Correctly recognizing Alcatel flip phone

upnort · 07-20-2019, 12:16 PM

Recently I purchased an Alcatel A405DL flip phone. The phone uses KaiOS 2.5.

I am looking for tips to correctly recognize the phone.

Connecting the phone to my Slackware 64 14.2 system:

lsusb: 1bbb:a00e T & A Mobile Phones

usb-devices:

Code:

T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=12 Cnt=03 Dev#= 10 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1bbb ProdID=a00e Rev=03.10
S:  Manufacturer=Android
S:  Product=Android
S:  SerialNumber=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=500mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=00 Driver=usbfs

MATE Desktop and Caja file manager: Android

Looking around the web indicates "T & A" probably means TCL Communication and Alcatel.

Searching through /lib/udev I see many references to Android and Alcatel. Nothing about my phone.

Would be nice if the device was recognized as Alcatel rather than Android. I am guessing I need to create some custom config files. Perhaps further identified as A405DL.

In Current I notice the A405DL is listed in /lib/udev/hwdb.d/20-libgphoto2.hwdb. I don't have a bare-metal Current system to test further. Using VirtualBox USB pass-through shows the same "Android" results.

This is basically a lazy, slow rainy day project. No big deal, but where to start? I presume I need a custom udev rules. Do I need some kind of usb_modeswitch config file?

Thanks again.

Richard Cranium · 07-20-2019, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by upnort

Looking around the web indicates "T & A" probably means TCL Communication and Alcatel.

I'll admit that wasn't the first thought that came to my mind.

Ahem.

In the 14.2 69-libmtp.hwdb file, there's an entry for vendor 1bbb and product a00e:

Code:

# Alcatel OneTouch 5042D (MTP)
usb:v1bbbpa00e*
 ID_MEDIA_PLAYER=1
 ID_MTP_DEVICE=1

The file 70-mouse.hwdb tells you how to add local entries to the hardware rules db. I think you can add your own entry to match the stuff in 20-usb-vendor-model.hwdb, but I haven't tried it.

upnort · 07-20-2019, 01:04 PM

Quote:

I'll admit that wasn't the first thought that came to my mind.

Quote:

In the 14.2 69-libmtp.hwdb file, there's an entry for vendor 1bbb and product a00e

Yes, thanks -- I found the same entry since posting.

Still haven't figured out how to change the name from Android to Alcatel or perhaps Alcatel A405DL. I get the feeling from poking around that I have to use usb modeswitch.

Richard Cranium · 07-21-2019, 04:19 AM

Well, did you try making a file named 21-usb-vendor-model.hwdb in /lib/udev/hwdb.d/ which contains...

Code:

usb:v1bbbpa00e*
 ID_MODEL_FROM_DATABASE=Alcatel A405DL

and running

Code:

udevadm hwdb --update

?

upnort · 07-21-2019, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Well, did you try making a file named 21-usb-vendor-model.hwdb in /lib/udev/hwdb.d/ which contains

Thank you!

Same result -- the phone appears on the desktop as Android. Same with a full reboot.

Richard Cranium · 07-21-2019, 06:33 PM

Hmm. What happens when you rename the file to 19-usb-vendor-model.hwdb and run blah blah blah?

In some setups, last one to set the property wins. In others, the first one to set the property wins. I dunno how udev decides and I don't care to look at the moment. (I've spent an inordinate amount of time fixing my back yard sprinklers. A first world problem to be sure, but it's 102F outside right now.)

upnort · 07-21-2019, 07:28 PM

I tried renaming to 19-* and 99-*. No change.