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Contents
Introduction
Scope of the document
This document is intended to help setting up and use file transfer between a Mageia Computer and an Android device.
Googling helps to find large amounts of useful information on this topic , but mostly on specific items with limited scope, and possibly not always very reliable. Few documents offer a view that covers more than one method - obtaining an overview of all tools and methods available, Deciding which method is most adequate for a given situation remains difficult. This wiki page intends to, from the viewpoint of a Mageia user, help finding the "right" file transfer tool and to provide information on how to put it in place and keep it running.
Target audience
The target audience for this document are users without in-depth knowledge - users who, essentially, know the names of the files they wants to exchange, and whose knowledge on Mageia and Android stops at getting Linux and Mageia installed and personalised, and keep them running. Nevertheless, wherever possible in this context, background information is provided to help getting more insight also at the technical level.
Present state of the document
Drafting this kind of document requires a range of knowledge and experience which a single author does not have. Therefore, the document has many more or less empty sections that wait for knowledgeable contributors.
If you like the concept of this wiki page, but need to invest on putting in place a method that is not documented, please help improving the page: this is a wiki, do some editing to describe what you have done - or, at least, put non-formatted information in the Discussion tab of the page.
A corresponding problem exists for the coverage of specific Android devices - the differences between various hardware and types of hardware may be quite important. The information in this document has only been verified for a small subset of devices.
Information in this document has been collected / verified using Mageia-5 and Android-5 (Lolipop).
Overview
The number of approaches and methods in support of communication between a Linux PC and an Android device is amazingly high. The following table provides an overview on the available methods and their principal - as seen by the user - characteristics.
The columns of the table have the following signification:
- (most names of Android and Linux software link to, respectively, corresponding playstore items or project home pages).
| Method : | name under which the method for file-transfer is commonly known. |
| Android software : | principal software used on the Android device. |
| Linux software : | principal software used on the Linux PC. |
| Active side : | the side that is active in launching and controlling the transfer - Linux or Android. |
| Directory operations : | "+" if the method is (beyond the transfer of files) capable of doing operations on the directory tree of the Android device (e.g. re-naming files, deleting files, moving files between directories, ...). |
| File transfer : | always "+": all methods listed here are capable of doing file transfer. |
| WLAN : | "+" if the method uses or can use a wirleless network for the communication between machines. |
| USB : | "+" if the method uses / can use a USB cable for the communication between machines. |
| Bluetooth | "+" if the method uses / can use Bluetooth for the communication between machines. |
| Method | Android software |
Linux software |
Active side |
Directory operations |
File transfer |
WLAN | USB | Blue- tooth | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kdeconnect | KDE Connect | KDE Connect | Linux | + | + | + | + | – | |||
| dito for Gnome | – | Nautilus | Linux | + | – | – | + | – | |||
| Airdroid | Airdroid | Browser | Linux | + | + | + | + | + | |||
| Android client ftp | AndFTP *) | Browser | Android | - | + | + | – | – |
Specific methods
Kdeconnect
Kdeconnect emulates the behaviour of remote, resp. external, Linux storage on the Android device: the Dolphin file manager is used to launch file-transfers by simple drag-and-drop actions, and to operate on the properties of files and directories on the Android system.
The communication between the Linux system and the Android device can use either Ethernet over a wireless network or a wired USB connection. [1]
Using the Gnome file handler
Gnome supports a similar approach to Kdeconnect. Details are not documented here, rather see
Using Kdeconnect
- Open a Dolphin file-manager window,
- the "places" panel (at the left of the window) will contain items with the names of available Android devices,
- do a left-button click on the item you want,
- in consequence, a window is opened that displays the top-level directory of your Android file-system.
File-transfer
- open another Dolphin window on you target directory on the Linux PC,
- in these two windows, navigate to and select the source file,
- do a drag-and-drop operation to launch the file-transfer.
Operations on files and directories in the Android file-system
- use Dolphin the same way you do for local nodes on the file-system of the PC.
Installation & Setup
Android device
- Make sure USB on the device is set up for transferring files (rather than photos):
- on your home screen, hit the "Settings" icon,
- navigate to the "Device" Section,
- hit the "Storage" option,
- you will obtain a display that illustrates storage utilisation,
- at its top-right corner, hit the "Setup" icon (3 vertical dots),
- a "USB computer connection" button will pop up - hit that button,
- of the two checkboxes that appear now, make sure that the one saying "Media device (MTP)" is checked.
- Download and install the application "kde connect".
- To see the available options and possibly adjust them, open the app and go to the settings menu - but normally that is not necessary.
Linux PC
- Install the package "kdeconnect-kde"
- Open your personal firewall to let pass traffic from kdeconnect:
Add (use the "Advanced" button) the following 2 items
- 1714:1764/udp
- 1714:1764/tcp
You can do this either during system installation or when the system is already running - in the later case, launch the "Mageia Control Center", open its "Security" tab and select "set up your personal firewall").
- Register the Android device(s) with KDE:
and hosts that are not on WLAN, but on LAN with WLAN ?
- Open the KDE Control Center,
- in the hardware-section of its "Overview" page, select "KDE Connect",
- if, in the left-side panel (list of available devices), your target device is marked by a red "one-way symbol", select that device,
- than:
- hit "Request pair",
- the target device will emit a notification sound,
- on the target device, pull down the notification bar from the top of the display,
- select the pairing notification and hit "Accept"
Experience with Kdeconnect
Kdeconnect is a mature tool - it works nicely and is easy to use, it does not have any evident bugs.
There is one small problem: if the Android device disappears, but is kept registered, KDE (Dolphin) does not have a proper reaction.
Tests have been made with the following Android devices:
- Nexus-7, Samsung-Galaxy-S5 and A5.
Support files
The file $HOME/.kde4/share/config/kdeconnectrc contains configuration data: For each available Android device various caracteristics
Airdroid
Airdroid allows to have a desktop-ish view of your smartphone in your browser. It works by connecting either via their website or locally
to the app running on your smartphone.
Install airdroid via the the playstore on your smartphone and run it. You can easily authenticate using your google account,
or register a separate account. Then go to their website http://web.airdroid.com/ and login there in the same way.
You will have your smartphone as a desktop representation in your browser, including the usage of all apps and phone calls and notifications
completely controlled from your browser. Additionally there is a toolbox and file manager for easy file transfer via drag & drop.
Airdroid is free, but a premium version is also offered with even more features: https://www.airdroid.com/en/pay/
Android client ftp
This method is based on the use of a plain FTP client on the Android device - using the AndFTP app as an illustration.
More text presently being drafted
...
Troubleshooting
- Check end-to-end connection
- Check firewall
Discussion
Android devices considered in this document
Considerations for selection a specific method
- Advantage of control on Linux PC (no cumbersome playing with the virtual keypad)
