[gentoo-user] Regular user can't mount/unmount mtpfs; root is OK

["Walter Dnes" <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>]

  I'm a total noobie at mtpfs/FUSE.  My "excellent adventure" started
yesterday when I got a clearout 7" tablet, and took a sample photo, and
tried mounting the tablet... no /dev/sdb to be found anywhere.  I went
to "Mr. Google" for help, and found out that MTP is the "new and
improved" way of doing things.  So I installed mtpfs.  It works great
for root, but a regular user can't mount the tablet.  The mtpfs command
immediately returns to the command prompt, with no error message or any
other info.  The tablet is not mounted...

[d531][waltdnes][~] mtpfs ~/tablet 
[d531][waltdnes][~]

  Before anyone asks...

1) Yes, I have enabled FUSE in the kernel.  At first I hadn't, but I got
a big red warning when I tried compiling mtpfs.  I tweaked and rebuilt
the kernel, and rebooted, then built mtpfs.

2) Yes, I am a member of plugdev...

[d531][root][~] grep plugdev /etc/group
plugdev:x:247:waltdnes,user2

3) This PC uses mdev rather than udev.  Could that be the problem?

  I've figured out a kludge to get around it.  This involves issuing a
few commands as root.  I could add them into a file in /etc/sudoers.d/
if there's no other way around this...

[d531][root][~] mtpfs -o allow_other /home/waltdnes/tablet
Device 0 (VID=0bb4 and PID=2008) is UNKNOWN.
Please report this VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team
Android device detected, assigning default bug flags

[d531][root][~] chown -R waltdnes:users /home/waltdnes/tablet

  The "chown" command allows me to get at all the data, and copy photos
off the tablet to my PC, and delete them off the tablet.  And also move
any other data files to/from the tablet.  When I was finished, I tried...

[d531][waltdnes][~] fusermount -u tablet
fusermount: entry for /home/waltdnes/tablet not found in /etc/mtab

  I had to unmount as root...

[d531][root][~] fusermount -u /home/waltdnes/tablet

  I experienced similar problems with simple-mtpfs, so that's not a
solution either.  Any ideas?

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications