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A note from the cross platform groups ... that may interest linux users too

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Arlen Holder

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Aug 14, 2018, 1:44:03 PM8/14/18
to
This was posted moments ago to the cross platform groups where Linux users
would also benefit from the information if they wish to seamlessly
integrate into Linux the iOS and Android mobile devices.

I post it here for the alt.os.linux tribal record to benefit.
<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.ipad/ddcUPKpR7pc/pz91BoU0DwAJ>

Notice you can plug in, say, an Android device and an iOS device into a
Ubuntu 18.04 desktop which is dual-boot setup for Windows 10, and that
alone sans any software whatsoever that didn't come with the installation
process - provides *simultaneous* *read and write* access to the entire
visible file system of *all four* operating systems.
1. Windows
2. Linux
3. Android
4. iOS

I think that's fantastic!
Thank you Ubuntu 18.04!


On 14 Aug 2018 06:41:08 GMT, NY wrote:

> By the way, going back to the instructions you have for enabling Windows
> access over USB to part of Android's filesystem, are there any equivalent
> instructions for allowing Windows to access files on an iOS device (eg
> iPad).

While it's not the method you expected, look at these three screenshots to
see how you can get far more power than you ask for, if you want.

This is a screenshot of iOS 11.2.6 connected to Linux over USB where you
will note that there is access to three parts of the iOS file system:
a. read-only access to the iOS DCIM folder
b. read/write access to "some" of the better apps (mostly not Apple)
c. a read-write mount point on Linux of most of the above & more
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=9181755linuxios_1.jpg>

Note that the third mount point provides read & write access to the iOS
DCIM directory - so you can copy & delete your data easily:
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=9234281linuxios_2.jpg>

In the older Linux, you had to manually mount to get this feature, but in
the newer Linux, it's all now completely automatic and native:
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=9819846linuxios_3.jpg>

Note those screenshots were with Ubuntu 17.10 where Ubuntu 18.04 makes it
even easier, completely native, and more powerful.

As you know, I currently own all the major consumer operating systems
(except Mac, which I've used and hated), where I always simply expect them
each individually and all combined to work well together, and where only
the iOS devices are so restrictive as to be relegated almost to the "toy"
category (due to iOS' extreme lack of basic functionality in the real
world).

Apple simply states that the real word is "not supported", nor ever tested.

Nonetheless, I've found, from experience, that the *best* way to access iOS
on Windows for both *read and write* is to dual boot to Linux,
paradoxically - where the beauty of Linux is that it allows *simultaneous*
read and write access to the entire Windows system (even though Windows
isn't even booted!) and iOS file system.

Notice, there are only 2 devices but this method gives *simultaneous* read
& write access to all 3 file systems!
1. Windows (most recently tested on Windows 10)
2. iOS (most recently tested on iOS 11.2.6)
3. Linux (most recently tested on Ubuntu 18.04)

There's an entire July 3rd, 2018 thread with the detail & screenshots.
How to read/write access iOS file systems on Ubuntu/Windows over USB cable

<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/misc.phone.mobile.iphone/IFC52JXBQ1c/siiB7o49CgAJ>

> My wife took loads of photos on her iPad and we can't find any way of
> copying them onto a Windows device to archive them - apart from by attaching
> photos to emails and sending them that way, which isn't practical for a
> large number of photos.

You should *already* have all that - if that's all you really want.

If all you want is "read" only access of an iPad to Windows, and especially
if all you want is read-only access to the DCIM folder, that should be
trivial, even with iOS.

Just plugging in the iOS device to Windows should, at the very least, show
up insatntly like this - which I just did moments ago using my iPad for
you. <http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=5944873storage00.jpg>

Maybe she installed the iTunes abomination by mistake?

> Out of the box, an Android device connected by USB to Windows shows up the
> card and internal storage, allowing you to navigate to DCIM and then select
> and copy files (photos). The iPad shows up but no folders are displayed.

I don't ever install the iTunes abomination so if that's installed, maybe
things work differently - but here's a sequence I've published in the past
which should work if all you want is "read only" USB access to the iOS DCIM
folder without installing *anything* on Windows.

When you plug in the iOS device into Windows' USB port, you get an "Allow
this device" query every time (you only get a query once with Linux, thank
God):
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=9396078storage01.jpg>

Assuming you do not have the iTunes abomination installed in Windows, when
you plug in the iOS device the very first time, Windows will automatically
install the necessary drivers and then ask you to choose how you want the
iOS device "Internal Storage" to show up on Windows.
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=1075420storage02.jpg>

Windows will then show the iOS device in your native Windows file explorer
as just another disc drive, just like Android & USB drives show up.
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=1874111storage03.jpg>

You'll get a bar showing how much storage is available on that iOS device:
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=9652440storage04.jpg>

And then you'll get read-only access to the DCIM directory:
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=5630845storage05.jpg>

Under that DCIM directory are the idiotically named iOS folders and files
and screenshots where you can copy them at will to your Windows disks.
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=6394866storage06.jpg>

In summary, as long as you do not have the iTunes abomination installed,
you should be able to have read-only access on Windows to all your iOS
camera pictures, videos, and screenshots simply by plugging the iOS device
into your Windows USB port.
<http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=8762004storage07.jpg>

> It's things like that which I *hate* about Apple - too bloody clever and
> proprietary. There probably is a way, but it will be very obscure and
> require you to do it "the Apple way", probably with special software
> installed on Windows.

I have used the iTunes abomination in the past where I learned long ago to
stay away from it like you would powdered cyanide. Since I gain all my
cross platform functionality using the *native* operrating system software,
I don't test with the iTunes abomination installed.

So your results may be different if you installed the iTunes abomination.

But, without the iTunes abomination, I have no problem with *read-only*
access to *just* the iOS DCIM folder on Windows 10 over USB.

> I tried using iTunes on Windows, with the iPad connected by USB, but the
> device didn't show up in iTunes at all, in the way that an iPod would do. If
> it had shown up, I think iTunes would allowed me manual control over which
> files I copied.

Yuck. I pity anyone who uses the iTunes abomination, where, many years ago
(when nospam was still insisting QuickTime was a necessary component, if
that gives you an idea of how long ago it was) I too tried the damn
abomination where it was so restrictive in use model that I concluded it
was an abomination - and I've been calling it that ever since.

When I switched to SharePod freeware (before they went to the dark side), I
was soooooooooo happy to be rid of the iTunes abomination that you can't
imagine my joy of being able to do anything I wanted again.

Back to your question, it's my humble opinion that your wife "should" be
able to do what you're asking - without installing *anything* overtly on
Windows (Windows will automatically install the necessary drivers).

Jasen Betts

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Aug 15, 2018, 4:02:01 AM8/15/18
to
On 2018-08-14, Arlen Holder <arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:
> This was posted moments ago to the cross platform groups where Linux users
> would also benefit from the information if they wish to seamlessly
> integrate into Linux the iOS and Android mobile devices.

A: Thanks for posting this

B: Thanks for not cross-posting this.

--
ت

Arlen Holder

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Aug 18, 2018, 6:07:42 PM8/18/18
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On 15 Aug 2018 07:40:11 GMT, Jasen Betts wrote:

> A: Thanks for posting this

You're welcome.
I *love* that Ubuntu makes it so easy - it's even easier than Windows.

a. You plug in an Android phone.
b. You plug in an iOS phone.
c. You dual boot to Ubuntu 18.04
Voila!

Everything on all four devices is read/write as per your permission level!

They two keys that make Ubuntu 18.04 great in this regard are that you get
*simultaneous* and *read/write* access to all four file systems.

If you had booted to Windows instead of to Linux, you'd lose a lot:
A. Windows won't recognize the Linux partitions
B. Windows won't mount the iOS device read/write
C. Windows won't recognize anything on iOS other than the camera files

J.O. Aho

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Aug 19, 2018, 4:24:33 AM8/19/18
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On 08/19/2018 12:07 AM, Arlen Holder wrote:
>
> a. You plug in an Android phone.
> b. You plug in an iOS phone.
> c. You dual boot to Ubuntu 18.04

Dual booting, ain't that a bit 1980's, even for gamin on microsoft OS
you can still boot your favourite Linux distribution as host and run a
virtualised instance of the closed source OS.

Arlen Holder

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Sep 16, 2018, 9:58:26 AM9/16/18
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On 19 Aug 2018 01:24:31 GMT, J.O. Aho wrote:

> Dual booting, ain't that a bit 1980's, even for gamin on microsoft OS
> you can still boot your favourite Linux distribution as host and run a
> virtualised instance of the closed source OS.

You bring up a good point, J.O. Aho, that virtual machines are an option.

I have written tutorials on how to set up virtualbox on Windows 10.
I haven't tried it the other way around.

I admit that I'm confused by the "hardware" emulation when booted to Ubuntu
inside the virtual machine, but I have only dealt with it for the WiFi card
and not for the USB ports.

I have since re-imaged my Windows desktops, so the next time I install
VirtualBox and put Ubuntu as the guest, I'll see if that Ubuntu guest OS
can easily access the entire visible file system of the problematic iOS
devices.

One caveat is that, personally, I find VirtualBox to be a kludge in terms
of slowness and complexity compared to a simple Grub selection of Ubuntu.

With that added complexity in mind, I THANK YOU J.O. Aho for suggesting an
improvement, since to date, nobody has suggested any improvement over the
current dual-boot recommendation given the standard problem set.

Standard problem set (3 devices, four file systems):
- Assume user habitually boots to Windows 10 (dual boot capable)
- Assume user wants full access to the visible file system of iOS & Android
- Assume user wants the simplest no-strings method possible for both

There are only two general solutions to that problem set:
- Dual boot to linux for simultaneous access to all 4 file systems
- Install servers on the mobile device (e.g., FTP) for Wi-Fi access

In another more recent thread we cover both of the above options, where
nobody has brought up the possible improvement using a VirtualMachine.

I will test that out and report back the results, even as I do find virtual
machines slow and cumbersome compared to a dual boot to the real thing.

Bit Twister

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Sep 16, 2018, 10:26:54 AM9/16/18
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On Sun, 16 Sep 2018 13:58:25 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

> I will test that out and report back the results, even as I do find virtual
> machines slow and cumbersome compared to a dual boot to the real thing.


Well, I guess "slow and cumbersome" is somewhat relative to the user's
perception.


Maybe the base OS is part of your problem. My host is Linux and it is
less than 8 seconds to be able to start clicking around in my
VirtualBox Win7 guest.

Less than 5 seconds for a Fedora guest.
I do not notice any performance problems within the guest.

Arlen Holder

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Sep 16, 2018, 11:15:02 AM9/16/18
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On 16 Sep 2018 07:26:53 GMT, Bit Twister wrote:

> Well, I guess "slow and cumbersome" is somewhat relative to the user's
> perception.

Thank you for your suggestions which are helpful since we always want to
disseminate & improve our combined tribal knowledge overall.

I admit my desktops are old (of Win7 vintage), and hence slow (1.6GHZ).
They are packed with memory for that era though (16GB).
They run Win10 & Ubuntu fine via GRUB - but VMs are another thing.

To dual boot takes about two minutes elapsed time.
But then everything inside is lightning fast (faster than Windows!).

To just get the VM going takes as long.
Then everything inside is dripping water slow.

> Maybe the base OS is part of your problem. My host is Linux and it is
> less than 8 seconds to be able to start clicking around in my
> VirtualBox Win7 guest.

I can appreciate the suggestion, and I do appreciate the suggestion.
But the problem I have with the suggestion is the cost of the license.

How do you get Win7 for free?
Remember, all my solutions always are free.

Why?
Because it has to be leveraged to everyone.
The hurdles have to be as low as possible.

The minute you have to pull out a credit card, the hurdles pile up.
I appreciate that you're being helpful - I really do.

I have to ask how you get the Win7 for free?
Do you use the 30-day version & reinstall that guest OS every month?

> Less than 5 seconds for a Fedora guest.
> I do not notice any performance problems within the guest.

I appreciate the suggestion as you're giving all of us useful data.

What you're intimating is that Windows guest inside a Linux host is faster
than teh other way around.

I am not sure WHY that would be, since I would "think" hardware is the
limiting factor - but I can certainly say that Firefox inside of Ubuntu is
noticeably snappier than Firefox inside of Windows - so it could happen.

To be clear on your suggestion, are you intimating that the Windows guest
inside of the Linux host will be faster than the Linux guest inside the
Windows host?

Why would that be the case?
- Hardware is the same
- So it would have to be the software, right?

Bit Twister

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Sep 16, 2018, 11:34:04 AM9/16/18
to
On Sun, 16 Sep 2018 15:15:01 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:
> On 16 Sep 2018 07:26:53 GMT, Bit Twister wrote:
>
>> Well, I guess "slow and cumbersome" is somewhat relative to the user's
>> perception.
>
> Thank you for your suggestions which are helpful since we always want to
> disseminate & improve our combined tribal knowledge overall.
>
> I admit my desktops are old (of Win7 vintage), and hence slow (1.6GHZ).
> They are packed with memory for that era though (16GB).

I am running 8gig. There is a check box in each guest's vdi to
indicate it is solid state drive. Might help your speed.

>
> To dual boot takes about two minutes elapsed time.
> But then everything inside is lightning fast (faster than Windows!).
>
> To just get the VM going takes as long.
> Then everything inside is dripping water slow.

Hopefully you gave them at least a gig of memory, and 128k vidio memory.


>
>> Maybe the base OS is part of your problem. My host is Linux and it is
>> less than 8 seconds to be able to start clicking around in my
>> VirtualBox Win7 guest.
>
> I can appreciate the suggestion, and I do appreciate the suggestion.
> But the problem I have with the suggestion is the cost of the license.
>
> How do you get Win7 for free?
> Remember, all my solutions always are free.

Well, you must have stole your windows host OS.

> Why?
> Because it has to be leveraged to everyone.
> The hurdles have to be as low as possible.

I hear that.

>
> I have to ask how you get the Win7 for free?
> Do you use the 30-day version & reinstall that guest OS every month?

Never said free. Bought the media. Did the install in the guest. Only
reason for it was for USA taxes. Since moving to H&R Block online, I
no longer need winders.


> What you're intimating is that Windows guest inside a Linux host is faster
> than teh other way around.
>
> I am not sure WHY that would be, since I would "think" hardware is the
> limiting factor - but I can certainly say that Firefox inside of Ubuntu is
> noticeably snappier than Firefox inside of Windows - so it could happen.

No, the virtual software is talking through the OS software to get to
hardware.

>
> To be clear on your suggestion, are you intimating that the Windows guest
> inside of the Linux host will be faster than the Linux guest inside the
> Windows host?
>
> Why would that be the case?
> - Hardware is the same
> - So it would have to be the software, right?

You got it.

> They run Win10 & Ubuntu fine via GRUB - but VMs are another thing.

cpu speed is a definite factor. disk speed helps. If you have Ubuntu,
then you should be able to install VB and a linux guest to verify if
you get better performance in the linux guest.

Paul

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Sep 16, 2018, 1:34:27 PM9/16/18
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Arlen Holder wrote:

> To dual boot takes about two minutes elapsed time.
> But then everything inside is lightning fast (faster than Windows!).
>
> To just get the VM going takes as long.
> Then everything inside is dripping water slow.

You can "freeze" a VM before putting it away.
You don't have to shut down a VM.

Win10 VM freeze 11 sec thaw 15 sec
Win10 VM shutdown 8 sec boot 25 sec

* VMs don't have Sleep, Hibernate, or Fast Boot
* Freezing is the VirtualBox equivalent of Hibernate
in that RAM state is saved to disk.

However, don't freeze it for a number of days
in succession. It should be shut down completely
once in a while, to avoid accumulated corruptions
(bad memory etc).

In terms of efficiency, an x86-on-x86 hosting setup
should be close to 0.9 efficiency (only a 10% loss
in speed). A quick test here, shows it's a bit
better than that. Hardly any loss at all.

Lower=Better
SuperPi 16M 4:37.97 Host OS 9GB RAM
SuperPi 16M 4:49.45 Guest OS 3GB RAM

If you find the speed isn't there, look at Task Manager
or "top" to figure out why. See if anything is interfering
with your benchmark.

Things like VirtualBox, occasionally have problems
with IOAPIC and multiple cores. If you find a core on
the host is railed, when the Guest is "idle" or as
idle as its Task Manager can indicate, then that's
a potential sign there is a problem with VirtualBox itself.

*******

Before concluding everything is "dripping water slow",
allow the VM Guest to sit for three hours. Before you
do that, make sure all the updates it wants to do, are
done. The three hour wait is to wait for "maintenance
tasks" to finish putzing around.

Then, check for how slow it is.

VirtualBox does have hardware acceleration capability.
You set tick boxes in the control dialog of the program,
to enable the acceleration. Then use the Guest Additions
ISO from the menu, to install the Vbox driver. Then,
retest and see if the graphics have made things slow or
not. The VM setting should also be set to 128MB or
256MB for fake video card cache, so the card can
do compositing (or at least pretend to). I suppose you'd
have to run a popular video benchmark, to see if it's
making the least bit of difference.

Paul
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