This tutorial was made with Feisty and Edgy in mind - I have not and will most likely not have time to consider Gutsy and the following releases afterward. I can most likely keep posts updated with future releases, but please remember this little detail.
Just a few days ago, I bought a Sansa e260 MP3 player, and ran into some troubles. So, I'm writing this guide for beginners so no one else has to suffer the first few days like I did.
First, we have the Table of Contents. There will be questions (generally asked questions) in the ToC, and then next to the said question will be a set of words. For example, the question would be, "Where are my pants?" before the question, the numbers are, "QQQ001". Do a search in your browser (it depends on your browser, but usually you can just press CTRL+F) and do a search for "QQQ001", which will take you to the question you are looking for.
:Table of Contents:
SSS001 Connecting your Sansa e200 player to a Ubuntu (or any Linux) computer
SSS002 Disconnecting your Sansa e200 player from Ubuntu (or any Linux) computer
SSS003 Putting Music on your Sansa e200 player in any OS
SSS004 Putting Music on MicroSD cards
SSS005 Deleting Music on your Sansa e200 player in Ubuntu (not sure about other OS's)
SSS006 How to add Album Art with playing songs
SSS007 Having Rhythmbox/Banshee recognize Sansa player
SSS008 Putting Movies, Pictures, etc. on the player
SSS009 Updating the Firmware
SSS010 Organizing your music
SSS011 Playlists
SSS012 If your Sansa freezes...
SSS013 Using Recovery Mode
SSS014 Rockbox Instructions
SSS015 Gutsy Users
SSS016 Question not answered?
The guide starts now, from this point:
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SSS001 Connecting your Sansa e200 player to a Ubuntu (or any Linux) computer
Rhapsody player people should read this post about connecting and disconnecting.
While on the player, go to "Settings", then "USB Mode". Switch it to "MSC".
Plug your player in the computer through the USB cord, and (in my experience) the player should say "Connected" and "Disconnected" a few times. After a few seconds, it should stay on "Connected" with arrows on it. If you change anything on the player, it should stay on "Writing" until disconnection.
For Xubuntu users, when you plug in the Sansa and the player says "Connected", you need to go on your desktop - there will be an icon for the Sansa player. Right click on the icon, and select the Mount option. Your player should be able to write and read now.
SSS002 Disconnecting your Sansa e200 player from Ubuntu (or any Linux) computer
~THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT~ Think about it. After a few hours work, writing tags and changing files, wouldn't you hate to accidentally lose that information?
To disconnect the player, you can rather A: go on the Ubuntu desktop, right click the player, and press "Eject". A window should come up, tell you it's writing info on your player, and then there won't be an icon. Even though your player still says "Connected", the little arrows should be gone and you can be good to go. Or, B: find another way of unmounting your player, rather through the terminal or whatnot. I'm not very experienced in using other Linux OS's, so just make sure your player is NOT mounted before unplugging it.
Xubuntu users, instead of "Eject", go to the desktop where the Sansa icon is, and click "Unmount". Your Sansa player will (might) still say "Connected" with the little arrows still going across - you can now disconnect the player, even though it still says Connected. The point is, it's not writing, and is now finished writing last details.
For those who are concerned: Just because a player says "Connected" shouldn't mean you should go ahead and unplug it. Make sure you have ejected/unmounted the player, and only after you make sure the player is not getting or sending any information, you should be set and good-to-go with unplugging it.
SSS003 Putting Music on your Sansa e200 player in any OS
This is very basic. This player is considered Drag 'n Drop, meaning you can just put files into the player just by a simple copy and paste method or literally moving your music folder into the player's MUSIC folder.
But remember - put ALL music in the MUSIC folder in your Sansa player.
If you have CD's and want to rip them into .mp3, then you can read the CDRipping Wiki Page, or (especially if you are on Breezy), download a program called goobox (do it through the Synaptic Package Manager or terminal). Also, please note, Breezy people, that you will need lame and the gstreamer0.8-lame package (again, use Synaptic), and use "sudo gst-register-0.8" in the terminal.
People using Fiesty and running the default GNOME interface - Sound Juicer should already have the MP3 option pre-made, so go ahead and change it through the Preferences.
People using Dapper and above use these wiki's for further info: Multimedia Codecs
People using Breezy use these wiki's for further info: How do I install multimedia codecs?
And don't forget about lame! That's very important. Make sure all your repositories are set correctly so you can get all the packages.
Terminal command for installing goobox:
Code:
sudo aptitude install goobox
It will come up as "CD Player" in Applications -> Sound & Video, if you are running Gnome.
For Kubuntu users:
Originally Posted by
showcaser
Hi and thanks for the guide. Just thought I would mention that it appears ripping with K3B sets the tags properly. Tried it with two albums so far and I was able to copy paste to the sansa without adjusting the tags with easytag. Has anyone else noticed this?
K3B makes tags already. If you want album art I suggest going with the EasyTag program.
SSS004 Putting Music on MicroSD cards
I myself don't have a card, but Ubuntu Joe does, and his post will fill you in on some info.
SSS005 Deleting Music on your Sansa e200 player in Ubuntu (not sure about other OS's)
There are two ways to delete music. One, a very simple way that Ubuntu forum member yemu pointed out, is that you can crop the files you want to delete with your mouse, and while they are selected, press CTRL and DELETE. A prompt will ask if you really want to delete these files, and you can take it from there. (For Kubuntu users, I've found that instead, you can just right click and tell it to move the folders somewhere, then delete them there, so Kubuntu won't make a new library folder in your player)
If you've been deleting music but still find the songs there (or you find you have less room than there should be) try the following:
FOR GNOME USERS: Go to the root folder of your player (where there are other folders like MUSIC, MOVIES, etc). In your file browser, press "View" then "Show Hidden Files". You will see a new folder that will say something like "./trashblahblah". Delete this file. Now your music is officially off.
FOR KDE USERS: Go to the root folder of your player (where there are other folders like MUSIC, MOVIES, etc). In your file browser, press "View" then "Show Hidden Files". You will see a new folder that will say something like "./trashblahblah". You cannot simply delete the folder, since Kubuntu is different for some reason and won't let you, since it considers it a "library folder", or something (I've tried removing it through sudo and the terminal, it still says it can't remove it). Oddly enough, all you need to do is get ride of the period (.) in front of the trash folder - then you can delete it with the simple press of the "delete" key. If that doesn't work, try simply moving the folder (with right-click and using the "move" option) to your Home folder, than delete it there.
SSS006 How to add Album Art with playing songs
Taken straight from Ubuntu Joe's mouth:
Originally Posted by
Ubuntu Joe
Finally! A question I can answer!
It's very easy to add album art to your songs through EasyTag.
First of all take your .jpg and crop it to exactly 300x300 pixels . . .
Got it? Good, now open up that awesome EasyTag editor, select the appropriate album, switch over to the Album art tab, add the .jpg, tick the box so all the files get the image, and you're done!
BAM, beautiful, images to accompany your tunes.
So, in a sense, you'll need to have EasyTag. Or maybe there is a way to do it manually... I don't know. EasyTag way is easy enough though, so give it a whirl!
SSS007 Having Rhythmbox/Banshee recognize Sansa player
Here is the post from the ABi forum, I give complete credit to this guy:
Originally Posted by
Cgil
Just added support to banshee... It's quite easy:
1.Set your sansa in MSC mode.
2.Connect it to the computer.
3. In the root folder of your sansa create a text file( If you are using GNOME use the following in nautilus: right click-> Create a document-> empty file. This might work for KDE but I'm not sure...)
4.Now, name your file as
.is_audio_player
Start Banshee and it should recognize it
BTW I'm using the CVS version of Banshee
It's really that simple - make a hidden text file called ".is_audio_player" and BAM. Rhythmbox recognized it. Make SURE that you put the hidden file in Sansa's root file (the file you immediately start from, which directs you to the "MUSIC" "PHOTO" etc files)
He did mention he is running the CVS version - fear not, for I am running the version that came with Ubuntu (and Banshee was installed through the Ubuntu repo's): so I've tested it and it indeed works. Makes Rhythembox very handy all of a sudden. 
SSS008 Putting Movies, Pictures, etc. on the player
UPDATE: It seems like Rockbox plays .mpg video formats, but I'm not sure how it handles or anything. If you haven't put Rockbox on your Sansa you are REALLY missing out. The below column is out-of-date but could provide interesting leads to whomever wants to dig into this stuff.
My only knowledge of encoding movies of any kind is by using AcidRip, which is even then very limited. I have found numbers and specifications thanks to the ABi forums. If you are going to change movie files, make sure they are in .mov format - nothing else works. Also, movies can only be 220x176 (when you rotate it to view the movie, final resolution is 176x220 (thank you ABi forum member Norgolam for pointing this out)), 15fps and 22kHz (MJPEGB and A) - once again, thank ABi for this info. Here is a thread where some people actually know some stuff about encoding I could never possibley understand, hopefully you can...
As for pictures - still not a clue. There is a way to have album art showing at the same time as you play music (see a few steps above this one), but to add in pictures manually to view whenever in the Picture option - not too sure. Someone, anyone, let's figure this out...
SSS009 Updating the Firmware
Many believe you need to be on a Windows machine to install firmware. Well, thanks to the Anything But iPod Forums, you CAN install firmware through Linux. This entire portion of the guide gets a kudos to them, because I would be lost without these guys. You can see one of my topics there, in the wrong place, and they are still willing to help. Back to the guide;
First off, you will need to have the package "unrar" installed. Here's a terminal command, if you like:
Code:
sudo aptitude install unrar
I'm not sure if it can be installed through Synaptic, so you can give it a try or just use the terminal.
Now, when a new Firmware update comes up, the ABiP forums will post it in a .rar file. Download it. Make sure your player is connected.
Now, through the Archive Manager or whatever unzipper program, extract a file in the rar with a .mi4 extension (example: PP5022.mi4) into your Sansa's root file. Root as in the file before "MUSIC", "PICTURES", etc.
Now, eject the player, and unplug it from the computer. The MP3 player should restart and check for updates, and will tell you it's install firmware. Then it should restart again, with new firmware.
Please note that after firmware updates, the USB mode in the player will switch back to MTC. Put it back to MSC, and Ubuntu can recognize it again.
SSS010 Organizing your music
This part got me so frustrated, and I don't want anyone else to ever be so mad like I was. So let's get started...
The Sansa player basically lives off of ID3v2 tags. I've learnt the hard way that Sound Juicer makes ID3v1 tags (unless someone can clear that up for me). I even tried in Banshee and they make those tags the same way...
Even changing tags in Banshee doesn't work. So no there.
There are three awesome programs to try - try each and see which one you take to your liking. They are Cowbell, EASYTag, and TagTool (TagTool comes up as Audio Tag Tool under Applications and Sound & Video)
For a quick install of all three of these, paste this into the terminal:
Code:
sudo aptitude install cowbell easytag tagtool
Of course, these can be install through the Synaptic Package Manager as well. Anyway...
I've had moderate success with Cowbell. Try using it's "Guess Song Information" under "Tools" to fill in tag information. Usually it's right, but if it's completely off, press "Revert" under "Album" to change the changes back to normal, from before. You might want to change the preferences to make it so when you change the tag info, it can change the file name info as well. Helps a lot when TagTool is being dumb.
In EASYTag, it will start scanning your hard drive's music folder. You can just stop it, and follow the tree to your Sansa player (usually under /media). Let it scan through the songs, and if any songs do not have tags they will be red. That is how you will be able to tell if your music has tags on them or not. Make sure you change the settings in Settings -> Preferences to let EASYTag know your media player (Rhythmbox, Banshee, etc)
Once you change a tag in EASYTag, crop the files, or make sure it's selected, and to go "File" and "Save Tag(s)" (or something to that extent). Your tags should be saved.
I highly recommend EASYTag. Why? Because it's so freakin' easy. It took me, well, a few minutes (maybe ten) to sit down, think about what I was doing, and now it's a snap. You can find information on music in a snap - just crop the album, right click, and press CDDB Search File(s). Which usually finds them.
TagTool is okay for a basic tagger. Not the greatest or spiffiest, and sometimes I find it breaking down on me. Use it only if it's your last choice or you want to bash your head against the wall in frusteration.
But, as far as I know, TagTool doesn't do pictures. If you REALLY want album covers when your songs show up, try EASYTag. Cowbell is good at getting the information from the internet and filling it out for you. It's all about preference, so feel free to try whatever tagging program.
Here is a post detailing EASYTag with pictures so you know how to use it. Hope it works out for you!
SSS011 Playlists
This is a somewhat out-dated column and it seems like the playlists issue is fixed with the first link provided here. I'm keeping the other links for the sake of recording old methods and letting people try out different things.
So here are some things that might work (UPDATE: With the exception of the first link) - I haven't tried any of them, because, like I mentioned before, I don't really use playlists. I could really use someone's help here.
The Mazleg Script - the Super Awesome Playlist Script.
This, my friends, is a .m3u conversion script. Except I have no idea how to use it, and couldn't tell you how to use it. Again, please, someone help me out here.
Here is a ABi thread about a .m3u to .pla conversion program. Buuut, the catch is, it's an .exe file, so you'll need to grab a copy of Wine (just find it in Synaptic, not to hard). If you think I just told you to go buy some wine, then you're going to need to read this wiki page to understand what I'm talking about here.
Someone made a MSC playlist program... But it's only for Windows. Check some posts, I couldn't find out if there were new up-to-date versions...
That's all the info on playlists I could scrounge up at this point. Feel free to help me out, and I'll give credit where it's due.
EDIT: This looks promising - a Sansa Playlist Editor with a GUI. (thanks dumpy)
SSS012 If your Sansa freezes...
There is that rare time (or, maybe you are unlucky and it's NOT so rare...), once in a while, where your Sansa player will freeze. Probably because you unplugged it from the USB cord to fast, maybe your little brother or sister repeatedly hit it against the wall... Well, your Sansa is frozen and broken. Right? Wrong.
There are two methods in fixing a frozen Sansa, and I HIGHLY recommend the first, since you'll probably almost never need the second method. The first and easy method is; hold onto the power (menu) button for 15 seconds.
If you've been holding onto the button for a half an hour and it's STILL in a frozen state, looks like you'll need to grab a screwdriver, take out the back, take out the battery so everything shuts off, put the battery back in, make sure you screw everything in good, and it should work. But I only recommend this method in a rare -rare- case that your frozen Sansa does not turn off after holding the power button for 15 seconds.
And if you don't want to count 15 seconds - just hold down the power button. Basically, if it's still frozen after a minute, then maybe you should try the second method.
SSS013 Using Recovery Mode
So you accidentally deleted a few important files. Oops. Now your Sansa player won't do jack crap, even if you tried a manual shut off, and it's spouting out weird crap.
First, I recommend going to the AnythingButiPod forum and downloading some firmware (make sure you find the .zip or .rar file). Maybe you should make a file dedicated to Sansa firmware in case this stuff happens again.
Now, turn the power off on your player by holding the power down on it for 15 seconds. Now, lock your player, and while you turn it on again, hold the REC button on the side of the Sansa. If you did it right, then a little black screen with white words will appear, saying stuff about recovery mode. Insert the player into your computer.
Now it should come up as a "16MB" flash drive, instead of saying usually "Sansa e2XX". Get your firmware and copy the .mi4 file, and paste it into this flash drive. Now eject the flash drive, and your player should talk about installing firmware. Hopefully, that worked.
SSS014 Rockbox Instructions
Since this is a Beginners Guide and this seems to be just a little out of a real novice grasp, I will post a link to the post describing Rockbox installation for the sake of keeping this page just a tad bit shorter (and sweeter):
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=116
If you have any Rockbox questions, feel free to ask them here - but there is also a whole community aimed at Rockbox with your Sansa e200 (Anything But iPod forums) if a question is not answered here. There is a wealth of information in their stickies, cool mods, and other things...
I am not responsible (sp) for your modding and your actions in which you modify your own Bootloader - you make your own conscious choice to modify YOUR Sansa.
SSS015 Gutsy Users
Having problems with mounting the drive? Check out this post. Hopefully that helps!
SSS016 Question not answered?
Refer to this post.
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If anyone would like to help add to the guide, post or PM me, and I'll give credit where it's due, etc.
I'd like to give a big shout out to the Anything But iPod website for all there help! Thanks guys!
Hopefully that's helped some of you looking for answers. Enjoy!
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