Nokia 5310 and Linux

In trying to connect a Nokia 5310 to my Linux system (Fedora 9), I encountered some problems which turned out to be non-issues after all. Here's a short report in case it helps anyone:

I don't know if things simply work right "out of the box" when you use Gnome or KDE. I don't use those desktop environments. I work with IceWM for a simple windowing interface, and I like to work from the command line. The following instructions detail what I had to do to access the phone's memory card from the Linux command line.

When I plugged in the Nokia 5310 through its USB port to the computer, the Linux kernel reported the following messages in /var/log/messsages:

kernel: usb 4-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 17
kernel: usb 4-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
kernel: drivers/usb/class/cdc-acm.c: Ignoring extra header, type -3, length 4
kernel: cdc_acm 4-2:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
kernel: usb 4-2: bad CDC descriptors
kernel: usb 4-2: bad CDC descriptors
kernel: usb 4-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0421, idProduct=006b
kernel: usb 4-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
kernel: usb 4-2: Product: Nokia 5310 XpressMusic
kernel: usb 4-2: Manufacturer: Nokia
kernel: usb 4-2: USB disconnect, address 17
kernel: hub 1-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 6
kernel: usb 4-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 18
kernel: usb 4-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
kernel: scsi8 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
kernel: usb 4-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0421, idProduct=006a
kernel: usb 4-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
kernel: usb 4-2: Product: Nokia 5310 XpressMusic
kernel: usb 4-2: Manufacturer: Nokia
kernel: usb 4-2: SerialNumber: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
kernel: scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access Nokia Nokia 5310 Xpres 0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 3932161 512-byte hardware sectors (2013 MB)
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 3932161 512-byte hardware sectors (2013 MB)
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
kernel: sdc:
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense Key : No Sense [current]
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Add. Sense: No additional sense information
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense Key : No Sense [current]
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Add. Sense: No additional sense information
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense Key : No Sense [current]
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Add. Sense: No additional sense information
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense Key : No Sense [current]
kernel: sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Add. Sense: No additional sense information

I was expecting to see an "sdc1" partition, but no partitions were reported either with "fdisk -l /dev/sdc". I thought there was a problem with my set-up, but there isn't any.
It turns out that the /dev/sdc itself contains the filesystem on the Nokia 5310 internal SD flash card.

Therefore, a simple "mount -t vfat /dev/sdc /mnt/disk" will make the Nokia 5310's memory card contents available on /mnt/disk.

To make things easier, I created an entry in autofs' auto.misc config file. My /etc/auto.master file relates the directory /misc with the /etc/auto.misc file. This is the content of my /etc/auto.misc file:

# This is an automounter map and it has the following format
# key [ -mount-options-separated-by-comma ] location
# Details may be found in the autofs(5) manpage
cd -fstype=iso9660,ro,nosuid,nodev :/dev/cdrom
dvd -fstype=iso9660,ro,nosuid,nodev :/dev/dvd
pen -fstype=vfat,rw,user,umask=000 :/dev/sdc1
nokia -fstype=vfat,rw,user,umask=000 :/dev/sdc

Now all I need to do is plug the Nokia into the USB port, and then, from the command line and as a regular user (not root), you can simply:

1) cd /misc
2) cd nokia
3) ls -la

...and you get a list of the files and folders in the phone's memory card.

After copying files from the phone to the PC and viceversa, remember to issue the command "umount /misc/nokia" to make sure all files get actually transferred before you unplug the USB cable.