"INFORMATION UNDERGROUND" #3 IS OUT, AND SANZA FUZE CONFUZION

I fought with getting IU #3 posted up yesterday, but I forgot to mention 
it on Identi.ca then.  Took care of that this morning, even before my 
wake-up coffee.  There's dedication for ya, by jeezus.  We were supposed 
to record a new one today, but there was a conflict.  Next recording 
date isn't for two weeks.  I was asking one of the guys if we wanted to 
take a small break in order to catch up on our cache of shows.  Looks 
like circumstances have imposed one.

Worked a bit on Little Bronx's Halloween costume.  It's moving slowly, 
so I need to kick it into high gear: only a couple weeks left.  Also, I 
have to edit Palaver #4, about the trip to Sedona.  That's something 
I've been dragging my feet on, because it's tedious work.  There ought 
to be a better way.  Maybe there is one, and I'll discover it with this 
episode.  I can dream anyway.

Got my Sanza Fuze V2 up and running with the latest Rockbox.  Now Klaatu 
gave this particular unit+software combo a very bad review in "The Bad 
Apples" 5x14:

http://www.thebadapples.info/audiophile/badAppleLinux_5x14.ogg
http://www.thebadapples.info/audiophile/badAppleLinux_5x14.speex.ogg

Money speaks louder than words, though, and I saw an 8GB refurb unit for 
cheap on tigerdirect.com.  I went for it, since my old Sanza/Rockbox 
unit (an e270) is dying.  The "legacy" Sanzas are actually getting hard 
to come by, so the Fuze was my choice.  There isn't a Stable Rockbox 
port for the V2 just yet, but the Unstable is very close.  In fact, the 
only issue I have is the convoluted (and poorly documented) work-around 
required to get it to connect to your machine as a USB mass storage 
device.  This ability is critical, so even a minor challenge here is as 
well.  I never use media applications, such as Banshee or Rhythmbox, for 
organizing the files on my devices.  This is just as well, because such 
things can't really access the Sanza V2 running Rockbox.

Let me explain: if the V2 is ON while running the Rockbox firmware when 
you plug it into your computer, it simply stays ON; you can then 
recharge the device, but not otherwise access it.  If the V2 is OFF when 
you plug it in, it automatically boots into the original Sanza firmware 
(OFW from here on).  The first thing it then tries to do is refresh the 
onboard database for the sake of any new media you may have 
placed/changed on it.  That's all well and good, except that the OFW 
chokes on things like wonky id3 tags (or what it believes to be wonky 
tags -- especially with OGG files), and it simply freezes up if it 
encounters any.  If you are a FOSS/Free Culture enthusiast, you are 
disproportionally likely to have some.  If so, said files essentially 
make the OFW inaccessible.  I'm fine with that, since I hate the OFW.  
But, no media management/playback application can access the device now.  
That leaves using the V2 in USB mass storage mode.  But how to get 
there?  Remember, if you plug it in while it's ON, it does not mount (it 
only charges -- this on its own can be useful).  If you plug it in while 
it's off, it goes in the OFW and freezes up (maybe -- almost certainly 
if you have a wide mix of media types present: at least one file will 
have tags that the OFW is too frail to handle).

In order to get beyond this, I had to spend a few hours searching 
through help forums and the like.  Turns out, what you need to do is 
slide the device's POWER button down to the LOCK position, then press 
and hold down the |<< button while you plug it in.  You hold it like 
that for a few seconds, and it forces the device to boot into USB mass 
storage mode.  You can then drag/drop/delete/copy/whatever to your 
heart's content.  After you unplug it (don't forget to Eject or Safely 
Remove first), the Fuze immediately reboots into the OFW.  You then have 
to hold the POWER button in the OFF position for about five seconds 
(maybe more -- I haven't timed it), forcing a hard shutdown.  Then, when 
you restart it, the device boots back into Rockbox and all your 
transferred or manipulated data is there waiting for you.

Now, this reads as more complex than it really is to perform (honestly, 
it only adds a few seconds to the process), but it would be nearly 
impossible to figure out by trial and error, and it's not explicitly set 
down in the documentation anywhere.  It IS mentioned in the description 
of the Unstable Rockbox firmware for the V2, but that description is 
extremely vague and unhelpful: the bug is described, but NOT the 
workaround.  It seems that the reader is assumed to already know how to 
force the device into USB mode, and how to do a hard shutdown with it 
(both of which differ from one device type to another), AND that (s)he 
will know these things to be of value in this particular situation.  
Understanding that FOSS is a process, not a product, this bug is 
completely forgivable.  The documentation, though?  Total fail. .