Dell crap-j
I’ve always been a fan of Linux. Ever since I was barely 13ish years old I remember splurging up $1.50 to order a Red Hat Linux cd from linuxmall.com. With all that said, I still never thought I’d see this day: the day my recently purchased mp3 player, a Dell DJ 20gb, would not work on Windows but worked perfectly fine on Linux. Here’s the story.
I recently came across a great deal on a Dell DJ. Sure, I already own a few mp3 players, but a 20gb usb powered external hard drive which also happens to play mp3s all for 35 dollars seemed like a pretty good deal. So I bought it. When it arrived, I ripped it out of its box and hooked it up to one of my desktops, which runs Vista x64. Up popped one of those infamous “Search for drivers” dialogs. I gave it a shot. It failed, of course.
But wait! All I really wanted to do was transfer music and files to it. Maybe it was designed in such a way that I could just copy mp3s over to it like an external hard drive (after all, the Dell DJ is actually made by Creative which produces the Muvo). Well, needless to say, that didn’t pan out. I could transfer files to it, but there was no “Music” folder in sight. I saw that Dell took the same approach as Apple — Dell Dj Explorer being the equivalent to Apple Itunes. Pure crap.
Popping in the included drivers disc didn’t prove to be any help either. The drivers would not install. I turned to the internet for help, but was immediately discouraged after finding that the last time Dell updated the drivers for this device was in 2005. Wow.
Then the unthinkable happened. The Dell DJ entry on Wikipedia noted that there were a couple Linux programs that could do the job: gnomad2 and neutrino. Sure enough, I pulled out my laptop, which runs Ubuntu: Hardy Heron, and plugged in the Dell crap-jay. After a quick “sudo apt-get install gnomad2″, I was happily transferring my small music collection over to the device. Awesome.
I’m not sure if my situation was a special case or not. A popular device (as popular as can be in the IPod saturated mp3 player market) compatible with Linux and not Windows? Who woulda thunk it? Not me.
10:36 am, August 8, 2008Troy /
Maybe it was because you were using x64? I thought you couldn’t install most software, especially device drivers, on a 64-bit OS unless they were specifically 64-bit drivers. Unless that’s just XP I’m thinking of.
1:24 pm, August 11, 2008Jeremy /
you’re on 64bit Windows. what the hell did you expect?!
1:50 pm, August 11, 2008Justin /
Vista x64 is a hybrid OS that runs 32-bit windows applications just fine (it would otherwise be nearly useless at present), but you cannot install 32-bit drivers. The device drivers would probably work with Vista x32…
2:01 pm, August 11, 2008proc /
In regards to your comments…
Vista AS A WHOLE is not supported by the Dell DJ. Sure, I haven’t tried it, so I can’t tell you if it does work. It probably does. But what are my choices as a consumer? To purchase a 32 bit version of Windows just to use this device? I chose Vista x64 as my OS for a reason, which is that I have over 4gb of ram. To pay for Vista 32 bit and downgrade or dual boot them are not viable options for me.
Besides, you’re missing the point. Driver support is better and more accessible on Linux than it is on Windows, which is what the device was originally designed for. THAT is the point.
And besides…the Dell DJ works great on 32 or 64 bit versions of Ubuntu Linux. Why can’t billion dollar companies like Microsoft and Dell do the same?
4:28 pm, August 11, 2008Brian /
I think Vista x64 is just plain unfriendly to DJs in general. I was having very good success with everything I installed in Vista x64 (even DOS games ran fine) until I plugged in my M-Audio Evolution X-Session USB MIDI DJ controller. No joy. Went to the website and they only made drivers for 32-bit versions of Windows. So I switched to Vista x86 and have been using it happily for a few months now.
The only real difference I notice from x64 is that only about 3.5 of my 4GB of RAM is recognized. Windows is the OS with all my favourite freeware and FOSS anyway. I’m willing to take the time to troubleshoot free apps, but a stable, professional, and well-designed OS is a must for me. I love Linux but using it feels like work. I’ll keep trying the occasional Linux distro but the UI has a long way to go before I can take it seriously.
10:29 am, August 12, 2008Simon /
Tried to install on my work PC – Vista Business 32Bit. Total Fail. Driver install hangs at 91% device not recognized.
My laptop is Ubuntu powered so will try that later.
For a long time I’ve been very impressed with Ubuntu’s compatibility, no driver CDs to dig out after a reinstall is one of the many things I love about Ubuntu.
I only keep an XP partition around these days for netflix watch now.
Thanks for the tip.
12:46 pm, August 12, 2008required /
I’ve had this experience quite a bit, if fact. I love plugging in old gadgets and fooling around with them… everything from phones to music players to whatever. While there are some recording equipment and wifi cards that have a hard time playing nice with Linux, I’ve had a much easier time with Linux in general getting random devices, especially older ones, to work.
Here’s why: all a manufacturer has to do to support their device in GNU/Linux is upload the driver code to the Linux Kernel team with a request to include it. Yes, it will be open source, so people who make millions on proprietary stuff don’t like to do this. But the vast majority of requests are answered in the positive. Some enterprising people have even written their own drivers for devices and had them included in the kernel… so this comes as no surprise to me.
Happy Hacking!
12:46 pm, August 12, 2008jmmL /
I’ve been having similar experiences with my now ageing Creative Zen Touch 20GB. It worked fine under XP, but in Vista (x64 as well) the sync function of WMP only works about half the time. The other half of the time, the player needs unplugging, resetting and then takes a few minutes to rebuild the library. It’s not too annoying though.
However, in Ubuntu (Gutsy and Hardy) the device works flawlessly in rhythmbox!
I’m currently on the look out for a newer player with better codec support, the Cowon iAudio D2 is looking likely…
12:37 pm, August 13, 2008mangaru /
Well, if there is drivers or not, i don’t know… but i can say that actually I run a dual boot computer with Windows XP 64 and Ubuntu, and the true is in Ubuntu I installed 0 drivers, because system recgnised everything, and in XP I needed to install 8 cds of drivers… not even my usb hub was detected.
I’m not a freak linux fanatic, but they actually did a god job in instalation process… I had work with versions such Madrake 7.2 or Red Hat 7.1… and now I feel confortable installing linux as i’m with windows.
Sorry about my strange english
PS: For me working with linux is yet a problem… but i’m trying!
6:53 pm, August 13, 2008Matt /
I always try to tell windows enthusiasts this. There is more hardware support on a fresh Ubuntu/Fedora/Debian install as compared to a fresh XP/Vista install. On Windows I need drivers for everything. On Linux, I don’t need drivers for anything, but install Nvidia drivers for 3d acceleration’s sake.
1:08 am, August 20, 2008lars /
Frankly you are a bunch of retards, assuming that x64 windows just DOESN’T work and telling the author to downgrade to x86 is missing the point altogether. Reason to run windows = it just works. It’s not shiny, it’s not a performance monster, it’s just… average and gray. But when the “it just works”-factor is taken out of it, and making it an even worse performer not utilizing the 64bits windows is not even worth dualbooting for solitaire anymore.
4:34 am, September 2, 2008JC /
ok first of all LINUX OWNS VISTA. Second Dell DJ drivers DO NOT WORK ON VISTA AND I HAPPEN TO HAVE VISTA X32 on my laptop and that shitty piece of crap operating system would not even recognize my old webcam. However Linux does, here’s the thing though. Linux was designed for only people that are willing to learn how to install, manage, or w/e through their terminal (Command Prompt/windows)…Linux is not for noobs and for people out there saying dumb retarded things such as “Vista is better because it just works” …WTF R U TRYING TO SAY THAT LINUX DOESNT WORK OR SOMETHING? Jesus Christ people VISTA IS SO FAR THE WORST OPERATING SYSTEM I’ve ever seen…I MEAN JUST YESTERDAY I WAS RUNNING MESSENGER, MC AFEE antivirus on my laptop and IT WAS TAKING UP TO 1 FFCKING GIG OF RAM FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER…I WAS LIKE WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF? and NO!!! there are not other programs running as ghost cuz i always configure the startup programs AND NO i’m not some loud kid with vista issues….ALL I’M SAYING IS THIS: VISTA SUCKS / LINUX ROCKS ….PERIOD
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