If you have an Apple mobile device and want to charge it through the USB port in Ubuntu Linux machine, you’ll find a little app called ipad_charge which was originally developed by Ondrej Zary from Rainbow-Software.

This simple app supports following devices:

• iPad / iPad2 / iPad3 / iPad4 / iPad Mini
• iPod Touch 2G/3G/4G
• iPhone 3GS/4/4s/5

The developer of super-wingpanel has done a little tweak on the code so that iPad air is supported now. This build has been made into PPA for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

Install ipad-charge:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:heathbar/ipad-charge

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0 ipad-charge

After that, your iPad should be automatically detected and charging enabled when you plug it in. However, if it’s not you may have to troubleshoot.

Troubleshooting:

If the udev rules are not automatically enabling charging when you plug in your device, you can run the program manually.

ipad-charge

If your iPad is still not charging you can find the device IDs of all Apple products with this command.

ipad-charge -l

If more than one is listed, you may have to run it with your iPad unplugged, then plugged in to find the correct ID. Once you determine the ID, report the ID to the links below.

via: ipad_charge on github