Linux Format forums

[Nobber]

So I bought an iriver T30 a couple of days ago. It's small, it's light, it has 1GB of memory, and it plays ogg vorbis, so why not? Bloke in the shop assured me it works as a UMS (USB mass storage) device, so I thought "no problem using it with Linux, then" and shelled out me hard-earned.

UMS device my ar^H^H foot! Apparently iriver's latest devices, unlike most other portable MP3 players around these days, use a protocol called MTP, which requires Windows Media Player 10 on Windows XP in order to be usable.

Now, that said, all is not lost. It turns out that MTP is a derivative of/similar enough to PTP2 - the protocol used by some digital cameras - that you can use gphoto2 to access files on the device. Typing

gphoto2 -f /store_00010001 -m my_new_dir
gphoto2 -f /store_00010001/my_new_dir -u blah.ogg

(for example) is not the most convenient way to interact with the device, but it does mean you're a bash script front-end or two away from transferring music with little fuss.

However, you will need libgphoto2-2.1.99 (the latest development version) in order for gphoto2 to recognise the iriver T30, and I've found data transfers to be a bit temperamental. Sometimes you will see error messages even though everything appears to have tranferred OK, and sometimes the transfers just don't work at all.

Anyway, misery loves company, and it would seem that I'm not the only one a tad peeved at iriver's senseless MTP-only policy. Oddly enough, the T30 is available as a UMS device in Asia and Australia (but not in Europe or North America ), and so converting your T30 from MTP to UMS is just a matter of using some hacked firmware from Asia/Australia. If you want to try this, go to www.mtp-ums.net for details. No doubt such a procedure would void your warranty, but many people have reported success.

And so ends this cautionary tale.

[davecs]

I have read two "specials" in another Mag, Micro Mart, about so-called mp3 players. One a couple of weeks ago, and today, one for "non-MP3" players, ie which played other formats, not always ogg.

Well they didn't mention either time the iAudio M5 and M5L (L for Large Battery!). This is 20 Gig device which, as well as the usual MP3, can do OGG and FLAC! And you do really notice the difference in Sound Quality if you turn the default OGG compression to Quality Level 4, which makes its files similar in size to MP3.

It's a real top quality piece of work, with UMS, and superior sound (provided you switch out all the gadgets and use decent phones).
_________________

Asus Asus M2N32 WS Pro+Athlon AM2/4200+ — GeForce 7600GT — 2Gb Cosair VS RAM — 500Gb WD5000AAKS SATA Drive — PCLinuxOS

[noelob]

"The people who bought you..." libnjb are in fact creating a new library to access MTP devices inder linux. The project is being hosted here: http://libmtp.sourceforge.net/ but is the early stages. Some of the functionality works though, and I think they are planning to make it work with Gnomad2

Kind regards,
Noel

[GMorgan]

This whole WMP10 only system is mad. The European version of Vista will be released without WMP in the box (or IE as I understand it). Essentially the market is going to become more diverse not less.

[Nobber]

libmtp? Interesting!

I hit a snag using gphoto2 with the T30 - once a certain amount of data had been transferred to the device, gphoto2 refused to transfer any more, or even list the contents. I found the solution here, which is to patch libgphoto2-2.1.99 thus: change

#define PTP_USB_BULK_HS_MAX_PACKET_LEN 512

in libgphoto2-2.1.99/camlibs/ptp2/ptp.h to

#define PTP_USB_BULK_HS_MAX_PACKET_LEN 4096

(and recompile, of course). Now my T30's full to the brim and I'm happy.
_________________
800 LINES ERIC - GET BACK TO PYSKOOL

[jdtate101]

So I have the Zen Touch Photo...also a MTP device (whereas the original Zen Touch used to be Libnjb compliant!!)
I used to use Kzenexplorer to upload files....any ideas how I can use this libmtp to do the same???
_________________
Ubuntu Edgy & Beryl on:

AMD X2 4800+
4GB Corsair TWINX RAM
1.2TB RAID0 SATA2 (3ware RAID)
2 x Seagate 400GB USB2
Dual Layer DVD-RW
Nvidia 7800GT
2 x Viewsonic VP201b TFT
Iomega Rev Internal

[Nobber]

If you feel up to it, you could add a line to libgphoto2-2.1.99/camlibs/ptp2/library.c for your device, compile, and see if you have any luck with gphoto2. For example, the line for the iriver T30 is

[sjeapes]

This link may help

http://www.iriver.eu.com/download_details.html?L=0&d_id=723&products=73&cats=0&Input2=&rn=5&order=

I've looked at iRiver devices before and they always came with the MTP firmware as default but many give the option to download the firmware to make it act as a UMS device
_________________
--
Steve

[Nobber]

^That's actually a driver for old versions of Windows that don't automatically recognise USB mass storage devices. A bit odd that they offer that as a download for the T30 in Europe, since the T30s sold in Europe are MTP devices (or so I understand).

[shifty_ben]

The world has gone mad, using MTP to copy files to an MP3 player garuantees one thing, squeezing your self out of one market or another. If the firmware is available to make it act as a UMS device I will definitely be using that once I get around to it. If it then breaks I may well be having words with their customer service.

One day people will learn, just not for a while
_________________
Need a New Signature

[grege]

For everything IRiver go to

http://www.misticriver.net/ <- for the truely obsessed IRiver user!

If you have a hd IRiver there are links to linux software that can rebuild the IRiver player database that controlls that which shows in the menus. I could not get the python version to work, but iriverdb works fine.

And of course links to all sorts of firmware

http://www.rockbox.org/ for firmware to completely replace the origonal IRiver firmware (hd players only H1xx and H3xx series)