Hi!

I have an iRiver T30 which I am willing to replace with a mp3 player that works better with Linux. (I have tried mounting it, but either it doesn't work or I am too much of a newbie.) I like this player, but it's only supposed to work with Windows Media Player and I'd rather buy myself a new player than go back to Windows.

I just need a small 1GB player that won't give me any (major) hassle. I thought the best way was to ask you people what you use (with SuSe 10.0 preferably) so that I know what to look for.

(Please don't suggest any Apple stuff though. I've had iPod troubble to last me for a life time. I'd rather try something else.)

Thanks so much in advance. Any answer would be much appreciated. :)

My current mp3 player is an MyMusix PD-205 it came with an 1g sd card.

I previously used a Panasonic. You can check my HCL entries for more info.

When I plugged them into my Debian system they automatically came up as usb disk which showed up on my desktop.


Peace V

Thank you! I googled MyMusix PD-20 and came up with nothing. It's not one of the most common players, eh?

hi cmlal,

don't worry, getting an MP3 player that 'works' with GNU/Linux is actually pretty straightforward -- all you have to do is make sure that the device presents itself as a 'removable drive' when connected to the system (normally everything that Windows XP can recognize as such a drive is perfectly compatible with modern Linuxes).

there is no real [legitimate] reason for you to be forced to use a specific kind of 'jukebox' software (e.g. iTunes, RealJukeBox) with your player, so if you see mentions of this, take your distance. "encroachment" of this kind is at best an insult to the user, so please don't encourage it with your wallet

if you're still unsure, try looking for a player with removable standard media (like Compact Flash, SD, etc.), so that even if you can't mount the device directly, you can use a media reader to access the card and load/unload tunes. this is more indirect, but should work without problems.

personally, i bought a BenQ JoyBee 130 (512 MB built-in with SD card slot for expandability), and it works beautifully.
as soon as it's connected my systems (whether Winblows, Debian or Ubuntu) mount it as a 'drive' without any extra configuration. all systems recognize it as 'USB mass storage device', and that's probably what you want to be looking for as well.
i also have a more old-school FrontierLabs NEX IIe player, which is CompactFlash-based, and mounts automagically in the same manner. AFAIK all of FrontierLabs' players are the same in this respect.

one more tip: whether using such a player on M$ or GNU/Linux systems, make sure that the drive is synched before unmounting it (i.e. let all copy operations finish and empty the trash if you deleted any files on the player), and make sure you actually unmount it (instead of just pulling the cord).

Your problem might be simpler than opening your wallet. The iRiver mp3 players use a different transprt method to connect to a system, so they don't show up as a mass storage device. There is, however, an open source utility for communicating with the iRiver, called ifp (http://ifp-driver.sourceforge.net/). I have the IFP-795, and it works great. The ifp-gui utility will give you an Explorer like window for copying to/from your iRiver, along with battery status, radio presets (if it has a tuner), firmware upgrade capability, etc. It is also far faster than the Windows software that it comes with. Give it a try.

This sounds perfect!

One thing I don't understand though is this (from http://ifpgui.sourceforge.net/):

Should I get something called Manager version firmware before I use iFP? And how do I do that? Since I can't even get my computer to recognize my iRiver, I don't really get how I am supposed to be able to download anything to it.

And what does this "on the other hand" thing mean?

I think I need someone to answer this before I do anything. I don't want to mess up my iRiver. That would be a serious waste of money. ;)

Also, which file should I chose from here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...kage_id=126710 ? I would just take the top one (ifp_gui-0.10.4-linux-exe.tar.gz) but sites like these scare me. I know to little to make an educated choice.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question(s) so thoroughly! If I need to get a new player I'll make sure it'll show up as a removable drive. :) Thanks also for mentioning the importance of unmounting, I'll keep it mind. :)

First, let me assure you that you don't need to worry about firmware downloading. What you have installed now is more than likely the Management version, not the UMS version. The UMS version would show up as a usb storage device to Linux, and since you can't mount to it, it's doubtful you have that version.

The file you should download (assuming you are using Suse 10 like your profile states), is ifp_gui-0.10.4-SuSE10.x.i586.rpm. Download it, and you can install it (as root) with "rpm -i ifp_gui-0.10.4-SuSE10.x.i586.rpm".

Give that a try.

Alright. :) I did this and got this:

What does this mean? I do want non-root users to be able to use this application.

Also, what now? Do I plug in my iRiver and hope that iFP recognizes it or.. what? :)

(Thank you so much for your help!)

This means that you need to add any users to the ifp group. You should be able to do that through yast, or any other user manager program.


This is possibly bad. You may need to have the hotplug utility installed. Try launching the ifp-gui, and see what it says. It's not going to damage anythig, so nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I hate to have to ask this, I feel like I should know it by now, but I don't. How do I launch it? I don't know where it went? I have looked in etc/hotplug/ but I can't find anything useful there...

Oops, sorry. Just type "ifp-gui" at a command shell. If it says something like "...not found", then type "rehash" and try again.

I don't think it will work, but I haven't tried the latest version yet. The version I have needed several otehr libraries, but it's possible that this has been completely contained in the new package.

Don't get too discouraged. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Alright, this is what happened:

What now..? :/

According to the rpm package, ifp-gui is installed in /usr/local/bin. Type "echo $PATH" and see if /usr/local/bin is there. If not, you might just want to copy the file (as root) to /usr/bin.

EDIT:

I mean't "ifp_gui". My bad.

I found the executable file in the usr/local/bin directory and clicked on it. It opened and said that I needed to plug in my device. So I did that and voila! Only problem is I can't get it to display the files that are on the iRiver.

I get this message:

I did this but I get the same message.

Hm..? (So close, yet so far away!)