[Cialug] HFSPlus and Linux

[Nathan Stien]

On 6/18/07, Jim Asbille <jim.asbille at gmail.com> wrote:
> When I first got my iPod it was formated for Mac and I was using it under
> Suse 10.0.  It never did work.  I formatted it for Windows and it has been
> bliss ever since.  I currently use OpenSuse 10.2.  The Mac format is
> supposed to be supported in Linux, maybe it is a Suse thing or maybe the
> support is dodgy overall.  If you can format it for Windows then do.

I just run Rockbox on my iPod and use vfat.  No problems, once you get
past the install procedure (command line alert).  The best parts are
that it plays every reasonable media format (including my ogg/flac
collection) and it just uses a normal filesystem heirarchy instead of
iTunes.

http://rockbox.org/

The interface is a bit clunky on an iPod because there are not enough
buttons, so there's stuff like "hold center for 1 second" and such to
get to extra functionality.  Apple just generally never gives enough
buttons (see their mice).  In the rockbox text editor, you can
optionally enter text with morse code tapping, though, which is pretty
cute.

Putting Rockbox on is something like Linux in the olden days; you run
a good chance of losing all your data if something screws up, so make
backups.  It installs a bootloader (rolo, analogous to lilo) which can
optionally boot into the original Apple firmware, so you can still go
back to the old ways if you like.

I could give a talk about it at a meeting if there is interest.  I
have several of my own small patches against their code, though over
time they've managed to improve it such that I only need two of them
anymore.  And I haven't pulled the svn head in a couple months, so
maybe I don't even need the remaining ones.

-- 
Nathan P. Stien
Consulting Engineer / Software Developer
Embedded Systems Electronics and Software
http://linkedin.com/in/nathanstien
Mobile: 309.241.2581