Contrary to a lot of advice on the Internet, the Zune HD can be used in Linux. Support has been integrated into libmtp for the mtpz protocol thanks to some awesome work by Sajid Anwar.
libmtp however, does not and will not contain the encryption keys required, so it will seem like the Zune isn’t recognised. Running mtp-detect on the command line gives
shane@ratbert:~$ mtp-detect
Unable to open ~/.mtpz-data for reading, MTPZ disabled.libmtp version: 1.1.6
Listing raw device(s)
Device 0 (VID=045e and PID=063e) is a Microsoft Zune HD.
Found 1 device(s):
Microsoft: Zune HD (045e:063e) @ bus 1, dev 6
It’s simple to get this to work however.
Just create a file in your home directory called .mtpz-data and add to it the following string of numbers. This is the encryption key needed to interface with the Zune.
Now, run mtp-detect and you should see the encrypted handshake take place, gmtp, Clementine, Rhythmbox and any media player that supports mtp should now be able to copy music to and from the Zune HD.