[Discuss] How to mount an Android device in Linux -- solution

[Derek Martin]

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 06:10:00PM -0500, Tom Metro wrote:
> Brendan Kidwell wrote:
> > I got a Nexus 7 a couple of months ago and I was frustrated by the lack of
> > good support for accessing Android 4.0+'s filesystem via USB from a Linux
> > client.
> 
> What's the underlying issue?
> 
> Is it really a new file system or is it addressing flaws in the USB
> driver on the Linux side?

The issue (probably) is that later android releases on some devices no
longer have block device access to the device's internal storage
and/or SD cards.  This was done to allow the devices to make better
use of internal storage; as a side effect it enabled using ext3 for
the filesystem.  On some devices, you can get block device access to
external storage only, with a third-party app, but only if you're
rooted.

On those devices, you now are required to use MTP to access the device
via USB, which until somewhat recently had little or no support under
Linux, since solved by libmtp.  I didn't look at this project, but I'm
guessing it's a FUSE filesystem based on libmtp.
 
-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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