iPod mounts as a normal disk in Karmic (gtkpod/others won't list the iPod), fine in Jaunty

[Delan Azabani]

When plugging in an iPod, Karmic mounts it as a removable disk, which in turn makes it unlisted and inaccessible by any iPod managing software like gtkpod because they rely on the fact that it's meant to be recognised as an iPod. Jaunty mounts it fine, with the desktop icon being an iPod rather than Karmic's removable disk icon.

However, lshal and lsusb detect it as an iPod.

[Everthon Valadão (valadao)]

According to a songbird forum, it's because the iPod isn't mounted at the right place. Here is a work around FIX, from the forum:

     "It mainly involves using the terminal to unmount and remount the device to another directory. I believe the problems we are having is due to the migration from udev to devkit in ubuntu karmic.

     (First EJECT your iPod, then...) For example your ipod is the block device /dev/sdb1 so I would do the following.

     sudo -i #(this drops you into a root shell)
     mkdir /mnt/ipod #(you can use any directory really but this is easy to remember.)
     mount -t vfat -o rw,uid=1000,gid=1000,utf8=1,dmask=0077,flush /dev/sdb1 /mnt/ipod

     (this mounts a vfat filesystem on device /dev/sdb1 to directory /mnt/ipod owned by the user and group who's ID number is 1000, utf8 support is enabled and all changes are written to disk immediately. Substitute 1000 for the UID and GID of your user and the group your user is in)"

After doing this, gtkpod correctly reconize and load the ipod.
source: http://getsatisfaction.com/songbird/topics/ipod_not_connecting_on_ubuntu_karmic_9_10

UPDATE: I'm also tested a second FIX: I added another gtkpod ipod repository, targeted to the correct mount point of the ipod. This also worked BUT I have to manually hit the "Load iPod" on gtkpod to make this easier fix work.

[Everthon Valadão (valadao)]

IMHO, gtkpod should be more resilient and load the iPod from a different mount point, if needed.

[Mathieu De Zutter (mathieu-dezutter)]

I've successfully used the following workaround from the same forum:

"Simple solution: If you plug in your ipod you see the ipod on your desktop. So just right click on your ipod and select unmount. Don't select eject!. Then go to Places and your iPod should be in the list - just click on it to remount it. That's it."

[Tim Hockin (thockin-hockin)]

sigh. Broken out of the box seems to be a recurring theme for me with Ubuntu lately.

[Everthon Valadão (valadao)]

@Methieu I'm also used the proposed workaround, thanks.

But for the inexperienced or impatient user, this is a serious issue! I can't access my iPod? What!?!
So, a fix will be very welcome before the Ubuntu Lucid release in April.