Connecting Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich / Jelly Bean) phone to Ubuntu 12.04

Question

I'm using the US Model 16GB version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 (I747), however, I cannot mount it to my laptop from some reason. I have tried using both FTP and MTP connections, but neither work.

What should I do?

Answer 1

There have been several projects to bring MTP support to Linux during the recent months. Here is a quick overview:

GVFS

The best solution would be to use GVFS via the recently released GVFS-MTP-backend to mount your Android phone. There are two PPAs with a newer GVFS version.

1. ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp

       sudo add-apt-repository ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp
       sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
   

2. ppa:webupd8team/gvfs-libmtp

       sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/gvfs-libmtp
       sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
   

Source:

• http://linuxundich.de/de/ubuntu/gvfs-update-ermoglicht-unter-ubuntulinux-endlich-den-bequemen-zugriff-auf-android-gerate-via-mtp/
• http://www.webupd8.org/2013/01/upgrade-to-gvfs-with-mtp-support-in.html

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go-mtpfs

You could use go-mtpfs to mount your Android phone.

Install needed packages and get the source:

sudo apt-get install golang-go libmtp-dev
sudo go get github.com/hanwen/go-mtpfs
sudo ln /usr/lib/go/bin/go-mtpfs /usr/local/bin/

Add yourself to the group fuse (after that log out and log in again):

sudo adduser $USER fuse

Create a folder for your Android phone and mount it with go-mtpfs into that folder:

mkdir android
go-mtpfs android

Unmout your Android phone (wait for the end of file operations):

fusermount -u android

Source: http://linuxundich.de/de/android/mit-go-mtpfs-unter-linux-auf-android-handys-via-mtp-zugreifen/

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jmtpfs

You could use jmtpfs to mount your Android phone.

Download jmtpfs, unpack and change into directory:

cd /tmp
wget http://research.jacquette.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/jmtpfs-0.4.tar.gz
tar -xzf jmtpfs-0.4.tar.gz
cd jmtpfs-0.4

Add yourself to the group fuse (after that log out and log in again):

sudo adduser $USER fuse

Install needed packages, compile and install (for checkinstall questions hit enter) jmtpfs:

sudo apt-get install libmtp-dev libfuse-dev libmagic-dev checkinstall build-essential
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

Create a folder for your Android phone and mount it with jmtpfs into that folder:

mkdir ~/android
jmtpfs ~/android/

Unmout your Android phone (wait for the end of file operations):

fusermount -u ~/android

Source: http://linuxundich.de/de/ubuntu/mit-jmtpfs-mtp-gerate-wie-das-galaxy-nexus-oder-das-samsung-galaxy-siii-in-ubuntu-mounten/

Answer 2

As Dan mentioned, a wireless file transfer app like AirDroid is a good solution.

These apps fall into two subcategories:

1. ones where you access your files through the browser (AirDroid), and
2. ones where you FTP into your phone using a FTP client like FileZilla (and FTP Server).

Such an app is fine for small files but for transferring HD movies, you would need hours or days. Max transfer speed on Ubuntu is about up to 260KB/s (for some reason) while on Windows 7 it's about up to 1MB/s.

There's gMTP which is available in the app store, but chances are it won't work for your Galaxy S3 - it doesn't work on mine, most of the time. (You have to wait out the app hanging; it looks like it crashes whenever you interact with the app but if it recovers, then you know it works.)

If you need speed, the best solution is the one posted by BuZZ-dEE, although the original source is English:

http://research.jacquette.com/jmtpfs-exchanging-files-between-android-devices-and-linux/

You'll need to be comfortable with the terminal, compiling programs from source code and editing source code, though. If anyone needs a walkthrough, let me know.

Answer 3

This indicates that for Ice Cream Sandwich, Ubuntu file transfer is as simple as ticking the PTP checkbox. In a few seconds you are browsing the filesystem in Nautilus.

Pictures taken directly from: Source

Answer 4

I have an LG P880 and I have created a directory inside "Pictures" and named it "ptp" then I connect my device as PTP, and copy files to pictures/ptp

There's one little problem though, I couldn't see a transfer dialog while copying files, so, I think you need to estimate time.. for me, I compress big files into little piece and wait for them to appear on the other side, then remove device after a while.

Then, of course, open any file manager and move/extract files to desired location. I use this method all the time..

Answer 5

Add the raring repositories to sources.list and

sudo apt-get -t raring install gvfs

After this I can browse the filesystem on a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.1.2, using Nautilus.

Note that the apt-get pulls in quite a few packages from Raring including a new libc6.