Getting access to my Android tablet

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

Mike Keithley

2018-10-18 03:08:07 UTC

Hello group,

I am trying to det file access to mn Android tablet. It's running
Lollipop. I'm using slackware 14.2 64-bit.

When I connect the tablet to USB, I see the manufacturer and serial number.
I'm expecting a SCSI drive I can mount into the system--nothing.

What do I do to get filesystem access?

Thank you very much.

Joe Rosevear

2018-10-18 05:00:56 UTC

Permalink

Post by Mike Keithley
Hello group,
I am trying to det file access to mn Android tablet. It's running
Lollipop. I'm using slackware 14.2 64-bit.
When I connect the tablet to USB, I see the manufacturer and serial number.
I'm expecting a SCSI drive I can mount into the system--nothing.
What do I do to get filesystem access?
Thank you very much.

Hi. I've got an older Android running KitKat. My PC is using Slackware
14.2 32-bit.

Post by Mike Keithley
PC<

1. Boot up Slackware on the PC.

2. Get a root command line and do

lsblk

Make note of the devices.

Post by Mike Keithley
PC and Android<

3. Use a USB cable to connect the Android to the PC.

Post by Mike Keithley
Android<

4. If the Android is not on, then turn it on and start it up.

5. Swipe down from the top of the screen.

6. Select the icon with the three-prong USB symbol.

7. Select Mass Storage.

Post by Mike Keithley
PC<

8. Do "lsblk" on the PC again. There should be a new device. That
is your Android.

9. Mount the device with something like this:

mount /dev/sde1 /mnt/zip -o uid=student,gid=users

Of cource you need to supply correct values for your situation
instead of:

sde1
zip
student
users

Or if you only want root access, then leave off the

-o uid=student,gid=users

10. You have file system access.

11. When you're done, you'll want to change your current directory
out of the file system which you mounted, then as root do

umount /mnt/zip

Post by Mike Keithley
PC and Android<

12. Unplug the USB cable.

--
http://joeslife.org

Rich

2018-10-18 10:42:04 UTC

Permalink

Two more options (if Joe's suggestion does not work) are:

1) Install adb
(https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/development/android-tools/)
and use adb to access the android file system.

2) Install F-Droid (https://f-droid.org/) and from F-Droid install "primitive
ftpd" (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.primftpd/). Then setup an
ftp 'account' inside primitive ftpd and use ncftp (or your other
favorite ftp client) to access the device and push/pull files.

root

2018-10-18 15:28:34 UTC

Permalink

For file transfer between linux and Android I go the other way
using the Android App ES File Explorer. Correspondingly I use
Termux to pull up a console on my desktop from Android.

john connolly

2018-10-19 02:09:28 UTC

Permalink

This may be off the subject but I would like some help with it. I can
get to the files in my phone from my pc all right but, in order to get
more storage space on my phone I installed an sd card and the os doesn't
recognize it. I went on line and got directions for how to 'root' my
phone but I could never make it work. If anyone has an idea about this I
would appreciate it. FWF the phone is a zte with an older android os.
Thanks, jwc

Joe Rosevear

2018-10-19 17:33:45 UTC

Permalink

Post by john connolly

Do you have a USB card reader that will work with your SD card? If so,
then use it to determine the SD card's file system TYPE.

You can learn TYPE by use of the blkid command. First use lsbk to
learn the device NAME, for example it might be

sdd1

There is much output generated by lsblk, but if you try it with and
without the the SD card in the USB card reader then you can discover
which device corresponds to your SD card.

Then use (as root)

blkid /dev/NAME

to learn the TYPE. For example

blkid /dev/sdd1 on my computer outputs

/dev/sdd1: LABEL="180824aa1Drive" UUID="12aa5390-0c51-4351-809b-39a588ea9705" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="c3072e18-01"

The TYPE is ext4.

The reason I'm interested in the TYPE is that some TYPEs will not work
in the Android. See this article:

https://www.transcend-info.com/Support/FAQ-897

There are other possible reasons for failure, but if you do the above
and report back, that will be a good start.

-Joe

--
http://joeslife.org

The Real Bev

2018-10-19 22:14:55 UTC

Permalink

Post by john connolly

Don't most phones have a 'format' function to deal with new sd cards?

--
Cheers, Bev
I'm pretty sure omnipotent entities don't need
middlemen to get their message to the people.

john connolly

2018-10-25 02:12:18 UTC

Permalink

Post by john connolly

Thanks for the replies. Here is where I am so far:
When I connect the phone to the pc via usb and run the command:
jmtpfs /mnt/phone I get connected to the phone and I can access the sd
card. In fact the command: df /mnt/phone/SD\ card/ yields the result:

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
jmtpfs 7848972 10152 7838820 1% /mnt/phone

I haven't tried but there is no reason to believe that I could not
transfer files pack and forth between the phone sd card and my pc. The
problem is that the phone's os is not able to see the sd card. When I
look up the storage on the phone using the settings app, it finds a 7.5
gb sd card and appears to be mounted but I can't figure out any way to
use it.
Thanks for your help, jwc

Henrik Carlqvist

2018-10-25 05:15:09 UTC

Permalink

When I look up the storage on the phone using the settings app, it
finds a 7.5 gb sd card and appears to be mounted but I can't figure out
any way to use it.

Did you install some app on the phone to browse files like ES File
Explorer?

regards Henrik

john connolly

2018-10-25 21:23:16 UTC

Permalink

Post by Henrik Carlqvist

When I look up the storage on the phone using the settings app, it
finds a 7.5 gb sd card and appears to be mounted but I can't figure out
any way to use it.

Did you install some app on the phone to browse files like E
regards Henrik

I had an app to do that but it could not gain access to the sd card. I
just tried S File Explorer with the same result. My situation is like
trying to run linux without root privileges. My sd card is apparently
mounted but I have no access to it. My attempts to root my phone have
been unsuccessful. This is a real time sink and I think I'm going to let
it go.
Thanks, jwc

Henrik Carlqvist

2018-10-26 05:24:15 UTC

Permalink

Post by john connolly
I had an app to do that but it could not gain access to the sd card.

You do realize that for your phone to get access to your SD card, you
might have to first unmount it from your Linux computer and on the phone
stop sharing the SD card to the USB connected computer?

Those file systems on SD-cards (v)fat, or even ext4 or ntfs are not
cluster file systems allowing the same file system being modified from
more than one computer at once.

But if you never ever were able to use the SD card on the Android device
it would not be much point in trying to access it from a USB connected
computer.

regards Henrik

Peter Chant

2018-11-05 21:25:14 UTC

Permalink

Post by john connolly
I had an app to do that but it could not gain access to the sd card. I
just tried S File Explorer with the same result. My situation is like
trying to run linux without root privileges. My sd card is apparently
mounted but I have no access to it. My attempts to root my phone have
been unsuccessful. This is a real time sink and I think I'm going to let
it go.
Thanks, jwc

This is a source of immense frustration for myself. I want to put music
on the SD card to save the precious system soldered in flash memory.
But without rooting the phone it does not seem to be possible to sync to
the flash memory, at least not in a way that can be seen by the
installed media players.

Yes, it may be a security feature, but it is not much use if it stops a
primary need to easily sync files.

My solution is to put the files in question on a usb drive and then use
a file manager to copy that across to the SD card. I'd rather do this
than remove the SD card as it reduces wear and tear on the SD card
connector. My last phone failed owing to a worn SIM/SD card connector.

So, back to the modern equivalent of copying files using a floppy.

I suspect I could acheive this using dropbox, one drive etc (or perhaps
not without a paid service) but I don't see why I should need to engage
a 3rd party to get files from my PC to my phone.

Henrik Carlqvist

2018-11-06 06:56:27 UTC

Permalink

Post by Peter Chant
My solution is to put the files in question on a usb drive and then use
a file manager to copy that across to the SD card.

If your phone is really unable to let you scroll down the notification
panel and select a useful way to share the SD card with the USB connected
PC I would instead suggest to use some ftp/scp/sftp capable app to
transfer files from your PC using your (at least party wireless) network.

regards Henrik

Peter Chant

2018-11-28 21:29:13 UTC

Permalink

Post by Henrik Carlqvist

Post by Peter Chant
My solution is to put the files in question on a usb drive and then use
a file manager to copy that across to the SD card.

Hmm, it works fine on Mint but not Slackware 14.2. Not ideal.

Post by Henrik Carlqvist
If your phone is really unable to let you scroll down the notification
panel and select a useful way to share the SD card with the USB connected
PC I would instead suggest to use some ftp/scp/sftp capable app to
transfer files from your PC using your (at least party wireless) network.

Last time I looked I could sync folders, but not ones with media or
photos on, which made it useless.

Pete

The Real Bev

2018-11-28 22:29:46 UTC

Permalink

Post by Peter Chant

Post by Henrik Carlqvist

Post by Peter Chant
My solution is to put the files in question on a usb drive and then use
a file manager to copy that across to the SD card.

Hmm, it works fine on Mint but not Slackware 14.2. Not ideal.

Last time I looked I could sync folders, but not ones with media or
photos on, which made it useless.

I never trust anything to 'sync' with anything else. I have yet to
receive a definitive answer about what actually happens: Does A copy
everything to B? Does B copy everything to A? Do both happen, renaming
duplicate files by update date, if any, to both A and B? What if I want
only ONE of those things to happen? Do I have a choice?

I just copy what's needed by hand, generally using ES File Explorer or
X-Plore, using subdirectory /000 on my computer as the midpoint before
moving the files to/from the sdcard or the desired subdirectory on my
computer. This is easier than mounting/unmounting the phone/sdcard.

--
Cheers, Bev
"I read about this syndrome called hypochondria in a
magazine. I think I've got it." -- DA

Lew Pitcher

2018-11-28 23:09:15 UTC

Permalink

I haven't been following this thread, so my comments may be off-base or

Post by Peter Chant

Post by Henrik Carlqvist

Post by Peter Chant
My solution is to put the files in question on a usb drive and then use
a file manager to copy that across to the SD card.

Hmm, it works fine on Mint but not Slackware 14.2. Not ideal.

[snip]

I have several Android devices of varying ages (with varying releases of
Android and the manufacturer's layered apps), that I often need to get
information to or from.

Some of these devices support PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) over USB,
while others support MTP (Media Transer Protocol) over USB. However, not all
the systems I use support PTP or MTP, I've often had to come up with ways to
transfer data that do not involve over-the-wire protocols.

One way has been to use a USB thumb drive and an "OTG" cable that plugs into
the Android device, giving it a USB female port. You copy files to the thumb
drive, and "sneakernet" them to the receiving device.

Another way has been to install a simple web server on the Android device
(I'm partial to the kWS webserver app), which lets me use a web browser to
pull files and directories from the Android device. Going the other way, I
use the Android web browser client to pull files from my web server.

HTH

--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills, We Trust"

q***@outlook.com

2018-12-15 07:23:28 UTC

Permalink

You may have noticed that Microsoft can do anything you want,
provided some one ELSE has already programmed the facility that you want.
Since android uses a linux kernel it can already do: pwd, ls, cd ....
and the most valuable [for me] utilities are not what the current
FB/twitter kiddies use, but rather eg. 90's wily.
[No it's not an editor - as wiki claims- any more than emacs is!].
---
When I regain WiFi facilities, I intend to continue/expand
Kevin Boone's: <kbox installation> to my X86-Tablet.
So far it seems good, and avoids the blindly do A, do B narrative.

No! I don't want to follow the herd and call directories "folders".

notbob

2018-10-19 18:50:24 UTC

Permalink

Post by Mike Keithley
When I connect the tablet to USB, I see the manufacturer and serial number.
I'm expecting a SCSI drive I can mount into the system--nothing.

I use the 'lsscsi' (list SCSI) command. The last column (far right) should provide a device
identifier ("/dev/foo").

I use this command (as root):

#mount -t auto /dev/foo /mnt/tmp/

.....to mount sed SCSI device.

HTH
nb