How to read/write access iOS file systems on Ubuntu/Windows over USB cable

[Arlen Holder]

****************************************************************************
How to read/write access iOS file systems on Ubuntu/Windows over USB cable

Please improve so that all benefit from your efforts.
****************************************************************************
The purpose of this apnote is to test read/write access to non-jailbroken
iOS devices over USB cable using a dual-boot Windows10/Ubuntu18.04 PC.

The goal is read/write access to the iOS device's visible file system
to *both* Windows & Ubuntu, via the Linux file explorer & command line.

Note that the iTunes abomination will *never* be installed on these PCs!

Both Windows and Linux are *native* (i.e., zero additional software is
needed for full read/write access to the entire visible file system of
the iOS device. Everything is on the native operating system!)
============================================================================
Section I: Native Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop
============================================================================
0. Check what's installed natively when the iOS device is NOT connected:
a. Boot to Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios000.jpg>
b. Ensure ifuse and libimobiledevice-utils do not exist
$ which ifuse
(reports nothing)
$ which ideviceinfo
(reports nothing)
c. Note that libimobiledevice is installed, by default
$ sudo updateb
$ locate libimobiledevice
(reports stuff)

Apparently libimobiledevice is native, but not ifuse, nor are the
libimobiledevice-utils such as idevicepair & icevicesyslog, etc.

$ ifuse
Command 'ifuse' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo apt install ifuse

$ ideviceinfo
Command 'ideviceinfo' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo apt install libimobiledevice-utils
============================================================================
1. Plug in an iOS device either before or after Ubuntu 18.04 has booted:
a. When you plug in the iPad for the first time, the iPad will ask:
"Trust this computer?"
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios010.jpg>
Note: You won't see this message again after the first time.
Note that when you plug into Windows, you get a different message:
"Allow this device to access photos and videos?"
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios020.jpg>
b. Notice two new icons show up on the desktop:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios030.jpg>
- iPad [a digital SLR icon]
(DCIM, read only, no thumbs)
- Documents on myipad [a monitor & keyboard icon]
(private space of the "good" apps, read/write, no thumbs)
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios040.jpg>
c. Notice there is no Downloads yet
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios050.jpg>
d. Notice there are no thumbnails yet
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios060.jpg>
e. Notice you can only read from the DCIM directory tree.
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios070.jpg>
f. Notice you can write to the private space of the good apps
(Namely: Adobe Acrobat, Excel, FileExplorer, GarageBand,
iMovie, Keynote, MFExplorer, MinimaList, NewsTapLite, Numbers,
Pages, PowerPoint, QuickSupport, RManager, SMBManager, Topo Reader,
VLC, Voice Recorder, WiFi HD, Word)
<iosxxx>
g. Determine your iOS device 40-hex-character serial number:
$ dmesg|grep SerialNumber:
SerialNumber: 6ee7ab2fa479394be85da7cb4aefc5d8b11b6f82
<iosxxx>
Note:
Rightclick in the VLC directory & select "Open in Terminal".
$ pwd
/run/user/1000/gvfs/afc:hose=<40char>,port=3/org.videolan.vlc-ios
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios170.jpg>

Note: You can now copy any iOS device file over to Ubuntu or Windows.
Caveat: See addendum on Ubuntu mounting of Windows partitions below.
============================================================================
2. Determine the iOS name of the folders that you want read/write access
to:
a. Put your mouse cursor in "Documents on myipad" & press <Control+L>
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios080.jpg>
b. This reports the true path to the "Documents on myipad" folder:
afc://6ee7ab2fa479394be85da7cb4aefc5d8b11b6f82
afc://<40-hex-character-unique-serial-number>:3/
Note: If you put it in VLC you get
afc://6ee7ab2fa479394be85da7cb4aefc5d8b11b6f82:3/org.videolan.vlc-ios
c. Put your mouse cursor in DCIM and press control L
d. This reports the true path to the "DCIM" folder:
gphoto2://%5Busb%3A001,002%5D/DCIM
Note: If you put it in 101Apple you get
gphoto2://%5Busb%3A001,002%5D/DCIM/101APPLE

Note: You can now copy any iOS device file over to Ubuntu or Windows.
Caveat: See addendum on Ubuntu automounting of Windows partitions.
============================================================================
3. Enable write access to both the DCIM & Downloads folders (among others):
a. Remove the ":3/" and put it in the space that Control L was in.
afc://6ee7ab2fa479394be85da7cb4aefc5d8b11b6f82
b. Notice a *new* Desktop icon shows up, named "myipad".
c. Notice you now have read/writeaccess to DCIM & Downloads (plus
others).
Namely: Books,DCIM,Downloads,iMazing,iTunes_Control,MediaAnalysis,
PhotoData,Photos,PublicStaging,Purchases
d. Notice that the "iPad" mount is still read only (which doesn't
matter).
e. Notice that you have no thumbnails anywhere.

Note: Rightclick in the DCIM directory & select "Open in Terminal".
$ pwd
/run/user/1000/gvfs/gphoto2:hose=%5Busb%3A001%2C002%5D/DCIM

Note: You can now copy any iOS device file over to Ubuntu or Windows.
Caveat: See addendum on Ubuntu mounting of Windows partitions below.
============================================================================
Section II: Adding ifuse & libimobiledevice-info to Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop

NOTE: This is optional! Adding these only adds minor capabilities that
wasn't already in the native operating system commands above.
============================================================================
4. Install the ifuse iOS file system to run in the background on Ubuntu:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios100.jpg>
a. Optionally, update and upgrade your system:
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios090.jpg>
b. Install the ifuse iOS file system on Ubuntu:
$ sudo apt install ifuse
c. Look at the ifuse help
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios110.jpg>
$ which ifuse
/usr/bin/ifuse
$ ifuse --help
Usage: ifuse MOUNTPOINT [OPTIONS]
Mount directories of an iOS device locally using fuse.
-o === mount options
-u === mount specific device by its 40-digit device UDID
-d === enable libimobiledevice communication debugging
-- root === mount root file system (jailbroken device required)
-- documents APPID === mount 'Documents' folder of identified app
-- container APPID === mount sandbox root of identified app
============================================================================
5. EXAMPLE 1: Mount the entire iOS visible file system on Ubuntu:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios120.jpg>
a. Create a mount point directory for your iOS files
$ mkdir -p $HOME/data/iosfs
b. Access the iOS device via $HOME/data/iosfs
$ ifuse $HOME/data/iosfs
c. This immediately puts an "iosfs" icon on the Desktop.
d. Notice you have write access to the iOS Downloads & DCIM (& others).
Namely: Books,DCIM,Downloads,iMazing,iTunes_Control,MediaAnalysis,
PhotoData,Photos,PublicStaging,Purchases
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios130.jpg>
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios140.jpg>
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios150.jpg>
e. Notice you now have thumbnails.
f. Notice you have all the power of Linux, on your iOS device now.

To unmount:
$ fusermount -u $HOME/data/iosfs
============================================================================
6. EXAMPLE 2: Mount the iOS device by its unique 40-hex-character UDID:
a. Copy the serial number into your buffer
$ dmesg | grep SerialNumber:
b. Mount the iOS device by that serial number UDID
$ mkdir $HOME/data/ipad
$ ifuse $HOME/data/ipad -u 6ee7ab2fa479394be85da7cb4aefc5d8b11b6f82
c. This immediately puts an "iosfs" icon on the Desktop.
d. Notice you have write access to the iOS Downloads & DCIM (& others).
Namely: Books,DCIM,Downloads,iMazing,iTunes_Control,MediaAnalysis,
PhotoData,Photos,PublicStaging,Purchases
e. Notice you now have thumbnails.
f. Notice you have all the power of Linux, on your iOS device now.

To unmount:
$ fusermount -u $HOME/data/ipad
============================================================================
7. EXAMPLE 3: Mount an iOS application's "documents" folder by its APPID:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios160.jpg>
$ mkdir $HOME/data/vlc_documents
$ ifuse $HOME/data/vlc_documents --documents org.videolan.vlc-ios

This puts an icon named "vlc_documents" on your desktop, which is
read/write access, with thumbnails, to the iOS VLC documents directory.
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios180.jpg>

To unmount:
$ fusermount -u $HOME/data/vlc_documents
============================================================================
8. Install libimobiledevice-utils:
$ sudo apt install libimobiledevice-utils
============================================================================
9. EXAMPLE 4:
$ ideviceinfo -d
REPORTS copious information about that connected iOS device.

$ idevicesyslog
REPORTS the system log of the iOS device (extremely verbose output!).
============================================================================
10. Please suggest further useful examples based on your experiences.
============================================================================
Caveat:

If you leave Windows 10 at the default setting of fast startup,
then Ubuntu will mount the entire Windows file system as read only
(apparently because fast startup is a form of hibernation).

To automatically mount the entire Windows filesystem as read/write,
simply turn off fast startup in the Windows 10 settings:

Start > Settings > System > Power & sleep > Related settings
> Additional power settings > Choose what the power button does >
or (depending on your number of buttons)
> Additional power settings > Choose what the power buttons do >
> Change settings that are currently unavailable

Change from:
[x]Turn on fast startup (recommended)
This helps start your PC faster after shutdown. Restart isn't affected.
[x]Sleep (Show in Power menu.)
[_]Hibernate (Show in Power menu.)
[x]Hibernate (Show in Power menu.)
[x]Lock (Show in account picture menu.)

Change to:
[_]Turn on fast startup (recommended)
This helps start your PC faster after shutdown. Restart isn't affected.
[_]Sleep (Show in Power menu.)
[_]Hibernate (Show in Power menu.)
[_]Hibernate (Show in Power menu.)
[_]Lock (Show in account picture menu.)

And then press the "Save changes" button.
============================================================================
============================================================================

[sms]

On 7/3/2018 2:59 AM, Arlen Holder wrote:
> ****************************************************************************
> How to read/write access iOS file systems on Ubuntu/Windows over USB cable

This would be extremely useful. But I am stuck.


<snip>

> $ sudo updateb


Doesn't work. Do you mean "sudo updatedb"?

<snip>

> 1. Plug in an iOS device either before or after Ubuntu 18.04 has booted:
> a. When you plug in the iPad for the first time, the iPad will ask:
> "Trust this computer?"
> <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios010.jpg>
> Note: You won't see this message again after the first time.

Yes you will. Every time you plug in the iPad.

<snip>

> Note:
> Rightclick in the VLC directory & select "Open in Terminal".
> $ pwd
> /run/user/1000/gvfs/afc:hose=<40char>,port=3/org.videolan.vlc-ios
> <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios170.jpg>

This is unclear. Do you mean open the VLC directory on the iPad using
Ubuntu? I don't see it. In Linux, it opens the iPad in "Shotwell." Where
is the VLC directory? Do you mean VLC on the iPad or VLC on Ubuntu?

<snip> (stuck here)

[Arlen Holder]

On 3 Jul 2018 09:59:26 GMT, Arlen Holder wrote:

> 3. Enable write access to both the DCIM & Downloads folders (among others):
> a. Remove the ":3/" and put it in the space that Control L was in.
> afc://6ee7ab2fa479394be85da7cb4aefc5d8b11b6f82
> b. Notice a *new* Desktop icon shows up, named "myipad".
> c. Notice you now have read/writeaccess to DCIM & Downloads (plus
> others).

I should correct a few things that I had forgotten to note:
a. The "myipad" just happens to be the name of my iOS device;, and,
b. The serial number above is scrambled, but that's what it looks like.
(It's 40 hex characters where yours *will* be different!)

Notice with this information you have full access to both Windows & Linux
to the entire visible file system on the iOS device:
1. App storage space (read/write access on both Windows & Linux)
2. DCIM photo/video storage space (read/write on both Windows & Linux)
3. Downloads storage space (read/write on both Windows & Linux)
etc.

Note that *nothing* is non-native on the Windows & Linux operating systems
except for the USB cable and the iOS device!

The only reason for adding ifuse & libimobiledevice-utils was:
A. Adding ifuse simply makes the entire iOS device a convenient directory
B. Adding libimobiledevice-utils gives access to protected iOS syslogs

Note: ifuse is basically iOS running on Linux in the background.

[nospam]

In article <phg7uv$skj$1...@dont-email.me>, sms

<scharf...@geemail.com> wrote:

> > <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios010.jpg>
> > Note: You won't see this message again after the first time.
>
> Yes you will. Every time you plug in the iPad.

nope. once trusted, it no longer appears.

if it's repeatedly appearing, a pair token was not properly generated.

[Arlen Holder]

On 3 Jul 2018 16:23:57 GMT, sms wrote:

> Doesn't work. Do you mean "sudo updatedb"?

Hi sms,

Ah, yes. That's a typo! (Thanks for catching that!)

I love that you're one of the few people on the iOS ng who is purposefully
helpful so I thank you very much for taking the time to run the tutorial to
find any errors.

I ran the setup steps on two different computers, but you *still* caught
errors of omission (and a typo!) in my writeup, so I very much appreciate
that you *tested* the steps yourself!

Kudos to you for being intelligent and daring!

We posted within *seconds* of each other, where I would have corrected that
at the same time had I seen it.

Yes. You are correct!

Thank you, by the way, for being one of the rare iOS users who is
technically competent enough to set up a dual-boot Linux with Windows.

As for the updatedb, it's the *greatest command on the planet!*.

It's a super-fast "find" command, where it keeps a list of all the files on
your system (you can run the updatedb in the crontab for example).

Then you can "locate" anything, in seconds, where the power of the pipe
shows up as you grep out stuff you don't want.

For example,
locate libimobiledevice | grep -v tmp

>
> <snip>
>
>> 1. Plug in an iOS device either before or after Ubuntu 18.04 has booted:
>> a. When you plug in the iPad for the first time, the iPad will ask:
>> "Trust this computer?"
>> <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios010.jpg>
>> Note: You won't see this message again after the first time.
>
> Yes you will. Every time you plug in the iPad.

Ah, I forgot to make it clear that *everyone thinks that* but they're
wrong. At least in my experience, they're wrong.

So that's an error of omission that I didn't make clear in the note!

That's one reason I had to start from scratch and put Linux on a second PC
because I was shocked that it only asked that question once on Linux.

I've been using both PCs with the iOS device, and, so far, out of many
scores of connections the "Trust" question comes up only once, which is the
first time you connect the iOS device to that computer.

On the other hand, the message to "Allow" comes up *every single time* you
connect that iOS device to Windows!

Please let me know if your experience isn't the same as mine is, as I was
surprised, since I was very used to the annoying Windows "allow" message
always popping up, that the Linux "trust" message only came up once, like
it should, and then never came up again (thank God).

>
> <snip>
>
>> Note:
>> Rightclick in the VLC directory & select "Open in Terminal".
>> $ pwd
>> /run/user/1000/gvfs/afc:hose=<40char>,port=3/org.videolan.vlc-ios
>> <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios170.jpg>
>
> This is unclear. Do you mean open the VLC directory on the iPad using
> Ubuntu? I don't see it. In Linux, it opens the iPad in "Shotwell." Where
> is the VLC directory? Do you mean VLC on the iPad or VLC on Ubuntu?
>
> <snip> (stuck here)

Ah. Another great point!

Please do let me know what's "unclear" as I can provide more screenshots
(the screenshots were driving me nuts because I had to edit each one and I
kept testing the steps over and over again, so they got out of sequence).

Plus, some things happen only once and then they become the default.

You are showing me that I need to add a clarification step!

And I need to make it clear that once you accept the "trust" message on the
iOS device, you *never* need to touch the iOS device again for anything in
the tutorial.

I also need to make it clear that some of the apps on the iOS device you
see in the screenshots are not native to iOS. I added them (like the Topo
Map and VLC).

So, on iOS, you have to first install the VLC freeware!
<https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ios.html>
(Get it while you can because it disappeared once, as I recall.)

Once you install that VLC freeware on the iOS device, then when you plug in
the iOS device to the Windows, you will *not* have any access to that VLC
storage space - but - when you boot to Linux - you will have full
point-and-click read/write access to that VLC storage space!

So you can just slide huge movies back and forth between Windows/Linux and
the iOS device (you'll note I left the extensions there so people could see
that the various container formats worked fine for me, such as mkv and avi,
as did mp4). Also you'll note I put a bunch of srt subtitle files, which
work just fine simply copying them over to VLC's storage space.

This is *fast* since it's over USB.

And notice that Ubuntu has *full access* to Window's entire file system
(yes Paul, I know that Microsoft recently screwed up the System32 directory
about a month or two ago - but that's a technical detail that won't affect
users here).

If the user has any movie that they want to put into VLC's private space,
then they simply slide that movie from the Windows or Linux file system,
and it goes right into the VLC storage space. I've been doing this for
years, but I just never wrote it up for others to benefit.

The one minor OPTIONAL added step on the iOS device is that I'm extremely
well organized, so, I don't want all my movies at the top level. So once I
have the movies on VLC, I use the VLC "edit" GUI to put them in a dozen
folders, e.g., mainstream, comedy, documentary, action, etc. since most of
the movies are for the grandkids to enjoy (I don't generally watch movies).

BTW, it's my humble opinion to avoid Shotwell like you'd avoid the Bubonic
Plague, so, I'll also make a note about that! :)

I appreciate that you're a fellow SF Bay Area technophile who is one of the
rare folks on the iOS ngs who is technically competent *and* purposefully
helpful!

Thank you for testing out the apnote and for making suggestions, all of
which are fair and reasonable!

[nospam]

In article <phg9ie$haf$1...@news.mixmin.net>, Arlen Holder

<arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

> As for the updatedb, it's the *greatest command on the planet!*.

it isn't.

> It's a super-fast "find" command, where it keeps a list of all the files on
> your system (you can run the updatedb in the crontab for example).

there are much faster solutions.

[Arlen Holder]

On 3 Jul 2018 16:32:05 GMT, nospam wrote:

>> Yes you will. Every time you plug in the iPad.
>
> nope. once trusted, it no longer appears.
>
> if it's repeatedly appearing, a pair token was not properly generated.

Hi nospam,

Thank you for confirming my observation that the "trust" message appears to
come up only once in the lifetime of the Linux OS (thank God), while the
annoying "allow" message comes up every single time you connect to Windows.

Both Windows & Ubuntu are the latest available, and both are using native
software only (i.e., no iTunes or apple device drivers), so the operation
may or may not be different for those who install Apple software (as you
are aware, Apple software is forbidden on my desktops for good reasons that
go back probably a decade or more in experience).

As you know, this iPad is running 11.2.6, as it's the $300 128GB iPad from
Costco that I wrote up the tutorial for offline routing in Google Maps sans
GPS (using only the internal WiFi access points in the offline Google Maps
database!) throughout San Jose.

(The iPad has so much memory, I use it as a USB flash drive when I want to
transfer huge files from one PC to another - where it's nice that I don't
have to "unmount" it on Windows like normal USB flash drives have to be
unmounted on Windows - which is odd - as I don't understand why we don't
have to unmount an iOS device on Windows but we have to unmount a dumb USB
stick on Windows - and yet - we don't have to unmount either on
Linux??????)
<That's a topic for a different thread as I haven't researched why.>

As you're well aware, I've been connecting my iOS device to Ubuntu for
years, where each iOS update risks breaking everything that was working, as
you're well aware of, since I started doing this way back in ioS 7.0.0 days
where just moving from iOS 7.0.0 to ios 7.0.1 broke connectivity to
millions of Linux computers).

Since I had a working system, I wanted to create a new system from scratch,
so that I could see what happens the first time we connect - which is where
your helpful confirmation matches my observation that the "trust" message
comes up once, and only once (thank God).

It should be noted that I purposefully added a brand new Ubuntu to a brand
new Windows, just so that I could test without "ifuse" (which is basically
iOS running on Linux) and without "libimobiledevice-utils" (which only add
visibility into the iOS private syslogs in the apnote).

It's interesting, but I had more problems getting Ubuntu up and running
than I did getting iOS to work seamlessly with Ubuntu, as these two threads
attest to, given that I tested this on two brand new systems to be sure of
the steps and sequence (one has libimobiledevice-utils installed first, the
other has ifuse installed first - just to test the difference):

PC2 issues installing Ubuntu dual-boot with Windows 10:
Why doesn't Ubuntu 18.04 ask to install next to Windows 10 Pro single HDD as a dual boot?
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.os.linux/D7E7FQ1NLNk[1-25]>
PC2 issues installing Ubuntu dual-boot with Windows 10:
Have you ever seen a Grub that wouldn't respond to the keyboard?
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.os.linux/yQmtemiHcVk>

Thanks nospam, for the purposefully helpful confirmation on the "trust"
message (which isn't intuitive) - where I'll also add a few lines to the
apnote to explain the version of the operating systems that I'm running on
the three devices (iOS, Windows, and Ubuntu).

[nospam]

In article <phgb12$jh1$1...@news.mixmin.net>, Arlen Holder

<arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

>
> >> Yes you will. Every time you plug in the iPad.
> >
> > nope. once trusted, it no longer appears.
> >
> > if it's repeatedly appearing, a pair token was not properly generated.
>

> Thank you for confirming my observation that the "trust" message appears to
> come up only once in the lifetime of the Linux OS (thank God), while the
> annoying "allow" message comes up every single time you connect to Windows.

i did not confirm anything you may have supposedly seen.

i explained what the trust alert is for. once the ios device is trusted
and a pair token generated, the alert will no longer appear. until
then, it will.

> Both Windows & Ubuntu are the latest available, and both are using native
> software only (i.e., no iTunes or apple device drivers),

in other words, *not* native software, but rather using an unknown
third party driver that is known to be incomplete and very buggy.

> so the operation
> may or may not be different for those who install Apple software (as you
> are aware, Apple software is forbidden on my desktops for good reasons that
> go back probably a decade or more in experience).

that reason being sheer ignorance.

[William Unruh]

On 2018-07-03, Arlen Holder <arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:
> On 3 Jul 2018 16:32:05 GMT, nospam wrote:

...

> (The iPad has so much memory, I use it as a USB flash drive when I want to
> transfer huge files from one PC to another - where it's nice that I don't
> have to "unmount" it on Windows like normal USB flash drives have to be
> unmounted on Windows - which is odd - as I don't understand why we don't
> have to unmount an iOS device on Windows but we have to unmount a dumb USB
> stick on Windows - and yet - we don't have to unmount either on
> Linux??????)

It is always a good idea to unmount usb sticks as well. That makes sure that
all writes have finished, and the filesystem on the usb stick has been synced
and completed. You can cause damage to what is on the stick if you do not do so.

[Arlen Holder]

On 3 Jul 2018 19:32:20 GMT, William Unruh wrote:

> It is always a good idea to unmount usb sticks as well. That makes sure that
> all writes have finished, and the filesystem on the usb stick has been synced
> and completed. You can cause damage to what is on the stick if you do not do so

Thanks for explaining that USB sticks "should" be unmounted on Linux as
well as on Windows (where I've had problems on Windows ignoring that step,
and it bit me hard, so I learned to always unmount on Windows).

Since I use the iOS device, essentially, as a 128GB flash drive...

*Does anyone know if the iOS device should be formally unmounted too?*

(I haven't had any problems just pulling the plug, assuming all writes were
done, which is a given.)

For example, I can easily mount the entire visible iOS file system:
$ ifuse $HOME/data/iosfs

But I often don't bother unmounting before pulling the plug or rebooting:
$ fusermount -u $HOME/data/iosfs

Anyone know if that's a disaster waiting to happen?
Or if it's just fine (as it seems to be for me in practice).

[Arlen Holder]

On 3 Jul 2018 17:27:49 GMT, nospam wrote:

>> Both Windows & Ubuntu are the latest available, and both are using native
>> software only (i.e., no iTunes or apple device drivers),
>
> in other words, *not* native software, but rather using an unknown
> third party driver that is known to be incomplete and very buggy.

Hi nospam,

I don't play silly semantic games.

I simply try to learn, and then to help others learn, and then to learn
from what others can help us all learn.

It's really that simple.

The apnote is purposefully divided into two sections, where the first
section very clearly states that NOTHING was added to the native
installation.

Nothing.

How much of nothing are you disputing?
In fact, I went to a lot of trouble to test this out on a brand new Windows
10 and Ubuntu dual boot setup, where NOTHING was added after the initial
installation.

Where are you getting this idea that it's not all native software?
(Are you playing silly semantic games about the word "native" perhaps?)

Note that the second section of the apnote was purposefully tested only
after I tested the first section, where in the second section I added both
ifuse and libimobiledevice-utils to Ubuntu 18.04.

In the first PC, I added libimobiledevice-utils first, and then ifuse; in
the second PC I switched the order (just in case it mattered - but it
didn't).

What I concluded was that you don't need either ifuse nor
libimobiledevice-utils in order to have full read/write access to the
visible file system of the non-jailbroken iOS device.

NOTE: If the iOS device is jailbroken, then that expands what the visible
file system will contain - but all my tests were on non-jailbroken devices.

Notice that, if you don't use ifuse, then you simply need to know the hint
of using "Control+L" and then removing the colon, slash, and port number
from the afc://<40-digit device UDID> descriptor.

I'll repeat since you either didn't understand, or you're just playing
silly semantic games, that NOTHING needs to be added to Ubuntu in order to
have full read/write access to the visible file system as noted in the
apnote.

If you add ifuse, then it's just easier to access since the entire iOS
device becomes a directory on your hard drive, where the command to add
ifuse is so simple that it's not a big deal if you want to add it:

$ sudo apt install ifuse

One advantage of using ifuse (which is said to be the iOS file system
running on Linux) is that you get thumbnails, but I don't find thumbnails
all that useful so the reason you'd want ifuse is that you'd want an easier
path to your iOS device (although it's mounted in /media by default anyway
so, again, ifuse isn't needed - it's just nice to have).

I don't really know all the commands that libimobiledevice-utils provides,
as I tested a few but only found the two I showed to be useful:
$ ideviceinfo -d (reports lots of system statistics)
$ idevicesyslog (reports the running system log)

I'm hoping someone on these newsgroups knows of more power that is inherent
in the optional libimobiledevice-utils because the former command is
useful, once, but after that, it reports the same things and the latter
command is only useful if you're debugging something on the iOS device.

Given that, I have three recommendations:
1. You don't need to install anything to have full read/write access
2. But installing & using ifuse is definitely worth the effort,
3. But I wouldn't install or use libimobiledevice-utils at this point

I did have a problem getting ifuse to mount the "container", so if anyone
knows how to mount a "container" using ifuse, that would be helpful.

This failed (I don't know why yet as I never mounted a "container" before):
$ mkdir $HOME/data/vlc_container
$ ifuse $HOME/data/vlc_container --container org.videolan.vlc-ios

Also, if someone knows more than I do about the versatility of
libimobiledevice-utils, I would LOVE for them to propose some examples of
how to use it to our advantage!

That way, we all learn from the experiences of each other.

[nospam]

In article <phgoh7$9ff$1...@news.mixmin.net>, Arlen Holder

<arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

>
> Anyone know if that's a disaster waiting to happen?
> Or if it's just fine (as it seems to be for me in practice).

anything you do is a disaster waiting to happen.

[Arlen Holder]

On 3 Jul 2018 16:59:08 GMT, nospam wrote:

> there are much faster solutions.

This is pretty darn fast!

$ locate ifuse | grep md5
Instantly reports: /var/lib/dpkg/info/ifuse.md5sums

[nospam]

In article <phgpnh$bna$1...@news.mixmin.net>, Arlen Holder

<arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

> I don't play silly semantic games.

yes you do. it's all you do. you also snip to alter context. you also
repeatedly lie about what people said or did not say.

> I simply try to learn, and then to help others learn, and then to learn
> from what others can help us all learn.

bullshit. you aren't interested in learning.

> Where are you getting this idea that it's not all native software?

libimobiledevice is third party software which must be installed by the
user and is by definition is not native.

it is also incomplete and buggy and is very likely to break (again)
with usb restricted mode.

all of the problems you encounter are due to either it and/or your lack
of understanding about what it is you're doing.

meanwhile, the rest of the world has no problems using ios devices with
their computers.

[Arlen Holder]

On 3 Jul 2018 21:32:28 GMT, nospam wrote:

> anything you do is a disaster waiting to happen.

*You are a worthless troll, nospam*

It was shocking that you had one post in this thread which appeared to be
purposefully helpful - even as you provided zero added value - but then you
instantly fell into your old trollish ways (since all you can do, is
troll).

Someday, you may actually provide value - but certainly not today.

Actually, you may never provide any technical value because you don't know
iOS, you don't know Windows, you don't know Android, and you don't know
Linux.

You prove this, since your record is worse than that of the monkey.

You just play make believe.

The proof is that you *never* add any technical value to any thread.
You can't.

There are only about four or five iOS users on the iOS ng that have the
capacity to add value, and you're not one of them (sms is, thank God).

*All you _can_ do, nospam, is troll.*
--
This is my last response to you in this thread because you waste our time.

[nospam]

In article <phgrg5$eqc$1...@news.mixmin.net>, Arlen Holder

<arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

>
> Someday, you may actually provide value - but certainly not today.

standard boilerplate response when you've been caught.

[William Unruh]

On 2018-07-03, Arlen Holder <arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

And this rant (30 times longer than his) adds what to the conversation?

[Arlen Holder]

On 4 Jul 2018 00:40:01 GMT, William Unruh wrote:

> And this rant (30 times longer than his) adds what to the conversation?

Hi William Unruh,

You bring up a good point, so I'll ignore nospam as he's always wrong
anyway because he doesn't know iOS, nor Ubuntu, and he always guesses
anyway, so he's less accurate than the monkey is.

Meanwhile, I only speak verifiable easily documented facts.

Moving forward, and always adding value, and noting that documentation is a
bitch, I took the suggestions by "sms" to heart, where I proved just now
that the native Apple GarageBand app works just as well as did VLC.

Here, for everyone to benefit from the tribal knowledge that sms requested,
is what I just proved and documented, using the same techniques on the
native GarageBand software and an add-on free iOS Voice Recorder by Voz:
<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/voice-recorder-voz/id1336782987>

When you plug in the iOS device to Ubuntu, you get two icons:
iPad (Camera) & "Documents on myipad" (App Space)
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps01.jpg>

The well-behaved apps show up in the "Documents" hierarchy:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps02.jpg>

One of those is the Voz "Voice Recorder" where we will copy a file to:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps03.jpg>

Note that "Control+L" works in Voice Recorder as well as it did for VLC:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps04.jpg>

Let's get an audio file from the Windows 10 partition:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps05.jpg>

We should find audio files in Windows 10 "Windows\Media":
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps06.jpg>

Let's slide the first audio file "Alarm01.wav" from Win10 to Ubuntu:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps07.jpg>

Now let's slide that file into the "Voice Recorder" Document space:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps08.jpg>

Let's slide that file into the Apple "GarageBand" Document space:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps09.jpg>

On the iOS device, let's open up the homescreen "Audio" folder:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps10.jpg>

Let's open up the native Apple GarageBand app in iOS:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps11.jpg>

Notice the Apple GarageBand plays that Windows "Alarm01.wav" file on iOS:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps12.jpg>

Notice the Voz Voice Recorder plays that Windows "Alarm01.wav" file on iOS:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps13.jpg>

In summary, this proves that the well-behaved apps (in this case, Apple
GarageBand, Voz Voice Recorder, and VideoLAN VLC) allow read/write access
to their document space to/from Windows/Linux using the methods outlined in
this thread.

Note: Android file system access "just works" so none of this is needed.

[Arlen Holder]

On 3 Jul 2018 16:28:56 GMT, Arlen Holder wrote:

> I should correct a few things that I had forgotten to note:
> a. The "myipad" just happens to be the name of my iOS device;, and,
> b. The serial number above is scrambled, but that's what it looks like.
> (It's 40 hex characters where yours *will* be different!)

I thank sms for testing the apnote and for asking clarification questions!

In another post in this thread, I just now documented for sms that the
Linux ability to read and write to the iOS file system "just works",
without any need for ancillary software (e.g., there's no need for the
iTunes abomination).

That test worked flawlessly - summarized by:
a. Boot to Ubuntu & connect the iOS device to Linux via USB
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps02.jpg>
b. Slide a test C:\Windows\Media\Alarm01.wav file to the iOS device
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps06.jpg>
c. Play that Windows file in GarageBand & in Voz Voice Recorder on iOS
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps12.jpg>

a. Apple Garage Band
<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id408709785>
b. Voz Voice Recorder
<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/voice-recorder-voz/id1336782987>

While documenting that test for sms, I ran a few more screenshots to
improve the original apnote's images.

Here is the trust message when you 1st plug the iOS device into Linux:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_trust01.jpg>

Here is the allow messge you always get when you plug iOS into Windows:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_trust02.jpg>

Here is the output from "dmesg | grep serialNumber:" on Ubuntu:
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_serial01.jpg>

I thank sms as being one of the rare iOS users who has both the skills and
purposefully helpful intent to test out the apnote so that he too can copy
any number of huge files from Windows/Linux to iOS (both ways) over USB
without needing either the iTunes abomination or any additional software
that isn't already installed during the typical installation process.

Note that I only have old desktops, with older USB ports, but even so, a
typical 2-hour 1080p movie takes less than about 60 seconds to copy to iOS.

NOTE: I'm not sure what is a good resolution for an iOS device such as my
$300 Costco 128GB iPad - so if you have advice as to what resolution is
best, let me know as we have plenty of choices where I generally default to
720p or 1080p when ripping DVD/BlueRay discs; but all values are available.

What is the best that the $300 128GB 9.7" 2017 iOS iPad can play anyway?

[nospam]

In article <phh96i$7nq$1...@news.mixmin.net>, Arlen Holder

<arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

> What is the best that the $300 128GB 9.7" 2017 iOS iPad can play anyway?

4k, which can also be shot and edited on the device.

of course, that only matters with an external 4k display.

[Jasen Betts]

On 2018-07-03, Arlen Holder <arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

> On 3 Jul 2018 17:27:49 GMT, nospam wrote:
>
>>> Both Windows & Ubuntu are the latest available, and both are using native
>>> software only (i.e., no iTunes or apple device drivers),
>>
>> in other words, *not* native software, but rather using an unknown
>> third party driver that is known to be incomplete and very buggy.
>
> Hi nospam,
>
> I don't play silly semantic games.
>
> I simply try to learn, and then to help others learn, and then to learn
> from what others can help us all learn.

I suggest drop this thread, and try again without crossposting
to different operating system newsgroups.

--
ت

[Jasen Betts]

On 2018-07-03, Arlen Holder <arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

If you don't want to mess with mount and unmount you can use mtools.
but you'll need thwart the automounter first.




--
ت

[JF Mezei]

On 2018-07-03 17:06, Arlen Holder wrote:

> For example, I can easily mount the entire visible iOS file system:
> $ ifuse $HOME/data/iosfs

I get how you can have a linux driver/app that creates a Linux disk that
provides access to a remote device.

But you provide no explanation on how the IOS device provides access. An
app on IOS is essentially rooted to its own file system and does not
have access to the rest of the device unless it uses APIs to access
stuff it has been specifically authorized to access,

And if you jailbreak your iPhone, you could use NFS or another standard
file access protocol. So what protocol does this "ifuse" thing use ?

[Arlen Holder]

On 4 Jul 2018 06:46:55 GMT, Jasen Betts wrote:

> I suggest drop this thread, and try again without crossposting
> to different operating system newsgroups.

The goal of every tutorial is to improve our combined knowledge, mine
included, where, in a cross-platform problem set, there are purposefully
helpful people (like sms on iOS & Paul on Windows) who can add value.

To that end, for example, sms (from the iOS ng) has already improved the
tutorial, simply by reading it with a purposefully helpful critical
intelligent mindset (whereas the trolls like nospam can't do that).

And JF Mezei, also from the iOS ng, asked great questions, also showing
purposefully helpful intent and critical thought processes.

The fact is that this issue is a cross-platform issue, and there's no way
around that.

The overall goal, of course, is simplicity & power:
a. You connect an iOS device via USB
b. And that "mounts" everything you need
c. So you can slide anything between the iOS device & Windows & Linux

The problem with multiposts on cross-platform issues is that you end up
with half the thread being about the multipost concept itself.

That is, many people deplore multiposts, where the worthless trolls & huge
numbers of worthless chitchatters have a field day the instant they notice
any header anomaly (since they can't ever add any on-topic technical value
but they still feel the urge to post their worthless drivel).

I work a lot on cross-platform issues, where sometimes, purposefully
helpful *&* knowledgeable people suggest better methods and commands (as
you have done with mtools in your linux-only post).
<http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/mtools.1.html>

IMHO, in order to *improve* our skills in linking Ubuntu + Windows + iOS,
the fact is that we'll *need* the combined skills of the purposefully
helpful & knowledgeable folks on each group.

For example, these are three areas of potential improvement:

1: I can't seem to mount an iOS-app-based "container" using ifuse, so I
don't have any experience with what a container even means to iOS - where
maybe that confers some kind of advantage (what's an iOS container
anyway?).

2: And, I can't find anything exceptionally useful out of
libimobiledevice-utils, so, it just seems like it's not needed - and yet -
the net is full of people using it (admittedly mostly on older Linuxes).

3: And, there may be other neat things you can do with the keyboard,
besides Control+L (which immediately gives you write permission - so -
that's pretty neat but maybe other neat stuff exists!).

4: And, maybe there's a Windows/Linux cross-platform expert who can give us
a way around having to turn off the fastboot default on Windows in order to
get Ubuntu to mount all the Windows partitions as read/write.

All I'm asking of the combined Linux + Windows + iOS experts is:
a. Test the tutorial to ensure it works, for you, and,
b. IMPROVE the tutorial using the skills that you currently have.

[Lewis]

In message <phj26j$v4s$1...@news.mixmin.net> Arlen Holder <arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:
> The fact is that

You are a nym-shifting (or is that nymshitting?) troll who has no
interest in learning anything and continues the same pattern of "asking"
a question you have no interest in answering, simply using it as a prybar
to spew your rabid crap.

> this issue is a cross-platform issue, and there's no way around that.

No, it is not. iOS does not support Linux of any kind.

> The overall goal, of course, is simplicity & power:
> a. You connect an iOS device via USB
> b. And that "mounts" everything you need

That will never ever happen on any platform.

--
Love is strange and you have to learn to take the crunchy with the
smooth I suppose

[B...@onramp.net]

On Wed, 4 Jul 2018 18:04:06 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder
<arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:


>The goal of every tutorial is to improve our combined knowledge, mine
>included, where, in a cross-platform problem set, there are purposefully

>helpful people.

But you aren't one of them.

>The fact is that this issue is a cross-platform issue, and there's no way
>around that.
>

Sure there is....read below.

>For example, these are three areas of potential improvement:

There's one that would help immensely;
Your posts are massive, worthless crap and should be, and probably
are, ignored.

I have my own method.
PLONK

[Arlen Holder]

On 4 Jul 2018 16:16:41 GMT, JF Mezei wrote:

> I get how you can have a linux driver/app that creates a Linux disk that
> provides access to a remote device.

Hi JF Mezei,

You're usually reasonable, and not a troll, so I appreciate whatever input
you can provide, as you're purposefully helpful, and hence, absolutely
nothing like nospam (who doesn't understand Linux, nor Windows, and he only
knows a little about iOS).

You (and sms) are also nothing like Lewis or BKatOnRamp (thank God), where
that moronic Lewis hilariously just posted 10 minutes ago that we can't do
what we obviously can do - which is just about as funny as it gets - but
it's also sad that iOS users like Lewis are really that stupid.

Meanwhile, BKatOnRamp likewise felt the need to prove that he didn't even
comprehend in the last what we've accomplished - since he too is a classic
unfathomably stupid iOS user like Lewis and Jolly Roger are.

BTW, nospam is different. He's stupid - but smarter than those three utter
morons, which isn't saying much - but what's similar about nospam is that
he too can't fathom anything that isn't already scripted for him by Apple).

In this thread, we're doing what Apple likely never wanted us to do,
which is we're *seamlessly & simultaneously* integrating Windows, Linux,
and iOS file systems, without installing a single bit (literally) of
non-native software on any of those three file systems!

That's a big deal worth repeating:
- It's seamless and simultaneous!
- And requires nary a single bit of additional software!

The trolls (Lewis, BK@OnRamp, nospam, etc.) can't comprehend the power!

So I concur that this is easily possible using the method shown:
1. You add *nothing* that the OS install didn't already put there!
2. You plug in the non-jailbroken iOS device into your dual boot setup.
3. Voila! You have read/write access to iOS, Linux, & Windows file systems!

It's that simple!
And it's fast!

a. No need for the iTunes abomination
b. No need for adding *any* additional software
c. You have *simultaneous* read/write access to each OS's visible files

NOTE: By visible, I mean whatever is available based on whatever
permissions you have, where jailbreaking increases what is visible on iOS,
just as being root on Linux or admin on Windows increases what is visible
to those file systems.

> But you provide no explanation on how the IOS device provides access.

Just as nospam explained that the iPad in the Apple Map Van is the front
end to a lot of things, the Ubuntu operating system is the front end to
both read and write to the iOS file system.

So, for example, if you want to use the iOS device as a "USB stick", you
simply plug it in, and voila, the 128GB iPad is now a "USB stick".

If, for example, you want to slide a Windows audio file to the iOS Voz
Voice Recorder document space via the Linux file explorer, you just use
your mouse to navigate to, select, and then slide that Windows file into
the iOS Voz Voice Recorder document space, and then the iPad plays that
file without any problems whatsoever.

a. Boot to Ubuntu & connect the iOS device to Linux via USB
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps02.jpg>
b. Slide a test C:\Windows\Media\Alarm01.wav file to the iOS device
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps06.jpg>
c. Play that Windows file in GarageBand & in Voz Voice Recorder on iOS
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_apps12.jpg>

Do you see that we accessed all three file systems, Windows, Linux, and
iOS, from the Ubuntu file explorer, simultaneously and seamlessly?

For small files, it's no big deal how you transfer them, but I can easily
populate the VLC iPad document space with scores upon scores of gigabytes
of movies from both Windows and Linux, for example, very quickly, over USB
using this simple point-and-click method.

Likewise, using this exact same method, I can slide scores upon scores of
gigabyes of iOS-based files to Windows and Linux, all simultaneously.

If I want to, I can even script the transfer easily, where Linux
command-line scripting is super powerful and super easy to do and where
synchronization tools abound on Linux if I want to automate the process.

> An
> app on IOS is essentially rooted to its own file system and does not
> have access to the rest of the device unless it uses APIs to access

> stuff it has been specifically authorized to access.

I'm not sure why you said the above, which is obvious to everyone, so you
might need to clarify what your question is, since we're talking about
accessing *files*, not apps.

The files just happen to be in the App's "documents" folder, but we're not
executing the iOS apps. We're just taking their files frop the app storage
areas, and also putting files into those app storage areas.

It's no secret, for example, that desktops have powerful apps that can
obtain and store many thousands of gigabytes of large files far easier than
can the iOS devices, so, you can, for example, obtain, say, 100GB of movies
on either Linux or Windows, and then seamlessly transfer them to and from
the iOS device, as noted in the original apnote.

That's powerful indeed!
- It's fast (what's faster than USB?)
- It's seamless (just plug it in and it just works)
- It's simultaneous access to all three file systems
- It can easily be scripted and automated (if that's what you want)
- It requires zero additional software (just the typical OS install)
etc.

This power is not something that Apple will tell you about though.
- It needs no iTunes abomination
- It's completely unrestricted
- It makes your iPad just another "disk" on your network

Hmmmmm.... network?

I just realized, this great idea might work over the network also, where
you can plug in your iPad to PC1, and then on PC2, PC3, and PC4, you can
access the iOS file system. (I'll have to think about that since I don[t
generally do a lot of networking.)

> And if you jailbreak your iPhone, you could use NFS or another standard
> file access protocol.

AFAIK, if you jailbreak your iOS device, then you will simply have more
access (i.e., more visibility) to the iOS file system using the methods
proposed here.

(I'm sure you get other things from jailbreaking iOS - but why do you need
them if you already have full read/write access to the visible iOS file
system using this method?)

> So what protocol does this "ifuse" thing use ?

Let's remind everyone that I found out, by testing, that ifuse is optional.
You have full read/write access to the visible iOS file system sans ifuse.

I only see two advantages of ifuse:
- You get a simpler iOS mount point than the ephemeral /media automounts;
- And you get thumbnails.

Other than those two niceties, I don't see what ifuse adds that you don't
already get with the native libimobiledevice drivers that come with any
typical Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop install process.

ifuse: <https://www.gsp.com/cgi-bin/man.cgi?topic=ifuse>
"Mount directories of an iOS device locally using fuse.
By default the media directory is mounted, options allow
to also mount the sandbox container of an app, an app's
documents folder or even the root filesystem if jailbroken"
Example: $ ifuse /media/iPhone --root

Basically, with or without ifuse, the entire visible file system on your
iOS device can be "attached" to your network by USB cable so that you can
simultaneously copy files back and forth between Windows, Linux, and iOS.

[Peter Köhlmann]

Well, it isn't difficult to find that you are lying. You are like a Snit.
You lie even if the truth would benefit you much more

[Arlen Holder]

On 4 Jul 2018 06:49:56 GMT, Jasen Betts wrote:

> If you don't want to mess with mount and unmount you can use mtools.
> but you'll need thwart the automounter first.

(This is going only to a.o.l)

Thanks Jasen Betts for that helpful suggestion, as my goal, always, is to
both add value and then to LEARN from others as I improve the suggested
steps.

For example, I was hoping people could suggest better commands, which you
have done with "mtools", which is great.

The overall goal, of course, is simplicity & power:
a. You connect an iOS device via USB
b. And that "mounts" everything you need

c. So you can slide anything between the iOS device & Windows & Linux

IMHO, in order to *improve* our skills in linking Ubuntu + Windows + iOS,
the fact is that we'll *need* the combined skills of the purposefully

helpful folks on each group. As you're probably aware, there is a vastly
deteriorating curve of knowledgeable purposefully helpful people as we go
from a.i.l to a.c.o.w-10, to m.p.m.i - which is where you're seeing the
trolls come from (mostly from the iOS ng, but the Windows ng is filled with
worthless chit-chatters like you can't believe).

Most people deplore multiposting, so the question is how to read the
purposefully helpful *AND* knowledgeable Windows users (e.g., Paul), and
the purposefully helpful iOS users (e.g., sms) without
multiposting/crossposting?

I do like the idea of having a seamless automount though (which is, I
think, where your "mtools" suggestion is going, but upon first inspection,
mtools seems to be for DOS (which is OK - I'm just trying to understand
what power mtools provides ... but I just heard of it today...)
<http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/mtools.1.html>

Looking at mtools for the first time, it seems to be the reverse of CYGWIN,
which is that mtools seems to give Linux the capability to run DOS commands
(e.g., "ren C:\Windows\Media\Alarm01.wav C:\Windows\Media\foo.wav").

Looking for what power we can get with mtools on Linux, I see we can edit
MSDOS partition labels, but that's not all that helpful in this context:
<https://embraceubuntu.com/2006/03/01/editing-fat32-partition-labels-using-mtools/>

This is getting closer to being useful, where we can access DOS floppies on
Ubuntu without having to mount them:
<https://askubuntu.com/questions/484640/how-to-mount-usb-3-5-inch-floppy-drive-and-read-ms-dos-disk>

But I must say in all honesty that I don't see how being able to run DOS
commands on Linux is useful since the Linux command set is already richer -
and - mounting of Windows partitions is a piece of cake on Ubuntu (it just
works - as long as the Windows isn't in a semi-hibernated state due to the
default 'fastboot' settings).

I'll summarize by saying the goal here is already "mostly" achieved, which
is that the entire visible file system of the iOS device along with the
entire Windows file system, is available to Ubuntu, if the user knows the
"Control+L" trick, or, if they add "ifuse".

My goal now is to improve our capabilities, which takes the combined
knowledge of all three groups, iOS, Windows, and Linux.

Here are some obvious unanswered questions:

[JF Mezei]

On 2018-07-04 17:17, Arlen Holder wrote:

> So, for example, if you want to use the iOS device as a "USB stick", you
> simply plug it in, and voila, the 128GB iPad is now a "USB stick".

No. the IOS devices does not provide, out of the box, USB storage
interface. It does provide a USB camera interface, and even that is
someowhat crooked because you need permissions.

> I'm not sure why you said the above, which is obvious to everyone, so you
> might need to clarify what your question is, since we're talking about
> accessing *files*, not apps.

Since IOS does not provide USB file access, you would need a cooperating
app on IOS to emulate the USB disk protocols. As an App, it would not
have access to files outside its own sandbox.

> Let's remind everyone that I found out, by testing, that ifuse is optional.
> You have full read/write access to the visible iOS file system sans ifuse.

Nop. Unless you have reverse engineered the iTunes protocols, there is
no read/wrirte access to a visible IOS file system. preriod.

Just because something has a USB interface does not mean it will hnour
USB disk access protocols.

[sms]

On 7/5/2018 8:44 AM, JF Mezei wrote:

> Since IOS does not provide USB file access, you would need a cooperating
> app on IOS to emulate the USB disk protocols. As an App, it would not
> have access to files outside its own sandbox.

The workaround to transferring files into an iOS device is to ZIP up the
files, change the extension on the file name to NEF (Nikon raw format).
iOS will allow the importing of NEF files as it's a supported format for
importing. Once it's in the iOS device you change the extension back to
ZIP and unzip it. It's rather a pain, but for occasional use it's fine.

[nospam]

In article <phlf14$mi3$1...@dont-email.me>, sms

<scharf...@geemail.com> wrote:

> The workaround to transferring files into an iOS device is to ZIP up the
> files, change the extension on the file name to NEF (Nikon raw format).
> iOS will allow the importing of NEF files as it's a supported format for
> importing. Once it's in the iOS device you change the extension back to
> ZIP and unzip it. It's rather a pain, but for occasional use it's fine.

nonsense. there is *no* need to do anything of the sort.

[nospam]

In article <o1r%C.372684$ll2.3...@fx35.iad>, JF Mezei

<jfmezei...@vaxination.ca> wrote:

> > So, for example, if you want to use the iOS device as a "USB stick", you
> > simply plug it in, and voila, the 128GB iPad is now a "USB stick".
>
> No. the IOS devices does not provide, out of the box, USB storage
> interface. It does provide a USB camera interface, and even that is
> someowhat crooked because you need permissions.

no permissions are needed for it to be seen as a camera, other than
initially trusting the device itself, which is *any* usb communication.

> > I'm not sure why you said the above, which is obvious to everyone, so you
> > might need to clarify what your question is, since we're talking about
> > accessing *files*, not apps.
>
> Since IOS does not provide USB file access, you would need a cooperating
> app on IOS to emulate the USB disk protocols. As an App, it would not
> have access to files outside its own sandbox.

there are many hundreds of such apps, perhaps even thousands, most of
which use wifi rather than usb since wifi is *much* more convenient and
faster than fussing with cables.

> > Let's remind everyone that I found out, by testing, that ifuse is optional.
> > You have full read/write access to the visible iOS file system sans ifuse.
>
> Nop. Unless you have reverse engineered the iTunes protocols, there is
> no read/wrirte access to a visible IOS file system. preriod.

unless it's jailbroken.

there is also no need to see the entire file system just to transfer
files. some people insist on doing things in the most obtuse convoluted
ways possible.

[Arlen Holder]

On 5 Jul 2018 15:44:19 GMT, JF Mezei wrote:

>> So, for example, if you want to use the iOS device as a "USB stick", you
>> simply plug it in, and voila, the 128GB iPad is now a "USB stick".
>
>
> No. the IOS devices does not provide, out of the box, USB storage
> interface. It does provide a USB camera interface, and even that is
> someowhat crooked because you need permissions.

Hi JF Mezei,

I don't understand why you just said "no" to an obvious fact.

Perhaps you misread what the original post, so let me just repeat the facts
for everyone to agree on.
1. If you dual boot to Linux & plug in the 128GB iOS device,
2. You can use whatever space you have left (say, 100GB or so).
3. To transfer any "visible" file to/from any of the 3 operating systems.

*So, "in effect", this method turns the iOS device into a "usb stick".*

By saying "no", are you implying that you dispute what I'm saying?
(NOTE: You can't dispute the facts - so you might only be disputing the
"words" but semantics isn't my shtick so you can give me better semantics
if you like). :)

The fact is, that if you have, say, 100GB of "storage" available on the iOS
device, then you just plug that iOS device into your dual-boot desktop sans
the iTunes abomination - and voila - the 100GB of remaining storage is
instantly available for you to slide files onto or off of.

Those files are unrestricted.

They can be Windows files. They can be iOS files. They can be Linux files.

So, "in effect", the iOS device is a USB stick.
Do you dispute the facts as stated or just the semantics?
(I'm just trying to figure out why you said "no" to this obvious fact.)

>> I'm not sure why you said the above, which is obvious to everyone, so you
>> might need to clarify what your question is, since we're talking about
>> accessing *files*, not apps.
>
> Since IOS does not provide USB file access, you would need a cooperating
> app on IOS to emulate the USB disk protocols. As an App, it would not
> have access to files outside its own sandbox.

I think you misinterpret what I said, since I am only speaking facts, and
I'm not playing any semantic games.

What I'm saying is very clear, as it's outlined in the OP.
1. Plug in the iOS device to a dual-boot Windows/Linux desktop, and,
2. Voila. You can slide files back & forth between the 3 operating systems.

This is a fact.
Do you dispute that fact?

>> Let's remind everyone that I found out, by testing, that ifuse is optional.
>> You have full read/write access to the visible iOS file system sans ifuse.
>
> Nop. Unless you have reverse engineered the iTunes protocols, there is
> no read/wrirte access to a visible IOS file system. preriod.

*Are you just playing silly semantic games with me, J.F. Mezei?*

Normally that's the purview of Jolly Roger, Lewis, nospam, and BK@OnRamp.
Also, on Windows, that's the game of Diesel, Nil, Jackson, Lamontagne, etc.

The fact is:
a. You install Ubuntu 18.04 desktop selecting the normal settings.
b. You plug in the iOS device.
c. Voila. You have read/write access to the "visible" iOS file system.

What on earth do you dispute about those obvious clear & valid facts?

Bear in mind that I went to a lot of trouble to prove that is the case,
since I installed Ubuntu three times (And proved I did).

Meanwhile, you simply play silly semantic games like all the trolls do.
You trolls don't actually do any tests whatsoever, whereas I did.

What on earth do you have against facts?
(All you 'can' do is play silly semantic games.)

> Just because something has a USB interface does not mean it will hnour
> USB disk access protocols.

The facts are as stated:
1. Plug in the iOS device into dual-boot Ubuntu USB, and, voila!
2. You can slide files back & forth between the 3 operating systems.

You can dance all you want with your silly semantic games, but those are
facts nonetheless.

Just because you don't happen to like facts, doesn't make them not facts.

[nospam]

In article <phlft8$qq0$1...@news.mixmin.net>, Arlen Holder

<arlen...@nospam.net> wrote:

> Just because you don't happen to like facts, doesn't make them not facts.

that applies to you far more than it does *anyone* else.

[Arlen Holder]

On 5 Jul 2018 15:55:14 GMT, sms wrote:

> The workaround to transferring files into an iOS device is to ZIP up the
> files, change the extension on the file name to NEF (Nikon raw format).
> iOS will allow the importing of NEF files as it's a supported format for
> importing. Once it's in the iOS device you change the extension back to
> ZIP and unzip it. It's rather a pain, but for occasional use it's fine.

Hi sms, (or anyone else who is sane who reads this),

Can you clarify something for us here?

As you know, I state valid verifiable facts.
I don't play the silly semantic games that nospam-like trolls love to play.

The fact is that I can plug my 128 GB iOS device into the dual-boot
desktop, and, voila!, instantly, I can use whatever file space is left
(let's say that's 100GB) for any file I want to put there or take from
there.

That is, I have full read/write access to the visible file system on iOS
simply by plugging that iOS device into the desktop USB port.

It seems that J.F. Mezei is somehow disputing that fact, but he can't
dispute it since it's an easily verified fact.

Can you help clarify what his issue is?
Is his issue just the semantics of what I *call* that fact?

I'm not beholden to any specific term, so if J.F. Mezei doesn't like the
term "usb stick in effect", then what term is more appropriate to describe
that fact?

[laia....@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, 3 July 2018 10:59:27 UTC+1, Arlen Holder wrote:
> ****************************************************************************

Just want to say thank a lot, you save my day. It works without issue with my iPad Mini 5. I was desperate to copy some files from Ubuntu onto it. Without this functionality that iPad would have been a useless device for me.