Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Connectivity

wolsty

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On the strength of the Galaxy S2 phone (ICS) that my family bought me for my birthday, which I love and which connects seamlessly (well almost) with my Kubuntu 12.10 OS laptop, I've just treated my wife to a Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, which also has an Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.4) OS. Her computer currently has Ubuntu 12.04 and I can just about upload and download files from the tablet using a program called gMTP, but the tab won't connect to my laptop and gMTP crashes my system.

There seem to be two distinct problems:

1. The tablet does not have the menu option of the phone that allows the computer to see the external USB device as a mass storage drive;

2. Neither Kubuntu 12.10 nor Ubuntu 12.04 supports the MTP protocol that the tablet OS uses exclusively.

I've searched the Linux forums, but found no solution/workaround that works on either computer except for the flaky gMTP. Can anyone help?
 

Topper

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Mmm in order to get to grips with what you are saying, I think I need to know what you are doing connecting them up and indeed why. Is this for WIFI tethering, file transfer or some other?
 

wolsty

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Connections to both are via USB cables. The Galaxy S2 is not a problem, provided I remember to enable the USB mass storage option on the phone menu. The tablet is where I need help. I need connections only for file transfer - e-books, music, photos etc. I'm not interested in tethering, video downloads and the like.

My wife uses the tablet for web browsing, e-mail, storing photos for showing to her friends, reading e-books and, occasionally, for listening to music. We travel quite a lot nowadays, so she's looking forward to having a lightweight e-book reader as well as the ability to collect her e-mails and do research from wi-fi hotspots. We envisage that before a long holiday, she'll load up her books and music from her laptop, use the tablet for storage and review of photos whilst we're away and then download them to hep laptop and external HDD on return.
 

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The the standard screen that ICS displays when connecting via USB does not show on the tablet is that correct i.e.
the one that give you the option of selecting USB charge only, charge and data, tethering etc.

Well there appears to be a method for ICS on the lower half of the page, but never used it to be honest

-https://sites.google.com/site/installationubuntu/tweaking-ubuntu/connect-android-3-0-and-up-to-ubuntu
 

wolsty

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Thanks, Topper. I've tried the first solution, which is the one that just about delivers on my wife's Ubuntu laptop, but not on my Kubuntu. I'll do some work on the second solution this evening and post again to give the results

I'm an Open Source enthusiast (even down to the VU+ Duo) and what I find really irritating is that Android is a Linux derivative, but is not easily compatible with major Linux distros.
 

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Yes, if there's a fault in the philosophy of Open Source it is that there are simply too many flavours .............. qv my Avatar!
 

wolsty

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I think it's more than that. If Open Source is ever to be taken seriously, it needs to demonstrate that it's at least as good, user-friendly and eye-catching as the Microsoft and Apple brands. We Linux users know how limited (and limiting) the MS and Apple OS's are and can see just how powerful Open Source software can be, but commercial organisations won't support Linux until it's seen as a major player. My internet bank, smile, has apps for MS and Apple, but is only just getting round to releasing one for Android. Ubuntu wouldn't need Wine if software developers could see opportunities in the Open Source field. Whatever the problems, though, I'll never go back to MS.
 

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Agree with most of that, Wolsty, but if you have a look at my Crunchbang Thread in the Compooter Discussion area, SWMBO (hitherto a highly unlikely Champion of Open Source) has taken to it like a Duck to G&T, so the issue is very much one of awareness, I feel.

Anyway, good luck getting the second method to work: Looks straightforward enough, if a little lengthy to set up.
 

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Well, I've tried the second method on my Kubuntu 12.10 laptop. When I run the commands to identify the tablet, I get full details, but only VID and PID numbers and then the laptop automatically goes on to connect to the tablet. That's when I get the error message. I'll try the 12.04 Ubuntu laptop later.

I'll have a look at the Crunchbag Thread later too.

wolsty
 

wolsty

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Well there appears to be a method for ICS on the lower half of the page, but never used it to be honest

-https://sites.google.com/site/installationubuntu/tweaking-ubuntu/connect-android-3-0-and-up-to-ubuntu

Can't get the second solution to work on either computer. On both it goes tits up at:

You’re almost done! Now, restart your computer, and then run these three commands :

echo “alias android-connect=\”mtpfs -o allow_other /media/GalaxyNexus\”" >> ~/.bashrc

So I upgraded my wife's laptop to Ubuntu 12.10 and I have full access to the tablet files in Nautilus. I'm happy as Larry.

wolsty
 

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Glad you got there in the end Wolsty, I think my head would have been hurting by now :-nutkick
 

wolsty

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wolsty

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I spoke far too soon! The fix has stopped working and I haven't a clue as to why. However, the good news is that I googled a solution that seems remarkably elegant. It allows me to use my LAN to access files on my laptop. I can copy, cut and paste from the laptop and ES File Explorer is useful for file management on the tablet as well. Not fast, but it seems to be reliable.

First, install an app called ES File Explorer on the tablet.

Second, install Samba on the Ubuntu OS, then configure it according to the instructions here: -www.http://maketecheasier.com/install-and-configure-samba-in-ubuntu-for-file-sharing/2012/06/12.

wolsty
 
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