I have a Sansa c250 and Slackware 11. With FC6, I mount it like this:
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mount -t vfat /dev/sde1 usb
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and it works allright. With Slackware I don't get the same result. This is the dmesg:
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hub.c: new USB device 00:03.3-4, assigned address 2
scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: SanDisk Model: Sansa c250 Rev: Sans
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi removable disk sde at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sde: 4013056 512-byte hdwr sectors (2055 MB)
sde: Write Protect is off
sde: sde1 sde2
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
root@localhost:~# mount -t vfat /dev/sde1 usb
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sde1,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

root@localhost:~# mount -t vfat /dev/sde2 usb
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sde2,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so
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Am I accessing it wrong?
Thanks for any Help!

Something I should have added...
This is the dmesg | tail AFTER I try mounting it the way I did above:
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sde: sde1 sde2
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:41.
FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:42.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:41.
FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:42.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:41.

It seems like the file system on the MP3 player has not been formatted yet, or is corrupt. There is a very simple solution to this problem, but any data (e.g. music) on the MP3 player will be deleted.

1. Plug the MP3 player into the USB port associated with /dev/sde.
2. Run the following command in a terminal:
   
   Code:

   mkfs.vfat /dev/sde

   If the command isn't found, try:
   
   Code:

   mkdosfs /dev/sde

This will format the MP3 player's storage space for use. You only need to do this once. After that you should be able to mount it exactly the same way as you have been doing. Note that this will also work with any USB port, not only the one associated with /dev/sde.

I hope this helps.

Why do you need to mount it with such a complex command ? Every usb mass storage device I've ever encountered or mounted has mounted with

The filesystem should automatically be recognized unless it's corrupt or in a few special cases.

Wouldn't formatting the filesystem clear the sansa 250 "operating system"? (lacking the knowledge of how it is actually put together).

However, what did work for me was updating to the newest kernel. By default slackware 11 runs on 2.4, unfortunately.

Not quite. It's as easy as typing huge26.s or test26.s at the boot screen if you want the 2.6.x kernels. And you could always install one later or compile one yourself.