Calibre accessing MTP device under KDE5 solution

kj76 · 04-22-2022, 07:45 PM

Hi,

I was having issues accessing my device under KDE with Calibre - I went through the debug device detection, then installed mtp-tools (since that was missing from a fresh Ubuntu install) and was running "mtp-detect" to see what the issue was. After a bit of Google searching I found:

There is a dbus-1 service here (for the most recent KDE5 versions) for the MTP daemon:
/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.kmtpd5.service

Older versions it might be: org.kde.kmtp.daemon.service

By creating a local file to prevent KDE's mtp daemon from working I did the following (older versions of KDE will be different):
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/dbus-1/services/
nano ~/.local/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.kmtpd5.service

Add the following text:
[D-BUS Service]
Hidden=true
Name=org.kde.kmtpd5

And save the file - a logout or reboot will then disable the KDE MTP daemon.

Now "mtp-detect" works and so does Calibre

kovidgoyal · 04-22-2022, 09:48 PM

Yes, on non-windows OSes only one program can access an MTP device at a time. SO you have to prevent your desktop enviroment from automounting MTP devices to use them with calibre. I'm surprised there is not a more user friendly way to exclude mtp devices from being automounted in KDE.

Quoth · 04-23-2022, 08:50 AM

It varies by desktop. On some you can switch off MTP automount, either in the control panel or filemanager but on some (Mate on Mint) you can't so I use the System Monitor (accessed by right click at start of task buttons on Place bar) pause the gvf-mtp-volume-monitor before connecting USB. Select processes and find it, right click and Stop (not Kill as it would respawn), which is same as Pausing it.

Some MTP devices will be seen by Calibre simply by right-click and eject on the desktop USB gadget device, works for ancient Sony phone but not Boyue Mars as it can't remount without cable removal and re-insertion after an eject on desktop.

04-22-2022, 07:45 PM	#1
kj76 Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2022 Device: Boox Nova 3 Color	Calibre accessing MTP device under KDE5 solution Hi, I was having issues accessing my device under KDE with Calibre - I went through the debug device detection, then installed mtp-tools (since that was missing from a fresh Ubuntu install) and was running "mtp-detect" to see what the issue was. After a bit of Google searching I found: There is a dbus-1 service here (for the most recent KDE5 versions) for the MTP daemon: /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.kmtpd5.service Older versions it might be: org.kde.kmtp.daemon.service By creating a local file to prevent KDE's mtp daemon from working I did the following (older versions of KDE will be different): mkdir -p ~/.local/share/dbus-1/services/ nano ~/.local/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.kmtpd5.service Add the following text: [D-BUS Service] Hidden=true Name=org.kde.kmtpd5 And save the file - a logout or reboot will then disable the KDE MTP daemon. Now "mtp-detect" works and so does Calibre

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04-22-2022, 09:48 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Yes, on non-windows OSes only one program can access an MTP device at a time. SO you have to prevent your desktop enviroment from automounting MTP devices to use them with calibre. I'm surprised there is not a more user friendly way to exclude mtp devices from being automounted in KDE.

04-23-2022, 08:50 AM	#3
Quoth the rook, bossing Never. Posts: 11,156 Karma: 85874891 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper11	It varies by desktop. On some you can switch off MTP automount, either in the control panel or filemanager but on some (Mate on Mint) you can't so I use the System Monitor (accessed by right click at start of task buttons on Place bar) pause the gvf-mtp-volume-monitor before connecting USB. Select processes and find it, right click and Stop (not Kill as it would respawn), which is same as Pausing it. Some MTP devices will be seen by Calibre simply by right-click and eject on the desktop USB gadget device, works for ancient Sony phone but not Boyue Mars as it can't remount without cable removal and re-insertion after an eject on desktop.