Well the transcoding should work though. I got it running exactly with debian/sarge on a NSLU and playblack/transcoding to a SoundBridge.
Cannot write sounds to me like some file or directory rights arent set right.
In order to get oggdec to work you need to patch out the big endian byteswap manually. I posted about that earlier. But your problem is a different one. I am refering to the next problem your would have had hehe.