[SOLVED] Can't mount iphone

[Fuzzy]

I recently moved to LMDE and love it. However, I occasionally need to connect a random iphone to the machine, and I have noticed (at least) the iphone4's won't mount. The phone shows up in the file browser, but it gives errors that it can't mount.

I've searched the web, and found a "fix" - but the fix requires a new ppa trust, and I'm not sure of the safety of adding the ppa. Additionally, I figured I'd just install the new ppa on a test machine, and found the ppa/source doesn't exist anymore anyway.

Is there a way to mount the iphone manually, or obtain a fix via some other method? (lsusb lists the device just fine) I'm not looking to fuse this into any type of software - I just need the ability to browse the files on the phone.

Thanks!
Fuzzy

[kurotsugi]

if you're running ios7 then it's apple's fault. they have changed some security stuff and now ios7 refuse to conect to any linux. there are some information about how to fix it on ubuntu but I never heard one for debian. I guess the fastest method will be follow testing until it got fixed. you can also wait until we got new UP but I don't know when it will come or whether if the UP will comes with the bug fixes.

anyway, the solution with ppa's are for ubuntu. don't try it :3

[Monsta]

I've searched the web, and found a "fix" - but the fix requires a new ppa trust, and I'm not sure of the safety of adding the ppa.

PPAs are not recommended to use in Debian, but you might show us the link to that "fix", and maybe someone would find an appropriate fix for Debian.

[Fuzzy]

Thank you both for your answers.

As per which OS the iphone 4 is using: The answer is "various" - this isn't a specific iphone 4, but iphone 4's in general - customer units. I rarely need to do this, but occasionally do (help a customer do a one-time copy of photos from their old iphone 4 to a different device/backup before retiring the device or sending it in for repairs, etc.)

The site with instructions on how to get this to work in LMDE is (and no, I didn't downloaded the "unknown" .sh file per the instructions): http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 34#p366934

While my LMDE installation is volatile (I could reformat and start over with no inconvenience), I still want to stick with "safe" procedures and "trusted" sources if I can.

Thanks again for your time! This is a great forum!

[Monsta]

The site with instructions on how to get this to work in LMDE is (and no, I didn't downloaded the "unknown" .sh file per the instructions): http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 34#p366934

That post is three years old
A lot of things changed since then. Some packages listed there have been updated, some have been deprecated and removed from Debian repos. Forget about these instructions.

[Fuzzy]

Ha Monsta!

You're right, of course about the post being ancient...but here was my thinking: The iphone 4 itself is older than the post, and it was the ONLY match in the search engines I could find that reported a similar issue. I recognized the libmobile libraries mentioned in the article were terribly versioned, but I didn't know what else to try.

I get my Linux terminology all mixed up, so I wasn't sure how to fully explain the problem. I'll try:

1. Clicking MENU | COMPUTER shows the iphone. However, when the iphone is first plugged in, or when I click on the iphone icons in COMPUTER - I receive the "can't mount" error.

2. Since the phone never "mounts" - I can't unmount or eject it. If I unplug the phone and then later plug it back in - two new iphone entries show up in COMPUTER, but still won't mount.

3. If I leave the iphone plugged in while booting, once the computer has booted, I can't open COMPUTER - it won't open and instead just gives me a general "mounting" error.

4. The iphone I'm using for testing has an older iOS on it

5. lsusb lists the iphone perfectly well.

6. dmesg shows: "ipheth 1-1.4:4.2: Apple iPhone USB Ethernet device attached
... usbcore: registered new interface driver ipheth
... IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready"
Then a couple of segfaults "error 6 in libimobiledevice.so.4.0.1"

Any ideas?

Once again - thanks for your time and advice!

[Monsta]

6. dmesg shows: "ipheth 1-1.4:4.2: Apple iPhone USB Ethernet device attached
... usbcore: registered new interface driver ipheth
... IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready"
Then a couple of segfaults "error 6 in libimobiledevice.so.4.0.1"

Are there also any messages about usbmux/usbmuxd?
Can you post the full dmesg output starting from the moment you plug the phone in?

[Fuzzy]

Thanks for sticking with this, Monsta:

It appears that I receive two different dmesg results...but I'm not sure what produces the two different results. I'll post the first one here, and try to replicate the second result and post it when it shows up. This is the "shorter" of the two versions. The "longer" version contains the libmobile error 6 message that I quoted earlier.

(I've omitted the serial number from the following dmesg report.):

"[50174.079194] ipheth 1-1.4:4.2: ipheth_rcvbulk_callback: urb status: -71
[50174.111991] usb 1-1.4: USB disconnect, device number 6
[50174.125527] ipheth 1-1.4:4.2: Apple iPhone USB Ethernet now disconnected
[50178.660907] usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci
[50178.757376] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=05ac, idProduct=129c
[50178.757381] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[50178.757384] usb 1-1.4: Product: iPhone
[50178.757386] usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
[50178.757388] usb 1-1.4: SerialNumber: *omitted the serial number by edit - the serial number DOES appear in the actual dmesg report*
[50178.919153] ipheth 1-1.4:4.2: Apple iPhone USB Ethernet device attached
[50178.941927] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready"

Also, just to add a footnote: One posting I read suggested to connect the device to another machine, and properly "unmount/eject" the device, then try plugging it back into the LMDE. I tried this, but had no success.

***EDIT: just realized the first three lines of the dmesg report shouldn't have been included...they are from unplugging the device to get a new report.

Hope this helps,
Fuzzy

[Monsta]

[50178.919153] ipheth 1-1.4:4.2: Apple iPhone USB Ethernet device attached
[50178.941927] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready"

Looks like PC is identifying it as a network device. Does iPhone have any settings regarding the USB mode? Maybe try to change something there?

[Fuzzy]

Monsta,

Unfortunately, there isn't a setting in the iphone like that.

I can plug the device into an old LM11 test platform I use (offline), and the iphone 4 mounts quickly and without issue. The only dmesg entry on that machine when the iphone mounts is: "usb 2-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7"

It is curious to me - I'm sure the old LM11 platform has much older libimobile versions, etc., so I know I'm not comparing apples to apples...but my point is, it used to work (and still works) on that platform, whereas I can't seem to get it to work with LMDE. Worst case, I could keep that old LM11 platform around, but I was hoping to use the LMDE release for the iphones instead - I don't like keeping that old LM11 around - it is well past its end of life.

I'm not certain whether I'm encountering a problem with the newer versions of libimobile included in LMDE, or whether its a bug with debian, or - whether I just don't know what I'm doing, and perhaps there's an obvious fix.

[Monsta]

I've found only two bug reports regarding accessing iPhone on Debian bug tracker:
https://bugs.debian.org/730756
https://bugs.debian.org/737656

Both of them have no replies, unfortunately.

[Fuzzy]

Cool.

One of the posts you linked to (https://bugs.debian.org/737656) mentioned:

"To access files on the iPhone I have to manually start usbmuxd:

$ sudo /usr/sbin/usbmuxd -U usbmux
$ ifuse /tmp/iphone"

I looked up ifuse, but see it is not available via package manager...and thus (I assume) it is not a verified LMDE package?

I apologize for submitting a sub-question into the original iphone question, but...is downloading/compiling items from sourceforge (if they don't appear in package manager) generally a frowned-on practice? I've never been sure which practices are acceptable with Linux. Which ones are simply best practices, and which ones are downright dangerous. In the days of early mandrake, slackware, redhat, etc., it was sort of a cowboy frontier...I know things are much more sophisticated now. The reason I ask this question goes beyond my current ifuse interest.

Thanks again!

[Monsta]

That ifuse package is indeed not present in Debian Testing and in LMDE repos, but you can try installing it from Squeeze, Wheezy or Sid (you have the choice). The archive at snapshot.debian.org also contains a few versions to choose from. There's no guarantee it will work or even install fine though.

[Fuzzy]

Monsta,

I can't thank you enough for sticking with this thread! It is now solved! I used the Wheezy version (after temporarily adding Wheezy to my package manager), and it works like a charm! I still receive the annoying "can't mount" messages that had been showing up, but at least now I can actually accomplish what I was hoping to do.

Your posts to the bug reports, and the recommendation to look at Wheezy packages combined to make a workable solution. THANK YOU!!

For any users who might need the same work-around (proceed at your own risks, what worked for me might destroy your system):

To Download ifuse:
1. Open Package Manager
2. Select SETTINGS | REPOSITORIES
3. Click NEW
4. Make sure "deb" is selected in the dropdown
5. Type the URL of the server/mirror you want to use (the one I chose from the debian website was: http://http.us.debian.org/debian but visit the packages.debian.org site and choose your own )
6. Type the distribution: wheezy
7. Type the section: main
8. Click OK

To install ifuse:
1. Click the RELOAD button in package manager
2. Type "ifuse" (no quotes) in the search/query field
3. Put a checkbox in the ifuse entry/mark "install"

To use ifuse:
1. Make sure your iphone is plugged in (and that it shows up using the dmesg and lsusb commands from the terminal - optional, but it doesn't hurt to check)
2. Make a directory to mount the device to (something like mkdir /mnt/iphone )
3. Some folks might need to type this line (I didn't) sudo /usr/sbin/usbmuxd -U usbmux
4. ifuse /mnt/iphone
5. ls /mnt/iphone/ (or browse to it via whichever file manager/browser you use)

To unmount the ifuse mount:
1. fusermount -u /mnt/iphone

Oh - and

Don't forget to remove that repository from the sources list once you've installed the package.

:
1. Open Package Manager
2. Select SETTINGS | REPOSITORIES
3. Either uncheck the new repository you added, or select it and click REMOVE.

I offer many thanks to Monsta for pointing me in the right directions and seeing this through! It is very helpful and much appreciated!

I also offer thanks to Frederick Massot, who mentioned the necessary ifuse steps in his bug report: https://bugs.debian.org/737656 .

Thanks Monsta!!

[Monsta]

Don't forget to remove that repository from the sources list once you've installed the package.

[m hiro]

thanks to give informations!! Monsta,Fuzzy


I wrote an article of your soltion ,on my blog!

Connecting to iPhone on LMDE 201403 (Linux Mint Debian Edition)
http://beautifulajax.dip.jp/?p=536

thanks!!

[mockturtl]

Thanks, guys.

I was having the problem described here ("The device is locked. Enter the passcode on the device and try again").

I'm able to mount an iOS 8 device with ifuse from sid, and LMDE's current usbmuxd, libimobiledevice-utils.

Code: Select all

$ ps aux | grep usbmux         # is it running?
$ ifuse /media/iphone          # attach
$ fusermount -u /media/iphone  # eject

Note: libimobiledevice 1.1.5 works for me; I'm surprised to see 1.1.6 is not required.
Note: jessie's usbmuxd (1.0.8-5) currently segfaults against LMDE's libc (2.17).

[shahjahan]

The main problem with mout is PPAs are not recommended to use in Debian and other linux version.

[GSimpson]

I couldn't mount iphone4 but went to package manager and search libimobiledevice-dev

Install and reboot

I was able to connect after that

I got a lead on what to look for from this post http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/03/ios7 ... untu-trust