How to force Linux into mounting Android MTP USB hardware?

[Monica Goel]

When I unlock and then plug my Android 4.3 phone into a USB
port of my Ubuntu Saucy Salamander laptop, sometimes the phone is
automagically mounted, but, oftentimes, the phone does NOT mount.

When I type "lsusb" it only shows up when it's mounted; otherwise
it doesn't even show up at the command line.

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 004: ####:#### Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9100 Phone
[Galaxy S II], GT-I9300 Phone [Galaxy S III], GT-P7500 [Galaxy Tab 10.1]


MY QUEST:
Is there a way to force Ubuntu to mount new MTP USB hardware?

[John Bokma]

No idea if you've already done this:

http://www.mysolutions.it/mounting-your-mtp-androids-sd-card-on-ubuntu/

or that doing this fixes the issue.

--
John Bokma j3b

Blog: http://johnbokma.com/ Perl Consultancy: http://castleamber.com/
Perl for books: http://johnbokma.com/perl/help-in-exchange-for-books.html

[Monica Goel]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2014 15:15:15 -0600, John Bokma wrote:

> No idea if you've already done this:
> http://www.mysolutions.it/mounting-your-mtp-androids-sd-card-on-ubuntu/

I followed those instructions, but still failed.

With the phone not plugged in, I followed those instructions.

$ uname -a
Linux test 3.11.0-14-generic ... x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ sudo apt-get install mtpfs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
mtpfs is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

$ sudo mkdir /media/MTPdevice

$ sudo chmod 775 /media/MTPdevice

$ sudo mtpfs -o allow_other /media/MTPdevice
Unable to open ~/.mtpz-data for reading, MTPZ disabled.Listing raw device(s)
No raw devices found.

I got the same error as above, even with the phone plugged
into a USB port and the phone unlocked.

I ran the mtp-detect when the phone wasn't recognized:

$ mtp-detect
Unable to open ~/.mtpz-data for reading, MTPZ disabled.libmtp version: 1.1.6
Listing raw device(s)
No raw devices found.

And, I ran the mtp-detect when the phone was recognized:
$ mtp-detect
Unable to open ~/.mtpz-data for reading, MTPZ disabled.libmtp version: 1.1.6
Listing raw device(s)
Device 0 (VID=04e8 and PID=6860) is a Samsung Galaxy models (MTP).
Found 1 device(s):
Samsung: Galaxy models (MTP) (04e8:6860) @ bus 2, dev 5
Attempting to connect device(s)

On my stock Ubuntu 13.10, there was no /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
file, so, I created the file and added the suggested line:
$ gksu gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", ATTR{idProduct}=="6860", MODE="0666"

I disconnected the Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 phone & restarted udev:
$ sudo service udev restart
udev stop/waiting
udev start/running, process 4584

The instructions say "Now when you connect your Android phone, tablet,
etc. it should automatically mount for you at /media/MTPdevice.", but,
when I plugged in the Android device and unlocked the screen, it still
didn't mount, so there was no need to run the unmount command:
$ sudo umount mtpfs

Do we have a good set of debugging commands handy?

[Monica Goel]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2014 21:52:36 +0000, Monica Goel wrote:

> I followed those instructions, but still failed.

I should also mention that I was definitely in MTP mode
and the phone screen was unlocked.

If there were good Linux MTP/USB debugging commands, that would help.

[DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2014 21:08:47 +0000 (UTC), Monica Goel
<monic...@synopsys.com> Gave us:

Get a better (NEW) USB interconnect cable, and use a fresh, not beaten
to hell USB port on the computer.

[Martin Schöön]

Den 2014-02-27 skrev DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno <DL...@DecadentLinuxUser.org>:
> On Wed, 26 Feb 2014 21:08:47 +0000 (UTC), Monica Goel
><monic...@synopsys.com> Gave us:
>
>>

>>MY QUEST:
>>Is there a way to force Ubuntu to mount new MTP USB hardware?
>
> Get a better (NEW) USB interconnect cable, and use a fresh, not beaten
> to hell USB port on the computer.

I have tried two alternatives to connecting with USB cable:

1) There is an app called Airdroid through which you connect your
Android device to your computer via 'the cloud'. It is fairly easy
to set up and when it works it works just fine. The problem is the
less than 100% hit rate. I estimate my hit rate to some 70% and I
have no idea why it sometimes fails to connect.

2) BitTorrent Sync is somewhat different. Folders are synchronized
between computers, computers and mobile device... You need a
BitTorrent Sync app running on each synchronized device. It works
as advertised. This is what I use now. The Android device is
connecting to the net via Wifi when I do this so no data charge.
(Same for my use of Airdroid.)

Connecting my Nokia Bell phone via USB is much less hassle...

I hope this helps,

/Martin

[Grail King]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2014 15:15:15 -0600, John Bokma wrote:

> No idea if you've already done this:
>
> http://www.mysolutions.it/mounting-your-mtp-androids-sd-card-on-ubuntu/
>

> or that doing this fixes the issue.

I have 3computers running ubuntu 13.10 and all I did was install mtpfs
from Synaptics and I can mount my 2 android phones ( LG and a Samsung )I
can also mount my Nexus7 tablet.

[Jonathan N. Little]

A little more is required for 12.04 as described in the article. I can
confirm because it is what I had to automount my Asus MeMO

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

[Grail King]

On Fri, 28 Feb 2014 00:47:02 -0500, Jonathan N. Little wrote:

> A little more is required for 12.04 as described in the article. I can
> confirm because it is what I had to automount my Asus MeMO

Must be extra things in 13.10.

[JEDIDIAH]

Probably a newer set of UDEV rules or something along those lines.

"Hey! I know what this is, I'm going to automount it."

--
On the subject of kilobyte being "redefined" to mean 1000 bytes...

When I was a wee lad, I was taught that SI units were |||
meant to be computationally convenient rather than just / | \
arbitrarily assigned.

[bob mullen]

On Fri, 28 Feb 2014 00:47:02 -0500, Jonathan N. Little wrote:

> A little more is required for 12.04 as described in the article. I can
> confirm because it is what I had to automount my Asus MeMO

Isn't Ubuntu 13.10 a whole different beast when it comes to MTP?

[Melzzzzz]

My wife recently bought Google nexus 7, when connected with
USB cable every time nautilus opens with content from tablet.
Saucy salamander with kernel from mainline repo, 3.14.0-rc5
currently.

--
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