Using A Sandisk MP3 Player On A Linux Desktop

This article shows how to use a Sandisk MP3 player (Sansa E250) on a Linux desktop. Now I can have all the tunes I want without dropping into Windows to manipulate them.

Why the Sansa?

For a long time I resisted buying a standard mp3 player because of compatibility concerns.  On the advice of an openSUSE forum member, I picked up a Sansa E250 2gb player.  This unit is very small, stylishly black, and will work seamlessly with any Linux distribution that recognizes USB block devices, like flash drives, CD players, etc. Sansa makes several units with this basic design, from 512 mb all the way up to 8gb.  All will use this procedure.

Beware of some of the other players.  Most of them require the use of a supplied utility to load content.  Many require, for example, Windows XP SP1.  Not good if you’re a Linux user.

I am limiting my

HOWTO to simply getting playable songs on the player.  I am assuming one has successfully ripped CDs or otherwise loaded .mp3 directories onto his or her hard drive using, for example, GRIP.  I will also explain how to reset the player if, as happened to me, deleting my current crop of tunes left me with undeletable garbage directories.
As it turns out, getting all your tunes onto the player is easy and fast.

Setting up the Sansa E2*0 Player

Here is how to set up your Sansa player for use with Linux, requiring only one step.  On the Sansa main menu, with the player disconnected, push the menu button repeatedly past Music, Video, Voice, to “Settings.”  This is where you’ll start.  Push the center button, then the top button, “USB Mode.”  From there scroll to “MSC” and press the center button again.  That’s it.  The player will, when connected, appear as a standard flash drive.

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