Files <-> Samsung Galaxy S4

Brian Chabot brian at brianchabot.org
Wed Mar 26 07:16:55 EDT 2014


I have an S4 and I feel your frustration

I ended up using Astro File Manager for Android and transfering with Linux
via sftp.

Brian
On Mar 25, 2014 11:51 PM, "Ben Scott" <dragonhawk at gmail.com> wrote:

>   Work has provided me with a new handheld computer, a Galaxy S4, made
> by Samsung.  It runs Android 4.3 plus whatever unspeakable horrors
> Samsung and Verizon have inflicted upon it.  There's a microSD flash
> memory card mounted inside, and I'd like to be able to copy files to
> and from it, from my Linux home desktop.  This is proving unreasonably
> hard.
>
>   Aside from coping general documents, photos, etc., back and forth, I
> have a large collection of MP3 files on my desktop that I want to keep
> in sync on my handheld -- adds, changes, *and* deletes.  rsync does a
> fine job of this on a filesystem.  My previous handhelds let me plug
> in the USB cable and access the mem card as a USB Mass Storage Class
> (MSC) device.  In other words, like a disk drive.  Block device
> appeared, I mounted it, I did filesystem things, I unmounted it, done.
>  Apparently that's not an option for this device.
>
>   Difficulty: I can't root the device.  Corporate policy.  Whatever I
> do has to play by the rules.  Apps are generally OK, but not apps that
> attempt to circumvent security mechanisms.
>
>   It appears the Galaxy really wants to speak MTP (Media Transfer
> Protocol).  I've been playing with MTP stuff on Linux.  My desktop is
> running Debian 7.4 "wheezy", kernel 3.2.0-4 package version 3.2.54-2.
>
>   There's some issue that causes libmtp to hang for 20-30 seconds
> whenever it opens the device.  That's maddeningly irritating at best.
> If you're wanting to run a bunch of commands in sequence, it's
> basically a showstopper.
>
>   I've played around with the mtp-tools package from Debian (package
> version 1.1.3-35-g0ece104-5).  It lacks a command to create
> directories.  It can't transfer more than one file at a time (see
> "showstopper", above).  The commands lack any documentation or help.
> I think they're actually just example skeletons from the libmtp
> sources that were packaged up and passed off as utilities.  :-p
>
>   I tried the mtpfs FUSE filesystem (1.1, built from source).  I found
> it couldn't create directories.  That's a problem if I want to
> replicate a directory tree (see MP3 collection, above).
>
>   I tried gmtp (pkg ver 1.3.3-1).  It suffers from the libmtp hang
> issue, but at least once it's connects is responsive.  It can create
> directories.  But it can only transfer files in one directory at a
> time.  (Ibid.)
>
>   I could, of course, take the mem card out of the handheld, plug it
> into my desktop's card reader, and do the I/O that way.  Problem there
> is, I've got a fancy sealed protective case for the handheld.  Opening
> it repeatedly is bad for it.  And annoying.  And exposes the handheld
> to damage.
>
>    I've seen some suggestions of using "cloud" storage, like Dropbox
> or Google Music, etc.  It seems silly to have to send many gigabytes
> out my netfeed only to have to immediately download it again, on the
> same feed, just to copy between devices which are six inches apart and
> connected via USB cable.
>
>   Anyone got a better idea?  Bluetooth?  Wifi?  Floppy disk?
>
> -- Ben
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