How to get photos off an iPhone 3 (Ubuntu 10.04)?

[juliarain]

I want to get the photos off an iPhone 3. I am using Ubuntu 10.04. When I plug it in via the USB port, the phone buzzes but nothing happens on the computer.

This thread suggested adding a repository that would upgrade your libimobiledevice package. I did that and it still does nothing when I plug it in.

I tried following these instructions on Ubuntu Geek. It couldn't find the package libiphone-utils, but I continued with the instructions and tried to mount the phone anyway. This is what happens when I try to mount it:

$ ifuse /mnt/ipod
Failed to connect to lockdownd service on the device.
Try again. If it still fails try rebooting your device.

Any ideas for what I can do? I'm just using this phone as a camera.

[sudodus]

This is a last resort, but anyway:

Is there a removable [micro]flash card? In that case, move it into a card reader (with an adapter, if the card reader only reads standard size cards).

[chadk5utc]

unfortunately the iphone memory is built in not removable. Does your phone not show up as a removable drive?

[juliarain]

sudodus - All it has is a SIM card.

chadk5utc - It doesn't register at all when I plug it in, at least on the computer's end.

I know it can be detected and accessed in newer versions of Gnome/Linux. I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 with old gnome now, but I have tested newer versions of Ubuntu on this computer. I just kept having all these problems with slowness and freezes, and no one knew what the problem was, and I will have to research kernel dependencies to figure it out, which I have no idea how to begin doing, so I decided to just switch back to the old system that worked (Ubuntu 10.04).

[Lars Noodén]

This is just a guess but do you have HFS+ support installed on your computer? If the iPhone is like the iPod I used to use, then adding HFS+ support allows you to mount it as an external drive. See the packages hfsplus, hfsutils and hfsprogs.

[WasMeHere]

You just told us the solution

Boot from the newer Ubuntu install disk or if you have problems, download the iso files of Lubuntu 12.04 and Knoppix.

Make CD/DVD/USB drives and run a live session, to connect to your iPhone and copy the photos. There is a fair chance that either Lubuntu or Knoppix will work well enough for this task.

If necessary, try some boot option in Lubuntu alias cheat-code in Knoppix

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

[juliarain]

Lars Noodén - I installed hfsplus, hfsutils, hfsprogs, and hfsutils-tcltk, but that didn't help it automount. I don't know what to do if it's not even registering the device.

This community documentation on portable devices says Ubuntu 10.04 is supposed to connect to an iPhone automatically. I don't understand why it's not doing it.

Olle Wiklund - I could solve all my problems by restarting the computer and booting into Windows, but that's no fun. The idea is that I want to access the photos without rebooting or using a virtual machine. Also, I'm skeptical that a lightweight system would really help - I tried running the latest Xubuntu on this laptop and it still had the same freeze problem. Thanks for the suggestion though.