When I connect my Ubuntu Lucid laptop to my Android 2.1 phone (Samsung Galaxy-S "Captivate"), I see the following in the logs:
In addition, the Nautilus file manager display gets two new file system icons named: SAMSUNG SGH-I897 and SAMSUNG SGH-I897 Card.

In spite of all of this, I cannot open the Nautilus "file systems"
and mount does not show anything available. Also, I cannot use sudo mount /dev/sdb /media/something or sudo mount /dev/sdc /media/something even though the logs report that both are "attached SCSI removable disk".

<soap_box>
I am so very frustrated!!! This is yet another situation where most of the postings say that this just works. Then when ** I ** try that same something, I have all sorts of grief.

I'm a 30+ year veteran bit-slinger and a 10+ year linux user. If I have this sort of confabulation, pity the poor newbie all the more.
It is little wonder that linux gets such a bad rep in general.
</soap_box>

Can anyone help me?
~~~ 0;-Dan

Ok maybe it's similar to my milestone.
when you connect to your notebook, you can adjust the usb settings on the phone.
like only load battery, portal and? , but also just as simple usb device.

When I mount my Droid, I have to plug in the phone and then I have to use the Android notification to make the phone available for mounting. Sorry for asking such a basic question, but are you doing that? If you simply plug the phone into USB, it isn't available for mounting since Android still has the SD card mounted. Once I make the SD card available, I can see in the dmesg output what node in /dev it is and can mount it.

Yes when i plug in i have to assign how usb is / should be recognized.

I understand what you are saying, and I'm doing some sort of dance at the phone. I was expecting the phone to present both the internal and external SD storage -- that is what the phone calls them -- such that the desktop or laptop would see them similar to how it sees flash media or other external usb storage.

I guess that I'm missing something along the way.

Merci d'avance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

My phone is new and I don't want to foul the warranty ... yet (grin).

Is there some way that I can view the phone's log files and otherwise poke around without resorting to (1) "jailbreak", or (2) "rooting" the phone?

ASIDE -- I'm still looking for understanding about "jailbreak" (enable the phone to load apps from anywhere not just the carrier) and "rooting" (enable full root-user and shell access to phone software).
When I research this, it seems that everyone goes straight to rooting but the two hacks seem different to me.

Merci d'avance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

Actually I think the term jailbreak came from the Apple side of the world and pretty much means the same thing as rooting. It is just in the case of iOS, you have to root in order to be able to load apps not approved by His Jobsness since iOS is locked to the Apple app store. In Android, there is a switch you set (Settings > Applications >Unknown Sources) that lets you use whatever source you like for apps and you don't have to root to change this setting.

I've never seen a way to get at the internal phone storage, only the SD storage. I think as long as the phone is on, the internal storage is mounted by Android, and probably can't be unmounted, even with root access. I think there are also some security reasons that lock down internal storage (though I may be wrong). However, in my case, the SD storage looks and acts exactly like a USB stick or any other removable device I connect to my computer. All I'm doing it plugging in the USB cable, telling Android to allow the SD card to be accessed and then mounting it on my Linux box.

I use an app called "Android System Info". It is available for free in the Marketplace and one of the things it does is show the log files. No root needed for this one.

I do not have Settings --> Applications --> Unknown Sources. My software is Android v2.1, Update1. Is there some way to replace my Settings app with one that will do the thing needed?

All I have is Settings --> Applications then

• Manage applications
• Running services
• Development
• USB settings

Under USB settings I see:

• Kies (firmware update)
• Media player
• Mass storage Checked
• Ask on connection

Under Development I see:

• USB debugging Checked
• Stay awake Checked
• Allow mock locations

The description of Settings --> Applications --> Development --> USB Debugging says to use that option to access the internal storage.

For what its worth,
~~~ 0;-Dan

Why is all of this tinkering to share files between Android and Linux?

For *nix-es, I would use NFS or similar, but SAMBA also includes the win-doze folks to play nice.

Phone runs a samba server with configured shares for the storage -- internal and external.

Phone connects. Device dance happens. "Connect to samba share" happens once the device is seen as connected. smbmount or similar causes the share to become visible to linux host as if it were a local drive.
Phone configurables are (1a) enable shares, and (2a) what to call them.
Linux configurables are (1b) udev rules, and (2b) where to mount shares if other than /phone or similar.

Cheers,
~~~ 0;-Dan

I wish I knew why you were having all this trouble. I never have, even when I was running vanilla Android (I'm running BuglessBeast now).

I wonder if Samsung or your wireless carries have messed with Android. I would swear that 2.1 had the exact same option to load from unknown sources. I've been doing it since I got my Droid in January, and it was running stock 2.1 then.

You might want to check "ask on connection" and see if that gives you more options.

This is the story of my linux life: I have troubles with all sorts of features that "just work" for everyone else. Heavy sigh!

~~~ 0;-Dan

Is this problem solved yet? I have a Captivate and also have discovered how to operate it.

It sounds like you have all the settings correct on your phone. I think what HangDog is saying is you have to use the notification pull down pane to allow usb to access internal/external sd storage. The same pull down where you can activate wifi, bluetooth, vibrate, and silent all in one place.

Hello all,

I also had much trouble getting the USB Mass Storage to work on my new Captivate. I use FreeBSD primarily so of course I need the Mass Storage to work. MTP transfer mode worked fine in Windows, though it's slow, but Mass Storage worked on neither Windows nor BSD nor Linux. So, the trick is there is a very specific set of actions to make it work, and yes, it does!

1. Set the USB mode in settings to 'Mass Storage' or 'Choose'.
2. Plug the USB cable into the phone.
3. Select "Mass Storage" if it isn't set to automatic.
4. NOW, go to the Home screen and pull down the Notifications bar curtain.
5. Touch the USB item in the list. The phone should prompt you to mount the SD card and enable transfer.
6. Now, the computer should see the Removable Drive appear, and allow you to browse the disk.
7. I mounted it in FreeBSD by: mount -t msdosfs /dev/da1 /droid ... In Linux it should be mount -t vfat /dev/sda2 /droid (I think!)
8. That's it! I am getting 8-9 MB/second transfer which is pretty decent for a solid-state disk device.
   
   Hope this helps!
   
   -The Woose