Question about file transfer to Android device

[Colin Law]

On Tue, 23 Sept 2025 at 14:08, Bret Busby <bret at busby.net> wrote:
>
> What I am complaining about, is that the file management is going to the
> hardware level, when I believe that it should be operating at the
> operating system level.

What makes you say that?  It isn't the file management that is
failing, it is libmtp recognising the device that is the problem. It
is the same problem that arises if a new chip is designed for wifi,
which needs modified wifi drivers.  The new wifi chip will not work
with an old version of the OS.  Note that the error in the log you
posted occurred when the device was plugged in, it is nothing to do
with file management.

>
> If we use filezilla, or wget, they do not care what CPU or what brand
> and model of HDD's or whether the HDD's are mechanical or electronic, at
> the other end - they do their file operations, as far as I am aware, at
> the operating system level, and they do not care whether the network
> administrator at the other end, is wearing pantyhose or woollen socks,
> or leather soled footwear or rubber soled footwear.

But the OS must understand the hardware of the HDD, or the wifi interface.

>
> For file operations between devices, it should be a matter of
> compatibility between the file systems software, not an issue at the
> hardware level.

Again, the OS must understand the hardware of the interface.

>
> So, going back to the original problem, it should have been a matter of
> whether Ubuntu 22.04 supports, and is compatible with, Android 15, and,
> can interface with it and its file system, and, not a matter of whether
> Ubuntu 22.04 has hardware drivers for all of the various devices that
> may be running different versions of the Android operating system.

Again, if Android 15 on that device uses a different flavour of mtp
that is not understood by the PC OS then it cannot work.

It seems to me that in fact it is the design of the mtp comms protocol
that you are complaining about, that was not designed in such a way as
to be for ever hardware design agnostic.

Colin