Help/Suggestions with older Ipod

[Biciclettapc]

Need some help and or suggestions on the best program to load an old (1st gen) Ipod 30gb.

I've used a combination of rhythm box and Bansee and Gtkpod in the past but seem to be having difficulty reading this ipod to update music files.

Ipod has been formatted clean but inside LM, not by itunes.

gtkpod does not see the ipod.

Rhythm box gives me a initialize screen, but unable to get to the bottom of the box to fill out the data. Can not resize the window, and alt+f8 still does not allow me to access the info at the bottom. Tried under cinnamon (what I use) gnome, mate, gnome classic all with the same issue. I can bypass this initialization and transfer music but the music is not playable after transfer/synch.

Banshee sees the ipod and crashes after about 300 songs when I attempt to sync the ipod up.

I guess I can load the bloatware Itunes on a windows machine, plug the ipod in and let itunes initialize or format or what ever it does if need be. Just prefer to use LM and open source for everything.

This ipod needs to play in a vehicle in the aftermarket deck and work with the standard ipod controls of that deck
Suggestions on what and how to use.

Paul