🎵 Revive your iPod with Rockbox

12 Mar, 2025

TL;DR

Actually listen to the music

I had my almost 20 years old iPod Classic 160gb lying around in a cupboard for years, before I decided to take it into use on Linux. The idea was to focus more on the music listening experience. So I

got rid of Spotify (too expensive in the long run, artists get nothing etc.)
got myself some better headphones, Akg k371
looked into how to get my trusted old ipod cooperating with Linux

iTunes alternative?

So I thought I would need some software that would mimic iTunes' behaviour and work as the catalog homebase etc. I found Rhythmbox. It finds the iPod immediately and is able to play the songs, yay! Done. Or so I thought. Once I started deleting songs I noticed the iPod's database was broken and it couldn't play any songs anymore.

GtkPod to the rescue

I found GtkPod which was floating around in forums as the only solution to properly handle the iPod's database on Linux without breaking it. Once I got the packages from somewhere to actually be able to install it on my current Linux Mint I noticed it doesn't work at all. It's not supported and just left to rot.

Rockbox to the rescue

Then I found Rockbox which is an operating system for the iPod. The installation was super quick and now it just works as a normal USB stick. You can drag and drop your music onto it however you like, from Linux/Windows/Mac and it has support for a ton of audio formats, including .flac and whatnot. I settled for not even having an iTunes alternative handling my music as I don't listen to it from my PC at all I noticed. So there. Install Rockbox.