Arch Linux

aardwolf

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2005-07-23

Posts: 304

MTP and galaxy nexus

Hello,

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus uses "MTP" instead of the simple "USB mass storage device" protocol.

Several months ago, I was able to copy photos from this Android to my computer, using instructions on the wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mtp).

Very long ago, this worked with something called "libmtp-updated". However that is now not mentioned anymore on the wiki page, so I assume this means libmpt is now supposed to be the most up to date version. And I think a few months ago, it also actually worked.

But today it doesn't anymore.

I've tried both libmtp, and the new libmpt-git from AUR, and neither works.

Here's what I do, this used to work, now no longer:

-connect the phone and set it in MTP mode
-run as root: mtpfs -o allow_other /mnt/usb
-run as normal user: cd /mnt/usb/Internal\ Storage/DCIM/Camera --> works, so it knows at least the existance of some directories on the phone
-run: ls --> it lists no files at all, even though there are files on the android
-then open Konqueror (KDE file manager) and go to /mnt/usb/Internal\ Storage/DCIM/Camera with it --> it lists no files
-with Konqueror, go to /mnt/usb/Internal\ Storage/DCIM/Camera a second time --> now it shows some error at the bottom that it couldn't open the directory
-now in a terminal again type cd /mnt/usb/Internal\ Storage/DCIM/Camera --> now it displays an error: "Transport endpoint is not connected"

So in conclusion:

-when connected with MTP, Linux can see the directories of it, but not the files (the photos)
-Konqueror somehow manages to start letting it produce this "endpoint" error

Does anyone else have, as of May 2012, success with copying photos from their Android (galaxy nexus in particular) to Linux?

Why did MTP use to work and now not anymore? Did libmpt and/or mtpfs somehow got worse in a recent update?

Any idea of something I could do to make it work?

Thanks!

P.S. I was able to copy the photos now using "adb" and "aafm" (which is also proof that there REALLY were files in that Camera directory), but I'd prefer to use standard ways for the file transfer...

Last edited by aardwolf (2012-05-28 12:21:19)

batrick

Member

Registered: 2012-05-29

Posts: 10

Re: MTP and galaxy nexus

I'm dealing with the same problem.

I am able to read files in the root directory (I have some public/private keys there) but nowhere else. For example:

# cat /mnt/Internal\ Storage/id_rsa.pub
ssh-rsa [...]

# ls /mnt/Internal\ Storage/DCIM/Camera/
[nothing]

pedroobv

Member

Registered: 2012-06-04

Posts: 5

Re: MTP and galaxy nexus

I have also encountered this problem (I'm using gentoo). I noticed that this happens only with version 1.1 of mtpfs, previous versions seem to work fine. As an alternative, you can also try gMTP, nevertheless it would be nice if someone could provide some hint to solve this problem.

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: MTP and galaxy nexus

gMTP depends on libmtp, so how does that help?

F1y3r

Member

Registered: 2007-09-28

Posts: 61

Re: MTP and galaxy nexus

I don't know anything about Android phone mtp or mtpfs, so I don't know if it'll help. I'm using Gnomad2 to transfer files to my Creative Zen V. When using new libmtp from repos Gnomad2 crashes after first file is transfered. So effectively I can transfer files only one by one and they are discovered only after I refresh/rebuild file database on the device. The only way I got it to work properly was by downgrading libmtp to 1.1.0-1 from Arch Rollback Machine.

/dev/zero

Member

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2011-10-20

Posts: 1,247

Re: MTP and galaxy nexus

I've been in touch with the mtpfs dev. I gave him some debug info and he said it looks like mtpfs is working okay, but there is bad information coming back from libmtp. Also see this thread - OP should stfw before opening new threads .

pedroobv

Member

Registered: 2012-06-04

Posts: 5

Re: MTP and galaxy nexus

Yes, I know that gMTP uses libmtp, and since it displays all files correctly I thought (until the previous post) that the problem relies on mtpfs itself. The fact that previous versions of mtpfs work correctly and mtp-files also shows the files seem to confirm my original idea. Anyway, I'm not a programmer and I have no idea how mtpfs works so, take my comment with a grain of salt.

After searching the web for a while, i cannot understand how I found this thread before the one by /dev/zero, which I did not find at all . My apologies.