Imagine my surprise when I boot up Hill, load hfsprogs, and mount my iPod’s data partition under Alpine Linux and it just works ™ provided the magic sanctified cable that cost $20 at the fruit store rather than the generic one.
Of course, the oh crud involving the file server’s RAID enclosure means experimenting with Linux media players for syncing music is tabled for another day, along with whether or not Rockbox shall replace its OS in favor of not having to suffer Apple’s software for the sync.