Comments on: Using the Creative Zen X-Fi with Linux

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:03:51 +0000

Hi
I got the X-fi a while back and when i moved to linux in june i struggled with my zen, your ideas have been very helpful.

If anyone has instructions on how to connect the X-fi to mediatomb, it would be great if you could post them, or email me at nottellingyou2@gmail.com

Thanks

Sam

By: Giova

Giova — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:16:27 +0000

Hi, thanks for this guide.
I would like to know if someone’s got a good transcoding tips for mediatomb, something to stream also video from PC and from Youtube etc..

By: Richard S. Crawford

Richard S. Crawford — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:28:33 +0000

I’ve never used an iPod of any sort, so I can’t really answer that question. My understanding, though, is that more recent iPods can’t work with Linux, and I wouldn’t want to run a Windows virtual machine just for that purpose (especially since the virtualization software I use doesn’t talk to USB ports at all).

By: Manu

Manu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:18:09 +0000

The perfect post.

I’m sure you’d have thought about getting an iPod Touch instead. How would using it with either linux hacks or with a virtual Windows compare?

By: Jean-Claude Lorin

Jean-Claude Lorin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:30:56 +0000

When using my Creative Zen x-fi under Ubuntu or OpenSuse I have no problems transferring podcasts or music files into my Zen using Banshee or Amarok. But as I wanted to transfer some photos I followed the instructions given and modified the rules.d accordingly. Everything went fine when I did mtpfs aand I could see my directory structure and transfer some files. But when I reopened my Zen, the transferred pictures were nowhere to be found and when I tried to connect it did not work. Here is what I got when I did mtp-detect

charlie@charlie-laptop:~$ mtp-detect
libmtp version: 0.3.0

Listing raw device(s)
No raw devices found.
charlie@charlie-laptop:~$ mtp-detect
libmtp version: 0.3.0

Listing raw device(s)
Device 0 (VID=041e and PID=4162) is UNKNOWN.
Please report this VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team
Found 1 device(s):
041e:4162 @ bus 0, dev 15
Attempting to connect device(s)
PTP: Opening session
PTP_ERROR_IO: Trying again after re-initializing USB interface
inep: usb_get_endpoint_status(): Protocol error
outep: usb_get_endpoint_status(): Protocol error
usb_clear_halt() on IN endpoint: Protocol error
usb_clear_halt() on OUT endpoint: Protocol error
usb_clear_halt() on INTERRUPT endpoint: Protocol error
usb_claim_interface(): Bad file descriptor
LIBMTP PANIC: Could not open session on device
Unable to open raw device 0
OK.

Any idea of what went wrong? any advice on what to do? may be I should install the latest version of libmtp (I used libmtp8)

Jean-Claude

By: David Stockwell

David Stockwell — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:57:01 +0000

For applying this to OTHER devices (e.g., Sansa), plug in your device in MTP mode and go to the Windoze Device Mangler.
Select the device (should be in Portable Devices class), and select it with right-click -> Properties.
Go to the Details pane and select Hardware IDs. The VID is the ATTR{idVendor} (or ATTRS), and the PID is the ATTR{idProduct}.

By: Betzi

Betzi — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 07:36:28 +0000

Ok, i made it out why i didn’t work at my Intrepid Ibex (8.10). It looks like, that with libmtp8 the rulesfiles have changed again, so u got also to use ATTR in the 2nd label rules (LABEL=”lib_usb_device_rules”). Now my zen x-fi 16gb is doing very well with intrepid ibex and amarok!
Thanks for this tutorial and the great help!

By: Richard S. Crawford

Richard S. Crawford — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:09:55 +0000

Hi, Betzi. You are correct, the second one should be “ATTRS”, not “ATTR”. I’ve updated this article to reflect this.

You might also try going to the libmtp website (I’m blanking on the URL at the moment, but it should be found easily on Google) and downloading the latest version. The version which ships with Kubuntu is kind of wonky. Some have found that it might be necessary to insert a symbolic link to the mtp7 libs in their computer (see comments above), but I’ve had no problem with the two versions coexisting side by side on my computer.

Good luck.

By: betzi

betzi — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:46:29 +0000

Next, edit the file: /etc/udev/rules.d/45-libmtp7.rules. There are two sections in this file. In the first section, which has the label “LABEL=”libmtp_usb_rules”, add the following:

# Creative Zen X-fi
ATTR{idVendor}==”041e”, ATTR{idProduct}==”4162″, SYMLINK+=”libmtp-%k”, MODE=”660″, GROUP=”audio”

In the second section, labeled LABEL=”lib_usb_device_rules”, add the following:

# Creative Zen X-fi
ATTRS{idVendor}==”041e”, ATTR{idProduct}==”4162″, SYMLINK+=”libmtp-%k”, MODE=”660″, GROUP=”audio”

These two lines are nearly identical, except for the very first parameter. In the first, it’s ATTR, and in the second it’s ATTRS.

The 2nd line to copy to /etc/udev/rules.d/45-libmtp7.rules is false, i think the 2nd ATTR should be an ATTRS, shouldn’t it? My X-FI is only detected as a UNKNOWN device by mtp-detect and i only can use gnomead2 to copy files cause rhytmbox or amarok do not detect the player… got some hints for me?

By: Richard S. Crawford

Richard S. Crawford — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:12:02 +0000

Kyle,

Sorry it took me so long to reply to you. I didn’t see any notification about your comment; something weird is going on in WordPress.

When you edit /etc/udev/rules.d/45-libnjb.rules, you only need to put that one line, the line that starts with SYSFS, into the file. I added the file to the very top. That is the only modification you need to make to that file. This file is not sectioned out into labels or sections the way that /etc/udev/rules.d/45-limmtp7.rules is. See my notes above for which line goes in which section.