No USB connection after upgrade to 1.8.5 (linux)

SEE LAST POST ON HOW TO FIX

So I manually upgraded my FP1 from 1.4 to 1.8.5. and did the partition update. Before, my linuxmint saw the the phone as USB mass storage device every time. Now, when I connect my phone to my computer, nothing happens.

I already tried:

  • turn on/off usb debugging
  • restart phone, computer
  • use different usb-cable
  • try all options (mtp, ptp,…)

In other places of this forum I found a link to http://www.xda-developers.com/use-android-mtp-on-linux/ but got “Unable to open ~/.mtpz-data for reading, MTPZ disabled.Listing raw device(s) No raw devices found.”

Now I am a bit disappointed with updates in general (phone, computer) because I always think “things will be better afterwards” but eventually I realize “some things are always broken afterwards” =(

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After the partition update, you have basically two options to access data on you phone: USB Mass Storage and MTP.

MTP is the recommended way to access Android Storage nowadays, in this way the FP is more consistent with Google’s Android recommendation. You might have to change some settings of Linux Mint possibly, however since for me on Ubuntu it “just works”, please check your Linux Mint version.

USB Mass Storage is still available, but you can only access the micro-SD card. The phone storage is only accessible in MTP mode.

Also try the mint forums, judging by the number of posts on MTP more people have issues using it on Mint. The MTP guide you reference is quite old - things may be set up differently up for more recent distributions.

I’m on another linux distribution and for me MTP just works with my FP1 1.8.5, though occasionally it refuses to work for a random USB port (switching to any other port works fine, could be a USB 3.0 thing). The only mtp-related package I have installed appears to be libmtp (and kio_mtp for easy access in KDE).

This is what is installed on my xubuntu 15.04 installation:

$ dpkg -l *mtp*
...
||/ Name                   Version          Architecture     Description
+++-======================-================-================-==================================================
ii  libmtp-common          1.1.8-1ubuntu2   all              Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) common files
ii  libmtp-runtime         1.1.8-1ubuntu2   amd64            Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) runtime tools
ii  libmtp9:amd64          1.1.8-1ubuntu2   amd64            Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) library
ii  libnet-smtp-ssl-perl   1.01-3           all              Perl module providing SSL support to Net::SMTP

EDIT: And here it works flawlessly.

Thanks for the replies! I use the latest version (Linux Mint 17.1. Rebecca Cinnamon 32bit) and asked in their forum as well. By the way, PTP and CD-Rom connection now works, but MTP still doesn’t.

Obviously, my computer sees the android device:

alx@alx-LIFEBOOK-A530 ~ $ sudo mtp-detect
[sudo] password for alx: 
Unable to open ~/.mtpz-data for reading, MTPZ disabled.libmtp version: 1.1.6

Listing raw device(s)
Device 0 (VID=0bb4 and PID=0c02) is UNKNOWN.
Please report this VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team
   Found 1 device(s):
   0bb4:0c02 @ bus 2, dev 36
Attempting to connect device(s)
Android device detected, assigning default bug flags

Then I added a udev rule as suggested here http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/MTP#udev-Regel
When I connect my phone now, I see it popping up in the file manager, but when I click on it I get

»mtp://[usb:002,037]/« konnte nicht angezeigt werden.
Fehler: No such interface 'org.gtk.vfs.Mount' on object at path /org/gtk/vfs/mount/1
Bitte wählen Sie einen anderen Betrachter und versuchen Sie es erneut.

It’s quite a pain, after 3 hours I still cannot access files on my phone. Right after “call someone”, this is the most important feature of a phone. Thanks for your help.

I’m sorry to hear that it doesn’t work yet. What file manager do you use? Does it work on the command line?

Maybe, as a temporal remedy, you could use Dropbox/Google Drive/Microsoft OneDrive to get files to and from your phone.

Edit: Is there a way you can get a newer version of libmtp? As listed above, with version 1.1.8 it works flawlessly.

Interestingly, /lib/udev/rules.d/69-libmtp.rules does not include a rule for VID=0bb4 and PID=0c02.

My phone (FP1) seems to have VID=0bb4 and PID=2008:

Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0bb4:2008 HTC (High Tech Computer Corp.)```

However there is also no rule for that combination.

Long story short: I doubt that adding a udev rule solves the problem.

About those two device IDs:
If I have usb debugging (adb) on I get 0bb4:0c02. If I turn it off, I get: 0bb4:2008. There’s some discussion on the libmtp sourceforge site about the former being added in later than the latter. However, in the OP’s case, it seems likely both device IDs are not being handled correctly (as OP mentions turning debugging off/on).

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Thanks, @Johannes, for that info. I had only checked with debugging disabled.

Yet another question with a possible temporary work-around: @Alexander_Mueller, does adb work? If so, you can copy files to and from the device with adb push and adb pull (of course, USB debugging needs to be enabled for that).

Ok after a reboot of my computer it now works like a charm. Thanks for the quick help!!

==SUMMARY==
PROBLEM: Filemanager in Linuxmint doesn’t recognize Fairphone.

SOLUTION:
of course you need libmtp

sudo apt-get install libmtp

as root, copy /lib/udev/rules.d/69-libmtp.rules to /etc/udev/rules.d/69-libmtp.rules and edit the latter file as root. Add this at the bottom:

# Fairphone FP1 (in Debug Mode)
ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", ATTR{idProduct}=="0c02", SYMLINK+="libmtp-%k", MODE="660", GROUP="disk", ENV{ID_MTP_DEVICE}="1", ENV{ID_MEDIA_PLAYER}="1"
# Fairphone FP1 (not in Debug Mode)
ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", ATTR{idProduct}=="2008", SYMLINK+="libmtp-%k", MODE="660", GROUP="disk", ENV{ID_MTP_DEVICE}="1", ENV{ID_MEDIA_PLAYER}="1"

save, unplug phone, restart computer
connect phone (must be unlocked), filemanager should recognize your phone.

if not, you might have different VendorID/ProductID. In this case:

sudo apt-get install mtp-tools

connect your phone to computer, run this

sudo mtp-detect

will give something like this…

Listing raw device(s)
Device 0 (VID=0bb4 and PID=0c02) is UNKNOWN.
Please report this VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team
   Found 1 device(s):
   0bb4:0c02 @ bus 2, dev 36
Attempting to connect device(s)
Android device detected, assigning default bug flags

repeat the steps above with your VID and PID

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Thank you. I doesn’t realise that after the storage upgrade there is no external storage any more and you must use mtp. Now I added the rule and my Mint System likes my Fairphone again :slight_smile:

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