Recently, we found that SDCard was not able to mount on my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Desktop. Here, in this post we are sharing the solution which we had performed.

NOTE: Before going to start, highly recommend to take your data backup. And save it in safe drive.

Details Of Operating System/Android/Phone

1. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Before Upgrade)
2. Arch: x86_64
3. Android 4 and Android 5
4. HTC,Lava [Android Phones]

Solution

1. Install all dependency packages {MTP and GVFS}: We will install mtp and gvfs related packages.
2. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Upgrade: We will OS upgrade. My system was by default upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS (It may differ case to case)
3. Test and confirmation: Plugin Android Phone with the help of USB cable.

While troubleshooting, I got to know 2 requirements are very important, that is –

• 1. MTP Packages
  

  In current generation Android (version 4+), USB device class MTP(Media Transfer Protocol) have been used. MTP allows media files to be transferred to portable device. To know more about MTP, best suggestion is to read in Wikipedia.

• 2. GVFS Packages
  

  You should also know about GVFS. GVfs (abbreviation for GNOME Virtual file system). To view the contents of your Android device’s storage via MTP in your file manager, gvfs helps you. Read more about GVFS from Wikipedia.

Steps To Solve The SD Card Mounting Problem

During this troubleshooting, I have not edited or modified any files like udev rules and fuse.conf.

Step 1. Install mtp and gvfs packages

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gvfs gvfs-fuse gvfs-backends mtpfs jmtpfs libmtp-common mtp-tools libmtp-dev libmtp-runtime libmtp9

NOTE: To solve the given below error which I found while troubleshooting, we are installing libmtp9. The error was found when I connected the SDCard to my laptop via USB cable.

Device 0 (VID=XXXX and PID=XXXX) is UNKNOWN.
Please report this VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team

Step 2. Now we will upgrade Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to available latest stable version.

sudo apt-get upgrade

Please note that OS upgrade will take lots of time, depending upon your internet bandwidth.

Step 3. After OS is upgraded successfully , restart the system.
Command to restart the Ubuntu.

sudo init 6

Step 4. Hope the system is booted properly and ready to work. Now, attach the SDCard to laptop via USB cable. It should work now. Given below is screenshot from my laptop.

In case if it is not mounted. Check your mobile settings for USB. The MTP option should be selected, just as we have selected in given below screenshot.

In case you are still getting mtp and gfvs packages related confusion or need more details. I have taken output from my laptop about what are the packages I have installed.

sharad@linuxworld:~$ sudo dpkg -l|grep gvfs
[sudo] password for sharad: 
ii  gvfs:amd64                                            1.20.3-0ubuntu1.2                                   amd64        userspace virtual filesystem - GIO module
ii  gvfs-backends                                         1.20.3-0ubuntu1.2                                   amd64        userspace virtual filesystem - backends
ii  gvfs-bin                                              1.20.3-0ubuntu1.2                                   amd64        userspace virtual filesystem - binaries
ii  gvfs-common                                           1.20.3-0ubuntu1.2                                   all          userspace virtual filesystem - common data files
ii  gvfs-daemons                                          1.20.3-0ubuntu1.2                                   amd64        userspace virtual filesystem - servers
ii  gvfs-fuse                                             1.20.3-0ubuntu1.2                                   amd64        userspace virtual filesystem - fuse server
ii  gvfs-libs:amd64                                       1.20.3-0ubuntu1.2                                   amd64        userspace virtual filesystem - private libraries
sharad@linuxworld:~$ 
sharad@linuxworld:~$ sudo dpkg -l|grep mtp
sudo: unable to resolve host linuxworld
ii  gmtp                                                  1.3.4-2                                             amd64        simple MP3 player client for MTP based devices
ii  jmtpfs                                                0.5-1                                               amd64        FUSE based filesystem for accessing MTP devices
ii  libmtp-common                                         1.1.6-20-g1b9f164-1ubuntu2.1                        all          Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) common files
ii  libmtp-dev:amd64                                      1.1.6-20-g1b9f164-1ubuntu2.1                        amd64        Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) development files
ii  libmtp-runtime                                        1.1.6-20-g1b9f164-1ubuntu2.1                        amd64        Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) runtime tools
ii  libmtp9:amd64                                         1.1.6-20-g1b9f164-1ubuntu2.1                        amd64        Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) library
ii  libnet-smtp-ssl-perl                                  1.01-3                                              all          Perl module providing SSL support to Net::SMTP
ii  mtp-tools                                             1.1.6-20-g1b9f164-1ubuntu2.1                        amd64        Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) library tools
ii  mtpfs                                                 1.1-4.1                                             amd64        FUSE filesystem for Media Transfer Protocol devices
sharad@linuxworld:~$

Thanks to ArchLinux Wiki for guidance. Here is the URL – https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/MTP