New iPod Checksum Cracked, Linux Supported 422
An anonymous reader writes "After 36 hours of reverse engineering, the method for producing the checksum on new iPods has been discovered." You can also get linux support working if that's what you crave for your shiny new toy.
What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
What makes Apple's offering any better than anyone else's?
I don't get it at all.
What I don't get more than that is the people who buy the iPod just to put Linux on it. That actually causes negative understanding.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The scroll wheel actually tends to piss me off. Especially if you're doing something like exercise, it's all too easy to overshoot with the dang scroll wheel.
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Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
Same thing with linux. It's not linux, it's you! You're the problem!
No, guys. Things should be usable in a natural state. You should be comfortable with something as soon as you start using it. If you're not, then the products usability has failed you. If someone thinks the scrollwheel is better, that's a perfectly valid opinion. You can't tell them their opinion is wrong because YOUR mp3 player works just by holding down a button instead of the scroll wheel. Guess what... that's not natural to this person.
And no, I don't own an ipod. Yes, I've tried linux. No, I don't use a mac. I'm just a usability guy who builds websites.
And sorry if this seems like a rant.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course for a device that plays MP3s it should be simple to make one that people will just understand because most people already know how to operate a computer, but someone that has never used a computer isn't just going to be able to pick up an iPod and say "I know this! This is a scroll-wheel!" etc. A combination of a touchscreen with a slider bar at the side (like any OS window) to go quickly to a vague area, then a more precise area to scroll around locally would be an ideal option probably. Maybe 2 fingers for fast scrolling, and 1 for more fine control
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Why? Because the operator can move her finger slower when she approaches the song she wants. The scroll wheel can detect the speed the finger is moving at. In short, not only can you accelerate as the operator continues to spin the wheel, but when she starts to slow how fast she's spinning the wheel, you can detect that and respond appropriately. The finger speed is something the operator is aware of. If the screen scrolls too fast, s
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No, actually you can't.
Oftentimes after the thing has overshot the target. And then you get back into a zone where it can be hard as heck to target a single entry--I can't say how many times I've seen what I want on the screen, I scroll up only to end up a song above it, then scroll down only to end up a song below it. And that's when I'
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Say I can't read, and I pick up a book. Has the book's usability failed me?
No, it's either me, or my education, or my parents. The book works for anyone who can read; it's not the book's fault, or the book's failure, that I can't read it.
Now, in the case of Linux, if Linux does something in a different way, one that's not n
Re:What's the draw? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
Integration with iTunes (not necessarily the store), such as syncing Smart Playlists, and 3rd-party accessory support that's an order of magnitude greater than for any other music player.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:4, Interesting)
Only on Windows. It runs very, very nicely in OS X.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
It also comes pre-installed on all Macs, so there's that going for it.
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You forgot DRM and a quick and dirty Gapless Playback solution.
If you just want to have some music playing, get an iPod.
If you want to actually listen to the music the way it was intended to be, put Rockbox on it.
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At least on my iPod, I can get true gapless playback by simply using an encoding scheme which isn't affected by gaps. That is, either plain PCM or Apple Lossless. Sure, it's not gapless playback of MP3 or AAC but it does the job and the types of music I want to listen to gapless I also usually want to hear in their original fidelity.
For what it's worth, the older models (I previously had a 2G) would put little gaps in even when playing WAV and didn't support Apple Lossless at all. The new ones (I now ha
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From Rockbox web site:
"Rockbox is an open source firmware for mp3 players, written from scratch. It runs on a wide range of players:
Apple: iPod 3rd gen, 4th gen (grayscale and color), 5th/5.5th gen (video), iPod Mini and 1st gen iPod Nano (not the 2nd gen Nano)"
Does this mean you're currently SOL for the new releases of the iPod line?
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As I understand it, it has been tested and is known not to work because the new iPods have completely different hardware than the old ones.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are some other reasons too. First of all, take iTunes. iTunes may not a real windows-like interface, and some apparently consider the Windows version to be bloated, but it does organize music well, and is easy enough to teach to people who are not computer literate. Some other players have good software, but others have software that is terrible.
iPod is easy to use. There is no denying that the scroll wheel interface is highly intuitive, and accessing features is fairly easy. Some other player do have interfaces that are just as good.
The iPod does not have feature bloat. Many other mp3 players have many extra features, but most of the times those features are very poorly implemented, and has the effect of just wasting menu space. These poorly implemented features also tend to drag the perception of the whole player down.
The headphones. For low to low mid-end earbuds, the ones that come with the iPod are some of the best. Of course, many headphones, or high-end earbuds are better.
The iPod has many accessories. It is one of the few players to support near full integration with some car head units (receivers).
It's name. Tell somebody you want an "iPod Nano" and they will be able to remember the name. There is no part of the name that looks like "z647", which people are quite likely to forget. Even if you wanted to specify the capacity it is still easier to remember. Many of the generations have distinct names like iPod Color, and iPod Video, which are easy to remember.
It has Apple's reputation for ease of use and reliability behind it. Most of the other closest competitors are marketed under brands with well known poor models, which can really hurt
The simple fact is that while many players are as good or better in some of those categories, they are lacking in one or more of the others. The combination of these atributes is why the iPod is the leading mp3 player.
Just a side note: people who are mentioning gap-less playback, please realize that many people have no such albums, and have no interest in this feature, so it should not be surprising that apple waited for so long before implementing.
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Way to take my quote out of context! What part of "not necessarily the store" did you not understand? Aside from the "free music Tuesday" stuff and a few Pepsi caps, I've never used the store and I don't intend to start!
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
When shopping for an MP3 player, I considered alternatives (and in fact looked at alternatives first), and in the end went with iPod because:
1) Most of the alternatives I looked at weren't any cheaper than the iPod
2) Most of them got slammed in reviews for bad user interfaces
3) Most of them were not available in B&M stores allowing me to return it easily if I hated the UI.
In short, in the end the iPod wound up being the "safe bet", and unlike most Apple products, wasn't grossly overpriced compared to the competition. (Disclaimer: This was over a year ago, things may have changed since then.)
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When my iPod died I got a Sansa and I love it. My 10gb Sansa (8gb + 2gb SD) cost $100 cheaper than a 4GB Nano.
Sansa what? (Score:2, Informative)
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Re:What's the draw? (Score:4, Interesting)
Launches October, roughly the size/shape of old Nano, 3:4 screen taking most of the face, plays most sane video formats, retains muSD slot, gains SDHC support
8GB for 150, 16GB for 200
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
I also suggest that once this has occurred, the discussion should cease (much like a Godwin). My hope is that such a rule would put an end to the pointless arguments over the device. People buy the iPod because they like it, and they pay for it themselves; why is this a problem?
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Funny)
Hey! It's a problem because we are the experts, ok? People should ask us what to buy. And we'll suggest some sort of unheard-of niche device, because that's why you asked an expert. Do you need an expert to suggest the most popular device? No. Do you need an expert to configure something that's easy to use? No. We're important. Don't you know that? We know better. We can't look down on the ignorant masses when we acknowledge they made the right choice. So they didn't, no matter how happy they are.
I can't believe you even asked.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Informative)
That's huge. You can get iPod interfaces for most higher-end car stereos for example, not to mention the plethora of docks, cases, etc.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Informative)
I can take an iPod plug it into a connector in my car and completely control it from my steering wheel and see the info on the stereo's display. works perfectly. I can do the same with my Crestron Whole house audio system, my alarm clock, etc...
No other mp3 player on the market can do that. NONE. Apple opened up the connector interface and had a rs232 control interface down in that connector so other devices can control it, All other mp3 makers sit in the corner curled up screaming "MINE MINE!" or are not smart enough to think about 3rd party control like that.
That is why I use it, my daughter uses it, and I reccomend the iPod to all my clients what are doing whole house automation and audio integration. Only the ipod can do advanced integration that is seamless from the car to the home to the bedroom. (even the wife if you buy a iGazim attachment)
That is why.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Informative)
Linux support is so obvious for 99 out of 100 usb mp3 player out there it is not even worth mentioning. These mp3 players just behave like a generic USB pen disk. That you need a special (circumvention?) program for a iPod is the strange issue here.
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Re:What's the draw? (Score:4, Informative)
1) Easy connection to cars. My iPod plugs into my truck's (factory) radio, and I get all the music info on there as well as easy browsing of the music. All the factory controls work, and its hidden in the glove box.
2) Lots of 3rd party speaker/dock solutions.
3) The iPod camera adapter.
The iPod camera adapter is really a very under-reported item, I think. I recently was in Alaska and didn't want to bring my laptop with me. My iPod has about 25g of free space on it, and I burned through 2/3 of that pulling pictures each day off my two digital cameras, and was able to use it to show pictures to my family (although it'd be nice if they added RAW viewing to it).
If you use it as a stand alone player in your pocket, then you're absolutely right.
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Three words: EASE OF USE (Score:2)
That's the draw.
That, and Apple's managing to create the vast market for iPod addons. New cars come with option of being "pre-wired for iPod". You can buy an "iPod-ready" backpack. Various speaker-systems — portable and otherwise, including waterproof ones — come with iPod slots.
True, many of those accessories will work with any music player, but many would not, or not as well...
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I've heard that they make
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More broadly supported? What everyone else said. Better? Nothing. My wife has a Nano and I have a Sansa e280. Interface-wise, they're nearly identical except that my scrollwheel is an actual rotating disk instead of a touch sensor. Honestly, it basically comes down to taste and budget.
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If you are referring to the story that was not the issue. The problem was
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I don't have a lot of free time to go hopping from store to store looking for CDs, and I don't listen to regular radio (CBC or bust), so I don't get exposed to a lot of new music. But, when I do have some free time, I can fire up iTunes and checkout music at home, quickly. And, if I like it, in a matter of minutes I can have the music on my desktop and iPod, for less than I would pay in a music store.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Funny)
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The only thing that was a disappointment with it was the hea
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Find me another audio player which:
...but doesn't require proprietary software, and I might switch.
If you can't find one, then you've answered your own question.
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As for all the "it's the interface" talk.... I'm still really not sold on it. Not that I'm having a problem with what it can do but rather what it doesn't seem to do:
1. No track/folder/album repeat.
2. No exclusive on/off switc
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1. They don't cost a lot more than any comparable player.
2. The ITunes Store does allow an easy painless way to buy songs. So easy and painless that it is easier to buy them than to get them through P2P a lot of the time.
3. Integration with car stereos. Just about everyone works with IPod these days.
4. Accessories. Want a carrying case for it? Just go to any store and pick one out. And I do mean any store. IPod Accessories are everywhere and you can always find one that you like.
5. They are
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My player has a little joystick nub on it. I push it left to go back one song, right to go forward one song, up to turn up the volume, and down to turn the volume down. If I wan to navigate my playlist in a more complex manner than next/last song, I press the joystick nub in, like a button. I figured all this out in under a minute without even opening up the manual.
May I ask how the clickwheel is more obvious and user friendly than that for normal use?
Granted, ha
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People get an iPod these days because they are not willing to research a different brand. They've come to trust Apple's brand. I would warn you not to just go
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And the ogg/flac support on my player is nice too
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1. It had Ethernet! Brilliant but I couldn't mount it as a shared drive and I couldn't stream from it! What a waste.
2. It didn't work as a Mass storage device.
3. Lack on integration. Why didn't they open up the interface so car stereo people could interface to it.
4. ITunes was better than the interface software that came with the Karma
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If you just want to connectup the old karma to linux then look no further than the splendid karma on linux project [sourceforge.net]. It's amazing what some seriously clever people, fuse and some helpful hints from Sigmatel folks can produce. it integrates with Amarok as well!
rd
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
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In any case, earbuds are easily replaceable, and if you buy an nice high end set, you'll have great sound quality.
The earbuds that typically come with ALL MP3s players suck; typically. It's always best to upgrade them if you're anywhere near an audiophile. And of course, you have to use lossless compression because if you're an audiophile, MP3s suck. Not to mention you have to listen in
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Funny)
If you want to use it in a way it's not designed to be used, then don't be surprised if it doesn't "work out of the box" for that.
My efforts to use my iPod as a waffle-iron have met with little success so far.
usable? (Score:2, Interesting)
Does anyone actually use an ipod that runs linux, or is it just a "neat to have" type thing?
Re:usable? (Score:5, Informative)
Although it would be interesting to have an open-source iPod OS...
Re:usable? (Score:5, Informative)
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hopefully (Score:3, Insightful)
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2. Install Amarok.
Shouldn't take more than an hour.
So: No hoping needed here.
Erm... Quarts-wm? (Score:4, Informative)
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Half way there (Score:2)
Cracking the stupidity was half the battle, making it easy to use is the other half.
Re:Half way there (Score:4, Funny)
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It doesn't matter, due to the DMCA ... (Score:2)
In the end, it was great work to have it done, but I urge people to not buy devices that you have to hack around to make it work the way you want it. There are plenty of open devices that one can use without this kind of hassle.
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IANAL, but couldn't it be argued this reverse-engineering is being used for interoperability? I mean, you shouldn't HAVE to run Apple's OS on their iPods -- you bought it.
Beat me to it. That's definitely the spirit of the law - DMCA isn't supposed to be used to prevent you from using a device you bought. It's supposed to prevent reverse-engineering to allow illegal copying or redistribution. Clearly that's not the case here, so I'm not a lawyer either, but this shouldn't trip the DMCA.
DMCA violation? (Score:4, Insightful)
I doubt, Apple will tarnish its image by pressing it, but DMCA seems to apply. In fact, it may be out of Apple's hands. IANAL, but they may need to clarify, that they added the new checksum/whatever not to limit whatever it is, DMCA will try to help them uphold, but for some other, non-DMCA protected reason.
Otherwise, the prosecutors may have to enforce the Act whether Apple wants them to or not...
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I bet that the only reason the hash is created is for some database integrity verification the ipod does.....just making sure everything is ok before writing data (play counts) to the database.
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I bet that the only reason the hash is created is for some database integrity verification the ipod does.....just making sure everything is ok before writing data (play counts) to the database.
If it really were just about data integrity, they wouldn't need to include the iPod's serial number hash; furthermore, a perfectly good database would work on every iPod, not just the one it came from. Since that is clearly not the case, the logical conclusion is that the hash was added for the sole purpose of locking out 3rd party software.
It's nice to see Apple's "hard work" broken in such a short period of time, though.
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Specifically DMCA complaints have to involve that it was used as copy protection, what copy protection is this providing?
Good because linux support is better (Score:5, Interesting)
I hate poorly named mp3s, gtkpod can get my entire ipod properly organized in a matter of minutes because of the nifty variety of views.
Re:Good because linux support is more better (Score:3, Funny)
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I am glad that they're still working on it, because I feel that people should be able to do this (on general principle). It's an audio player. I don't see why it is such a big deal to Apple that it only work on OS X and Windows, but that's why I'm a scientist and not a business person.
-Q
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iTunes doesnt even come close to that ease of use and power.
itunes honestly isnt that great looking either but atleast gtkpod has features that take advantage of its layout (the multi tab panes and lists)
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It's kind of silly to assume that everyone who downloads iTunes will buy an entire Macintosh computer to run it on.
Why do it in the first place? (Score:2)
Unimpressive (Score:5, Funny)
there are other reasons not to buy a Classic iPod (Score:2)
http://ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/ipod-classic-tests-reveal-audio-problems [ilounge.com]
and the best list is here:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070914_002928.html [pbs.org]
A integrity checksum or a crypto checksum? (Score:5, Insightful)
A user can unplug a device at any time, even in the middle of a catalog write. It only seems prudent to checksum the data to make sure you don't have a corrupt file.
I'd be interested to hear if this is a tricky crypto algorithm, or the sort of simple MD5 or CRC of data that a programmer would whip out for integrity. This is important because if the intent was integrity we can expect it to not change. The problem is solved. If it was intended to detect reverse engineered and possibly incorrect files then we can look forward to more algorithms in the future.
TFA was silent on the matter. <wtbw> can i hear a fuck yeah? didn't really tell me much.
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A user can unplug a device at any time, even in the middle of a catalog write. It only seems prudent to checksum the data to make sure you don't have a corrupt file.
Or the user could be using a piece of third party software that writes bad data to the iPod db, causing the iPod to crash when it tries to access said bad data. An integrity checksum would help prevent this as well (assuming said bad software doesn't include a checksum for a bad db write...)
I, for one, hate it when my iPod crashes and spontaneously reboots while I'm totally in the groove.
Maybe it's for a faster sync (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting news but.. (Score:2)
Or in Linux. While I don't think Jobs will go after the Linux hack, I wouldn't be surprised even for a second if he does: he's pretty aggressive about protecting Apple IP as you know (even from random bloggers out there).
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Not just the "oh my gosh" factor, but as we learned with the last iPod introduction, learning that there's something hot out there makes people buy Apple stock, and short right after the event for some speculative profit (which results in the Apple stock falling).
I guess this the Apple stock falling is what pisses him off most.
Bluetooth iPod (Score:2)
Just like Windows (Score:4, Informative)
1. Download the code.
2. Plug your ipod in and make sure it is mounted and run:
sudo lsusb -v | grep -i Serial
Look for your iPod device, and the firewireID should be the 16 character long hex string shown.
It should look something like this: 00A1234567891231
3. Edit main.cpp in the hash_crack directory and read the commetns at the top. You should insert your firewire ID where the comments specify, then run make to compile the hash program.
4. Next, sync your ipod with gtkpod, rhythmbox, banshee or Amarok, or whatever ur used to just like normal. Once this is complete, you should have an ipod with songs on it, that refuses to view the songs. To make it "see" the songs, u need to run the hash program we just compiled on the iTunesDB file. This should happen something like this:
This should output the proper hash for the current state of the iTunesDB, as well as the old hash for the previous state of the iTunesDB. We just need the first value.
5. Write this new hash value to the proper location in the iTunesDB where the hash is stored at address 0×58 of the iTunesDB file. This can be done with a program such as bvi.
Note: You will need to do the process of getting the hash on your iTunesDB every time you even so much as change a song name, or upload new music or video files.
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Missing The Point Entirely. (Score:2)
A reasonable guess is some combination of PHB's at Apple and the Media cartels are driving this kind of totally wasteful resource allocation.
It also is important to understand that the typical executive demanding these features:
1. Don't have a clue.
2. Wield so much power and money they are surrounded by yes-people.
3. Typical power personality lives in a reality distortion field that includes dismissing an
Re:When product "protection" becomes interference. (Score:2)
Apple, with all it's forced tie ins, lock in, lock out, DRM and other yadda yadda are still easily the number one mp3 player BY FAR. Even with all the far more open options out there (its debatable that even the Zune is even more open than the iPod.)
What incentive do they have to do differently?
You could potentially argue the "look at what happened to MS with Vista and all their DRM and rights management and WGA.." But the problem is that Vista has faltered to the degree it has because it's not that
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Because I don't want to keep the dock near a computer all the time. Also, I may want to pull tunes from more than one source -- get music off a friend's box for example without having to carry a cable around all the time.
Not to mention if you could sync OTHER things like contacts and calendar over WiFi or EDGE, that would solve one of the ma
Re:Not a good article (Score:4, Informative)
iTunes copies two things onto an iPod when you sync: The files containing music, and a database of those files, so that the iPod can find the music quicker.
With the new iPods, the database has a checksum, which is based on the contents of the database and the serial number of the iPod. If that checksum is not correct, the iPod will refuse to play any music. Obviously iTunes knows how to calculate the checksum and stores it on the iPod.
Linux applications that could download music files + database onto an iPod didn't have the code to calculate the checksum, so after using a Linux application to fill a new iPod with music, the iPod wouldn't work. The hack that has been developed within 36 hours is really a hack: First you have to run a program that reads the serial number. Then you modify the hack program by typing in that serial number into the source code. Then you run whatever software you used to copy music onto the iPod. Then compile and run the "hack" program: It will read the database, calculate the checksum and add the checksum to the database, and everything works.
That is of course a horrible complicated way (for the end user) to do it. Expect all the Linux music players to be updated soon so that all this will happen automatically.