Discussion:
Need help mounting Cellphone Slack 14.1x64
(too old to reply)
Ron Gibson
2017-10-29 14:06:17 UTC
Permalink
OS: Slack 14.1x64 using stock kernel

I've used Slackware Linux since the beginning when it came on floppies
and the kernel was version .9 but I have to admit getting some devices
to work is sometimes a challenge, none of which I have not been able
to overcome though

I also have used Windows and OS/2 in multiboot configurations. But
when I had a problem with those other OSs often it is Slackware that
I've used to fix them.

So here is the problem: For some unknown reason Windows 7 installed on
two desktops (identical machines with identical software setups) and a
Laptop with a slightly different version (Windows 7 Pro on laptop
verses Windows 7 Ultimate on desktops) will no longer install the
drivers for my cellphone and tablet when plugged in via USB cable.

The astounding thing about this is it happens with two different
mobile devices - A Kindle Fire HD6 (Load this with media to watch on
long plane trips) and my cell phone on the 2 desktops and the Laptop.
One week they all mounted fine and then a few weeks later no go and I
seldom ever change anything on my Thinkpad.

Its not the cables or a bad USB port - I've used other cables and
ports. Anyway the probability of different cables and USB ports across
3 different machines to all fail at once is next to zero.

Nor is this problem rare as Google turns up hundreds of people with
the same problem, especially those with Samsung cellphones.

OTOH my Canon point and shoot camera mounts just fine under windoze
albeit I am not sure if they are using some Linux variant but I would
bet they do. Only the Android based tablets and phones are having this
problem. Speculation - Often your Android OS get updated without your
consent. I know of no way to track down the offending change and
rolling it back. That's the only thing that makes sense so I give up
trying to do this with windoze. I can access the devices via FTP using
ES File Explorer, which is dog slow and cannot access the 32 GB SD
card in the LG cellphone all of a sudden either - another unexpected
change and the only solution for that (which was the result of an
Android update) is to root the device and risk bricking it.

Needless to say I am pissed as I have 20 GB of movies and music on the
cell's SD card. I can delete flies off the SD card using the built in
file manager but can not load them and do not have enough space to
transfer even 1 GB to the phones built in memory and then use the
phone again to transfer to SD card. If do not want to risk rooting the
LG phone the only solution is to buy an SD card reader and transfer
files that way and put it back in the phone which will be a pain.

I've found instructions on how to do this using Ubuntu but I am not
going to install that (I don't like it anyway) just for this issue.

I've googled my tail off trying to find the steps to do this with
Slackware and its all Linux so what you can do with one distro you
should be able to do with another.

So can someone help me out with this or point me to a web article that
has the steps needed to just mount the phone. Frankly I am not even
sure that the phone and tablet will cooperate even if mounted but its
worth a try before I try to root it or buy another phone. Also not
sure what type of device the device will be mounted as but I would
assume it will be mounted as a block device and be designated as
something like /dev/sdd for example.

HELP :)

Thanks in advance.
Ars Ivci
2017-10-29 15:17:00 UTC
Permalink
On Sun, 29 Oct 2017 10:06:17 -0400
Post by Ron Gibson
OS: Slack 14.1x64 using stock kernel
I've used Slackware Linux since the beginning when it came on floppies
and the kernel was version .9 but I have to admit getting some devices
to work is sometimes a challenge, none of which I have not been able
to overcome though
...
Post by Ron Gibson
I've googled my tail off trying to find the steps to do this with
Slackware and its all Linux so what you can do with one distro you
should be able to do with another.
I put myself in "plugdev" group and I can mount the phone via usb by
just plugging it. Card adapter also works; never had a problem.
Alternatively you can connect it via bluetooth.

t.
--
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit
atrocities.
Ron Gibson
2017-10-29 21:36:16 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ars Ivci
Post by Ron Gibson
I've googled my tail off trying to find the steps to do this with
Slackware and its all Linux so what you can do with one distro you
should be able to do with another.
I put myself in "plugdev" group and I can mount the phone via usb by
just plugging it. Card adapter also works; never had a problem.
Alternatively you can connect it via bluetooth.
Oh forgot about Bluetooth. I should explain this. I am not big on
smartphones and only had one now for 2 years. I prefer my landline.
Around town all I use it for is for an emergency phone.

Usually the only time I use it and need it is when I travel for
calling Uber or for Google Maps as I travel all over Colorado when I
vacation there twice a year.

I thought a sec and tried another Google but searched for a KDE
package instead. There was one on Slackbuilds and of course the script
bombed with no clues as to what was missing.

So yeah, Bluetooth works, FTP with ES File Manager works but they are
both slow.

The real issue here is how to populate my SD card in the LG phone. The
Fire that no longer works either doesn't have enough space to worry
about it too much as I can set up the FTP transfer and just walk away
and 15 minutes later its done OTOH, the LG phone has a 32GB SD card
so speed is an issue.

Considering the wasted time and hassle I'm just gonna buy a SD card
reader. A highly rated Kingston (verified to easily work with Linux)
model is only $15. It will allow for fast transfers.

This is the best option, IMO.
Ars Ivci
2017-10-30 11:49:07 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ron Gibson
Post by Ron Gibson
I've googled my tail off trying to find the steps to do this with
Slackware and its all Linux so what you can do with one distro you
should be able to do with another.
[...]
Post by Ron Gibson
The real issue here is how to populate my SD card in the LG phone. The
Fire that no longer works either doesn't have enough space to worry
about it too much as I can set up the FTP transfer and just walk away
and 15 minutes later its done OTOH, the LG phone has a 32GB SD card
so speed is an issue.
If you have XFCE or KDE installed, just give my previous suggestion a try:

Boot into Slackware,
In console, as root, run "usermod -a -G plugdev <your-user-name>"
switch to a normal user and run "startx"
Plug the naughty phone
If all goes OK, the phone will ask permission; give it and see if it is
auto mounted.

If that does not work, it means Android does not allow USB transfers any
more. If you have KDE installed, they have something called KDE Connect,
you can give it a try; maybe it is faster than Bluetooth.
Post by Ron Gibson
Considering the wasted time and hassle I'm just gonna buy a SD card
reader. A highly rated Kingston (verified to easily work with Linux)
model is only $15. It will allow for fast transfers.
This is the best option, IMO.
Agreed.
t.
--
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
Henrik Carlqvist
2017-10-29 15:25:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ron Gibson
So here is the problem: For some unknown reason Windows 7 installed on
two desktops (identical machines with identical software setups) and a
Laptop with a slightly different version (Windows 7 Pro on laptop verses
Windows 7 Ultimate on desktops) will no longer install the drivers for
my cellphone and tablet when plugged in via USB cable.
What kind of drivers are needed?
Post by Ron Gibson
One week they all mounted fine and then a few weeks later no go and I
seldom ever change anything on my Thinkpad.
So something has happened. Maybe broken hardware, maybe a broken file
system.
Post by Ron Gibson
Nor is this problem rare as Google turns up hundreds of people with the
same problem, especially those with Samsung cellphones.
Yep, there are some things that can go wrong and many people don't know
how to fix things when they go wrong.
Post by Ron Gibson
OTOH my Canon point and shoot camera mounts just fine under windoze
Then please be careful, unless you select "safely remove hardware" before
disconnecting it, one day it will also stop mounting.
Post by Ron Gibson
Only the Android based tablets and phones are having this
problem.
You need some basic understanding of cluster file systems and why the
choice not to use cluster file systems on Android phones makes them extra
sensitive to this kind of problems.
Post by Ron Gibson
Needless to say I am pissed as I have 20 GB of movies and music on the
cell's SD card.
SD cards are even easier than built in memory. They can be removed from
the phone and placed in an SD card reader which connects to your computer
by USB.
Post by Ron Gibson
So can someone help me out with this or point me to a web article that
has the steps needed to just mount the phone.
First of all you will need some basic understanding of different file
systems and the tools to fix them. Lets hope that your problem is caused
by a broken file system which kan be fscked. If your problem is caused by
broken hardware (yes, SD cards do break sometimes) then there is no other
solution than buying a new SD card and put that in the phone. If you are
lucky you might still be able to save some data from the broken card with
a tool like photorec.

Lets start by explaining the difference between a mounted file system and
a file system that is not mounted. When a program opens a file and writes
some data to that file no data might actually be written by the program
until the program closes the file or actively flushes the file. Not until
then is it the responsibility of the OS to take care of the data. This
gives programs better performance as they don't have to waste time
waiting for slow disks. Writing data to buffers in RAM is much faster.

Also your OS migth want to make your system appear speedier by caching
data in RAM before writing it to disk. For that reason you can never know
for sure that all data needed has been written to disk until umount of
the disk has finished. In windows umount is called something like "safely
remove...". As you can understand it is not possible to umount a file
system if any program have files or directories open on that file system.

Removing a removable disk like an SD card without firs unmounting that
disk will leave a bit on the file system which marks the file system as
mounted. The next time you try to mount that file system your OS is going
to recognize that bit and say something like "Hey, something is wrong
with this file system, I will not touch it until you fix it". Depending
on your OS you might find this message in some pop-up window or in some
log file. In Linux you might also find the message in the output from the
command "dmesg". Sometimes this message also contains a helpful text on
how you should use some tool like fsck or chkdsk.

There is a good reason to give this kind of message as mounting a broken
file system might cause things to get even worse when new data gets
written on places belonging to old files.

So what is a cluster file system? A cluster file system has extra
mechanisms which allows more than one computer to simoultaneysly have the
same disk mounted. This is not the same as a network file system where
several clients might have the same share mounted, a cluster file system
is designed for rare clusters of computers connected to the same disk
bus. This bus might be SCSI or fibre channel.

Why would a clustered file system be a good idea on an Android phone?
Because your Android phone is a Linux computer and the SD card has a file
system that your Android phone might want to share with another Linux
computer. So why did they not implement a cluster file system on the SD
card? Because cluster file systems are rare and complicated, far from
FAT32 which even a toy OS like Windows will support.

So to copy some data from your PC to your phone you will have to do the
following:

1) Connect the phone to your PC by USB
2) From a menu on the phone, tell your phone to umount the SD card and
instead share the SD card by USB to the PC.
3) From you PC mount the SD card which appears as a USB memory
4) Copy files from PC to SD card
5) From your PC umount the SD card
6) From a menu on the phone, tell phone to stop sharing SD card and
instead mount it.
7) Disconnect USB

The above might seem complicated and maybe not what you want to spend
your time on, but failing to do the above steps in the right order might
result in lost data and broken file systems. Some Android systems don't
allow the host PC to mount the USB device. Instead they use some protocol
like PTP to transfer files.

So what to do with your now broken SD card? I would:
1) shutdown phone
2) remove SD card
3) Place SD card in some USB card reader
4) Connect card reader to Linux PC and start saving data.

The steps to save your data depends upon your configuration and how
broken things are. Maybe you have a FAT32 file system which only needs a
run of dosfsck. Maybe you need to do more work than that. If your data is
precious you might want to start by saving an image of your SD card. Your
first attempt to rescue data might result in more data lost than
necessary.

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc351(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
***@localhost ***@localhost
Ron Gibson
2017-10-29 17:48:29 UTC
Permalink
On Sun, 29 Oct 2017 15:25:30 -0000 (UTC), Henrik Carlqvist
<***@deadspam.com> wrote:

Your missing what I asked for - How to mount ANY cellphone via USB
cable. I do not need to read a book on file systems. that's akin to
reading a book on Fluid Mechanics before flying a kite.

I refused to even use a smartphone before 2 years ago. I've had too
many idiots on cellphones nearly kill me when I was on my motorcycle.
I hate the small interface as I have big hands and fingers.

I have NEVER mounted a smartphone with Linux. I just need the basic
method including the device type or a pointer to a page explain the
process from the beginning. Remember Ive been using Slack for 25
years. Talk to me in Slackaware terms.

I would prefer to build a package for KDE but am not sure what to look
for.
Post by Henrik Carlqvist
Post by Ron Gibson
So here is the problem: For some unknown reason Windows 7 installed on
two desktops (identical machines with identical software setups) and a
Laptop with a slightly different version (Windows 7 Pro on laptop verses
Windows 7 Ultimate on desktops) will no longer install the drivers for
my cellphone and tablet when plugged in via USB cable.
What kind of drivers are needed?
Irrelevant - That is a windoze problem.
Post by Henrik Carlqvist
So something has happened. Maybe broken hardware, maybe a broken file
system.
Impossible for the same exact failure on three separate machines at
the same time. Those windows machines have updates off and blocked
again the best I can in the hosts file.
Post by Henrik Carlqvist
Post by Ron Gibson
Nor is this problem rare as Google turns up hundreds of people with the
same problem, especially those with Samsung cellphones.
Yep, there are some things that can go wrong and many people don't know
how to fix things when they go wrong.
Post by Ron Gibson
OTOH my Canon point and shoot camera mounts just fine under windoze
Then please be careful, unless you select "safely remove hardware" before
disconnecting it, one day it will also stop mounting.
enough already.
Henrik Carlqvist
2017-10-30 16:49:58 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ron Gibson
Your missing what I asked for - How to mount ANY cellphone via USB
cable.
You missed my answer to that question:

-8<----------------------------------
Some Android systems don't allow the host PC to mount the USB device.
Instead they use some protocol like PTP to transfer files.
-8<----------------------------------

And the answer above also implies that nothing is broken. In your case,
where things which have worked before no longer works, my guess is that
something is broken.

So there is no answer for ANY cellphone, different phones are different.
Post by Ron Gibson
I do not need to read a book on file systems. that's akin to
reading a book on Fluid Mechanics before flying a kite.
No, but please don't be upset when the kite falls on your head because
you fail to understand the concept of gravity.
Post by Ron Gibson
I have NEVER mounted a smartphone with Linux. I just need the basic
method including the device type or a pointer to a page explain the
process from the beginning. Remember Ive been using Slack for 25 years.
Talk to me in Slackaware terms.
Then please ask your question in Slackware terms. After all this
googling, what did you try? And when you tried that, what happened and
how did that differ from your expected result?

When asking in a Slackware group you will usually get better responses
when asking about command line than point-and-click.

Examples of good commands to start with might be:

dmesg
fdisk -l
gphoto2 -L
Post by Ron Gibson
I would prefer to build a package for KDE but am not sure what to look
for.
The KDE file manager Dolphin included in Slackware should be able to
mount Android phones acting as USB disks. It should also be able to
access Android phones using the MTP interface even though I haven't tried
it myself.

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc351(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
***@localhost ***@localhost
Rich
2017-10-29 17:48:56 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ron Gibson
So can someone help me out with this or point me to a web article
that has the steps needed to just mount the phone. Frankly I am not
even sure that the phone and tablet will cooperate even if mounted
but its worth a try before I try to root it or buy another phone.
Also not sure what type of device the device will be mounted as but I
would assume it will be mounted as a block device and be designated
as something like /dev/sdd for example.
I have two suggestions to offer (neither of which address your specific
question, but either of which might be a solution to the problem).

1) Install 'adb'
(https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/development/android-tools/)
and set the phone into USB Debugging mode (you might have to "become a
developer" - instructions for how are best googled specific to your
phone model). adb will likely let you push files over usb directly
onto the phone's sdcard (at least with mine [Android 7.1] it does) but
it (adb) is a wee bit clunky to use.

2) Install fdroid (https://f-droid.org/) (note you may need to find and
turn on the "allow non-borg [goodle play] install sources" setting.
Again best googled for your specific phone model. Then, from inside
froid install the "Amaze" file manager. It too has a built in ftp
server, but at least on my Android 7.1 phone it can access both the
phones internal memory as well as the SD card (may have to grant it
permission to access the SD card).

With newer Android versions neither adb nor Amaze is allowed to access
the app private data store (/data) area, that's just a non-rooted
Android limitation.

I started out with adb, but when I discovered Amaze had a built in ftp
server, I've been using it instead of adb (because of that adb
clunkiness I mentioned) to transfer files to/from the SD card and the
built-in memory publicly visible area on the phone.
Ron Gibson
2017-10-29 21:47:29 UTC
Permalink
Post by Rich
I have two suggestions to offer (neither of which address your specific
question, but either of which might be a solution to the problem).
Maybe not but the best suggestions I've seen yet. Since the same exact
problem (no access via USB interface) occurred at the same time on 2
totally different mobile devices on 3 separate computers where they
all worked together just 6 months ago, (I only load them up when I
vacation every 6 months) combined with some talk of an android patch
that disabled USB transfer on many devices convinces me that this is a
problem caused by an unknown Android update. Updates on my windoze
machines is disabled and castrated.

It has to be an android problem that rears its ugly head with windoze.
Since Linux is so much more versatile and Android is certainly in the
same family of OSs, my hope is that this problem could be overcome
with Linux.

Thanx. I will be trying these :)
Post by Rich
1) Install 'adb'
(https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/development/android-tools/)
and set the phone into USB Debugging mode (you might have to "become a
developer" - instructions for how are best googled specific to your
phone model). adb will likely let you push files over usb directly
onto the phone's sdcard (at least with mine [Android 7.1] it does) but
it (adb) is a wee bit clunky to use.
2) Install fdroid (https://f-droid.org/) (note you may need to find and
turn on the "allow non-borg [goodle play] install sources" setting.
Again best googled for your specific phone model. Then, from inside
froid install the "Amaze" file manager. It too has a built in ftp
server, but at least on my Android 7.1 phone it can access both the
phones internal memory as well as the SD card (may have to grant it
permission to access the SD card).
With newer Android versions neither adb nor Amaze is allowed to access
the app private data store (/data) area, that's just a non-rooted
Android limitation.
I started out with adb, but when I discovered Amaze had a built in ftp
server, I've been using it instead of adb (because of that adb
clunkiness I mentioned) to transfer files to/from the SD card and the
built-in memory publicly visible area on the phone.
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