How do you move movies and music to ipad mini ios 7 from linux computer?

Question

I hope that someone can please help. I have two children, ages six and 10. They previously used nabis but I've bought them both ipad minis. They would like to put their movies and music on them. They would like to be able to watch movies when we take a long car ride, etc. They have wifi versions and no 4g so they would be away from an internet connection. They have movies ripped from dvds they own, and music from ripped disney cds. They do not have a working portable dvd player anymore as it has been a long time since they needed one. They have a "boom box" style cd player but not handy for a car. The thing is, they both want to do different things in the back seat.
I only have linux (kubuntu 13.10) on our laptops and desktops.
I know that there are only a few file formats that the ipad can read for music and movies, but converting those isn't a problem.
I tried buying a "dongle" for a micro sd card, but that didn't work. At least I couldn't figure out how to make it work. The ipad would never recognize it.
Everything on the web said to just use the music software on the linux pc, such as Banshee, etc. But when I plug in the ipad mini to the computer I get a loop of "trust this computer?" that just keeps happening. I see that is a common thing now.
I tried installing itunes in a virtual drive on my laptop, but I could never get it to work. I progressed back through several versions of itunes and tried using PlayOn linux but it never worked.
I have never used itunes so I don't really know how it works. Is there anyway to upload to it through a web browser or something like that?
I tried an ap for the ipad called "file master." WIth that, I could send mp3 and movie files to the ipad through a web browswer based connection on wifi. The ipad could open the music and movie inside that ap, but could not see it through the music or video player aps, those said that itunes was empty. The problem with this is that it crashes. It will play a few seconds of a song and crash to the home screen. Some songs it plays OK, others it crashes as soon as you click. This isn't going to work well for kids in the back seat.
In the "file master" ap I can see folders for things like "music" and "downloads," and I can move files around in those directories, but the built in music and video aps never see the files.
I tried drop box. That works OK. Again, music will play inside the drop box ap, but the ipad doesn't "see" the music in the music ap. The problem here is that I only have about 3 gigs worth of drop box space, and I bought my son as 64 gig ipad mini. I'd like to be able for him to use that space. So this is limited by the space of the drop box account. So not a great solution. But at least a partial solution.
I can't find an ipad ap for ubuntu one.
I tried icloud, but there doesn't seem to be anyway to upload files to it from the pc.
There is something called "icloud match" that is $25. I get the impression that this looks at the songs you have ripped from your own cds and matches those to the itunes store and lets you download from there. Would this work? I'm kind of grumpy about the idea of paying $25 to see if it will let me move my own files to my own tablet.
I've tried several other aps from the ap store that were music players, but they all seem to be looking for itunes. I could not get any to find an mp3 file that I moved to the ipad through the "file master" ap.
So, I can't get itunes to work, and I can't get the ipad to connect to a computer.
Surely there has to be some way to do something as simple as move a file to a tablet. I'm afraid there must be some simple answer that I'm just overlooking so I've come to beg for help.
Thank you.

Answer 1

Just in case anyone in a similar situation finds this by google or something in the future.
I found a work around.
I think that my troubles with the file master ap were probably from mp3's that got corrupted in the transfer.
I went back and tried it again and it has been working flawlessly to transfer music and movies.
It is a free ap from the ap store.
When you open it, it gives a url for the ipad that you open in a web browser and just upload the files you want moved.
You just watch the video or listen to the music from the file master ap itself. It doesn't integrate it into the stock aps.
The up-side is that you don't have to worry about the limitations on video files, it plays multiple video formats.
The downside is that it is transferring the files through wifi so it is as slow as Christmas.
But it isn't a problem really just to send a batch of files over. Just be patient.
So a usb connection would be much faster and preferable, but this works.