How to: Use Sony NWZ- video walkman with Ubuntu

[RocksThatFloat]

Drag and drop loading and unloading of Sony NWZ series (video walkman) on Ubuntu is possible.

It can work on Rhythmbox or Amarok.

I like Amarok better, because you don't need to use terminal every time:
Step 1: Install pmount. Trying step 3 without this installed gave me an easy way to install it. If you do not have pmount installed and do not know how, go to step 2.

Step 2: Connect your Walkman and type in a terminal:

ls /dev/disk/by-label -lah

This will tell you what your walkman is connected as, mine was sdb1.

Step 3: Type in a terminal:

pmount /dev/#yourWalkman# /media/Walkman

Mine was

pmount /dev/sdb1 /media/Walkman

Your walkman should now be mounted in media as Walkman and should appear on your desktop.

Step 4: Open Amarok.

Step 5: Go to settings- configure amarok- media devices- add device.

Step 6: Use these settings:
Plugin=Generic Audio Device
Name=Walkman
Mount Point=/media/Walkman

Step 7: Click the Configure Settings button beside the plugin(three gears) and insert pre-connect and post-disconnect commands:
pre:

pmount #yourWalkman# e.g:sdb1 Walkman

(where #yourWalkman# is as above)
post:

pumount #yourWalkman# e.g:sdb1

Step 8: Type in a terminal:

pumount #yourWalkman#

again where #yourWalkman# is something like sdb1

Step 9: Go back to Amarok and click connect in the devices tab.
If all is good, your walkman should mount and your files should show up.
Then all you need to do is add files to a playlist and drag them over to the MUSIC folder and press transfer.

It took me many hours to get my nwz working and it was a pain. I hope this helps others get it done faster. I couldn't get the nwz working on my mac, but I did on linux... Free Stuff: 1, Paid Stuff: 0.

[_dede_]

Great tutorial, I have been looking to do that for quite some time.
Altought, I have one question:
Did you manage to transfert playlists into the Walkman as well? Because I can't.

[valmorel]

I came across this thread today and wondered if you had seen this:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3096598

It seems there is a bug in Hal (Hardy Heron), and if you follow these instructions, you can fix it. Threafter, just plug in your walkman, and it will automount to an icon on the desktop as a mass storage device, allowing drag and drop etc straight from the computer file system.

I now use Exaile to handle my music library and transfer music as it is so fast compared to Amarok

[valmorel]

Another Way Including Playlists
You can use Gnomad, which is a very fast file manager for MTP players. Plug in you Walkman to the USB port, and start Gnomad. Even if your set up does not recognise the Walkman as a mass storage device, Gnomad will recognise and mount it as an MTP device like Amarok, except that it will autodetect. No need to configure anything. Once Gnomad has been loaded, set up the path to your PC based music in the left hand pane, your player will be the right hand pane, and transfer tracks to your player at will.
Now here is the super-cool part: In the Gnomad window, select the Playlist tab. It will display a totally blank window. Right click in the window, and a context menu will pop up from which you can create a playlist. Create your playlist and switch back to the music transfer window. On the player side, select the tracks (click, shift click, or ctrl click in the usual file manager way), then right click on one of the tracks you have selected. A pop up menu will appear allowing you to add the tracks to your playlist. You can add tracks to multiple playlists.
You can create your playlists before you even transfer music to your device, then, when you transfer tracks, you will be prompted to add the tracks to one or more playlists as you go.
Is that not just the coolest thing...

[mellowb]

Thanks RocksThatFloat, it is a great post.

However, I still have a problem. After mounting the walkman the /media/Walkman folder looks like:

drwx------ 9 root root 32768 1969-12-31 21:00 Walkman

The owner is the root and I don't have access privileges from my account.

If I type sudo nautilus, I am able to open the folder and access its contents. However, I should be able to do it from my account. I tried "sudo chmod 777 Walkman" and "sudo chown my_username Walkman" but these commands doesn't had any effect.

Do anyone knows what is happening and how to fix it?

[milesje]

try sudo cmod -R 777 /media/Walkman and sudo chown -R my_username /media/Walkman

the -R makes the change recursive down to all files and folders.

[Capt_Zaphod]

Okay ... I had used this successfully a couple times.

Now, my Sony Walkman will no longer connect.

It's mounted, but Amarok won't seem to connect to it.

Any suggestions my friends?

Thank you

[osnofla]

I have a NWZ-S615F Walkman, and this guide worked wonders on Ubuntu 8.04... But now I've upgraded to Jaunty, and it automatically mounts my mp3 player! The problem is that altough it appears to have been mounted, none, NONE of the following media players recognizes it! Rythmbox, Amarok (1.4 nor 2.2) nor Gnomad2.

I've tried many things, such as "ls /dev/disk/by-label -lah", but it doesn't show up. Does anyone have the same problem?

[3rdalbum]

I have a NWZ-S615F Walkman, and this guide worked wonders on Ubuntu 8.04... But now I've upgraded to Jaunty, and it automatically mounts my mp3 player! The problem is that altough it appears to have been mounted, none, NONE of the following media players recognizes it! Rythmbox, Amarok (1.4 nor 2.2) nor Gnomad2.

Should they? The NWZ series are made for drag 'n' drop loading; you don't need to use any music playing programs. I don't remember Rhythmbox picking up my player under Gutsy, Hardy, Intrepid or Jaunty.

[osnofla]

I also tried drag&droping, and I get an error every time I try:

"Hubo un error al copiar el archivo en gphoto2://[usb:001,003]/.
Error al escribir el archivo: -2: Parámetros incorrectos"

Basically, what the first line says is that the file couldn't be copied (by drag&drop), in the path above mentioned, and the second line says that there was an error while trying to write the file, because the arguments were wrong. What bugs me is the path: "[usb:001,003]/", because I can't find it, and none the walkman isn't recognized as a sdb* device.