Not that this is important until I can get it to Rob S., but I wanted to make sure I get this info in the thread while it's fresh in my memory:

I played with this a little more since it was the only empeg I had on hand when the new alpha came out.

If I want the player to work, I must reflash the kernel every time I plug it in. After that, it continues to work fine until it is physically unplugged. It even survives multiple reboots. For example, yesterday, I upgraded to the new alpha, installed hijack, changed out the config.ini, upgraded the boot animation, etc... and then let it play all day. Worked great. As soon as I unplug it, nothing. Reflash kernel the next morning, works again. Unplug it, nothing. Ad infinitum.

I think I'm the only one to ever have this problem.