[gentoo-user] Regular user can't mount/unmount mtpfs; root is OK

[Walter Dnes]

I sent this a day or 2 ago, but it doesn't show up on the list for me.
Apologies to anyone seeing a duplicate.

  I'm a total noobie at mtpfs/FUSE.  My "excellent adventure" started
yesterday when I got a clearout 7" tablet, and took a sample photo, and
tried mounting the tablet... no /dev/sdb to be found anywhere.  I went
to "Mr. Google" for help, and found out that MTP is the "new and
improved" way of doing things.  So I installed mtpfs.  It works great
for root, but a regular user can't mount the tablet.  The mtpfs command
immediately returns to the command prompt, with no error message or any
other info.  The tablet is not mounted...

[d531][waltdnes][~] mtpfs ~/tablet 
[d531][waltdnes][~]

  Before anyone asks...

1) Yes, I have enabled FUSE in the kernel.  At first I hadn't, but I got
a big red warning when I tried compiling mtpfs.  I tweaked and rebuilt
the kernel, and rebooted, then built mtpfs.

2) Yes, I am a member of plugdev...

[d531][root][~] grep plugdev /etc/group
plugdev:x:247:waltdnes,user2

3) This PC uses mdev rather than udev.  Could that be the problem?

  I've figured out a kludge to get around it.  This involves issuing a
few commands as root.  I've added them into a file in /etc/sudoers.d/
but I'd really rather prefer a cleaner solution.

[d531][root][~] mtpfs -o allow_other /home/waltdnes/tablet
Device 0 (VID=0bb4 and PID=2008) is UNKNOWN.
Please report this VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team
Android device detected, assigning default bug flags

   When I was finished, I tried...

[d531][waltdnes][~] fusermount -u tablet
fusermount: entry for /home/waltdnes/tablet not found in /etc/mtab

  I had to unmount as root...

[d531][root][~] fusermount -u /home/waltdnes/tablet

  I experienced similar problems with simple-mtpfs, so that's not a
solution either.  Any ideas?

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications