Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

This thread is feature complete, EXCEPT for the MTP and Bluetooth entries at the bottom of this post.

Many users will not need this, but some will, especially those new to Puppyland.

Puppy Linux (aka 'PUPs/DOGs') found on this forum has a plethora of services that allow simple movement of information from/to your cell phones of all types.

This thread intends to share 'What PUP-DOGs offer' and some simple guidance to get members started.

Let's start with the basics:

• 3 known ways to connect to PUP/DOG

  • The components on PUP/DOGs

  • The components on cell phones

• Steps to integrate your phone for file movement

I will start with the easiest and most foolproof, then move to the next simplest, and finally the last of the "connect to PUP/DOG" abilities.

The 3 ways to move information is either wirelessly, via a USB wire, or via Bluetooth: Almost EVERYONE understand these. There is a PUP/DOG component to do this as well as there is a phone component. Read-on.

The EASIEST
PUP/DOG component

• This, I find the easiest, as, about, EVERY PUP/DOG over the last decades has this out-of-the-box (OOTB)...namely SAMBA. You dont need to install anything, you dont need to spend time in research, you do nothing more than merely turning it on

Cell-phone component

1. Your phone has wireless built-in...nothing to do here; except to insure it is on the same LAN as your PUP/DOG

2. Get a file-manager from your phone's play store that has a network component. I've used VLC and other file-managers from the phone's play store.

3. Tell your file-manager's network component where your PUP is on your LAN

Done! All files movement is controlled by the phone user. NOT the PC. Now just move info, at will, or as needed. More secure as the phone is the ONLY element that can initiate information movement.

Wired
PUP/DOG component

• This, TOO, is the easiest. It is called, "MTP" on your PUP/DOG. You don't need to install anything, you don't need to spend time in research, you do nothing as when the phone is plugged in this service should automatically spring to action on PC screen.

Cell-phone component

• Your phone has this component built-in.

Done! Now just move info, at will, or as needed. This movement is done directly from the PC desktop...not the phone.

Blue-tooth
PUP/DOG component

• NOT every PUP/DOG has this component package built-in nor has the hardware feature available to do this. AND there are several different Blue-tooth packages and their dependencies needed if one chooses to install this service on a PC that has the blue-tooth hardware.

Cell-phone component

• Your phone has this component built-in.

Done! Now just move info, at will, or as needed.

Beware, there are many, many more ways to use other services and methods to move information to/from. These are merely the 3 easiest that are the most easily understood by both PC users and cell-phone users.

Lastly, this thread is to be viewed as a "DIRECTOR" to the known steps for connecting your cell-phone to your PUP-DOG.

The FOLLOWING THREADS are coming soon!!!

Steps

• Steps for SAMBA and your phone(s) are===> Here - 'SAMBA Steps for Cell-phone Users'

  Following threads are NOT present, at the moment:

  • Steps for MTP and your phone are should be placed ===> Here - 'WIRED USB Steps for Cell-phone Users'

  • Steps for PCs with Blue-tooth should be placed ===> Here - 'BLUE-TOOTH Steps for Cell-phone Users'

I applaud the effort to make this basic function straightforward.

Unfortunately my preferred method - wired - is always problematic for me (depending on WHICH puppy i am using and WHICH android unit i am using).

I hope that one day there will be some wired method that is reliable.

In the meantime I will keep this thread in mind and try the other methods.

Thanks!

@greengeek :-

greengeek wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 8:47 am

I applaud the effort to make this basic function straightforward.

Unfortunately my preferred method - wired - is always problematic for me (depending on WHICH puppy i am using and WHICH android unit i am using).

I hope that one day there will be some wired method that is reliable.

In the meantime I will keep this thread in mind and try the other methods.

Thanks!

Ian, if you connect your phone to your computer via USB cable - which I presume is what you mean - doesn't your phone show up as a drive on the desktop.....which you then just mount to display it in ROX?

Mine does, but then it's NOT a smartphone, and it's not Android. It's an old Nokia "dumb-phone", with their proprietary "Symbian" OS on it. I have no idea HOW this is supposed to show up in Linux, though this does date from the early days of M$'s acquisition of Nokia, so perhaps that explains why I never have any problems with it.

(I also found out long ago that it does matter which type of USB cable you use. Some cables for phones are data-AND-power......others are power-only.)

Mike.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 11:45 am

if you connect your phone to your computer via USB cable - which I presume is what you mean - doesn't your phone show up as a drive on the desktop.....which you then just mount to display it in ROX?

My Blackberry phones do - and my old button phones do - But my Android phones do not. They require the user to select (on the phone) between "access images" or "access files" - each of which changes the interaction between the phone and the Puppy udev rules.

So sometimes connection of the Android phone will trigger questions about "do you wish to connect usb modem" or sometimes "do you wish to connect pupcamera" (to access the phone as a webcam or to access some images) or "do you wish to mount the Android device as MTP"

Occasionally some Android phones will pop up a CD icon on the desktop - presumably they have a partition containing driver install software.

Unfortuantely I have found different sequences of questions popping up depending on which brand and version of Android phone is connected - and different sequences of questions depending on the Puppy version.

I struggle through and generally get access to my Android data eventually but I am certainly keen to hear stories from other people about what works and is consistent for them. It is one area of Puppy that I feel has prevented new users finding Puppy useful. From their point of view - if you can't just hook up your Android phone and download pics then what is the point of using Puppy?

EDIT: As a side note - i have found it beneficial to load an XFE pet before connecting my Android. For some reason the xfe file manager seems better than rox at accessing some "mount points" and sometimes makes it easier to see files on the Android file system. This is mostly when using Tahr32 which is my main daily driver at present.

do you wish to mount the Android device as MTP?

That should be what works. Selecting MTP.

If Tahrpup does not have PupMTP
You can get it here:
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 9#p1029389
Be sure to add the dependency stuff along with it.

My cell phone has to be changed to what the USB does.
From power to data in the phone settings for the usb.

Some good info on setting up Android for MTP.
https://mac.eltima.com/mtp-mode-android.html

The specific version of Android is going to affect exactly how you get it set to MTP mode.

bigpup wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 11:24 pm

Some good info on setting up Android for MTP.
https://mac.eltima.com/mtp-mode-android.html

Thanks for the link. Good description of the differences between old and new Android.

The specific version of Android is going to affect exactly how you get it set to MTP mode.

Yes, i find significant differences between Android versions.
And one of the problems is that you can't seem to set the usb connection type before connecting the cable - but as soon as the cable is connected Puppy has already launched into it's assumptions about what software to use.

I feel like I need to slow Puppy down so that it waits till the Android system has chosen the appropriate type of connection before Puppy reacts.

@greengeek: Are you looking for an alternative to the Puppy MTP connection app?

Hi @greengeek

For All of my uses, the Home SAMBA solution is the no-brainer for all modern WoofCEs. It does, most, everything users want for moving info to or from home PCs. The PUPs need nothing, while the phones/tablets, no matter MACs or Androids or Open-source OS phones merely need a LAN-aware filemanager app (or VLC which is LAN aware, OOTB).

This assumes that the home LAN has Wifi and the phone connects to the LAN that the PCs are on.

NO CHANGES TO THE PUPs-DOGs PCs in the forum no matter if the PCs are on the home's Wifi or if the PCs are wired to the Home router providing Wifi...NO INSTALLATION & NO CHANGES!

There are no wires involved

rcrsn51 wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 12:14 pm

Are you looking for an alternative to the Puppy MTP connection app?

I am not sure what i actually need - in order to establish consistency when i plug my Android phone into my Tahr32 based puppy i am happy to look at any of the following:
- Replacing Puppy MTP with an alternative
- Modifying Puppy MTP
- Changing udev rules to stabilise Puppy's attempts at connection
- Anything else.

I assume if I used an alternative connection app i would need to remove or disable the current MTP and/or remove/change udev rules - but i am out of my depth here so happy to give anything a go - even if that involves trialling another pup.

It may possibly be best to troubleshoot in another thread. Happy to do so here if Clarity feels this is a suitable place - although I do have a previous thread here which may be suitable.

Or happy to look at any other thread you feel relevant.

Cheers!

CamPhoneTab is here.

rcrsn51 wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 8:24 pm

CamPhoneTab is here.

Many thanks - that works for me. Will give it some more testing over the coming weeks. Have responded with a question in that thread.

And one of the problems is that you can't seem to set the usb connection type before connecting the cable - but as soon as the cable is connected
Puppy has already launched into it's assumptions about what software to use.

I wonder, if not having hotplug support enabled in Puppy Event Manager -> Activate, would stop this.

Clarity wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 5:01 pm

For All of my uses, the Home SAMBA solution is the no-brainer for all modern WoofCEs. ...
This assumes that the home LAN has Wifi and the phone connects to the LAN that the PCs are on.

Would a SAMBA solution work if there was no home router? eg: if the phone was running as a hotspot? (Also, as part of this question could you please have a read of this post - does this offer a method of wifi connection when home router not available? If so maybe worth linking this above as another alternative without wires.

bigpup wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 5:37 am

And one of the problems is that you can't seem to set the usb connection type before connecting the cable - but as soon as the cable is connected
Puppy has already launched into it's assumptions about what software to use.

I wonder, if not having hotplug support enabled in Puppy Event Manager -> Activate, would stop this.

Interesting suggestion - thanks. Just tried this and it DID seem to prevent the first instance of PupCamera from popping up. (PupMTP connect dialog showed up instead). However - after I accepted the connect message on the Android screen then PupCamera did appear once. But after rejecting the PupCamera dialog i saw PupMTP pop up again and this time it connected fine.

Definitely worth keeping the Puppy Event Manager hotplug support in mind for anyone experiencing variable symptoms when attaching Androids.
(rcrsn51's camphonetab allows manual selection between Android camera or file access connection - and automatically turns off the PupCamera popups so definitely worth a try)

Really would be good if PupCamera and PupMTP were mutually self-aware so they could offer the user a choice of what to do - as Camphonetab does.

Most Busybox will be compiled to include httpd, that also supports cgi, which might be used for file sharing between laptop (or desktop) and phone.

On your laptop create a folder /shared (optional, any folder will do) and from the following link copy the html code into /shared/index.html

https://github.com/mhfan/busybox/blob/m ... upload.txt

Create a cgi-bin sub-folder (mkdir /shared/cgi-bin) and copy the second part of the above code into /shared/cgi-bin/post_upload.cgi ... and make that executable

cd /shared and run httpd

With both your phone and laptop wifi connected to the same router/hub (or other means to be on the same LAN such as tethered/whatever) you can use the phones browser to access that laptops httpd ip as a means to upload or download files from/to the phone.

As-is that code has uploaded files stored to /tmp with random numbers filenames, extending it to manage that and/or include visible files available to be downloaded to the phone ... whatever ... is relatively simple.

rufwoof wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 10:20 am

Most Busybox will be compiled to include httpd, that also supports cgi, which might be used for file sharing between laptop (or desktop) and phone.

On your laptop create a folder /shared (optional, any folder will do) and from the following link copy the html code into /shared/index.html

https://github.com/mhfan/busybox/blob/m ... upload.txt

Create a cgi-bin sub-folder (mkdir /shared/cgi-bin) and copy the second part of the above code into /shared/cgi-bin/post_upload.cgi ... and make that executable

cd /shared and run httpd

With both your phone and laptop wifi connected to the same router/hub (or other means to be on the same LAN such as tethered/whatever) you can use the phones browser to access that laptops httpd ip as a means to upload or download files from/to the phone.

As-is that code has uploaded files stored to /tmp with random numbers filenames, extending it to manage that and/or include visible files available to be downloaded to the phone ... whatever ... is relatively simple.

Wow - that worked easily! I tested this from a Tahr32 PC connected to my Samsung Android which was providing hotspot to the PC.
So - no wifi or router other than the hotspot connection.

Notes:
- Use ifconfig to display PC ip address
- Turn off firewall to allow the connection.
- Do not need to load any extra app to the phone (may depend on what native filebrowser you have in phone though)

Thanks!

greengeek wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 11:23 pm

- Do not need to load any extra app to the phone

If you want to use this strategy, look here, post #2.

greengeek wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 5:39 am

....Would a SAMBA solution work if there was no home router? eg: if the phone was running as a hotspot?...

YES! Each is on the same home network via the Hotspot.

rcrsn51 wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 12:08 pm

greengeek wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 11:23 pm

- Do not need to load any extra app to the phone

If you want to use this strategy, look here, post #2.

Thank you - yes that method is very straightforward!
Cheers!

Thanks for testing.

Here is v1.2 with some changes to the user interface. There are better instructions in the terminal window.

Update: V1.3 has a modification so it will also work in Slacko64.

---------------------

I have to admit, I used to find Bill's old Samba-TNG package did everything I could ever want on a home LAN. Pity it's been deprecated; it was the simplest thing ever to set up.

I'll give the updated version of Simple HTTP Server a look, I think. I've resurrected the old Dell lappie again - having put her "out to pasture" once already! - and want an easy-to-use way of sharing files myself.

Mike.

ALL solutions presented in this thread intends to work with ALL user machines on the same home LAN network THAT THE PUP is connected.

SAMBA in all WoofCE PUPs and before could not be any simpler than opening the Menu>Network>SAMBA Simple Management and clicking the LARGE "Samba button". The PUP developers made this TOO EASY for even those who know little! Much easier that Windows/MACs, etc. to share a folder on the home LAN network.

For external connections outside of the home's LAN, that should be a different discussion as there are other implications that must be considered.

In Fatdog there's civetweb, open a terminal and cd to whatever folder you want to share files, and run civetweb. Any browser can then open that folder using port 8000 (such as localhost:8000 url if on the same box, 192.168.1.4:8080 if on the same lan, or 77.1.2.3:8080 (or whatever your external IP) from anywhere, assuming port 8080 is set to be forwarded in your router.

civetweb stays running in the terminal until you ctrl-c quit that.

Only the folder within which civetweb is run is visible, you can't cd to the parent folder, but can cd into sub-folder. Also its only for downloading, not uploading, for uploading using busybox httpd and a cgi-bin script works in a similar manner as per http://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.p ... 9d8#p57051 but where you can cd into parent folders

EDIT: looking at the civetweb source page and they do mention that cgi is supported http://civetweb.github.io/civetweb/ ... so could presumably also be set to permit uploads (civetweb is installed by default within Fatdog, maybe available in other Puppy's repo).

Experimenting :

created a test folder /root/tst
Within that created a upload.html file

<html>
<body>
<form action=/tst.cgi method=post enctype=multipart/form-data>
File to upload: <input type=file name=file1> <input type=submit>
</form>

Also created a cgi file for civetweb called tst.cgi .. in the same /root/tst folder

#!/bin/sh

file=./$$-$RANDOM

CR=`printf '\r'`

# CGI output must start with at least empty line (or headers)
printf '\r\n'

IFS="$CR"
read -r delim_line
IFS=""

while read -r line; do
    test x"$line" = x"" && break
    test x"$line" = x"$CR" && break
done

Starting civetweb in that folder and using seamonkey to connect to localost:8080 shows those files (and any others that might be added to that folder), and where I can upload by clicking the upload.html file and using the buttons to enter the file to be uploaded and then clicking the upload button. Uploaded file is set to just have a random numeric filename in that folder. civetweb cgi handling of that cgi script does complain, but the file is still correctly uploaded.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 8:01 pm

I'll give the updated version of Simple HTTP Server a look, ...

Software can only improve when people participate in the development.

rcrsn51 wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 3:11 am

Here is v1.2 with some changes to the user interface. There are better instructions in the terminal window.

Update: V1.3 has a modification so it will also work in Slacko64.

---------------------

Tested v1.3 in Tahr32 and the terminal messages are more straightforward than the originals thanks.
Note to self: don't forget to turn off firewall and turn on the "upload" checkbox.