Hardware: Configuration: FireWire (ieee1394) iPod

[Hayl]

The iPod mounts like a hard disk. In fact, they are very handy to use for transporting any type of files from system to system in addition to being a great portable music player.

directory listing of a mounted iPod

[ ddicks@linuxbox /mnt/ipod ] $ ll
total 12
drwxrwxrwx    2 ddicks   users        4096 Jan  1  1980 Calendars
drwxrwxrwx    2 ddicks   users        4096 Mar 15  2003 Contacts
drwxrwxrwx    6 ddicks   users        4096 Feb  8  2003 iPod_Control

The iPod is fully functional - even to the point of being able to use the new aac files if you use GtkPod.

I have a Mac iPod that I reformatted to VFAT (you have to reformat them to VFAT for it to work, the support for the Mac File System is not good enough under Linux kernels yet) that I hook up with FireWire. I installed some iPod software on a Windows XP PC and used that to format it to VFAT.

For a FireWire iPod, you need the following kernel modules:

IEEE 1394 (FireWire) support (EXPERIMENTAL)
OHCI-1394 support
SBP-2 support (Harddisks etc.)
Raw IEEE1394 I/O support

The iPod will be mounted like a scsi drive.
/dev/sda2 /mnt/ipod vfat defaults,user,noauto,sync,umask=000 0 0

It is mounted as sda2 because when the modules are loaded and the iPod is connected, sda1 is the iPod firmware.

I leave these modules running all the time:
ieee1394, ohci1394, raw1394

I load the vfat and sbp2 modules in the ~/.gtkpod/gtkpod.in script when the GtkPod program loads, and unload them when it exits ~/.gtkpod/gtkpod.out

I use a script to rescan the SCSI bus after the iPod is connected and the modules are loaded. I didn't always do this but something changed with Gentoo at some point and it no longer creates the devices properly when the modules get loaded so I run the following after i modprobe the module(s) in the gtkpod.in script. ***NOTE: This script IS NOT NEEDED for Kernel 2.6.x

#!/bin/bash
# Skript to rescan SCSI bus, using the 
# scsi add-single-device mechanism
# (w) 98/03/19 Kurt Garloff  (c) GNU GPL

# Return hosts. /proc/scsi/HOSTADAPTER/? must exist
findhosts ()
{
  hosts=
  for name in /proc/scsi/*/?; do
    name=${name#/proc/scsi/}
    if test ! $name = scsi
      then hosts="$hosts ${name#*/}"
      echo "Host adapter ${name#*/} (${name%/*}) found."
    fi
  done
}

# Test if SCSI device $host $channen $id $lun exists
# Outputs description from /proc/scsi/scsi, returns new
testexist ()
{
  grepstr="scsi$host Channel: 0$channel Id: 0*$id Lun: 0$lun"
  new=`cat /proc/scsi/scsi|grep -e"$grepstr"`
  if test ! -z "$new"
    then cat /proc/scsi/scsi|grep -e"$grepstr"
    cat /proc/scsi/scsi|grep -A2 -e"$grepstr"|tail -2|pr -o4 -l1
  fi
}

# Perform search (scan $host)
dosearch ()
{
  for channel in $channelsearch; do
    for id in $idsearch; do
      for lun in $lunsearch; do
        new=
	devnr="$host $channel $id $lun"
	echo "Scanning for device $devnr ..."
	printf "OLD: "
	testexist
	if test ! -z "$remove" -a ! -z "$new"
	  then echo "scsi remove-single-device $devnr" >/proc/scsi/scsi
	  echo "scsi add-single-device $devnr" >/proc/scsi/scsi
	  printf "\r\x1b[A\x1b[A\x1b[AOLD: "
	  testexist
	  if test -z "$new"; then printf "\rDEL: \r\n\n\n\n"; let rmvd+=1; fi
	fi
	if test -z "$new"
	  then printf "\rNEW: "
	  echo "scsi add-single-device $devnr" >/proc/scsi/scsi
	  testexist
	  if test -z "$new"; then printf "\r\x1b[A"; else let found+=1; fi
	fi
      done
    done
  done
}
	  
  
# main
if test @$1 = @--help -o @$1 = @-h
  then 
    echo "Usage: rescan-scsi-bus.sh [-l] [-w] [-c] [host [host ...]]"
    echo " -l activates scanning for LUNs 0 .. 7 [default: 0]"
    echo " -w enables scanning for device IDs 0 .. 15 [def.: 0 .. 7]"
    echo " -r enables removing of devices        [default: disabled]"
    echo " -c enables scanning of channels 0 1   [default: 0]"
    echo " If hosts are given, only these are scanned [default: all]"
    exit 0
fi

# defaults
lunsearch="0"
idsearch="0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7"
channelsearch="0"
remove=""

# Scan options
opt="$1"
while test ! -z "$opt" -a -z "${opt##-*}"; do
  opt=${opt#-}
  case "$opt" in
    l) lunsearch="0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7" ;;
    w) idsearch="0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15" ;;
    c) channelsearch="0 1" ;;
    r) remove=1 ;;
    *) echo "Unknown option -$opt !" ;;
  esac
  shift
  opt="$1"
done    

# Hosts given ?
if test @$1 = @; then findhosts; else hosts=$*; fi

declare -i found=0
declare -i rmvd=0
for host in $hosts; do dosearch; done
echo "$found new device(s) found.               "
echo "$rmvd device(s) removed.                 "

The best thing to do is to set up your sudoers file with the following commands in a Command Alias entry so you can just use sudo in the gtkpod.in and gtkpod.out scripts.

/sbin/modprobe vfat
/sbin/modprobe raw1394
/sbin/modprobe sbp2 sbp2_force_inquiry_hack=1
/sbin/rmmod sbp2
/sbin/rmmod vfat
/sbin/rmmod fat
/sbin/rmmod raw1394, /usr/bin/rescan-scsi-bus.sh

***NOTE: the sbp2_force_inquiry_hack=1 IS NOT NEEDED for Kernel 2.6.x

Here are my gtkpod.in and gtkpod.out scripts:
***NOTE: the sbp2_force_inquiry_hack and rescan_scsi_bus.sh are NOT NEEDED for 2.6.x Kernels

gtkpod.in

if /sbin/lsmod | grep vfat;
        then
                /bin/true;
        else
                sudo /sbin/modprobe vfat
fi

if /sbin/lsmod | grep sbp2;
        then
                /bin/true
        else
                sudo /sbin/modprobe sbp2 sbp2_force_inquiry_hack=1
fi

sudo /usr/bin/rescan-scsi-bus.sh

gtkpod.out

sudo /sbin/rmmod sbp2
#sudo /sbin/rmmod 1394

sudo /sbin/rmmod vfat

sudo /usr/bin/rescan-scsi-bus.sh

sbp2 works better if you pass the following parameter to it when you modprobe it.
/sbin/modprobe sbp2 sbp2_force_inquiry_hack=1***NOTE: the sbp2_force_inquiry_hack=1 IS NOT NEEDED for Kernel 2.6.x

The entire firewire system in the kernel is more stable if all of your "Input Core Support" (keyboard/mouse/all of it) stuff is modularized - don't ask me why - I don't know - it just works better. :)

PS: Some kernels have really buggy firewire support, I use the latest Wolk kernel and it is pretty stable. If you can get a usb2 iPod, it may work better for you if you know that firewire (ieee1394) is buggy in your kernel.

PPS: I am now using 2.6.x, I have tested with 2.6.x-love-sources and 2.6.x-mm-sources - both of which have broken firewire. *** This issue is resolved since 2.6.4 ***