How to copy files to a GalaxyTab 10.1 (on Gentoo)

Posted by Thomas Kahle on 23. September 2011 Leave a comment (10) Go to comments

Short recap: GalaxyTab 10.1, the fake iPad, illegal in Europe, no USB-mass storage, must use kies (not known to work on any platform), libmtp not working. So while Apple and Samsung go patent nuclear, I solved my “easy” problem of transfering a file to that tablet (using Gentoo, or just anything which has a command line). My earlier solution was undone by a software upgrade that Samsung pushed over the air.  The new solution that I found now is so simple that I cannot believe not finding it earlier.  Just use the adb debugging tool. Isn’t it completely obvious that this is the way to go? Well, you need to get the adb tool which is not included in the android-sdk anymore, but easy to find on the web. If you unlocked your phone to install cyanogenmod, then you may still have it around. The command is adb push with a quite obvious syntax. Remember that you need to put your device into USB-debugging mode via the settings, otherwise adb won’t connect. If you copy files to a non-system folder, like /sdcard/Downloads then no rooting is needed. Transfer speed is decent at about 1300kb/s on USB 2.0.

Happy Gentooing!

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10 Comments.

  1. borkenkaefer 23. September 2011 at 21:10

    Don’t you know QtADB? http://qtadb.wordpress.com/

  2. tom 23. September 2011 at 21:13

    No, but it looks promising. Thanks for the link.

  3. Jo 23. September 2011 at 23:54

    You might wonna have a look at file expert its a handy android app that allows you to manage your files of your phone via the network

    Jo

  4. tom 24. September 2011 at 00:44

    Thanks Jo, I’ll check it out. (Although when transfering a couple of movies to the tablet, WiFi is an inferior option…)

  5. tom 24. September 2011 at 01:09

    Jo, I tried. It’s crap. After clicking through many funny pop-ups and reading how great they are I tried and it failed on the third file (size <20MB). Now it’s in a state that not even restarting the server helps. I guess at this point I should reboot and try again? Or reinstall? No thanks. (I’m not implying that it is the app developers fault, could be that Android WiFi stack is too flaky to allow safe file transfer).

  6. Anton 24. September 2011 at 02:28

    Linux’s way is to “do it right”, not to make it anyhow work. The fact that a regular user need Android Debug Bridge (ADB) from Software Developing Kit (SDK) is not right.

    And I wouldn’t buy a device which doesn’t support usb mass storage in a first place. Let such vendors die, don’t support them and we don’t have such problem in future. :evil:

  7. tom 24. September 2011 at 02:38

    In principle it is OK to not have mass storage support. The GalaxyTab has no SD card, all the storage is one huge chunk of flash built into the device. Since the computer would need to mount that storage, the device would need to unmount it first. That would mean the GalaxyTab could only work in USB mass storage while turned off. I would complain about that too! So going with some protocoll is right, in principle. MTP is a questionable choice, but appearently they have not implemented it correctly (otherwise libmtp would connect). That’s evil indeed. On the other hand the Linux way is not to do it right, from my experience, the linux way is “somebody does something and then the hardware vendor breaks it with the next update”. With all these new toys your choices are: “Hack” or “Don’t have one” (or get a Mac).

  8. zu 24. September 2011 at 03:37

    I noticed adb+linux was rather slow compared to windows + sammy driver
    like 3 or 4x slower

  9. do works 16. October 2011 at 01:18

    U’re doing it wrong, mtpfs DO works on asus transformer.

  10. tom 16. October 2011 at 07:06

    different manufacturer, different device, mileage may vary.