[SOLVED] Walkman NWZ-S515 - JSymphonic probs

[roshichris]

Hi guys.

So after two solid days (seriously) trying different ways to get it to work, I can't get my walkman to work (synch?) with my Linux Mint Gloria. This has become a real deal breaker for me, because if i can't use my walkman w linux i'm going back to windows. I don't want to do that tho so if anyone can help please do!

A bit of background -

I have a 1 Yr old Toshiba equium laptop w pentium core 2 duo, 3GB RAM 250 GB ROM. (Ithink this is right). Currently I have a dual-boot setup with Vista and Mint Gloria. When walkman connected lsusb command gives - "Bus 001 Device 004: ID 054c:0326 Sony Corp. "

When i plug in my walkman via USB I get a prompt to open rhythmbox, and a walkman icon appears on my desktop. If i open rhythmbox though (or any other media player I have tried) the walkman doesn't show up in it. I tried searching for new media with each player i tried with no luck.

If I try to drag/drop files to the walkman icon through file manager it appears to work, until i try to to view those music files on either my walkman (when there are no tracks on it), or in file manager (where I get an error message "The folder contents could not be displayed. Sony Corp. WALKMAN Could not be found. Perhaps it has recently been deleted.")

I have tried many things to get round this, as suggested in other forum posts on this and other forums. So far
I have tried -

Gnomad2 - the program opens and my music files appear, however when i try to send them to my walkman the program closes itself. This happens every time.

JSymphonic - I have downloaded the program however it is a .jar file, and i have no idea what to do with it (I am used to just clicking the .exe portion of downloads to make them work!.

Virtualbox - I gather that I could run a copy of windows on a virtual PC in virtualbox. This would be fine but I don't have a spare copy of windows. My vista is currently installed on a separate partition of my HDD therefore cannot be used in a virtual machine. I have tried to download a tiny.. windows variant but can't seem to find one online.

I may have tried other things too, I honestly can't remember! My hair is now falling out at an accelerated rate which i really don't need, so please help!!!

Chris

[lagagnon]

One little thing goes not quite according to plan and its a deal breaker? Not much perseverance there


http://lmgtfy.com/?q=sony+walkman+linux&l=1

or

with JSymphonic, which works great for me with my older Walkman, you will need to read the documentation on how to use it:
http://symphonic.sourceforge.net/page.php?3#4.1

[roshichris]

I've spent two days searching for a solution, and you post a 'funny' link to google... thanks Mr helpful. I think you need to re-evaluate your understanding of the phrase 'deal breaker' btw. I had read the JSymphonic docs too.

[lagagnon]

I've spent two days searching for a solution, and you post a 'funny' link to google... thanks Mr helpful. I think you need to re-evaluate your understanding of the phrase 'deal breaker' btw. I had read the JSymphonic docs too.

The first hit at Google shows a solution for you, that is why I posted it - to give you some help. Did you read it? Also, the JSYmphonic docs show you how to use JSymphonic. Did you read it? I would have posted exactly the same material as the JSymphonic site at to how to use that software, so there was no sense repeating it was there? Try the command lines listed at the site to run jsymphonic - if you get error messages post them to this thread and we can help you further.

[roshichris]

Yes i read lots and lots of things, google searches, documents accompanying programs, forums post etc. Some stuff I vaguely understood, most I didn't. The stuff I vaguely understood I tried to implement, the others stuff I didn't, because I couldn't. I have taken the thing to the limit of my understanding, which is explained in my first post. I would not have asked for help otherwise.

So, if you have a suggestion please suggest away. If you can't help, then please just ignore my question.

[AK Dave]

@rosichris:

lagagnon pointed you right to a very helpful article. How helpful? Beats me, I don't have the same MP3 player you do. But I do suggest you try the advice in the article he pointed you to. If you don't understand that article, please ask for additional help.

These two articles should have popped up on top of any google search of this subject:
http://www.flatmtn.com/article/sony-walkman-meet-linux
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=206470

The first article is helpful. The second article is more helpful.

[Lantesh]

So after two solid days (seriously) trying different ways to get it to work, I can't get my walkman to work (synch?) with my Linux Mint Gloria. This has become a real deal breaker for me, because if i can't use my walkman w linux i'm going back to windows. I don't want to do that tho so if anyone can help please do!

I'm sorry you took some flak in this thread when you were indeed trying to get help. Honestly though it's due to the way you worded it. Personally I find it hard to want to help someone when it seems like they have one foot out the door already, and are for lack of a better term "threatening" to go back to Windows. Usually when I see posts like that I just move along as I don't want to invest my time with someone who's ready to quit anyway.

I hope you find a solution. Unfortunately I do not have one for your particular problem. Best of luck.

[eddie]

Go Here http://sourceforge.net/projects/symphonic/ and Download Jsymphonic. Extract it.

Install (if it isnt there already) Sun java runtime.
Plug in your walkman and wait for it to Mount--should pop up on your desktop.

Start jsymphonic by RIGHT CLICKING on the .Jar file,select properties and select 'open with' and click on 'java 6 runtime'--close.
Selecting after this is by left click now that its associated with java runtime.

Jsymphonic should now open up--you will need to point it at a) your music collection and b) your mounted walkman in /media.

There is a useful text file in the jsymphony folder.

your good to go.

Eddie

PS. Lgagnon--nice work with Google etc.--but shame on you!

[roshichris]

Thanks I am trying to go through the JSymphonic guide again. One bit I don't understand though if anyone can clarify?? - it says in stage 5 -

"make sure that there is at least a folder named "OMGAUDIO" or "omgaudio" at the root of your player...
An empty OMGAUDIO folder doesn't prevent JSymphonic to work."

What is "the root of my player", why "at least"? And the second sentence doesn't make any sense to me - does this imply some kind of action on my part, or no action? Does this mean I need to create an empty folder called "OMGAUDIO"? If so where do I put it?

Thanks in advance

PS - As an aside, if anyone is interested, this is one of the main reasons I struggle (as a probably pretty typical non-technical computer user) with many of these type of manuals. I find the basic quality of English can be very low, the writers often using some very confusing phrasing and grammer.

[AK Dave]

Does this mean I need to create an empty folder called "OMGAUDIO"? If so where do I put it?

This means you SHOULD create an empty folder named OMGAUDIO at the root level of the player's directory tree.

The root level is the top level. When you mount the media player and bring it up in Nautilus, you'll be at the root level. Create a New folder at this spot.

[roshichris]

Thanks. I don't know what to do with Nautilus though - i get several options, MD5; Open as Root; Upload; Add; Import/Export. None seem to allow me to navigate to my walkman, as it only shows up on my desktop.

I opened my walkman from the desktop icon instead, and created a file, called OMGAUDIO. However when i pressed enter I got the following error message - "Sorry, could not rename "untitled folder" to "OMGAUDIO": Error renaming directory: -6: Not Supported"

Now I have a folder called "untitled folder" which I can't delete. When I try i get the following error message "There was an error deleting DCIM"

[roshichris]

Aha Nautilus is the name of the file explorer!

Seems like I am getting somewhere though, slowly! I just can't name the folder!! Could this be a security thing? Maybe I don't have permission or something?

Ta

[eddie]

Plug your player into a usb port,wait a couple of seconds and it should pop up on the desktop.

On the Desktop, right click and select 'create new folder',when that is done right click on the new folder and select rename-
rename it to 'omgaudio' and drag it onto your player.

Just to reiterate..

You will require Sun java runtime installed from the repositories.

Dont forget to unzip the Jsymphonic.zip that you downloaded-
when extracted open the new folder and right click on the jsymphonic.jar file and
select 'properties>opens with' and then select java runtime.
Now it will automatically open when you left click on it.
Otherwise it will open with the Archive Manager!

When first used it will need to be told where to find the player, point it to /media/disk.
Likewise your music folder,wherevr it is.

There is an excellent text file included with the software.


Dont give up-it is an excellent piece of Free software.

eddie

[roshichris]

Thanks Eddie but as I said it won't let me name the folder I create in my walkman (see screenshot)

[lagagnon]

try launching nautilus as root: from a terminal type: "sudo nautilus", enter your password and then try renaming the directory and see if that works.

[eddie]

Thanks Eddie but as I said it won't let me name the folder I create in my walkman (see screenshot)

Create the new folder on the Desktop--Just right click on a blank area of Desktop and select "Create new Folder" from the drop down menu--Then right click on the new folder and select "rename" from the drop down menu.

If you then plug in your mp3 player it should appear on the Desktop--now drag your newly created & renamed folder onto the mp3 players icon



eddie

[roshichris]

OK I created a file called OMGAUDIO on my desktop and dragged it onto the walkman icon as you suggested. I then right clicked on walkman and opened nautilus, but it shows that the Walkman is still empty. I dragged/dropped again (trying both onto the icon and into the nautilus space) and I get an error message saying that the OMGAUDIO file is already present on the walkman.

So I tried running JSymphonic again from the jar file, and I get an error message - "Cannot find OMGAUDIO file, the device path is probably wrong"

So is it there or not!? This is incredibly irritating, it seems to follow no logic! The walkman works fine by the way it isn't broken or anything. I can still synch files on it through windows no problem.

PS If I open nautilus as root I can't navigate to Walkman. It only shows up as an icon on my desktop.

[eddie]

Just left click on the (walkman) icon should show this.



Plus any other files you have on there--Jsymphonic stores its files (mp3's) inside the omgaudio folder.

eddie

[roshichris]

You would think so wouldn't you! Unfortunately it shows an empty file (see screenshot). If I try to drag/drop another file called OMGAUDIO it won't let me, giving the same error message, that the file is already present. Seems a complete contradiction to me. If it is there, why won't Nautilus/ JSymphonic show it or detect it respectively?

[roshichris]

OK its not solved exactly but its a workaround of sorts, so I thought i'd post this anyway for other's interest.

I started using ubuntu instead of linuxmint a couple of days ago for various reasons, mainly due to various niggles with mint and levels of help and support that were not what i had hoped for. So using ubuntu 9.04 jaunty, i plug the walkman in and it automounts in the same way as in mint, BUT this time i have an additional checkbox option (not present in linuxmint) in rhythmbox/ plugins which enables MTP devices. So I checked the box and lo and behold my walkman appeared in rhythmbox! I thought that was the end of it, but unfortunately when I try to synch files through rhythmbox i get the following error -

PTP Layer error 02ff: get_first_storage_freespace(): could not get storage info.

More frustration. However I have found that I can now drag&drop files directly into the walkman through nautilus, so I can use it!!

I dunno if this is any use to anyone but it worked for me so i'm marking it solved anyway.
Cheers