From caccd81c3eb7954662d20cab10cc3afeeabca615 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christian Cleberg Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2023 11:23:08 -0600 Subject: initial commit --- blog/2022-10-04-mtp-linux.org | 79 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 79 insertions(+) create mode 100644 blog/2022-10-04-mtp-linux.org (limited to 'blog/2022-10-04-mtp-linux.org') diff --git a/blog/2022-10-04-mtp-linux.org b/blog/2022-10-04-mtp-linux.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2c0543 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/2022-10-04-mtp-linux.org @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ ++++ +date = 2022-10-04 +title = "How to Mount an MTP Mobile Device on Linux" +description = "Learn how to easily mount Android MTP smartphones on Linux using the command line." ++++ + +I recently ran into trouble attempting to mount my GrapheneOS phone to my laptop +running Fedora Linux via the [Media Transfer +Protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_transfer_protocol) (MTP) and +discovered a simple and effective solution. + +## Use a USB 3.0 Port + +First, ensure that the device was plugged in to the laptop through a +USB 3.0 port, if possible. From a brief glance online, it seems that USB 2.0 +ports may cause issues with dropped connections over MTP. This is purely +anecdotal since I don't have any evidence to link showing that USB 2.0 causes +issues, but I can confirm that switching to a USB 3.0 port seemed to cut out +most +of my issues. + +## Switch USB Preferences to MTP + +Secondly, you need to ensure that the phone's USB preferences/mode is +changed to MTP or File Transfer once the phone is plugged in. Other modes will +not allow you to access the phone's file system. + +## Install `jmtpfs` + +Next, I used the `jmtpfs` package to mount my phone to my laptop. There are +other packages that exist, but this one worked perfectly for me. On Fedora +Linux, you can install it like this: + +```sh +sudo dnf install jmtpfs -y +``` + +## Create a Mount Point + +Once you have the package installed, you just need to create a folder for the +device to use as a mount point. In my case, I used `/mnt/pixel`: + +```sh +sudo mkdir /mnt/pixel +sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /mnt/pixel +``` + +## Mount & Access the Phone's File System + +Finally, plug-in and mount the device, and you should be able to see all +storage (internal and external) inside your new folder! + +```sh +jmtpfs /mnt/pixel +``` + +The output should look something like this: + +```sh +Device 0 (VID=18d1 and PID=4ee1) is a Google Inc Nexus/Pixel (MTP). +Android device detected, assigning default bug flags +``` + +Now you are mounted and can do anything you'd like with the device's files: + +```sh +cd /mnt/pixel +ls -lha +``` + +From here, you will be able to see any internal or external storage available on +the device: + +```sh +total 0 +drwxr-xr-x. 3 user user 0 Jan 1 1970 . +drwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 10 Oct 4 13:29 .. +drwxr-xr-x. 16 user user 0 Apr 21 4426383 'Internal shared storage' +``` -- cgit v1.2.3-70-g09d2