Bug 267701

Summary: implement libimobiledevice - iphone, ipod, ipad, apple tv support - into kde
Product: [Unmaintained] solid Reporter: D.Ros <info>
Component: generalAssignee: Lukáš Tinkl <lukas>
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED    
Severity: wishlist CC: alexander.fieroch, info, jeryjer67, juan.baptiste, kde, samjnaa, tuju, wallysan79, wrar
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: openSUSE   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description D.Ros 2011-03-05 13:32:31 UTC
Version:           4.6 (using KDE 4.6.1) 
OS:                Linux

libimobiledevice is a killer in gnome. why don´t implement into KDE and it´s applications with all it´s benefits. Sync with amarok, backup within dolphin and sync with akonadi resources etc.

http://www.libimobiledevice.org/

Reproducible: Didn't try
Comment 1 Christoph Feck 2011-03-05 14:51:48 UTC
As far as I understand, libimobiledevice is the successor of libgpod, which is already used at least by Amarok. You could file a separate request to Amarok developers. As for Dolphin support, I am unsure if solid is able to mount i* devices.
Comment 2 D.Ros 2011-03-05 15:28:15 UTC
That´s right. But that´s not the point.  As far as i know for amarok the phone must be jailbroken. As you can see in the video, this library is nicely implemented into the whole gnome desktop without jailbreaking the phone. 

- Own Tray icon for the device with multiple functions. 
- In nautilus the device is opened, you can do several things e.g. jump to a music player, browse the device, etc.
- clean music app support 

For me it is a real think about to switch to gnome because i don´t want to manage my device with the bash and find out how to make it work. More and more KDE users just want to use a simple GUI that works. Many of them are no developers or geeks anymore. The measure of things should be the ios with its simpleness. It just works.

For the dolphin support, in my humble opinion, the question is not if solid is able at the moment but how to make it work.

best wishes
Comment 3 Ian Monroe 2011-03-05 16:40:15 UTC
That site specifically mentions Amarok and libgpod. Sounds like these libraries are perhaps orthogonal to libgpod. I'm not sure though.

Anyways this is a bad feature request since its backwards and too broad. Drill down to the missing use-case, and then suggest libimobiledevice as a possible solution.
Comment 4 Martin S. 2011-03-24 10:09:04 UTC
Hi, I am one of the developers of libimobiledevice and we would be happy about closer integration into KDE.

As most of the developers use GNOME as their desktop, it makes us a bit alien related to the KDE environment and we could need some help/discussion here.

We even had attempted to write "kio_afc" [1] to allow filesystem access using Dolphin but preferably iDevices should be automatically mounted or browseable on the Desktop for "average user joe".

To clarify a bit, libimobiledevice provides an (DE independent) API to access iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple TV and iPad devices in the native way without any jailbreaking or hacking required. This means that we expose a lot of functionality already that DEs can take advantage of.

Now libgpod is only used for managing the iTunes music database which is contained in the filesystem accessible using libimobiledevice.

If someone is interested, here is an overview of the stack:
http://www.libimobiledevice.org/am-stack-fig-4.png

In reply to Comment 3, here are possible usecases for KDE:
- Access/Manage files on the iDevice (Photos, Music, Ebooks, Podcasts, ...)
- Show attached iDevices in Dolphin/Filebrowser
- Manage icons on the iDevice Springboard (Desktop)
- Manage applications installed on the iDevice (install,uninstall,archive...)
- Show information to the user about the attached iDevice (battery status, disk usage, phone number, gift card balance, versions of baseband/iOS...)
- Exchange files of installed "apps" directly (iTunes Document File Sharing)
- Backup and restore of iDevices (we use the native iTunes functionality)
- Synchronize Contacts, Calendars, Notes and Bookmarks (API uses the native sync interface)
- Activate a fresh iPhone with official Apple Servers after unboxing (ideviceactivate [3])
- Upgrade the iOS device software (idevicerestore [4])

All of that can be accomplished by using the libimobiledevice API [2].

Amarok for instance uses ifuse, a fuse filesystem implementation which uses libimobiledevice to expose the filesystem, but I am sure a closer integration would be to use KDE's VFS abstraction in some way to access the devices and be notified of hotplug instead of relying on some external application.

Again, we aim to be DE independent, while most developers run GNOME, of course we want all Linux Desktop users to benefit from it.

[1] https://github.com/JonathanBeck/kio_afc
[2] http://www.libimobiledevice.org/
[3] https://github.com/posixninja/ideviceactivate/
[4] https://github.com/posixninja/idevicerestore/
Comment 5 Juan Luis Baptiste 2011-03-25 17:13:24 UTC
This would be a cool proposal for SGoC.
Comment 6 D.Ros 2011-03-26 00:46:35 UTC
WTH is Sgoc ?
Comment 7 D.Ros 2011-03-26 01:50:28 UTC
ahh ... got it -> http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/program/home/google/gsoc2011
Comment 8 Kevin Ottens 2011-03-30 19:52:52 UTC
FYI, the right forum for this discussion (libimobiledevice support in KDE), would be kde-hardware-devel@kde.org mailling list. I notified people there of this discussion already, but could be easily overlooked. ;-)
Comment 9 Alex Fiestas 2013-03-03 12:27:47 UTC
This is something we must have.

ATM I have added a GSoC, let's see if any student that owns an iOS device is interested.

http://community.kde.org/GSoC/2013/Ideas#Project:_Integrate_iOS_with_the_Workspace
Comment 10 Geert Janssens 2014-04-21 10:02:03 UTC
Was this idea actually taken up in gsoc ?

I think having proper integration via libimobiledevice is a key missing piece in KDE.
Comment 11 Juha Tuomala 2015-08-13 14:23:07 UTC
Any tips how to get nautilus to work on Fedora 22?  I installed it and imobiledevice + ifuse is installed, but still don't see ipad on USB.
Comment 12 Fajri 2017-02-20 19:34:07 UTC
only for manipulation of just proclaimed invalid apples like google by promising a prize
Comment 13 Andrew Crouthamel 2018-09-04 15:46:39 UTC
Hello! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this project has been unmaintained for many years so I am closing this bug. Please try again with the latest version and submit a new bug to frameworks-solid if your issue persists. Thank you!