HOWTO: iPod, album artwork and amarok

[tmf]

Disclaimer: as always - anything you do, you do at your own risk


At december 21, 2006 package media-libs/gdk-pixbuf was removed from portage (due to gnome 1 removal). Sadly, this was also the end to artwork support for iPods, since media-libs/libgpod (library that supports ipods on linux) uses gdk-pixbuf to manipulate images. The solution to get artwork work again with iPod is to get back gdk-pixbuf on your system:

1) Create portage overlay (if you dont have it already). Add

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PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage/"

to your /etc/make.conf file. Then create following directory structure

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/usr/local/portage/
/usr/local/portage/media-libs/
/usr/local/portage/media-libs/gdk-pixbuf/
/usr/local/portage/media-libs/gdk-pixbuf/files/

2) From sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo-x86/media-libs/gdk-pixbuf/?hideattic=0 get an old ebuild of media-libs/gdk-pixbuf and put it at proper place:

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cd /usr/local/portage/media-libs/gdk-pixbuf
wget http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/*checkout*/gentoo-x86/media-libs/gdk-pixbuf/gdk-pixbuf-0.22.0-r5.ebuild?rev=1.6

3) From http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/ge ... ortby=date download needed patch files (see below). Put them at /usr/local/portage/media-libs/gdk-pixbuf/files/ directory. 'ls' should give you

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gdk-pixbuf-0.22.0-bmp_reject_corrupt.patch  gdk-pixbuf-0.22.0-loaders.patch
gdk-pixbuf-0.22.0-bmp_secure.patch          gdk-pixbuf-0.22.0-m4.patch

3) From gdk-pixbuf-0.22.0-r5.ebuild comment out the line:

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>=gnome-base/gnome-libs-1.4.1.2-r1"

Dont forget to add missing " after !amd64? ( <sys-libs/db-2 ) . The coresponding framgent of ebuild should look like:

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RDEPEND="media-libs/jpeg
    media-libs/tiff
    =x11-libs/gtk+-1.2*
    >=media-libs/libpng-1.2.1
    amd64? ( sys-libs/db )
    !amd64? ( <sys-libs/db-2 )"
#   >=gnome-base/gnome-libs-1.4.1.2-r1"

4) Run 'ebuild gdk-pixbuf-0.22.0-r5.ebuild digest', then 'emerge gdk-pixbuf'.

5) libgpod ebuild present in portage patches out use of gdk-pixbuf. We need to fix that. Edit /usr/portage/media-libs/libgpod/libgpod-0.4.0.ebuild removing line:

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epatch ${FILESDIR}/libgpod-0.4.0-test-nogdk.patch

6) Run 'ebuild /usr/portage/media-libs/libgpod/libgpod-0.4.0.ebuild digest' to get correct digests. Note: the changes you just made will go away after next 'emerge --sync'. It would be better to put ebuild into overlay, but I'm just to lazy to do that

7) Reemerge libgpod and amarok. Make sure libgpod has gtk useflag turned on. Amarok should have ipod useflag obviously.

8 ) After succesfull emerge you need to do one more, important thing. Mount your iPod (I've mounted mine at /media/ipod directory). Use gtkpod (app-pda/gtkpod) to setup /media/ipod/iPod_Control/Device/SysInfo file on your iPod (this file is used by libgpod to determine which iPod model is connected). After this step /media/ipod/iPod_Control/Device/SysInfo file should look like

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ModelNumStr: xA426

If you dont have gtkpod and dont want to emerge it you may try to setup the file manually. Use list from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iPod_model_numbers and figure out the correct model string. Note: at wikipedia list my model is listed as MA426LL/A, so the string you want to put into the file isnt exactly the string from wikipedia (MA426LL/A vs xA426 )

9) Go to amarok. Mount your ipod. Right click on ipod dir structure in amarok, choose "Fix iPod->Refresh album art". After you disconnect your ipod you should see album covers when playing on ipod.

Cheers,
tmf

[justwantstohelp]

iPod album artwork always worked for me in amarok since 1.4.

[nflamel]

If you include libgpod-0.4.0 in the overlay it won't be overwrited in next emerge --sync

Include current libgpod ebuild files on the overlay

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mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/media-libs/libgpod
cd /usr/local/portage/media-libs/libgpod
cp -R /usr/portage/media-libs/libgpod/* .

rename libgpod-0.4.0 ebuild to simulate a new version

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mv libgpod-0.4.0.ebuild libgpod-0.4.0-r1.ebuild

Once you've renamed it, modify ebuild as you told in your post and run

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ebuild /usr/local/portage/media-libs/libgpod-0.4.0-r1.ebuild

After if continue as you told in your post

Note: I had not tried it with libgpod-0.4.2 so i masked it

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echo =media-libs/libgpod-0.4.2 >> /etc/porgage/package.mask

PS: I'm Spanish so sorry for my English.

Bye!!!!

[tmf]

If you include libgpod-0.4.0 in the overlay it won't be overwrited in next emerge --sync

Include current libgpod ebuild files on the overlay

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mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/media-libs/libgpod
cd /usr/local/portage/media-libs/libgpod
cp -R /usr/portage/media-libs/libgpod/* .

rename libgpod-0.4.0 ebuild to simulate a new version

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mv libgpod-0.4.0.ebuild libgpod-0.4.0-r1.ebuild

Once you've renamed it, modify ebuild as you told in your post and run

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ebuild /usr/local/portage/media-libs/libgpod-0.4.0-r1.ebuild

After if continue as you told in your post

Note: I had not tried it with libgpod-0.4.2 so i masked it

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echo =media-libs/libgpod-0.4.2 >> /etc/porgage/package.mask

PS: I'm Spanish so sorry for my English.

Bye!!!!

afaik current version of amarok (1.4.4-r3) wont compile against media-libs/libgpod-0.4.2. libgpod and overlay - thats a nice trick/enhancement. Thank you


cheers,
tmf

[chrisashton84]

I'm curious. On the back of my ipod is engraved a model number A1136, but gtkpod lists A1146 as the appropriate number. How important are these numbers? I've filled it in by hand with the number from the back, but if it expects one of a certain list, perhaps I should choose the slightly incorrect number.

[yanos]

So, is this still the only way to load album artwork into ipods?

[timeBandit]

I'm curious. On the back of my ipod is engraved a model number A1136, but gtkpod lists A1146 as the appropriate number. How important are these numbers? I've filled it in by hand with the number from the back, but if it expects one of a certain list, perhaps I should choose the slightly incorrect number.

From what I've read, the model number screened on the case is all but meaningless to gtkpod/libgpod. It cares about the model number you get from the Serial/Model/Version screen at Settings > About, minus a few extraneous characters.

For example, the model number on my case is A1238, but the real model number from the firmware is MB147LL. The correct match in gtkpod is xB147 (Classic > 80GB Classic Black).

Edit: for i in $(seq 1 100); do echo "I will check post dates before responding."; done :x

[yanos]

I found out that you don't need to do any of this, using libgpod 0.6. Just make sure you compile it with the gtk use flag.