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I have bought a Xperia Neo which runs Android 2.3 and I'm running Kubuntu Linux on my Laptop.

I just connected the Phone using a USB Cable and set it to Mass Storage Mode. I expected to have the phone SD card in my devices list, so I can mount it and use it as a file storage. But there were no device added.

A few Googling led me to some Microsft Applications, (Activesync, etc.). Does it mean I cannot connect to my phone's SD Card in Linux?

Should I really use Windows for such a simple task, Tranfering files using a USB Cable?!

Note

With the help of @onik I tried to mount the SD card manually and here is the result: in Mass Storage Mode

takpar@skyspace:/media$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /media/android/
mount: no medium found on /dev/sdb

takpar@skyspace:/media$ sudo mount /dev/sdb /media/android/
mount: /dev/sdb: unknown device

takpar@skyspace:/media$ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb /media/android/
Error opening '/dev/sdb': No medium found
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': No medium found

and in Media Mode there would be no /dev/dsb anymore. But a window opens with url: camera:/MTP Device@usb:001,021/ and empty content.

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in Ubuntu, I just had to plug the phone in and set the phone to mass storage mode, and Ubuntu will automount the phone. – Lie Ryan Oct 22 '11 at 15:49
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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

Did you mount the drives from the phone? Once you're connected, you have to open the notification bar, tap on the "USB Connected" notification and press the button to mount the drives. This should make them visible on your desktop.

After you're done, unmount them from the desktop first, then unmount them from the phone, and then disconnect the cable.

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I have tried all different conditions. You mean it needs no additional application on PC and should work in Linux too? – takpar Oct 18 '11 at 12:17
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Yes, assuming SonyEricsson didn't implement it's own software for the mass storage mode. Try running dmesg after you plug it in to see if any /dev/sd* devices are recognized, and try mounting them manually with mount -t vfat /dev/sd* /media/android (or similar) – onik Oct 18 '11 at 12:33
I tried, but it couldn't be mounted. I have added the detail in Question, may you check it? – takpar Oct 21 '11 at 22:22
Try mounting the partitions instead of the device, for example, /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb2 – onik Oct 23 '11 at 10:35
there is no /dev/sdb1, it's just a single /dev/sdb. what does it mean? Is it a proprietary, as @Broam said? – takpar Oct 23 '11 at 18:01
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up vote 1 down vote

You could always unmount your SD card (if it's removable, like my HTC Magic allows for) and plug it into an SD card reader.

or you could root & run CyanogenMod - CM's Mass Storage mode works great in my Gnome2 install of Ubuntu, don't see why KDE would make it any different.

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Thanks. I don't want to open the back lid just for moving some photos into my laptop. so as you say rooting is inevitable. right?! – takpar Oct 18 '11 at 14:38
I'd explore the other answers & check your host computer's dmesg before you go rooting your phone, but I wanted to provide an alternate way of working around the problem. – Broam Oct 18 '11 at 17:27
I'd got the point, thanks. What would dmseg tell me? – takpar Oct 21 '11 at 21:32
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Your host computer's dmesg and lsusb would tell you what sorts of devices have connected and what your computer is able to discern about them. That would tell you pretty quickly if Sony is doing a standard mass storage device (and it's failing mount because of some error) or it's something proprietary. OPINION: it's Sony, so it's probably the latter. I don't trust Sony to implement standards except when they have to. – Broam Oct 22 '11 at 16:39
it seems you're right. the /dev/sdb can't be mounted. – takpar Oct 23 '11 at 17:55
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