i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

I loaded some language mp3s into my ipod via gtkpod for listening to on my mega-commute.  Then I re-sync'd itunes and they all got deleted of course.  So I put them back, but this time the iPod was not mounting with user privileges so I had to manually remount it from a console.

...

But I wanted to load my language blogs at two locations.  Simple enough, yes?  I discovered that Banshee on another of my computers would load the iPod, good (since Banshee is currently developed and gtkpod is abandoned.)

Except the smart playlist I created in gtkpod was not picking up my new entries.  And a smart playlist I created in Banshee would not download into the iPod.  In fact NO playlist picked up the downloads, so now they were on the iPod but not actually playable.

I tried to go back to gtkpod, but it now reported that there was an unresolvable conflict between the db and the extended db, so gtkpod would not load the iPod.

It seemed obvious enough to go back to iTunes and resync my ipod -- but I'd like to manage it from Linux since I rarely have a computer booted to Windows.  Plus, I'm not real fond of iTunes.  Well, actually, I'm not real fond of Apple hostage-ware either, but that's another complaint.

So, I decided to sync the ipod to banshee.  Which at the moment (many, many, many moments later) is still sync'ing and I have no idea what it is doing.  It claims to be done and then it starts another round of I don't know what.

But, there is stuff I don't want to sync to the ipod and I can't find a way in banshee to tell it not to sync particular files.  In iTunes, you just "uncheck" the material and it doesn't sync. (Ok, so iTunes wins on this issue).

I suppose if I get the synchronization complete, then the db will be straighted out and I can go back to loading material via gtkpod.  Or alternatively, what the heck, I have lots of room -- I can leave the extraneous material on the ipod.  The main thing is that there are some wav files that I reduced to mp3s.  I don't want to waste the space for the wavs but I don't want to totally delete them (or move them out of my music folder structure) either.

More mega-time wasted on the ole' music collection.  And there is this issue:  banshee makes the file names as follows:  [track no]. [song title].mp3.  (I think.) Notice the dot following the track no?  Well, iTunes does not put that dot in there.

Oh, please, just don't re-duplicate the entire library again ...

BTW, I gave songbird another chance and I have 1.9 running nicely from the nightly build.  It wasn't difficult -- like Firefox and Thunderbird, you just drag the folder out of the archive and drop it somewhere convenient, then run the main script file (entitled, conveniently enough, "songbird".)  But -- now I discover the ipod addon was abandoned back at version 1.3.  So, I might use the songbird player but it won't be useful for managing the ipod. (Also, with the nightly build, there are a lot of addons that have not yet caught up I think ...)

______________

Later:  Well, banshee concluded loading the ipod, put in the new smart playlists I created and was seemingly satisfied with its work.  However, I closed and re-opened banshee and THEN the loading process seemingly started all over again?  What?   Could this get any more confusing?

(Plus a long time of 100% cpu load).

Plus there is a 20 item discrepancy.  (Perhaps this is some duplicate files I deleted and some mid files that won't play in the ipod so don't load, I have no idea.)

Later:  Banshee did not work -- when it was done, I could view the files with dolphin, but there were no playlists or any way on the ipod to play the files.

I then restored the ipod with my itunes install.  This worked EXCEPT, when I went to add the language mp3s that were the reason for starting the project, itunes commenced refusing to synchronize, telling me it "could not find the disk."  What disk is it talking about?  So, now I am once again "restoring" the ipod and I will try yet another time.

Later:  Restore did not work.  It seems that iTunes is ejecting the iPod before it can sync (or even restore).  Apple online help suggests that the iPod should be put in "File mode" manually.  Following the method shown there several times, could not get the ipod into file mode.

So, I'm stuck with an ipod that iTunes will no longer update.  Updating to iTunes 10 didn't help.

But to complete the circle, gtkpod will now load the ipod, although instead of trying to correlate the db and the extended db, it is merely rejecting the extended db now.

I had to take a break while gtkpod is scanning my music library, so we'll see what is going to happen shortly.  Only problem I've got now will probably be that I am a "hostage" of gtkpod, which is problematic since the last known revision was 2007.

Later:  Hey!  Gtkpod has/had a lot of features!  I suppose it's not worth developing anymore because it only works on older hardware, eg., my 5 year old ipod 3g or whatever they are called. Except, call me stupid, but I couldn't find a search tool, so I had to scroll through a LOT of files to find what I want.

Also, it has a nice duplicate finder -- I had to re-do my entire music collection to remove duplicates and I either missed some or some new ones have been recreated.  By the nature of the files, I think they must be ones I missed.  Worse -- they weren't identified as to what folder they are in and there are a lot of folders.  So, I guess I will have duplicates.  iTunes will find duplicates, but it "finds" duplicates that are actually different versions of the same song, so it's quite cumbersome and time consuming to find the actual duplicate files that need to be deleted.

iPod is working and loaded -- yay!  But will I ever be able to sync it again?  Sheesh.  Plus, I lost about five language lesson files in the process.  Don't know where they have disappeared to -- presumably they would not have been deleted, itunes would have renamed them and put them somewhere in the file structure, but I can't find them.  It's not good to have duplicates and un-findable files lurking on the ipod because it takes up space!

So, I'm semi, but not totally, happy.  I would have liked it if the Banshee interface had worked out.  I suppose when I am bored sometime I will try all this again -- but the recovery timeframe is way too long!