MP3 player that works in Mandrake 10.2? (renamed)

[Avi]

Morning all.

I'm thinking about getting an Mp3 player, and now that i've lost Windows, i need a Linux compatible one. I'm looking at the Creative Zen at the minute, but i've seen that it's not Mac compatible, but works on PCs (i'm assuming they mean windows).

I've read that you can use gnomad to make linux talk to it, but i've also heard of problems with it compiling in Mandrake 10.
I've got Mandriva LE 2005, which for all intents and purposes seems to be Mandrake 10.2, anyone got any experience of getting one of these (or another similarly priced, similar capacity mp3 player) to work in 10.2 or Mandriva?

cheers.

[bigtomrodney]

I haven't used that MP3 player, but because of compatability I chose to get an iRiver H series. They function just like a hard drive and manage their own databases. Never had a days trouble with it. If the Gnomad tool is like the iFP tool for flash based iRivers then it's probably more pain than it's worth. That was all done by commandline, which is fine but for a 128MB device, that belongs to your girlfriend who doesn't like command line...

Sorry I know that's not really an answer, just showing some kind of solidarity.

[Avi]

So the iRiver H series work as essentially USB HDDs as far as the PC's concerned? That'd be worth a look then...

Edit: Just looking at www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and all the iRiver H's that i can find (H510, H320, H340) say 'Linux OS support: No'

[bigtomrodney]

I certainly like mine, the only downside I find is when you start up it can take upto 30 seconds as it rebuilds its database. But it has a nice file explorer, and functions according to how you lay out file on the disk, not like the usual databases on jukeboxes. Plus they play Ogg/Vorbis, reocrd directly to MP3, have optic in and out and a nice remote(100 series anyway).

I love mine, and it's one of the most linux friendly pieces of kit I have.

[Avi]

Hmm, sounds like they're just covering their backs then on the Linux compatability statement then...

[jeremy1701]

The Creative Series works well with Linux. I've got two of them currently working on my MDK 10.1 system with no problems.

What issues are people having with MDK 10.2? I don't think I've heard of that.

Jeremy

[Cabhan]

I personally have the iRiver H320, and I love it more than anything in the universe. Since it's detected as an external hard drive, I've never had any problem with mounting it.

I've never bothered with its Database feature, as I organize all my songs my own way anyway. So I've never had long start times; it takes maybe 10-15 seconds to boot back up once you remove the USB cable.

And, as you know, it plays OGG.

All in all, the H320 has always been happy for me, and it's the greatest MP3 player I've yet to use.

[Avi]

I googled "linux Mp3 player" or "linux zen" or similar and it came up with a fair few forum/messageboards reporting problems with gnomad talking to it. Just thought i'd ask on here if anyone's had similar, as most of the questions i'd seen had gone unanswered.

I'd prefer the zen because it seems to be cheaper, but i'm not going to do any proper price comparisons until i know what'll work. I do like the sound of the iRiver being just a USB drive though - sounds like the easiest option.

[Avi]

The Creative Series works well with Linux. I've got two of them currently working on my MDK 10.1 system with no problems.

What issues are people having with MDK 10.2? I don't think I've heard of that.

Jeremy

What're you using to make them talk to each other?

I don't recall any problems specifically with Mandrake; Slackware and FC seem to be the most popular with problems, but i wasn't sure if this was just because no-one had yet tried it on Mandrake.
If you've had no problems with it, that's very encouraging. I've tried looking specifically for problems with mandrake and creative, but can't find any (this thread is the closest i've found to anyone having a problem).

I might just go for the Zen then, being the cheaper option....

[jeickal]

Just looking at www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and all the iRiver H's that i can find (H510, H320, H340) say 'Linux OS support: No'

OK I know I'm coming a bit late, but I just wanted to add few things about the iriver H320.

It is fully compatible with Linux. I plug mine in my Madrake 10.1 and I see the icone appearing on the desktop (note that you need to disable the "USB charging" feature on the H320, when it's enabled you need to mount it manually)

If you want to have the music database build according to the Id3 tag of your files, you can do it with this soft:
http://www.shredzone.net/projects/ifish/
It will getrate a file called "iRivNavi.iDB" that you need to save on the root directory of the H320. Then you can browse your music by artist/album/genre.

I send an email to iriver customer support to ask them how to genrate this DB file from Linux and I got a "our product are not linux compatible". So I sent them back the solution I found telling them they will spare their potential customers some googling up time by daring to say on their website that their products are linux compatible... If I get an answer I'll let you know...