Smartphone used as USB memory stick is correctly read on XP VirtualBox machine but Linux Mint show only root folders

Question

Smartphone used as USB memory stick is correctly read on XP VirtualBox machine but Linux Mint show only root folders

The stick is recognized by Linux, but show first level folder only: Folders are shown 'empty'.

When opened with VirtualBox XP machine, I can access everything. So, it does not seems an USB device/hardware problem?

Linux Mint 13 (based on Ubuntu Precise), kernel 3.2.0-53-generic (i686)

Smartphone is Samsung Note 2 in MTP mode. Listed as

gphoto2://[usb:001,006]/store_00010001 
-and-
gphoto2://[usb:001,006]/store_00020002

Why 'gphoto2'? gphoto2 is installed.

Command line:

luc@luc-MS-7502> gphoto2://[usb:001,011]/store_00020002
bash: gphoto2://[usb:001,011]/store_00020002: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type

Alert message on connection:

'Impossible de monter GT-N7100'
     Unable to mount GT-N7100
'Erreur lors de l'initialisation de l'appareil photo: -60: Impossible de verrouiller le périphérique'
     Error when initializing the camera:  -60: Unable to lock the peripheral

syslog says Connect:

[80493.024031] usb 1-6: new high-speed USB device number 6 using ehci_hcd Disconnect: [80765.488792] usb 1-6: USB disconnect, device number 6

lsusb:

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 04e8:6860 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9100 Phone [Galaxy S II]

== Added 15 Jan =======================================

fdisk

return only data for installed hard disks.

After installing (Step 1 to 3) suggested by slm ( Thanks for answer !) :

luc@luc-MS-7502> go-mtpfs /media/MyAndroid  
2014/01/15 22:45:06 compiled against libmtp 1.1.5 
Device 0 (VID=04e8 and PID=6860) is a Samsung Galaxy models (MTP).  
2014/01/15 22:45:06 found device Samsung: Galaxy models (MTP) (04e8:6860) @ bus 1, dev 3
:   
2014/01/15 22:45:06 storage ID 65537: Phone  
2014/01/15 22:45:06 storage ID 131074: Card  
2014/01/15 22:45:06 backing data /tmp/go-mtpfs893583131  
2014/01/15 22:45:06 starting FUSE unknown  

 (NOTE: NO PROMPT  ! )

and still showing only 'root' folders of both 'Phone' and 'Card'

Answer 1

When the device is mounted in the Windows system I would attempt to first run fdisk to see if you can't determine what type of filesystem it is. It might even have multiple partitions on it, and you're mounting a secondary one when on Linux, and the primary on Windows.

But in looking at some of the output you provided the device is providing access to at least 1 partition via MTP - Media Transfer Protocol. To access this type of filesystem you'll need to use an application to mount & access it successfully, such as gphoto2.

Without seeing the output of fdisk it's difficult to offer more assistance, it's unclear what the make-up of partitions is with this device.

Mounting Android devices

I did find this thread in one of the Linux Mint forums, titled: "Connecting to android 4.x+ Devices with MTP", that discusses mounting Android devices under Mint. This might get you what you want, but I do not have a device to confirm any of this, so your mileage may vary.

NOTE: These instructions are outdated, native MTP support is now built into Mint 15 and above! But if you're stuck on Linux Mint 13 or 14 you can use these instructions to mount your Android devices.

Step 1 - install

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/unstable
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install go-mtpfs

Step 2 - attach device

Once the above software is installed plug-in your Android device using a USB cable.

Step 3 - mount device

$ go-mtpfs /media/MyAndroid

Step 4 - browse device

The device should show up just like any other USB device in MATE/Nautilus.

Step 5 - unmounting device

$ fusermount -u /media/MyAndroid

Answer 2

Since my last post, the situation is worse:Any device connected to USB does not show (saying 'Not authorized'), but mount automatically when logged as root (After back to commandline, log as root and 'startx')

But I found the command pmount/pumount who do the job...

It seems related to privileges somewhere, but does not found where.

Not the solution, but a workaround: As user, it has 'normally' to mount automatically and show the device in the desktop and Caja/..