Ubuntu Nexus 7 as USB device does not work

Question

I connected USB cable from Nexus 7 running Ubuntu to my Ubuntu laptop but there is no new USB device found when I run lsusb. Is this function supported?

try sudo apt-get install mtpfs mtp-tools gmtp and then sudo mtp-detect, then launch gmtp. — Marco Scannadinari, Nov 12 '12 at 22:00
It works half the time, and is too slow. But atleast, it works. — theTuxRacer, Jan 23 '13 at 08:31

earthmeLon · Answer 1 · 2013-04-11T20:25:21.220

4

UPDATE Please take a look below for go-mtpfs example. go-mtpfs is much more reliable, but the instructions remain very similar.

Automatically mounting Nexus 7

Allow non-root users to mount fuse devices:

sudo vim /etc/fuse.conf

Un-comment **user_allow_other**.

Install mtpfs

sudo apt-get install mtp-tools mtpfs

Make mount point

sudo mkdir /mnt/nexus7

chown youruser:youruser /mnt/nexus7

Add udev rules

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules

#Nexus7 
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666"

sudo chmod +x /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules

Add Nexus7 to fstab

sudo vim /etc/fstab

mtpfs /mnt/nexus7 fuse user,noauto,allow_other,defaults 0 0

Restart udev

sudo service udev restart

Access device

mount /mnt/nexus7

umount /mnt/nexus7

edited Apr 11 '13 at 20:25

answered Nov 12 '12 at 20:36

earthmeLon

11,247

As well as manually mounting/unmounting, Nautilus should display your Nexus 7 in your 'Device' list so that you can more easily access it. – earthmeLon Nov 12 '12 at 20:40
After having various issues on different devices, I have switched to go-mtpfs, with most of these instructions remaining the same. – earthmeLon Mar 12 '13 at 22:18
I highly doubt this will work if it doesn't even show in lsusb. With the right cable, it works with out-of-the-box 13.10 – NoBugs Dec 26 '13 at 22:21
Glad to know that 13.10 supports this device out-of-the-box. This is mostly for previous versions of Ubuntu, which require special setup. @NoBugs – earthmeLon Dec 27 '13 at 20:29

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 07 '13 at 17:32

A blog post by Bilal Akhtar has a supposedly more reliable way to connect to Android 4.0+ devices from Ubuntu. The steps are summarized here:

Install the go-mtpfs library, which you'll be using to connect:
```
sudo apt-get install golang fuse git-core libmtp-dev libfuse-dev
sudo adduser $USER fuse
mkdir /tmp/go 
GOPATH=/tmp/go go get github.com/hanwen/go-mtpfs
sudo mv /tmp/go/bin/go-mtpfs /usr/bin/
mkdir ~/MyAndroid
```
Note: At some point during installation, a screen may come up in your terminal asking if you want to share information about public Go packages you install with the developers. Feel free to answer this question however you want.
Mount your Nexus 7 or whatever using this command after plugging it into your USB port:
```
go-mtpfs ~/MyAndroid &
```
When you are finished, unmount your device by using this command:
```
fusermount -u ~/MyAndroid
```

_{I would also like to thank James Gifford for pointing this article out to me on Google+. ;)}

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 26 '13 at 22:20

1

I found that it doesn't work with cheap cables - if it doesn't even show "Nexus" in lsusb, your cable is bad. Try a better one.

answered Dec 26 '13 at 22:20

NoBugs

1,400

1

Some cables are "power only" for charging. No data lines, so those cables of course will not work. – ubfan1 Dec 26 '13 at 22:42
The one I first tried had 5 connections in the microUSB end, though it doesn't do anything but charge. – NoBugs Dec 27 '13 at 00:20

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 12 '12 at 20:55

If the Nexus tablet has the Software Data Cable app available, this program will let you easily transfer files via a wireless link. See:

http://linuxnorth.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/a100-to-ubuntu-file-transfer/

and

http://linuxnorth.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/software-data-cable-addendum/

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 28 '13 at 07:15

In contrast to all the other answers I would still claim that it's not yet possible at all. The question is clearly about "Nexus 7 running Ubuntu" and as far as I understand there is no special service in this first Ubutu port for the Nexus 7 that acts as a USB device. I have a Nexus 7 running Ubuntu here and didn't succeed with any of these solutions mentioned.

I think, all answers so far target Nexus 7 running Android.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 11 '13 at 21:11

0

Install this PPA : https://launchpad.net/~langdalepl/+archive/gvfs-mtp

Update and upgrade.

Hey presto, working MTP support that automounts a Nexus 7 as a browsable folder in Nautilus.

answered Apr 11 '13 at 21:11

Adrian

5,216