Connecting via USB to Linux (Ubuntu)

[greg]

I could not get my Ubuntu machines to recognize the tablet when I plugged in the USB cable. Bummer.

Digging around I found a similar issue experienced by Xoom owners. The original article describing the fix is here. The steps listed there are for the Xoom, not the Acer, although the fix is almost the same.

I am posting the slightly modified instructions again here for clarity and brevity.

I did this fix on both Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) and 11.04 (Natty). Your mileage may vary.

1. Get the mtpfs package installed on your machine.

sudo apt-get install mtpfs

2. In the tablet, go to Settings->Applications->Development and turn USB Debugging on (check the box). For me, this was required for file transfers to work.

3. Plug your USB cable into the tablet and your Ubuntu machine.
4. Open your Terminal app on the Ubuntu machine.
5. Use the lsusb command to get the vendor id. Type "lsusb" in Terminal.
6. The output should look something like this:

greg@sunny:~$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 046d:c52f Logitech, Inc. Wireless Mouse M305
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 05af:0802 Jing-Mold Enterprise Co., Ltd 
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 03eb:3301 Atmel Corp. at43301 4-Port Hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0502:3325 Acer, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:b16b Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

The line with "Acer, Inc." in it tells you the VendorID. In the example above, it's 0502.

** Disconnect the USB cable at this point **

7. Create a UDEV rule file. Use your editor of choice, mine is nano.

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

The file should contain this line when you are finished:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0502", MODE="0666"

8. Create a mount point and make yourself the owner.

sudo mkdir /media/a500
sudo chown user:user /media/a500

IMPORTANT: Replace user:user with your user name and default group on your Ubuntu machine. For most people it will be your login name. If your login is "bob", then replace user:user with bob:bob, capice?

9. Add the mount point to fstab.

sudo nano /etc/fstab

At the bottom of the file, type this stuff:

# mount point for Acer A500
mtpfs     /media/a500     fuse     user,noauto,allow_other      0      0

10. Modify fuse.conf. Uncomment user_allow_other.

sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf

Look for #user_allow_other and remove the #.

11. Add yourself to the fuse group.

sudo nano /etc/group

Look for the line starting with "fuse" and put your login at the end of that line (if it's not already there).

12. Reboot.

You should see your mount point in Nautilus when you open it. After plugging in the USB cable, you can click the a500 entry under Places to mount the tablet.

Be sure to unmount it before disconnecting it. (always a good practice)

It took some time for some large folders to display. Patience is good.

From what I read, better fixes are on the horizon, but who knows when. For now, this allows me to get my music and movies on the tablet more rapidly than using wifi.

Thanks to roberj13 over at forum.xda-developers.com for the original post.

[Droid-Xer]

Yup did this to my Xoom awhile ago on maverick and then no issues on natty. Nice write up.

[mrlav]

nice write up

[tableta]

Many thanks Greg for your detailed explanation. I followed your steps in Ubuntu 10.04 and when connecting the tablet to the PC I get the following error message: "Could not display "/media/A500". Error: Error stating file '/media/A500': Transport endpoint is not connected. Please select another viewer and try again." Does anybody have any hint on what should I do next?

[greg]

What is giving you that error? Is that Nautilus?

With the tablet connected by the cable, if you type "df" in terminal does the mtpfs line show up? Mine looks like this:

greg@sunny:/$ df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2            275206424  59990620 201236056  23% /
none                   2034424       700   2033724   1% /dev
none                   2041032       160   2040872   1% /dev/shm
none                   2041032       372   2040660   1% /var/run
none                   2041032         0   2041032   0% /var/lock
/dev/sda1            186606228    192000 176935128   1% /180g
mtpfs                 13119296    849612  12269684   7% /media/a500

It's the last line there.

Also, in terminal, what does " ls -l /media " (no quotes) return? You should see something like this, but with your name instead of mine or root should be on the line with the a500.

greg@sunny:/media$ ls -l /media
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 greg greg 4096 2011-05-09 17:06 a500
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    8 2011-04-28 11:57 CDROM -> /dev/sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   10 2011-03-21 10:34 ipod -> PORTAPODDY
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-05-13 15:49 sda1

The reason I ask about that is I tend to check permissions early and often.

[tableta]

The error is thrown by Nautilus when I try to explore the tablet. To answer your questions:

far@PackardBell2007:~$ df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5             30454652  23363384   5544260  81% /
none                   1025984       384   1025600   1% /dev
none                   1030208       196   1030012   1% /dev/shm
none                   1030208       312   1029896   1% /var/run
none                   1030208         0   1030208   0% /var/lock
none                   1030208         0   1030208   0% /lib/init/rw
/dev/sda3            172240892 166584468   5656424  97% /media/disk2
/dev/sdf1              1966820    272344   1694476  14% /media/FARUSB2GB
df: `/media/A500': Transport endpoint is not connected

far@PackardBell2007:~$ ls -l /media
ls: cannot access /media/A500: Transport endpoint is not connected
total 64
d????????? ? ? ? ? ? A500
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 65536 2011-05-23 10:19 disk2

[greg]

I did a restore to 10.10 from 11.04 (another topic, let's not go there). When I set up my a500 connection I started getting the same error you were getting.

I found I had not created the udev rule file. At least that's what my problem was. Maybe you accidentally skipped over a step or didn't actually complete something you thought you completed. Double-check everything step by step. It's working here again.

[greg]

By the way, my absolute favorite way of transferring files from one machine to another is by using the swiftp - FTP server for Android app. It's easy to set up, and works great with a rooted device. I've been using it to transfer files to my Garminfone long before I ever rooted it. Now with the rooted A500, I can use FireFTP in Firefox on my computer to log in and move stuff around with ease on the Acer.

As long as your wifi speeds are adequate, it's a fine way to get files where you need them on the tab.

[tableta]

Greg, I have double checked all the steps and everything seems to be fine. I did not succeed in MS Windows, either. And with the USB Host I was able to connect a pendrive but not a Nokia N900 phone. I am a little bit disappointed with the USB connections on the ACER Iconia A500. The DropBox port is very poor compared to the ports for Windows or Linux. For the moment I have transfered files using the Ghost Commander file explorer with the Samba plugin. I will also try your solution using FTP.

[greg]

My understanding is the 3.1 update is supposed to fix some of the USB limitations. To what extent remains to be seen.

I've not tried to connect to any Windows machines, but I have been able to get the above-mentioned setup working three times on two machines in Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04 (which I just retro-graded back to 10.10, hence the third try).

I've been able to mount all FAT32 formatted USB drives, both hard drives and thumb drives. I was not able to get my phone to show up on USB. All of this is because, for some reason, the port opens up in MTP mode for transferring media like a mp3 player. My understanding is they are going to expand the usefulness of the USB port in the 3.1 update. I sure hope so.

All in all, I'm able to do everything I need, even though I can't do everything I want.