[Acer Iconia A500] greg216:
A500 to Ubuntu USB

I could not get my Ubuntu machines to recognize the tablet when I plugged in the USB cable. Bummer.

Digging around I found a similar issue experienced by Xoom owners. The original article describing the fix is here. The steps listed there are for the Xoom, not the Acer, although the fix is almost the same.

I am posting the slightly modified instructions again here for clarity and brevity.

I did this fix on both Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) and 11.04 (Natty). Your mileage may vary.

1. Get the mtpfs package installed on your machine.

sudo apt-get install mtpfs

2. In the tablet, go to Settings->Applications->Development and turn USB Debugging on (check the box). For me, this was required for file transfers to work.

3. Plug your USB cable into the tablet and your Ubuntu machine.

4. Open your Terminal app on the Ubuntu machine.

5. Use the lsusb command to get the vendor id. Type "lsusb" in Terminal.

6. The output should look something like this:

greg@sunny:~$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 046d:c52f Logitech, Inc. Wireless Mouse M305
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 05af:0802 Jing-Mold Enterprise Co., Ltd
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 03eb:3301 Atmel Corp. at43301 4-Port Hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0502:3325 Acer, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:b16b Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

The line with "Acer, Inc." in it tells you the VendorID. In the example above, it's 0502.

** Disconnect the USB cable at this point **

7. Create a UDEV rule file. Use your editor of choice, mine is nano.

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

The file should contain this line when you are finished:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0502", MODE="0666"

8. Create a mount point and make yourself the owner.

sudo mkdir /media/a500
sudo chown [B][COLOR="darkred"]user[/COLOR]:[COLOR="darkred"]user[/COLOR][/B] /media/a500

IMPORTANT: Replace user:user with your user name and default group on your Ubuntu machine. For most people it will be your login name. If your login is "bob", then replace user:user with bob:bob, capice?

9. Add the mount point to fstab.

sudo nano /etc/fstab

At the bottom of the file, type this stuff:

# mount point for moto xoom
mtpfs /media/xoom fuse user,noauto,allow_other 0 0

10. Modify fuse.conf. Uncomment user_allow_other.

sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf

Look for #user_allow_other and remove the #.

11. Add yourself to the fuse group.

sudo nano /etc/group

Look for the line starting with "fuse" and put your login at the end of that line (if it's not already there).

12. Reboot.

You should see your mount point in Nautilus when you open it. After plugging in the USB cable, you can click the a500 entry under Places to mount the tablet.

Be sure to unmount it before disconnecting it. (always a good practice)

It took some time for some large folders to display. Patience is good.

From what I read, better fixes are on the horizon, but who knows when. For now, this allows me to get my music and movies on the tablet more rapidly than using wifi.

Thanks to roberj13 over at xdaforums.com for the original post.