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user243028
Asked: 2014-02-03 22:01:52 +0800 CST

How do I install iTunes on Ubuntu?

  • 772

I've tried different ways to install iTunes, but to no avail. I tried with Wine, but it didn't work. Is it possible to have iTunes on Ubuntu?

itunes

8 Answers

  1. You can try using PlayOnLinux.

    PlayOnLinux is a graphical tool supplementing Wine.

    To install PlayOnLinux on Ubuntu follow the below steps:

    sudo wget -q "http://deb.playonlinux.com/public.gpg" -O- | sudo apt-key add -

    Add playonlinux repository and install it

    sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_precise.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install playonlinux

    In case you get an error, do this else skip to next 

    sudo apt-get install curl p7zip-full p7zip-rar

    Now run it

    sudo playonlinux

    iTunes on Ubuntu

    • Download iTunes
    • Navigate to the already open PlayOnLinux window and click on Install a non-listed program as shown below. enter image description here
    • Browse to the iTunes setup file. enter image description here
    • Click on Next and follow the installation instructions

    source

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  2. These solutions are in more detail and have screenshots here:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20150511192215/http://www.ubuntuka.com/itunes-ubuntu-linux

    It is possible to run iTunes using Wine but you may have to download an older version and certain things will not work however these steps should allow you to at least get the program up and running:

    1. Go to Ubuntu menu and select

      System –> Administration –> Synaptic Package Manager

      then type ‘wine’ in quick search and select wine package.

    2. Hit Ctrl+I to mark it for installation or set a checkbox left to package name (it will also ask to mark several dependency packages).

    3. Press Apply button or hit Ctrl+P and confirm the installation.

    4. In a few minutes Ubuntu will download and install wine.

    5. After a confirmation message that packages were installed close Synaptic Package Manager. From this point wine is installed on your Ubuntu and you can run various windows applications including itunes.

    6. Download the latest version of iTunes from www.apple.com (today it is iTunes 9.2) or download one of previous versions from www.oldapps.com if the latest one poses problems or just refuses to install under wine emulator (this happens so be prepared for this situation).

    7. Open folder with downloaded itunes.exe (if you use Firefox as browser it’ll be saved directly to the desktop), select file and enter to file properties (right click –> Properties).

    8. Save changes and execute the file by double click. Follow itunes installation steps until it shows that installation is successfully finished.

    9. Once installation is finished you will be able to start itunes by clicking corresponding shortcut on Ubuntu desktop or running the following command in terminal (go to Ubuntu menu and select System –> Accessories –> Terminal):

      wine ~/.wine/dosdevices/c\:/Program Files/iTunes/iTunes.exe

    The second and less popular way of getting iTunes running is by using a Virtualbox, and this way all of the features are available. To do so follow the steps provided here:

    1. Go to www.virtualbox.org and download the latest version of Virtualbox binary deb package for Ubuntu.

    2. Open downloaded package with GDebi Package Installer — it comes with Ubuntu by default and is associated with .deb files from the beginning so just double click Virtualbox deb package.

    3. Press ‘Install Package’ button and follow easy instructions to get Virtualbox package installed. Once finished you will get ‘Oracle VM Virtualbox’ item in Applications –> System Tools menu.

    4. Open

      Applications –> System Tools –> Oracle VM Virtualbox

      and press button ‘New’ to create virtual machine, and prepare virtual machine for Windows XP (you can also use other versions of Windows) operating system that will be used to run iTunes. You may need to look into Virtualbox's documents on setting up a virtual machine as they can be kinda tricky sometimes.

    5. Insert your preferred version of Windows media (disc, iso, or usb and I personally currently recommend Windows 7) and press ‘Start’ button to boot virtual machine. Install a copy of Windows to virtual machine and logon to the Windows desktop.

    6. In Windows inside virtual machine go to apple.com, download and install the latest version of iTunes. Once finished you will get workable itunes with all those terrific features it supports.

    Another way to keep iTunes in your life is dual-booting Windows and Ubuntu.

    And these are some alternatives to iTunes that work great in Ubuntu

    1. Rhythmbox — this one comes with Ubuntu by default so it’s even not necessary to install it, just go to

      Applications –> Sound and Video –> Rhythmbox Music Player.

      It provides powerful and easy music browser, can sort/search music of almost all known formats including streaming audio, can play and rip CDs and DVDs. One of the most important features of Rhythmbox is iPod support meaning e.g. I can connect my favourite ipod classic 160GB and transfer music to it without itunes at all. Developers say that Rhythmbox was inspired by Apple’s itunes. I believe them.

    2. Amarok — music player and manager with impressive list of features.

      Currently this is the most powerful music engine available for Ubuntu and Linux on the whole. Amarok makes it possible to transfer files to iPod and other mp3 players, to buy legal music from Magnatune (www.Magnatune.com) store, to create dynamic playlists, to import itunes music database and much-much more. Amarok was designed for KDE (while Ubuntu runs Gnome) desktop manager so it requires a lot of dependencies when you install it — be prepared to download 200 MB of staff to get Amarok installed.

    3. Banshee — is open source media player supported by Novel. It brings a lot of useful features to user starting from ability to manage music library and media art and ending with full support of video and podcasts. Banshee is one of the most pretty-looking application of this list, it took a lot of features from itunes and can also sync ipod and other media devices with your music and video library. I’m using Banshee for several years and still believe this is the best itunes-like music player for Ubuntu.

    4. Exaile — is very fast and easy-to-use music player for Gnome window manager. Currently it is on its early stage of development and didn’t reach 1.0 version but brings very powerful list of features like album art management, lyrics fetching or ipod device support. Exaile was designed as an alternative to Amarok and iTunes so you will find many features from them.

    Buy legal music in Ubuntu without itunes

    There are two major alternatives to iTunes Music Store in Ubuntu which can be used in the same way — Jamendo, Magnatune. Ubuntu applications Rhythmbox, Banshee, Amarok and Exaile supports mentioned music stores and make it possible to navigate the music store and buy the music as easily as in itunes music store. Also there are a lot of music stores like Amazon which makes it possible to preview and buy music using any browser like Firefox, Opera or Chromimum which are supported by Ubuntu.

    • 11
    1. Install VirtualBox: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
    2. Create a Windows VM
    3. Install iTunes in the running VM: https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
    • 9

  4. tl;dr:

    Tunesviewer: Lightweight, easy-to-use app for university podcast access.

    I might be a little bit late, and this solution does not provide all iTunes functionalities but its enough for streaming/downloading podcasts and iTunesU content.

    • 9

  5. You don't need to install the repo to get PlayOnLinux, as the standard repos contain it. It can be found by using the following command:

    sudo apt-get install playonlinux

    You will also need to do install curl and 7zip as mentioned above:

    sudo apt-get install curl p7zip-full p7zip-rar
    • 4

  6. Alternatively, if you can't get Itunes stable on your desktop, you can try a native approach. Such as the libimobiledevice-dev. Last time since I tried it, was when I had the Iphone 3. It did work for me then. And the status of their features has only gone greener since then. Development is still on going:

    ...

    17.10.2014: usbmuxd-1.1.0.tar.bz2 has been officially released.

    ...

    Iphone support:

    Tested with iPod Touch 1G/2G/3G/4G/5G, iPhone 1G/2G/3G/3GS/4/4S/5/5C/5S/6/6+, iPad 1/2/3/4/Mini/Mini 3/Air/Air 2 and Apple TV 2G/3G running up to firmware 8.1.2 on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

    Install it like so:

    sudo apt-get install libimobiledevice-dev

    Reboot your system and you will be able to do with it whatever you want, using file-managers and Media Players.can read.

    Reference:

    • 2

  7. MIGRATE YOUR ITUNE FOLDER instead of installing iTunes on Ubuntu. Use banshee instead. Just wanted to post a follow up to what I said above:

    Please note that I just tested this and it works

    Copy your iTunes folder from it's location in Windows (under My Music) to an external HDD or USB Thumb drive.

    After you have Ubuntu installed you need to install Banshee because 12.04 comes with Rhythm Box by default. In my case I also installed ALL of the (install banshee from the software center first) and then install all the Banshee add-on's listed under Banshee in the Ubuntu Software Center. You also should install (from the Software Center) the Ubuntu Restricted Codecs (it's called UBUNTU RESTRICTED EXTRAS).

    OK after all that is done go ahead and fire up Banshee and select (from the top) EDIT then under that select PREFERENCES

    Checkmark the option called, "Copy Files to media folders when importing". The only other thing I checkmarked on this page was the "Update file and folder names" (everything else is optional)

    After you do that select (from the top) MEDIA then under that select IMPORT MEDIA

    Now change the selection to read, "iTunes Media Player"

    It will now let you browse to your iTunes folder and select the XML file. The file is under the iTunes folder (it's easy to find). Select it and click "open" and then "import"

    Banshee will now add the iTunes songs to itself BUT (and this is the important part) it will also copy all your music to your Ubuntu MUSIC folder.

    After it is done your music is in your Ubuntu MUSIC folder and you can continue to use Banshee or use Rhythm Box or any other Linux based music player.

    Hope this helps!

    • 1

  8. Work-around (Ubuntu 16.04 at time of writing): Use built-in RDP (Remmina) with audio enabled. I'm listening to my iTunes Home Server now...

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