

Standard Toaster

Oh, and for video to work it needs to be 220x176 RGB (Uncompressed) and sound needs to be PCM 44100.
It plays this video upside down atm so you need to flip the video when you convert it first.
Different Ipods have different sized screens so check that first.

steveland?

What sort of benefits does it have for us iPod Mini 4Gs with no colour screens?

Any interesting applications? (One would assume we can't play videos or anything)

Standard Toaster

You can play video alrite but it needs to be grayscale to see it "properly"
Probably not worth the bother tbh.

At least all those GB games would work fine with your grayscale screen.
Give it a try...easyily removable. Altough, ipodlinux.org seems down at atm.

steveland?

Since ipodlinux.org is down atm I reckon I should ask here...

Just tried installing it, followed your steps The_Edge, installed everything (on my 4G iPod mini) but now whenever I try to boot it the Apple logo just appears... I use menu+ select and the screen goes blank after a few seconds but the apple logo just appears again...

I chose Linux as default so maybe I should reset the iPod (using the firmware thingy) and try it again.

Any ideas?

steveland?

Hmm... now it won't pick it up as a device at all when I plug in my cable

Standard Toaster

Not 100% about the Mini but hold the select and play buttons on boot to force it to boot from hdd instead.
BTW, that install guide is for a 4Gen Ipod....not a mini.
You can easily undo the changes mind.
Gimmie a shout if your stuck.

steveland?

Quite stuck

The apple logo appears and it does nothing, does nothing when I plug in the USB, when I press menu and select at the same time for a few seconds it turns off but turns straight back on with just the apple logo...

When I plug it in nothing happens on the PC either

Standard Toaster

Try this. Leave it plugged to the usb cable.
Hold "Menu + Select" to make it reboot.
As soon as it reboots, hold "Select + play" for disk mode.

steveland?

You're a feckin genius

Cheers mate!

I'll let you know how it goes if I can get it fixed and post up the steps I did to get it working (if it does ) so others won't make the mistakes I did

Standard Toaster

Good good!

you should always be able to get to disk mode if all else fails.
Now, one way to "Repair" the iPod if it goes tits up is to "update" it with the Apple updater. (55mb)

Now, this will update your iPod to the lastest firmware (always a good thing) and repair the MBR on hdd so it boots normally. You'll keep your music too!



Now, you'll see above my "Update" option is grayed out. I already have the updated firmware. So what do I do?

Open your iPod from My Computer and look for the hidden folder "iPod_Control". Browze to the "Device" folder and open the file "SysInfo" in Wordpad (important that it's Wordpad!!). You'll see this:



The two numbers are my current firmware revisions.
I'm gonna trick the updater here....I'm gonna remove the last 0 from each line:



Now, when I run the Apple updater, I have the "Update option!


I've done this countless times without anything bad happening (touches wood)

Once the iPod reboots, it will be back to normal. Youll just have to remove the linux files that have been added from My Computer.

steveland?

http://blogtuts.gameportalonline.com/?p=8 < here's the instructions I used to install it. You don't need to copy over all the files as The_Edge suggested, also there's a step there where you make a start file.

This is the method to use for a 4G iPod Mini

Thanks very much for bringing this to my attention The_Edge, just watched the Family Guy clip on my iPod, the possibilities are endless...

Now for ipodlinux.org to get up and running again...

Standard Toaster

No worries.
Your right about not needing all the files though. Best to get it working before deleting files though.
Have you tried Floydzilla for the iboy (gameboy) games?
Should work first time on yours too.

steveland?

The only place I can find to download the iBoy is from ipodlinux.org which is down...

iboy.sourceforge.net has a forum on it but it's not available atm

I'll do some creative googling... ( ie look up iBoy)

Standard Toaster

The modified Floydzilla has it built in. Doom and Duke Nukem too.

dansfloyd.com/floydzilla.html

It's a modified podzilla. Not 100% it supports the minis but no harm trying.
Expect Floydzilla 2.0 in the next few days too. (Nano support)

steveland?

Where do i find it on the iPod itself?

File Browser?

Standard Toaster

Assuming you've installed Floydzilla look in "Main Menu/Extras/iBoy/"
Over 20 games.

philologos

this means that pretty much that the video Ipod is a waste of money?

Standard Toaster

Far from it. The video iPod has it's own dedicated video chip to decode Mpeg4 and H.264 video. Ours can only decode uncompressed vid at the moment....which results in huge file sizes vs. Mpeg4 or H.264. our iPods were never ment to decode video full stop.
Also, the screen has a higher resolution @ 320x240....NTSC VCD size.
I believe the battary life is longer too.

philologos

could you run Ipod linux on the 60GB photo ipod

Standard Toaster

Yeap.

Floydzilla 2.0 released today.
http://dansfloyd.com/floydzilla.html

Finally, Floydzilla 2.0 is out, lots of bugs fixed! This version is compatable with the Nano, and the iPod Color Screens. I have also included the new iDoom, which is also compatable with the Nano. Let me know how things are working!

Mac daddy

steveland? wrote:

Hmm... now it won't pick it up as a device at all when I plug in my cable

edit got it sorted out.

Mac daddy

The_Edge wrote:

Try this. Leave it plugged to the usb cable.
Hold "Menu + Select" to make it reboot.
As soon as it reboots, hold "Select + play" for disk mode.

Quality worked perfect

cartman

are you spose to be able to view and play your music in linux? cos i cant

alan

cartman

also none of the iboy games will load

Standard Toaster

cartman wrote:

are you spose to be able to view and play your music in linux? cos i cant

alan

You can but you have to delete any playlists first. Sure the Apple software is better for that anyway.

The iboy games only play on the 3G ipods afaik. Support will be added for 4G & 5G ipods over time. When?...I have no idea.

sound_wave

got this to work on my 4G ipod, but... now Suse 10 aint mounting the drive. Even manually. Also its picking it up as a 32 meg memstick and an ipod.

Anyone have any ideas on this one?