[Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0, 5.0] nukleuzN:
Booting into an oooold computer with WinXP; hate it! Have several computers with Linux... But... bah. Miss some straight forward, fully functional applications that runs with Linux, such as Odin etc @ Windows.

EDIT: My solution was:

Boot into WinXP

Install recommended KIES (an old version, 2.0.0 something) from Samsung's website

Update KIES from KIES itself

Update phone from A.2.2 to A.2.3.5

Plug phone back in Ubuntu, and.... Wallah!

$ ./rootme.sh
---------------------------------------------------------------
Easy rooting toolkit (v1.0)
created by DooMLoRD
edited by Anthony Papousek
using exploit zergRush (Revolutionary Team)
Credits go to all those involved in making this possible!
---------------------------------------------------------------
[*] This script will:
(1) Root your device using the zergRush exploit
(2) Install Busybox (1.18.4)
(3) Install SU ./files (3.0.5)
[*] Before you begin:
(1) Make sure you have adb in your path and the correct udev rules for your device
(2) Enable USB DEBUGGING
from (Menu\Settings\Applications\Development)
(3) Enable UNKNOWN SOURCES
from (Menu\Settings\Applications)
(4) [OPTIONAL] Increase screen timeout to 10 minutes
(5) Connect USB cable to PHONE and then connect to PC
---------------------------------------------------------------
Connect Device to begin
--- STARTING ----
--- Cleaning
rm failed for *, No such file or directory
--- Pushing zergRush
372 KB/s (23052 bytes in 0.060s)
--- Correcting permissions of zergRush on device
--- Executing zergRush and giving primary root access over adb
This may take a while

[**] Zerg rush - Android 2.2/2.3 local root
[**] (C) 2011 Revolutionary. All rights reserved.

[**] Parts of code from Gingerbreak, (C) 2010-2011 The Android Exploid Crew.

[+] Found a GingerBread ! 0x00025118
[+] Found a Samsung, running Samsung mode
[*] Scooting ...
[*] Sleeping a bit (~40s)...
[*] Waking !
[*] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[+] Zerglings found a way to enter ! 0x10
[+] Overseer found a path ! 0x000257c8
[*] Sleeping a bit (~40s)...
[*] Waking !
[*] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[+] Zerglings caused crash (good news): 0x40219cd4 0x0054
[*] Researching Metabolic Boost ...
[+] Speedlings on the go ! 0xafd2563d 0xafd390ef
[*] Sleeping a bit (~40s)...
[*] Waking !
[*] Popping 24 more zerglings
[*] Sending 173 zerglings ...
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)
+++ LOG: write failed (errno=14)

[+] Rush did it ! It's a GG, man !
[+] Killing ADB and restarting as root... enjoy!
--- WAITING FOR DEVICE TO RECONNECT
If it gets stuck over here for a long time then try:
disconnect usb cable and reconnect it
toggle USB DEBUGGING (first disable it then enable it)
--- DEVICE FOUND
--- pushing busybox
3458 KB/s (1075144 bytes in 0.303s)
--- correcting permissions
--- remounting /system
--- copying busybox to /system/xbin/
2099+1 records in
2099+1 records out
1075144 bytes transferred in 0.454 secs (2368158 bytes/sec)
--- correcting ownership
--- correcting permissions
--- installing busybox
--- pushing SU binary
157 KB/s (22228 bytes in 0.137s)
--- correcting ownership
--- correcting permissions
--- correcting symlinks
--- pushing Superuser app
2954 KB/s (762010 bytes in 0.251s)
--- cleaning
--- rebooting
Your device should now be rooted.

It's time to update your su binary.
Open the Superuser app, go to Preferences (Menu\Preferences),
and hit Su Binary v3.X (3.0, in this case). When prompted,
update to the newest version of the su binary.
Congratulations, you've successfully rooted!
If something went wrong, pm apapousek on the XDA Forums
or email anthony@papousek.org

Yeah. There is som "Log: write failed" messages, but now I got R/W privs to /system (aka root) wooohoo :D