Sansa is my very first mp3, so I don’t have a library or anything to download. I plugged the device in and got a 4.1 GB Media info on my desktop. I charged Sansa. I returned it to factory setting, and switched it to MSC. I have Rhythmbox, so I downloaded a single song (mp3) onto the RB, then dragged it over to the Music folder in the 4.1 GB Media icon. I clicked on the properties, and the song’s mp3. It plays, both in RB, and in the Music folder. I unplugged the device itself, it waited a moment to refresh, then told me that the music area is empty. I tried again. It’s empty.
For some reason, the song is not making the move from the device icon to the device itself.
As I said, I have Ubuntu, which is a linux product. I went online and got the manual. It has no info for Linux, but in Windows, you’re supposed to get into the Sansa player and click on “internal memory.” There’s nothing like that in the icon I have on my desktop.
What is going wrong here? How can I transfer the song unto my device???
This is getting very difficult. I ended up calling Sansa tech support, and they couldn’t help me, because they know nothing about Linux. I’ve been on the Linux/Ubuntu forums, and I know that people have got these things to work. The problem is that I’m both a Linux and an mp3 newbie–I’ve never owned an mp3, so don’t know how they work, when they do work. Argh. I’ve actually got World of Warcraft to work on Ubuntu, and this is frustrating! I’m considering returning Sansa and trying another product. If it comes down to a choice between an mp3 player and Ubuntu, I’m keeping Ubuntu. It was free and it works.
If you’re familiar with Debian, I’m sure that you can get this to work. This is my incompetence, I suspect, rather than anything to do with the product.
I am not farmiliar with Ubuntu and my little Linux experiance is limited to Red Hat. Have you tried to get a music file from some where else? Try Ripping a CD to your computer and then adding that to the fuze. It could be that you are dealing with a DRM’d mp3 file and because you are using linux few of us know how it reacts to DRMs. I know you mentioned Rhythbox but do you have access to another media player? Also as i read your OP that you just dragged it to the file to the icon, Is this Expandable (can you click the little arrow next to it and have the folders drop down so you can see them)? If it is expandable did you put it in the music folder on the Fuze? Like I said I have very little Linux experiance, so what I am doing is running thru the “Usual Suspects” When people have these issues
I can’t play with this tonight, but tomorrow night I may have time to investigate. I’m no linux newbie, and have the sansa working on windows and recognized on linux, but I have not tried to load songs. I’ll try tomorrow.
I have a Fuze, I use it in MSC mode with Kubuntu 8.10 (the KDE flavour of Ubuntu).
You don’t need Rhythmbox (or any other music manager) to transfer stuff to your Fuze in MSC mode.
I don’t have Gnome installed (and I’m at work:() so I can’t give you specific info ATM - but if you are used to copying files from place to place with a file manager, you should be able to rip CDs and put MP3s on the player.
When you connect the Fuze, it should come up as a removeable drive. You can open it in a file manager. There will be a MUSIC folder. Try dragging and dropping your test MP3 file there and see if it works.
Don’t forget to ‘safely disconnect’ the player before physically unplugging it. This is important on Linux, because the operating system does not immediately write stuff to disk. Doing the ‘safely disconnect’ thing tells Linux to write the stuff still in memory to the physical disk. Just ripping the USB plug out can cause corrupted files.
If that works, you can look at ripping CDs with SoundJuicer or Grip. You need to make sure that the ripping program writes the CD information (track/artist/album etc) as an ID3 version 2.3 tag to the MP3 files. Then just use the filemanager to drag & drop the album folders into the MUSIC folder on the Fuze.
You only get the ‘Internal Memory’ folder you mentioned if the player is connected in MTP mode. Since you are using MSC mode, you won’t see it.
I don’t have a fuze, but e200 and clip work fine with Linux for me. I use Amarok and configure it to copy music to (device mount point)/music/artist/album/
Just drag and drop works, but with Amarok I can select by genre too. I think Amorak can work in MTP mode, but haven’t played with that.
Just got back from teaching…life’s fun. Anyhow, I’m going to try to rip a CD and put it unto the Fuze. Btw, I just found out that when my kids plug their ipods into the computer for charging (they use their dad’s computer for downloads) a “you’ve plugged in a device” comes up, with instructions on dismount etc. Nothing like that happens when I plug in the Sansa; I do get the 4.1 GB media device notice, though.
No luck. I’m starting to think that the computer is, for whatever reason, refusing to recognize Sansa as a music player. When my kids plug in their ipods, something appears on the screen letting me know that a device has been plugged in. The ipods then show up on the left side of Rhythmbox, and you can access their ipods directly via the Rhythmbox. Nothing like that shows up for Sansa. It’s as if Ubuntu has idntified Sansa as something other than a music player, which is why no songs can be downloaded to it. Am I completely wrong here?
You need to make sure you are in MSC mode - I played with it for a while and could not get MTP to work … but it is fine as I don’t use DRM anyways… it should mount as a drive - check your /dev directory… should be something like /dev/sda or something… best to check what is mounted before plugging in
type mount at the prompt then plug it in wait a min or so and then type mount again see if it mounts… also I checked my fstab file - in /etc/fstab make sure you have the line
I run Intrepid as well. I do not use Rythmbox, I use RipperX to rip my CD’s to OGG. I found it alot easier and simpler to configure to do what I wanted. I use the following format to store all my music: /home/music/artist/album/## song title.ogg
That is VERY easy to configure in RipperX, I could not figure it out when using xmcd, grip or another program that doesn’t come to mind.
I transfer files to my Fuze using Midnight Commander (mc). The Fuze will mount as /media/disk, (if you already have something mounted there it will mount as /media/disk-#, the number will depend on how many removeable devices you already have connected). In mc I have the Fuzes MUSIC folder open on one side and my music folder in the other. I transfer whole albums at a time with no problems at all.
Occasionally I will connect the Fuze (or SD card or Flash drive or external HDD) and Intrepid will not recognise it. A reboot fixes the problem, although if you are seeing the 4.1G icon on your desktop it is working properly.
@mariarhi wrote:
No luck. I’m starting to think that the computer is, for whatever reason, refusing to recognize Sansa as a music player. When my kids plug in their ipods, something appears on the screen letting me know that a device has been plugged in. The ipods then show up on the left side of Rhythmbox, and you can access their ipods directly via the Rhythmbox. Nothing like that shows up for Sansa. It’s as if Ubuntu has idntified Sansa as something other than a music player, which is why no songs can be downloaded to it. Am I completely wrong here?
Try simple things first.
Ignore Rhythmbox for now.
Check that the Fuze is in MSC mode. From the top menu do 'Settings->System Settings->USB Mode and select MSC.
Plug the Fuze in - it should look like a USB memory stick to Ubuntu. Probably it will appear under /media/disk or /media/diskN where N=1,2,… You might get a handy icon on the desktop - not sure what Gnome does.
Browse to the Fuze with a file manager. You’ll know it’s the right place if you see a set of subdirectoris like MUSIC, PODCASTS, AUDIOBOOKS etc. (Sorry, I’m not sure what Gnome uses for a file manager these days… I can check this stuff when I get home this evening, I now have Gnome installed on my Ubuntu box, but didn’t have time to play with it)
Using the filemanager, copy an MP3 to the Fuze MUSIC directory.
‘Safely Remove’ your Fuze & unplug it.
The Fuze should do ‘Refreshing Database’ for a while.
Check whether the MP3 is on the Fuze.
Don’t forget to look under ‘Unknown’ for artist/album/track. If the Fuze does not recognise the tag information in your MP3 file, it will put it in the ‘unknown’ catagories.
Post back & let us know how you get on. Don’t lose heart - it can be made to work!
The Fuze is definitely in the MSC mode. That is one of the very first things I did after charging it. I also returned it to factory settings–hope this is not causing a problem.
I plug the Fuze in, and I get an icon called 4.1 GB Media. I click on the icon, and I get the files you mention.
When I open my own music files (not RB), I have the song, which is mp3.
I drag it directly from my files to Fuze’s music folder. The music sits there, and plays when clicked on.
However, I see nothing like “writing” etc on the screen.
I then unplug the fuze, see a “refreshing” notice, then discover that the thing is empty. Which is very frustrating.
It’s especially frustrating as my kids’s ipods, which are not supposed to be easily Ubuntu compatible, are actually behaving like mp3s are supposed to behave…players like RB recognize them; I get notification that a device has been plugged in etc. Nothing like that for the Fuze, which is supposed to be Ubuntu compatible under msc. I am an mp3 noob, and an Ubuntu noob as well. I think the problem is that I’m probably missing the simplest of steps.
