Hi,

What is the right way to deal with these devices? Right now the iPad is seen as a 'Camera', unmountable. I've done some research; it looks like almost nobody's got any trouble, and that's a bit of a problem. What libraries/modules should I look into?

Hm, an iPad should present itself as a normal storage device (at least that is what an iPhone does). Does it show up in Dolphin as a mountable / accessible device?

If it does not show up, can you check to see if extra devices appear in /dev when it is connected, such as "sdb" or "sdc"?

bcooksley wrote:Hm, an iPad should present itself as a normal storage device (at least that is what an iPhone does). Does it show up in Dolphin as a mountable / accessible device?

If it does not show up, can you check to see if extra devices appear in /dev when it is connected, such as "sdb" or "sdc"?

1. Yes, it shows in the Device Notifier as a 'Camera'. Only the device turns out to be abnormal (unmountable).
2. No, it does not appear in /dev as a device node. Nor should it, according to common wisdom: a distro-specific thread. Can't find much on Google, too. It looks like an easy ride for the majority of Linux users, though. So much so, that no picture of any consistency shows up.

Unfortunate, it is probable that Apple changed their behaviour between versions of hardware/software. There is not much we can do here i'm afraid - i'd advise following the instructions in that thread to mount it, which should then allow KDE to browse it as normal.

My limited experience with Apple devices is that Apple takes explicit measures to prevent you from accessing the device with anything but itunes. For some generations of devices, there seem to be more-or-less good open-source libraries which still access them, or hacks for the devices themselves which make it possible to access them with non-Apple tools (I should probably add the disclaimer that I have no idea if the latter are legal in your country).
Thus, there's a good chance that there's no way to properly use the device with a linux-based OS. You should probably do some googling to find if there's some way to still get it to work for your particular gadget.

In the end, I guess the best advice which can be given for Apple devices with linux is "don't buy them".

Greetings,
Sven