[Sussex] How to sort out "crippled" android on smart phone (samsung Galaxy Note 2).

[John The Fatbloke]

Wotcha List,

HNY to one and all (better late than never......)

So, what I thought was a properly researched upgrade of my smartphone
before crimbo, turns out to have been a bit of a wasted effort at the
moment.

When it (the upgraded phone i.e. Samsung Galaxy Note 2) is plugged in,
whether to charge or to try and use it to add some media, whether music
files, documents or whatever, I get the prompt that it's "connected as a
media device".

Further checking shows it's connected as a camera, or that's how I read it
from what I see as the only folder/directory that shows up in the file
manager. If I try to explore it further, I see it as an empty
folder/directory.

Previously, my old phone (the original HTC desire) would just connect as
mass storage and I could look through the various files/folders/directories
that would show up in the file manager.

So, what investigation I've managed to do, suggests that the Note 2
installed version of android is 4.1.1 - which is, apparently, crippled and
doesn't or won't connect as mass storage.

A quick google suggests that I may need to "root" the phone and install a
different version of android that will allow me to connect it as mass
storage.

To exacerbate the problem further, all my music is ripped as flac or ogg,
which apparently the phone supports, but of course, it all sits in my music
directory on the linux (current Ubuntu) partition, and that even installing
the "Kies" (Samsungs) file management (which doesn't seem to be a
satisfactory piece of software anyhow) on the windows partition (windows 7
home premium), can't see the files on the linux partition (no surprises
there), so I have no way of booting into windows so it will see the music
directory.

Now given my very small linux knowledge, I don't have much of an idea how
to proceed or what the best solution might be.

So does anyone know enough about this, to be able to either suggest a
solution or to point me toward something that I might be able to work out,
without (preferably) having to root the phone or do something to my system
to be able to get round this issue ?

After all, why, if android is based on Linux, would or have they cripped it
so that it can't be seen by a linux system to be of some use ? I just don't
understand it or see the point.......

TVM in advance of anything you may be able to suggest.

regards

John D.....
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