Connecting iPod touch to Linux

i would purchase an iPod if it weren't unethically locked down.

Maybe you should change the Subject title to Connecting iPhone/iPod touch to linux, as the two probably use the exact same interface to connect to a computer running iTunes?

I own an iPhone 3GS and have the same problem. I actually do own a mac, running OS X 10.6.2, but that's not the point. The point is i would never had bought my iphone if i didn't already own a mac.
That said, i have several computers running linux (ubuntu to be more specific), and so does several members of my family. I miss the ability to transfer files from/to my iphone when using those computers, and my family members can't realistically buy an iPhone, or an iPod touch and have it work for ATM.

It would be great if we could have the iPhone team develop an open source library to enable linux developers to integrate usb transfer in linux applications, such as what iTunes does with images, videos and music, on Windows and OS X today. If an open source component is not possible, why not a closed source binary blob like nvidia does with their display drivers (which is less optimal, but acceptable i guess).

I'm using Slackware Linux v13.0 32bit.... and the only thing I can't do is sync my iPod Touch 32GB.

It's reather on the annoying side, having to turn the computer off, switch the HD to the one with WinXP, boot up, do wahtever I wanna do in iTunes, turn the computer off, switch HD to my primary system, and boot again.

I can do everything else in Linux. I play WoW via Wine 1.1.33, I surf the web, I code a little bit, I use gfx-prgrammes and play music and whatnot.... but I can't use the flipping iTunes.

So I would like for Apple to release a Linux version of iTunes.... after all, unless I've understood incorrectly from various place, Linux are used by more people on a daily basis than MacOSX. So maybe a community with more users than Mac themselves have, should get the opportunity to get iTunes?

I just CBA going through the above sequence just to et my iPod synced... most of my music ain't even ON the flipping WinXP drive.

Besides... seeing as darwin and Linux are both POSIX-compliant, it would only be the graphical side that needs some recoding.... the underlying Un*x system is pretty much the same in every aspect (re: POSIX-compliant)

There is a way, but its a little unclean and hard to install. http://matt.colyer.name/projects/iphone-linux/index.php?title=Main_Page
I have Ubuntu 9.10 and am trying to install this, but haven't gotten it yet. iTunes on Wine is a major FAIL and iTunes support would be very much appreciated, by a huge fan base

Hi Puzzler996!
So ifuse can actually access the part of the file system of the ipod/iphone that holds music/videos and pictures for the ipod.app? If so, then, is it just a question of third party applications catching up to the actual method of interfacing with the databases (through ifuse) of ipod.app for me to be able to import/export media with, say gtkpod or any other application designed for that purpose?

What happens when the firmwares get updated? Maybe apple should give these people a helping hand from time to time. They contribute to many other open source projects - why stop here...

Well yes, but DO NOT USE gtkpod. It is not ready to handle 3.x yet and will erase EVERYTHING

From the iFuse Website.

Once the iPhone is mounted, you can copy on, or copy off any media files that live inside the `/var/root/Media` chroot directory. This includes photographs and music files.

Photos: These are EXIF/JPEGs stored in the DCIM hierarchy. With iFuse you can use the `.jpg` files directly, or the use the existing USB 'PTP' camera interface in parallel.

MP3 player: the iPhone uses a proprietary database format to store song information and playlists, simply copying extra music to the iPhone's filesystem without updating this database will not work. `libgpod (svn)` and `gtkpod` can be used to update and re-sign the song database and make new music show up on players using firmware versions up to 1.3.

Note for libgpod users: Apple's cryptographic signing algorithm changed with the new 2.0+ firmware. The new algorithm for 3.0+ firmwares has been discovered but current releases of `libgpod` are unable to re-sign the database. If you try to update the song database on 2.0 devices, your music library will be destroyed and require restoring through iTunes. This problem is not with iFuse and applies equally to all the `ssh`-based mounting methods.
Work is underway to release a libgpod version which includes support for 3.0+ firmware devices. To help and make this process become reality more quickly, the libgpod/gtkpod team is in need of a device.

Addressbook/Calendar: work is underway to expose this information to Conduit. See the repository which implements one-way syncing and allows to read your Addressbook, Calendars, Notes and Bookmarks.

Device Information: The tool "iphoneinfo" allows you to retrieve extended information from your device, ranging from battery levels, installed applications, disk usage, device and phone IDs and much more. For developers the "iphonesyslog" tool might come handy as it shows the system log file of the device in realtime.

GNOME: The platform now features support for libiphone within it's GVFS file system layer in the latest releases. This way you get plug'n'play automounting with your device's real name and make applications benefit from it.