ipod linux
2:00 PM: I see a website with a link leading me to this page which has a linux distribution for my 4G iPod. I download and install it; linux for previous generations of iPods is here.
2:05 PM: Gobbledy-gook of all kinds scrolls up the iPod’s screen for a full 10 minutes.
2:15 PM: I use the excellent 4G linux on iPod uninstaller function, which frighteningly enough requires the use of the iPod “disk mode” (hold down select and play at startup).
3:00 PM: I read positive reports on the web and figure I must have done something wrong. Maybe I didn’t click “Install” hard enough. I try again.
3:05 PM: I boot into iPod linux! and immediately have to adjust the contrast to read the screen.
3:10 PM: I try all of the gimpy little games and whatnot in the distrubution. I have to give them an awful lot of credit for duplicating the iPod interface, if they just had a copy of the iPod’s Chicago font it would be close to perfect.
3:15 PM: I test out the high-quality recording function, apparently it claims to record in quality up to 96 kHz. This is the reason to try iPod linux. I plug in my nice Sony mic and select “Recordings”.
3:16 PM: “Recording is not supported on this hardware.”
3:17 PM: Deeply saddened, I uninstall again. Verdict: without recording support, there seems to be no point right now to linux on 4g iPods; however, if I had an older iPod that could record, I would give it a shot.
UPDATE: I had to use DiskWarrior to make the iPod report the correct amount of free space again. I would avoid iPod linux like a plague with herpes on it.
~jeff