Banshee and iPod Re-Revisited And 64bit Computing

The continuing situation I have with my iPod and Banshee 1.4.1 in Ubuntu 8.10 seems to be only related to the 64bit version of Ubuntu 8.10. The last time I mentioned my iPod, I said that gtkpod worked on my MSI Wind which runs 32bit Ubuntu, I decided to try Banshee with the ‘pod. The last time I used Banshee with my iPod I lost all the music I had on the ‘pod, when I decide to try Banshee on the Wind, I had an intuition that it would work and I am glad I did since my intuition proved to be right. The problem we have is not with Banshee but with a 64bit package.

I am pig headed, for those of you who don’t know me, when I have set my mind on something it is very hard to get me to change my mind. I want to use Banshee as my music manager because I like alot of its features, but if I can’t use it or gtkpod to manage my iPod what is the use of it or what is the use of a 64bit operating system if some of the utilities do not work in it? When I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 in October I went with the 64bit version on all the computers that had 64bit capabilities. I knew that it would only improve the speed on certain utilities but if a computer has a 64bit CPU I said to myself that I should go with the 64bit OS. Apparently I made the wrong choice. Is there any other packages that do not work properly in the 64bit edition of Ubuntu?

I am thinking of doing a fresh install of Ubuntu on my main computer, the laptop. This time I would go with the 32 bit version. I might do the easiest thing and wait for Jaunty to be released in April before I do anything drastic. Only time will tell.

Banshee 1.4 And iPods Are Like Mixing Oil And Water: It Does Not Work!

I’m not a happy camper as I am writing this.  I simply wanted to add some music to my iPod.  Gtkpod froze and my computer was heating up.  Must be a bug.  Rhythymbox works but I decide to try Banshee 1.4, Bad idea!  I am able to load new music fine.  I unplug the iPod after it says that I can disconnect it.  No music on the ‘pod.  What is going on?  Plug the iPod and I can see the music so I disconnect it once more and still no music.  I restart the ‘pod by pressing the “Menu” and “Select” buttons simultaneously.  The iPod restarts, still no music.  I am pissed off!

I connect the iPod back to the computer and  I “Drag’N'Drop” the songs, all 11016 of them, on my laptop.  I don’t feel like pulling out all my CDs and ripping them again so that I can place them in the ‘pod.  I boot Windows XP from the only computer that I own which still has Windows on it and do a factory reset on the iPod using iTunes.

I spend several hours, over several days loading up my iPod with music.  I used Rhythymbox Music Player to load the music in the ‘Pod.  I have to mention that this post has been written in three steps:  the first paragraph was written when my iPod “lost” all of it’s songs two weeks ago.  The second paragraph and the first sentence of the third paragraph was written a week later.  The rest was written today the day I published the post.

I now know that Banshee 1.4 is the culprit in losing all the songs.  I taught that maybe gtkpod was since it had frozen and I had to terminate it because my computer was overheating.  It took all my courage to try uploading songs in my iPod using Banshee and it worked but when I eject the ‘Pod it says that I have “0 songs”.  I know for a fact that I have 11037 on it since I just loaded 21 songs using Banshee 1.4.  Damn, damn, damn.  I plugin the iPod to my laptop.  I launch Rhythymbox.  I see all 11037 songs.  I play one of the songs I just uploaded using Banshee.  It plays fine.  I unplug the iPod and low and behold all my songs are there.  I am so glad, that I am glad, that I’m glad; to quote Cream.  I must dig out their CD and add that song to my iPod.  So I have learned that I cannot use Banshee as my all purpose music player/iPod loader.  I must keep on using Rhythymbox.

I really liked Banshee 1.4 but I cannot use it because of this problem.  If you do not have an iPod I whole heartily recommend it, but if you do I cannot recommend it. Apparently I am the only person that has this problem since I cannot find anybody else on the web with the same problem.  I wonder if it is because I have the 64 bit version of intrepid installed?

If you know of a solution please leave a comment, thanks.

Banshee Media Player a Winner Without DAAP

I have tried Banshee 1.0 as my music player for a few days and I would use it as if I could play music from another computer on it but since DAAP does not work I have to pass.  On my Ubuntu laptop I have tried Rhythmbox, Exaile and now Banshee, I always go back to Rhythmbox, in my case it pretty much does whatever I need.  On Kubuntu computers I of course use Amarok.  I hope that the Banshee developers can fix the issues they have with DAAP because they have created a winner.

I keep all my media on a server so that I can access it from any of my computers. I need a player that has DAAP capability.  Exaile sometimes acts up when I try to import music from the server.  Well that’s my two cents worth.