[Tfug] The littlest Linux box...conceals in a closed fist.

[Jim March]

A few days ago I scored a woot.com deal - a Sansa e260 pocket media
player with 4gig internal flash.  I needed it mainly for it's audio
recording functions but hey, who doesn't need a "sorta iPod thingie"?

http://www.sandisk.com/Products/ProductInfo.aspx?ID=1940

Mine is a refurb at $50 :).

One cool feature: you can add up to another 4gig via a microSD card
slot (takes 512/1/2/4 size cards) which appears as a separate disk
icon once you USB-connect it.  Linux interoperability is decent while
stock.

And then I loaded Linux into it :).

Anybody heard of the Rockbox project?

http://www.rockbox.org/

They started doing iPods but have branched out into supporting other
similar critters, including mine.  Sansa actually encouraged Rockbox
development on their devices including giving both inside details AND
free units to the Rockbox team.  So remember guys: FOSS support by the
Sansa corp is as good as it gets - BIG thumbs up.

The amount of extra features once Rockbox is in there is incredible.
Just to name a few features that improved bigtime once Rockbox was
loaded (not that hard to do):

* Stock, I could only record to .WAV.  Under Rockbox, I can directly
record in MP3 or other formats (not ogg unfortunately), I have total
control over gain, recording level volume, compression rates, how big
a file is allowed to grow before getting auto-split and much more.

* Stock, the FM tuner had no presets and no scanning capability.
Rockbox fixed THAT.

* Stock, going through my music library on a file-by-file basis is a
pain.  Rockbox gives total control.

* Rockbox comes with a slew of basic games and then I added DOOM :).

* Rockbox also includes some apps such as a calculator, crude and
silly text editor and an even cruder and sillier "drawing" app that
feels like a retarded etch-a-sketch.  Oh well :).  The calulator
actually works OK.  There's a stopwatch, metronome, chess clock,
normal clock that can be rotated between analog, digital and *binary*
(sheesh, let's not frackin' BROADCAST that we're frackin' GEEKS
now...).

Anyways.  A Linux device that sinks to the bottom of a shirt pocket is
kinda kewl, no?

Oh yeah: inter-operability with Linux, stock or modified: stock, it
would still appear as a disk and manual copying of MP3s or other media
into and out of a very obvious directory structure was a no-brainer.
All decent Linux sound players can read the sound files on the device,
so even stock the Sansa qualifies as "totally Linux friendly".
Rockbox doesn't make a big difference as far as how well it interacts
with my Ubuntu lappie, but certainly does no harm.

Truthfully, the BIG gain in Rockbox for me is the fine-grained control
over audio recording, which for a political activist in a state where
"hidden recorders" on your body are legal is a Godsend...

Jim