1

Superuser may not the perfect platform for this question, but you are smart people and I have browsed this site many times before and got a lot of unix related answers.

What i'm doing wrong with my type-C usb cable and my android device? Why can't my laptop recognise the device, regardless the state of my usb connection? I switched between ptp, mtp and data transfer, and it still can't recognise the device and open a file explorer showing the content of the device file-system. Not when running linux mint, not when running windows 10.

Maybe that's the cable? Maybe my type-c fifo cable is incapable of transferring data? Maybe it's something with the Android pie? I upgraded from oreo a few days ago. Didn't had problems transferring files before the upgrade. Also had a different cable then. It torn apart and I had to buy a new one.

Improve this question
6
  • Have you enabled OTG mode on the Android device?
    – K7AAY
    Aug 29, 2019 at 23:15
  • 1
    @K7AAY, I tried the OTG option as well. Well, now its on, usb debugging is off and "Default USB configuration" is set on "file transfer". Mint still dose not show any sight that it recognises the device.
    – Zack
    Aug 29, 2019 at 23:23
  • Reboot? Every once in a while, you gotta. Could also be a bad cable.
    – K7AAY
    Aug 29, 2019 at 23:28
  • 1
    It could be a bad cable, yeah. This one is good enough for charging the phone. Are there cables thats simply cant do data transfer?
    – Zack
    Aug 29, 2019 at 23:31
  • Oh, yeah, seen that several times, especially with higher performance cables like USB-C. Data connector or lead breaks, but power leads/connectors still AOK. $10 to get another at Plaid Pantry.
    – K7AAY
    Aug 29, 2019 at 23:46

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

I can't really answer this in any good way. But OTG should probably be off, and to see if Linux can detect the USB device at all, you can try this in a terminal/shell:

sudo dmesg -Hw

which should give you a nice colored "tail" of the kernel ring buffer. Then plug in the device and look for any change at the bottom. You should at least see a message similar to this: 

[...] usb 1-3.2.4: new high-speed USB device number [..] using [...]
[...] usb 1-3.2.4: New USB device found, [...]
[...] usb 1-3.2.4: Product:
[...] usb 1-3.2.4: Manufacturer:
[...]
[...] usb 1-3.2.4: USB disconnect, device number [...]

Get out of dmesg again by pressing Ctrl-C.

If you see nothing logged, your cable is likely bad or unsuitable, or the problem is on the Android side.

Improve this answer
7
  • I tinkered for a while with dmesg now. I think that the important error message is here: reset low-speed USB device number 24 using xhci_hcd [ +0.269788] usb 2-2.3: device descriptor read/64, error -32 Googling "device descriptor read error" brought this post about connecting mp3 device. guyrutenberg.com/2008/06/26/… Haven't tried the method described there yet. What's that device descriptor error suppose to mean?
    – Zack
    Aug 30, 2019 at 19:10
  • And there another two things that bugs me. 1. Why do we have to go through developer mode in order to copy data from a phone to a desktop? Some users don't wanna be developers... 2. I can only toy with the connection type on Setting->system->developer options -> default USB configuration. Where is the active usb config option? can't find it.
    – Zack
    Aug 30, 2019 at 19:15
  • @Zack the read error is at least something, error code 32 is -EPIPE, but that won't help much without context. It really looks like a bad/wrong cable, it's definitely abnormal and you won't find the device with PTP/MTP/... Don't ask me about the Android part, the only Android phone I bought runs 1.6
    – nyov
    Aug 30, 2019 at 20:54
  • Well, I came back from the store. Bought a fresh new usb-c to usb-a cable. dmesg replied with [ +0.114370] usb 3-2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd [ +0.025249] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=05e3, idProduct=0616 [ +0.000005] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 [ +0.000003] usb 3-2: Product: USB3.0 Hub [ +0.000002] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: GenesysLogic But I still cant see my files anywhere. I must be doing something wrong with my android.
    – Zack
    Aug 30, 2019 at 21:53
  • @Zack, that seems to look a lot better now! But that's just detecting a hub - I hope there are some messages about your actual Android device as well? Or is it in OTG mode, or smth? I guess you'll need to play around with the Android side now.
    – nyov
    Aug 30, 2019 at 22:17

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .