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> don't understand not more people want to access their DCIM folder via sshfs

The thing is that, despite owning rooted Androids, pinephones, and jailbroken iPhone (old days), I have found no real use personally for all the unlocked potential of those devices, beyond the fun and coolness of tinkering.

I need to access some photo from PC maybe once every year. I don't edit photos, or categorize them, and if I were to share them, it's likely that the channel already is on the phone.

Writing programs on the go? I have installed vim and emacs and set up a lot of crazy stuff on phones, but at the end of the day, I'd rather just carry a laptop. It's too hard to type on the phone regardless of what program you install, and if connected to a external keyboard, the screen is too small. I just don't have a scenario where I want to write programs while not able to bring a laptop.

In other words, the hardware and form factor is so limiting, that I don't find unleashing the software to be much of a use, even after spending a lot of time setting them up. I hope I can find some practical reasons, because I really like the tinkering, but I haven't.

(This is, of course, highly personal. A lot of people might find many practical use cases.)

I used to set an 80% battery limit and want root for adblock and backing up apps. With a desktop chrome equivalent it becomes very useful even without root today.

The iPhone gets better and better but I jailbreak for a clipboard that isn't a single paste.

Yes. Even without enabling root, you can install Termux[1] and have a full Linux cli environment with ssh.

> don't understand not more people want to access their DCIM folder via sshfs

I agree. I sync my camera folder with Syncthing[1], so as soon as I take a photo it is available on my laptop.

1: https://termux.dev/ 2 https://syncthing.net/

I can also recommend the Apple ecosystem. My phone and MacBook keep, messages (and sms), contacts, calendar, clipboard and also photos in sync.

Why not just recommend nextcloud. You can host it yourself and it backs up and syncs your photos, calendar, contacts, and other files automatically

And you get to own your data instead of relying on Apple

Yeah I use NextCloud. It syncs contacts, calendars, tasks, notes, news, podcasts, recipes(!), photos, and any arbitrary files. If you don't want to self host, just get a Hetzner storage share for $4/mo or whatever it is.

I disliked iOS for specifically being absurd about photos. They are not considered "files" and therefore cannot be synced by Mobius / Syncthing. I don't want to go through the hassle of hosting Nextcloud to get photos from my phone to my laptop when both are located on the same network.

(Not really relevant anymore since I don't own any Apple devices)

This app is what you want. It can push the photos to NFS or Samba over the network. https://www.photosync-app.com/ Maybe it will help someone who still uses an iPhone.

Why that one specifically? Doesn't say anything about free or open source. I use this one. https://immich.app/

Not your parent poster, but I appreciated that Photosync was a one time purchase, and developed by a German company. Worth it to have a solid backup tool that can push to a Samba share.

I am already using an iPhone, so those things do not typically enter my calculus for selecting apps. I don't like it, but the alternative is using Android, so it's the tradeoff I am making. I know that isn't a very good answer.

Considering this is a post by and for Free Software enthusiasts, I don't think they would.

I would definitely not recommend that ecosystem as you can't even plug it into a computer and take things out of it / put things in.

I can access my photos by plugging my iPhone into my Linux or Windows PC.

> OP, you might be interested in Android I think. It runs a Linux kernel, you can enable root access,

On average, that's not really true. Android uses badly modified and unmaintained versions of Linux (the kernel), and both root access and the ability to install a replacement operating system are immensely variable depending on the vendor and the exact model. Pine products typically maintain some degree of downstream patches, but they are trying to run mainline Linux and do actually keep up with kernel updates, while also giving the user root access out of the box by default, no caveats.

This has improved a lot with Android 12 and Google is working towards using a nearly unmodified Linux LTS kernel. See https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/android-to-take-an-u...

If you can enable root access depends on the boot loader though, which is a different story. If you want to be safe, get a Pixel.

Samsung is also a safe bet afaik, or Fairphone of course.

For manufacturers where you need to apply for an unlock code, do it within the legal return window of the device (minimum 14 days in the EU (or EEA?) for online purchases), so then that's also a safe bet. Don't need to use the code straight away, though I'd recommend it as it typically (as an extra hurdle¹) wipes the device and you don't want to be doing that once all your data is on there

¹ user safety security blah blah yeah. If it were about my privacy, it could show the same consent prompt as it does for uploading my pictures and live location and rest of my life to a megacorp. If anything, that decision should have an unlock code you need to apply for and supply on a command line to avoid making a mistake in haste

Not sure I'm deep enough into Linux to understand why it matters to run an unmodified mainline kernel version. Everything I've tried to apt install inside the Linux Deploy Debian userspace either worked or ran into selinux restrictions (more and more in the latter category; RIP wavemon, for example, as a better alternative to rate-limited WiFi scanning apps as of around Android 9)

> Not sure I'm deep enough into Linux to understand why it matters to run an unmodified mainline kernel version.

Updates. The closer you are to mainline, the easier it is to move to newer versions as they come out (and the more quickly, which especially helps with security patches).

Ah, yeah okay but installing kernel updates not something I'd do myself anyway so that's the manufacturer's problem (and eventually my problem when I get pwned, sure). I thought you meant that it had some impact on the ability to run standard Linux software

On one of my old tablets (Android 4 or 5) years ago I put and configured Syncthing so that it would sync automatically all user data to the home NAS running Nas4Free (now XigmaNAS). Didn't make much use of it, but it worked.

> you can enable root access

One may be able to get root, but the resulting system isn't very useful. Many apps query Google's attestation and integrity APIs to detect this and then refuse to function.

Basically it's a thing of the past.

Huh, no? I think I once ran into one app that didn't want to work, then enabled magisk hide for it, and then it ran fine. Don't know which app that was anymore, apparently I didn't use it long enough for that

I remember hearing many more issues with apps trying to detect it and do fearmongering in the past. I'd say your argument is the thing that's slowly getting a part of the past

Most banking apps will refuse to work if they detect that the phone is rooted.

You can also use Kde Connect for file sharing using sshfs if you don't want to configure it manually. The feature is called "Filesystem Expose".

I'm not familiar with that, but I'm curious how it can be simpler than what I described using the regular file manager you've probably already got installed. For me, using the defaults of Debian with Cinnamon, the steps are

0. get ssh working

1. type into the location bar of the file browser: sftp:// and then whatever the ssh command would use, e.g.: sftp://root@samsung-0bd2c41

2. there is no step two, you've already got a mounted filesystem

Of course, there's some details hidden in step zero, but if KDE Connect uses sshfs as well, I'm not sure how it gets simpler than this to "expose" (this means mount, right?) the filesystem. Does KDE Connect do it bidirectionally or so? (I wouldn't actually want that, as my laptop is the trusted device of the pair)

Pair your phone once with PC (It also supposedly works with Gnome but i never used it) using a single click via. KDE Connect.

The phone icon shows up in your file manager without you having to do any additional configuration. Click and browse like any networked folder.

Advantage is KDE connect also brings a lot of useful features alongside just accessing phone files. Can share clipboard, notifications (can even reply from desktop), execute commands on pc from phone and vice versa and a lot more

What does pairing mean here? Surely not Bluetooth? How'd that work? Or do you mean plugging in the USB connection and perhaps turning on USB debugging? I don't understand what that first word/step means or involves

Ah wait, probably there's a companion app on the phone side that uses root and one side listens for broadcasts on the network. Is that what you mean? That does sound simpler than setting up ssh indeed

Yep. KDE Connect app exists on Android and does not need root. You connect both of them to the same network. Once they discover each other over network (or you add the ip address manually), click the pair button on one device and accept the pairing request on the other device. They exchange ssh keys etc.. so the connection will work automatically even when you switch networks the next time.

I don’t understand how the author can say KILLER FEATURE if using the killer feature is impeded by a fundamental feature (crappy screen).

I, too, had a stage where I was obsessed about some electronic thing that had significant usability issues in day-to-day life.

In my case, it was a tri-band EU phone that could only do GSM1900 on a North American network with shitty indoor reception, and cost a pretty penny compared to what was on the market at the time. Never again.

Edit: I misread the parent comment, and didn’t realize the SSH part.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you... how does the crappy screen affect your experience when you're ssh'ing into it?

I misread the comment…