On Wed 13 May 2026 at 11:27:06 (-0600), D. R. Evans wrote:
> 3. I can also physically connect the phone and the computer using a
> USB cable -- all that seems to do, though, is to start charging the
> phone; nothing pops up on the desktop to tell me that a new USB device
> is connected to the computer. The output from "lsblk" doesn't change
> when I physically connect the phone -- unlike when, for example, I
> plug in a USB drive.
When you plug it in, if you don't get any lines added to
/var/log/kern.log (or systemd's equivalent journal entries),
you may have a charging-only cable (good for privacy), or
a duff cable.
Don't expect to see a filesystem like a USB drive: your system
won't be handling the block device inside the phone, but making
file transfers instead. I can't help you a great deal as I use
an android phone with aft-mtp-mount, but I have read that you
might be able to get limited access with that method (AI slop?).
My script is:
samsungd ()
{
sudo mkdir -p /media/samsungd || true;
sudo chown "$LOGNAME" /media/samsungd;
aft-mtp-mount /media/samsungd
}
Note that the final d is for my phone (we have two); it doesn't
stand for daemon. When I run it after connecting the phone, it
(phone) asks for permission on its screen.
I move things back and forth in mc. After I'm finished, I run:
unsamsungd ()
{
fusermount -u /media/samsungd;
sudo rmdir /media/samsungd || true
}
Finally, before removing the cable, I pull down Notifications,
tap "Use USB for File Transfer" and then "Charging phone only".
I don't know whether that's really necessary.
Cheers,
David.
