By Tim Moynihan
(August 5, 2005)

Want to watch videos on your iPod? Wish there were better games in your iPod's list of offerings? Maybe you want to draw pictures on your iPod without getting ink on the screen?

Well, if you own a first-generation (1G), second-generation (2G), or third-generation (3G) iPod, you can already do all those things. The only thing holding your iPod back is its firmware.

To unlock your iPod's full potential, you'll need to install the iPodLinux operating system on your player. The iPod Linux Project is an ever-evolving, community-developed assortment of applications, games, and other goodies that run on the iPodLinux operating system.

In this Weekend Project, we'll show you how to install iPodLinux on your player. It's free to install, and it's a great poster child for the marvels of Linux.

What iPodLinux can do for you
In short, the iPodLinux OS will turn your iPod into a dual-boot entertainment center packed with video, audio, games, and other apps. There are stable versions of iPodLinux available for first- (1G), second- (2G), and third-generation (3G) iPods. Versions also exist for the iPod Mini and fourth-generation iPods, but both are development versions, and they aren't supported by the iPod Linux Project.

For these reasons, we recommend this project only for an older iPod. It'll enhance an iPod that's sitting around gathering dust, an iPod you've retired in favor of another player, or an iPod whose warranty has expired. We don't recommend installing iPodLinux on your brand-new iPod, as installing iPodLinux will void its warranty.

Although this project is just a series of software installations, it's a bit like assembling a piece of IKEA furniture: the software needs to be installed in a certain order and in the right places. And when it comes to the command-line text we'll use to format videos for iPod playback, the instructions may appear to be written in a foreign language.

But don't fret. If you carefully follow the instructions step by step and don't get ahead of yourself, you'll be watching videos on your iPod very soon.

Where to look for Mac and Linux help
Our tutorial applies only to installing iPodLinux from a Windows XP machine. If you have a computer running Mac OS X or Linux, there are instructions for installing iPodLinux from Mac OS X and Linux on the iPod Linux Project site.