From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D56171381F3 for ; Mon, 24 Dec 2012 18:32:58 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id A696121C10E; Mon, 24 Dec 2012 18:32:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-oa0-f43.google.com (mail-oa0-f43.google.com [209.85.219.43]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CD70E21C025 for ; Mon, 24 Dec 2012 18:31:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-oa0-f43.google.com with SMTP id k1so6998555oag.30 for ; Mon, 24 Dec 2012 10:31:37 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; bh=T521Y2bKvREOcSDnCDmq3ZG64Hpm599EXx9Hd8JgCN0=; b=dwPdL8+7nhNYBqeD3ww5YbKFAC1ZlPbyEmBkzy4xk365EtAu+ecamgTiYAIaKzTvyI m41WYI4d/aeHiWyp/XATgKUbC0lG6cyf97OHdX9WcJehXeadv+iJmnQXgIEgzA1m0OsI QC4ezOZdBTVO0jMl8a2yp0HWQHhC3fAkUaVUzAQForsN3OJWtwMoe8zXjTiZtGIOCKE2 wMt0zqHj86hkCn3EjYtQq5/oLDzjxsh41QN3P2MjcFFEShtXqFPVF4zpBba0xuIFT5eV mOk3eaT7BRVzA35oVE8Ccb5vttwmsSTR0JyVZkxHvL9vdxs5an8HQlBa6IvlwOYNcHg/ 7M9w== Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.182.130.38 with SMTP id ob6mr18548612obb.100.1356373897071; Mon, 24 Dec 2012 10:31:37 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.76.20.243 with HTTP; Mon, 24 Dec 2012 10:31:37 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: References: <20121221195656.217987ce@acme7.acmenet> <20121221232036.6df0fd1f@digimed.co.uk> <20121222100137.2a21405c@acme7.acmenet> <20121222141512.2c2dbfef@khamul.example.com> <20121222104942.5d73d1ad@acme7.acmenet> <20121222171337.101b2370@khamul.example.com> <20121223101737.35875712@acme7.acmenet> <50D7E014.2040603@nileshgr.com> Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:31:37 -0500 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: android and mtp From: Michael Mol To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Archives-Salt: dbfd70a4-355a-46a5-8a24-06a1bbb6aa01 X-Archives-Hash: 97fb030b1885d14b4188913e35129fa6 On Mon, Dec 24, 2012 at 1:17 PM, Grant Edwards wrote: > On 2012-12-24, Nilesh Govindrajan wrote: >> On Monday 24 December 2012 09:24:16 AM IST, Grant Edwards wrote: >>> I'm glad they chose MTP: I want my phone to continue to work while I'm >>> transferring files. In order to mount the filesystem via USB, the >>> phone would have to unmount it (which means it's nothing but a flash >>> drive). In order to mount the filesystem via USB, it also means >>> they'd be forced to use VFAT for the Linux root filesystem, and that >>> sucks bad. >>> >> >> They still use VFAT for the so called sdcard (my Xperia S has internal >> storage, not extensible). > > That's understandable. But for phones with only a single flash device > (like my Nexus Galaxy), using MTP is the only sensical thing to do. > If you want to access only the SD card, then VFAT and USB mass storage > works (well, it works as well as VFAT allows). To a very limited extent. If you have running programs on the phone, they may very well depend on being able to write to the SD card, and may crash if the SD card is removed. In Android, there is _no_ internal storage space for application data; only application code. If an application is supposed to retain data, it needs to be able to put it on the SD card. Similarly, it's very common to move user-installed applications from internal memory to the phone (for many apps, this doesn't require rooting the phone). This is problematic if the filesystem is yanked out from under them while they're running. VFAT is not designed for concurrent access, and should not be used if MTP can be made to work. MTP is there specifically to allow the filesystem to be available to multiple consumers...that of the device and that of the machine the device is plugged into. -- :wq