Ubuntu Nexus 7 as USB device does not work

Question

I connected USB cable from Nexus 7 running Ubuntu to my Ubuntu laptop but there is no new USB device found when I run lsusb. Is this function supported?

Answer 1

UPDATE Please take a look below for go-mtpfs example. go-mtpfs is much more reliable, but the instructions remain very similar.

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Automatically mounting Nexus 7

Allow non-root users to mount fuse devices:

sudo vim /etc/fuse.conf

Un-comment **user_allow_other**.

Install mtpfs

sudo apt-get install mtp-tools mtpfs

Make mount point

sudo mkdir /mnt/nexus7

chown youruser:youruser /mnt/nexus7

Add udev rules

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules

#Nexus7 
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666"

sudo chmod +x /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules

Add Nexus7 to fstab

sudo vim /etc/fstab

mtpfs /mnt/nexus7 fuse user,noauto,allow_other,defaults 0 0

Restart udev

sudo service udev restart

Access device

mount /mnt/nexus7

umount /mnt/nexus7

Answer 2

A blog post by Bilal Akhtar has a supposedly more reliable way to connect to Android 4.0+ devices from Ubuntu. The steps are summarized here:

1. Install the go-mtpfs library, which you'll be using to connect:

   sudo apt-get install golang fuse git-core libmtp-dev libfuse-dev
   sudo adduser $USER fuse
   mkdir /tmp/go 
   GOPATH=/tmp/go go get github.com/hanwen/go-mtpfs
   sudo mv /tmp/go/bin/go-mtpfs /usr/bin/
   mkdir ~/MyAndroid
   

   Note: At some point during installation, a screen may come up in your terminal asking if you want to share information about public Go packages you install with the developers. Feel free to answer this question however you want.

2. Mount your Nexus 7 or whatever using this command after plugging it into your USB port:

   go-mtpfs ~/MyAndroid &
   

3. When you are finished, unmount your device by using this command:

   fusermount -u ~/MyAndroid
   

_{I would also like to thank James Gifford for pointing this article out to me on Google+. ;)}

Answer 3

If the Nexus tablet has the Software Data Cable app available, this program will let you easily transfer files via a wireless link. See:

http://linuxnorth.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/a100-to-ubuntu-file-transfer/

and

http://linuxnorth.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/software-data-cable-addendum/

Answer 4

In contrast to all the other answers I would still claim that it's not yet possible at all. The question is clearly about "Nexus 7 running Ubuntu" and as far as I understand there is no special service in this first Ubutu port for the Nexus 7 that acts as a USB device. I have a Nexus 7 running Ubuntu here and didn't succeed with any of these solutions mentioned.

I think, all answers so far target Nexus 7 running Android.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Answer 5

Install this PPA : https://launchpad.net/~langdalepl/+archive/gvfs-mtp

Update and upgrade.

Hey presto, working MTP support that automounts a Nexus 7 as a browsable folder in Nautilus.