You know how it goes, you love your iPhone, and you love your Linux machine. Too bad, your two loves don’t really mix and match… Your iPhone needs iTunes, and unfortunately, iTunes is available for Windows, and for Mac, but not for Linux, not in any flavor. However, have we got news for you: as long as your iDevice runs on iOS 3.1 (jailbroken or not) and up (which it normally should), there is a way to sync your iPhone to your Linux machine, Ubuntu, or other Linux Distro’s.
Step 1: Add the Repository and update it:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmcenery/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sync-iphone-on-linux
Step 2: Installing the required packages:
sudo apt-get install gvfs gvfs-backends gvfs-bin gvfs-fuse libgvfscommon0 ifuse libgpod-dev libgpod-common libiphone-utils libiphone0 python-iphone libplist++1 libplist-utils python-plist libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev libusbmuxd1 usbmuxd
Step 3: Now we need to configure some stuff… First we need to edit fuse.conf:
gksudo gedit /etc/fuse.conf
Look for the line that says
#user_allow_other
and uncomment it:
user_allow_other
Then save and exit!
Step 4: Now we need to give you the rights to automount your iPhone.
– Go to “System” -> “Administration” -> “Users and Groups”
– Click on the little key to unlock, so that you can make changes to the settings.
– Search for your username and click on “Manage Groups”.
– Doubleclick on the “fuse” group, and check the checkbox next to your name. Click ok to save, and close.
– Log out and back in (or reboot if you trust that more and don’t give a damn about the impressive “online since” numbers your linux machine can give you 😉 )
Tux Ubuntu Linux
Step 5: Mount your phone with one of these two commands:
$ ifuse /mnt/ipod/
$ fusermount -u /mnt/ipod/
Step 6. Now, let’s get your iPhone’s itunes directory setup:
$ mkdir /mnt/ipod/iTunes_Control/Device/
Get the UUID of your iPhone (The first number, 40 characters long)
$ lsusb -v | grep -i iSerial
Next do
$ ipod-read-sysinfo-extended
[mountpoint here is /mnt/ipod/]
This will give you this file: iTunes_Control/Device/SysInfoExtended.
Open it using a texteditor to check that it is not empty (it should be a plist file, with XML in it).
Step 7:
Unmount your iphone and reboot
$ fusermount -u /mnt/ipod/
After the reboot, you should have your iPhone on your desktop, in your filemanager, and in Rhytmbox. If you want to mount it in gtkpod, you have to run:
ifuse /mnt/ipod
Now you can start adding music and videos via Rythmbox and gtkpod, and enjoy your iPhone – Linux combo!
