Now, does anyone have any suggestions on what software to use to swync my ipod with this thing? I know there are itunes like programs out there for linux, but are there any that work as podcatchers and mp3 libraries and ipod syncers? Itunes is pretty damn good at the job it does...
I prefer Banshee over Amarok. And plus, Banshee is Gnome.
Ok, I tried Banshee, but I don't particularly like it. So, I am trying Amarok now. It seems ok, but iTunes and the iPod have gone together so extremely well for me so far, I doubt I'll be completely happy with anything other than itunes. Maybe I'll figure out how to run iTunes in Ubuntu. THAT would be the ultimate iPod in Linux solution.
And How do I sync my iPod with Amorok? The only real functionality I need out of it is for it to grab casts and put them on my iPod. I almost never listen to podcasts at the house, since I spend 10 hours a day doing it from the time I leave the house until the time I get home. One can only listen to SO much Geeknights, you know? :P I'm about halfway done with all the back episodes: give me another week or so and I'll have heard it all.
How you sync with Amarok is pretty obvious. Just go to the devices tab.
As far as Banshee goes, I used to use it. I also liked its interface better than Amarok. However, it was unstable and useless. It crashed all the time. If I got close to 100 songs in a playlist, it would slow to a crawl and crash.
For the record, I use my iPod with iTunes on the Mac mini downstairs. Before that, I used it with iTunes on my old mac laptop that ran Windows. As long as the iPod is my player, I'll use iTunes for podcast sync. There's no way to run it in Linux, believe me. People are trying. When this nano dies, I will probably get a Sansa.
Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to use my old 400mhz g4 that I keep in the bedroom since it has itunes on it, and because my girlfriend isn't perminently attached to it like she is to my old gaming rig. ;) And because my g4 has the largest hard drive in the house right now. How sad is that? I have yet to get a large hardrive for my new rig...
For all you Amarok fans who want a music player to use in GNOME, let me recommend Exaile. All the cool features of Amarok in a familiar looking Gnomish package. I use it to sync my music collection to my ipod, but for podcasts I have a custom shell script part of which is based on Bashpodder and part of which I wrote myself. I double click on an icon on my desktop and it downloads all the new podcasts and replaces my old podcasts on my ipod with them.
EDIT: I should add, Exaile uses a MySQL database to store your music just like Amarok, so it can handle big collections.
I tried to get it on a friend's computer, and the CD-ROM drive didn't allow it to boot. So, after talking with another friend about it, he said that his Dell has a thing in it that keeps you from running live CDs. He said the only way to fix it is to wipe the hard drive, reformat it, and reinstall Windows, but that's too much work and trouble.
So, what can I do to install it without having to wipe the hard drive and such?
So what can I do to install it without having to wipe the hard drive and such?
Your friend doesn't know what he's talking about. Unless his CD-ROM is broken, you can definitely boot from a CD on 99% of computers built in the past 8 years. Booting a CD has nothing to do with Windows or anything on the hard drive. Even if he didn't have a hard drive at all, you could still boot from the CD. Just go into the BIOS and select CD-ROM as the first boot device. Put the CD in the drive and reboot. If this isn't an option in the BIOS, go to Dell's website and see if you can find an update for the BIOS. If you can't do that, then the computer is just too shitty to boot from a CD.
They are working on making a way to install by running an exe file in Windows, but it's not ready yet. I wouldn't try it just yet. There is a way to install Debian by running an exe file, but I forget the website that has it. I tried it once, and it worked pretty well. Be warned though. Ubuntu is based on Debian, but they are not the same as far as novice users are concerned. Debian will not make it easy for you if you don't know what you are doing.
And is Feisty Fawn Ubuntu 7.04?
Yes. The easy way to tell is to look at the calendar. 7.04 means 2007 month 4. April 2007 is when Feisty was released. Edgy was 6.10, it was released in October 2006. Look at your calendar, and you can tell if the version of Ubuntu you have is new or old.
I'm going to ask a question: Do they actually keep the powerPC version of their OS on any server? Anywhere in the world? I tried around half a dozen so I could just try it out, and it never found the file.
I'm going to ask a question: Do they actually keep the powerPC version of their OS on any server? Anywhere in the world? I tried around half a dozen so I could just try it out, and it never found the file.
I am one step into changing to ubuntu. I need to move all my important files into another hard drive and then format my my computer or just install ubuntu. However, I am not sure if I can use my ipod in ubuntu. So my question is: Is it possible to use my ipod in ubuntu? Help me Scott, please.
First many of the general purpose music programs under Linux have ipod support, like Amarok and Exaile. They don't handle dynamic playlists properly but they handle transfering files and creating normal list-of-songs type playlists just fine.
Then there's another program called gtkpod which can do anything you want with your ipod using a nice GUI.
And finally there's Gnupod which lets you do anything you want with your ipod from the command line - so if you want to have some script that downloads your daily podcasts and loads them onto your ipod before you go to work every morning automatically you can do it that way.
Just installed Feisty on my old laptop. Had some troubles getting the right resolution settings to appear. It would only go as high as 800x600. I couldn't make head or tails about installing video drivers. All that text command stuff all looked beyond my scope or maybe I was just looking at the wrong places. Then I found a post saying I needed to run that dpkg xorg command deal. Which was easy to follow and worked. I just chose the ATI driver and just picked the defaults for everything else. Even still I can't imagine your average joe windows user would have bothered this much and just gone back to windows. Just an observation.
In any case I have a quick question. How do I rename my shortcuts? For example in the drop down menu for applications I would like to rename F-Spot Photo Manger to just Photo Manger.
Just installed Feisty on my old laptop. Had some troubles getting the right resolution settings to appear. It would only go as high as 800x600. I couldn't make head or tails about installing video drivers. All that text command stuff all looked beyond my scope or maybe I was just looking at the wrong places. Then I found a post saying I needed to run that dpkg xorg command deal. Which was easy to follow and worked. I just chose the ATI driver and just picked the defaults for everything else. Even still I can't imagine your average joe windows user would have bothered this much and just gone back to windows. Just an observation.
Blame ATi. This is why Linux users always get Intel or NVidia video cards. Trust me, if you have one of those, it is much easier. Also, no matter what video card you have, you can find directions to make it go with a quick google search. Personally, if ATi was the only video card available, I just wouldn't use Linux because it is so much trouble.
In any case I have a quick question. How do I rename my shortcuts? For example in the drop down menu for applications I would like to rename F-Spot Photo Manger to just Photo Manger.
Go to System->Preferences->Main Menu. Find the shortcut you want to edit. Right click on it and select Properties. Now change its name.
Easyvmx.com combined with an XP full install and possibly a dedicated 250 gig hard drive looks to be the answer to me being to lazy to dual boot. Vmware for teh win!
Anyone else try this as a dedicated iPod syncing solution?
Easyvmx.com combined with an XP full install and possibly a dedicated 250 gig hard drive looks to be the answer to me being to lazy to dual boot. Vmware for teh win!
Anyone else try this as a dedicated iPod syncing solution?
Hey, I never thought about using a VMWare/iTunes to handle iPod in Linux. That'd a damn good idea. I still wouldn't suggest using it for games though.
Either way, if you are going to use VMWare Player, you don't need to use something like Easyvmx to create the virtual machines. They are very easy to create by hand using a text editor and qemu. Here is a howto.
This brings up something else. If you are running Windows and you have 5 to 10 gigs of free hard drive space, try installing Ubuntu in a virtual machine. You won't have to bother with burning CDs or even rebooting your computer. If you don't like it, you can just delete it.
Easyvmx is super quick and easy for all the basic settings. Just enough to design a(virtual) system. All of the defaults seem to work really well. The setup I'm trying involves 1 cpu, 512 megs of ram, sound enabled, usb enabled (with autoconnect on so that I can just plug my ipod in), my primary cdrom(which is actually my dl dvd burner from Wal-Mart) enabled, and directX disabled. I'm going to set it up for save state on close, so that when I start it up, iTunes is open and nothing else is running. I'll report back once I get it up and running.
[EDIT]
[happy_dance]
Super wow! I figured I was being a fucktard for even suggesting that iPod solution... Surely everyone had already tried it and it didn't work at all... Guess I was wrong. Added bonus of coming up with a tech solution in linux that the resident Ubuntu deity/master/wizard of space and time/guru (Scott) hadn't already thought of.
OK Scott, I have been listening about a year or so to you guys, so I feel personally obligated to you to try this thing... But, after reading all of these posts, I think I'm too scared! All I really want to do on a computer is Internet browsing, Warcraft and iTunes, and it sounds like the latter two are going to be problematic. I'm such a weenie.
OK Scott, I have been listening about a year or so to you guys, so I feel personally obligated to you to try this thing...but after reading all of these posts I think I'm too scared! All I really want to do on a computer is internet browsing, warcraft and itunes, and it sounds like the latter two are going to be problematic. I'm such a weenie.
Just burn the CD, boot from it and see what it is like. I don't care if you use it or not. If you mostly use your PC for games and iTunes it probably isn't a good choice for you. I just want people to try it so they don't have misconceptions. A lot of people don't know what Linux is at all, or they have crazy ideas that do not match reality. I don't think everyone in the world should use it, but I do think people who use computers should know about it.
Yeah, someone else is going to have to try it to see if it works. I got XP up and running in VMware, and the XP install couldn't find the network card. andI got REALLY tired of not being able to play games and not being able to plug my iPod in and have it just work. So, I'm back to XP now. I will go back and install Ubuntu when I have enough disk space for both, though. I'm stuck using an old 40 Gig IDE drive that I've had for years, since most everything in this system is just place-holder equipment...
How can I installStepManiaon my Fiesty-running computer?
This is not necessarily the cleanest or most "correct" way to do it, but it is an easy way that will almost always work.
1. Go to www.stepmania.com and download the Linux binary version to your desktop.
2. Open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal)
3. enter the following commands
This changes your current folder to your desktop. cd Desktop This unzips and untars the stepmania package. Make sure to type the name of the file you have downloaded. I just used the most current version as an example. tar -zxf StepMania-3.9a-linux.tar.gz This will put you into the newly created Stepmania directory. Remember to change the number if you downloaded a different version. cd StepMania-3.9 This will run Stepmania. ./stepmania
I'm about to write a post about tab completion. Read it.
Comments
That's it! Thanks for all your help, guys!
And How do I sync my iPod with Amorok? The only real functionality I need out of it is for it to grab casts and put them on my iPod. I almost never listen to podcasts at the house, since I spend 10 hours a day doing it from the time I leave the house until the time I get home. One can only listen to SO much Geeknights, you know? :P I'm about halfway done with all the back episodes: give me another week or so and I'll have heard it all.
As far as Banshee goes, I used to use it. I also liked its interface better than Amarok. However, it was unstable and useless. It crashed all the time. If I got close to 100 songs in a playlist, it would slow to a crawl and crash.
For the record, I use my iPod with iTunes on the Mac mini downstairs. Before that, I used it with iTunes on my old mac laptop that ran Windows. As long as the iPod is my player, I'll use iTunes for podcast sync. There's no way to run it in Linux, believe me. People are trying. When this nano dies, I will probably get a Sansa.
EDIT: I should add, Exaile uses a MySQL database to store your music just like Amarok, so it can handle big collections.
So, what can I do to install it without having to wipe the hard drive and such?
And Is Feisty Fawn Ubuntu 7.04?
They are working on making a way to install by running an exe file in Windows, but it's not ready yet. I wouldn't try it just yet. There is a way to install Debian by running an exe file, but I forget the website that has it. I tried it once, and it worked pretty well. Be warned though. Ubuntu is based on Debian, but they are not the same as far as novice users are concerned. Debian will not make it easy for you if you don't know what you are doing. Yes. The easy way to tell is to look at the calendar. 7.04 means 2007 month 4. April 2007 is when Feisty was released. Edgy was 6.10, it was released in October 2006. Look at your calendar, and you can tell if the version of Ubuntu you have is new or old.
Help me Scott, please.
First many of the general purpose music programs under Linux have ipod support, like Amarok and Exaile. They don't handle dynamic playlists properly but they handle transfering files and creating normal list-of-songs type playlists just fine.
Then there's another program called gtkpod which can do anything you want with your ipod using a nice GUI.
And finally there's Gnupod which lets you do anything you want with your ipod from the command line - so if you want to have some script that downloads your daily podcasts and loads them onto your ipod before you go to work every morning automatically you can do it that way.
In any case I have a quick question. How do I rename my shortcuts? For example in the drop down menu for applications I would like to rename F-Spot Photo Manger to just Photo Manger.
Easyvmx.com combined with an XP full install and possibly a dedicated 250 gig hard drive looks to be the answer to me being to lazy to dual boot. Vmware for teh win!
Anyone else try this as a dedicated iPod syncing solution?
To add music you just copy the file onto the iPod as if it were a hard drive.
The only problem I had with it is the lack of use when the charger is plugged in.
Either way, if you are going to use VMWare Player, you don't need to use something like Easyvmx to create the virtual machines. They are very easy to create by hand using a text editor and qemu. Here is a howto.
This brings up something else. If you are running Windows and you have 5 to 10 gigs of free hard drive space, try installing Ubuntu in a virtual machine. You won't have to bother with burning CDs or even rebooting your computer. If you don't like it, you can just delete it.
Easyvmx is super quick and easy for all the basic settings. Just enough to design a(virtual) system. All of the defaults seem to work really well. The setup I'm trying involves 1 cpu, 512 megs of ram, sound enabled, usb enabled (with autoconnect on so that I can just plug my ipod in), my primary cdrom(which is actually my dl dvd burner from Wal-Mart) enabled, and directX disabled. I'm going to set it up for save state on close, so that when I start it up, iTunes is open and nothing else is running. I'll report back once I get it up and running.
[EDIT]
[happy_dance]
Super wow! I figured I was being a fucktard for even suggesting that iPod solution... Surely everyone had already tried it and it didn't work at all... Guess I was wrong. Added bonus of coming up with a tech solution in linux that the resident Ubuntu deity/master/wizard of space and time/guru (Scott) hadn't already thought of.
YIPPY FOR ME!!!
[/happy_dance]
1. Go to www.stepmania.com and download the Linux binary version to your desktop.
2. Open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal)
3. enter the following commands
This changes your current folder to your desktop.
cd DesktopThis unzips and untars the stepmania package. Make sure to type the name of the file you have downloaded. I just used the most current version as an example.
tar -zxf StepMania-3.9a-linux.tar.gzThis will put you into the newly created Stepmania directory. Remember to change the number if you downloaded a different version.
cd StepMania-3.9This will run Stepmania.
./stepmaniaI'm about to write a post about tab completion. Read it.