Ubuntu – Can an Android phone control Ubuntu like a remote

androidmediaremote desktop

I am looking at making a budget media centre. I am new to Linux and have not yet installed it but think I can manage. I want to use Ubuntu and would like to use my Android phones to control or work as a remote for media playing to a TV.

My setup will be the media box to TV via HDMI (no keyboard or mouse connected) then to my Wi-Fi router via Ethernet.

So I want to be able to turn this PC on and after it's booted directly from my phone control the PC remotely to open the media application and run videos and open photos directly to the TV.

I am using a Samsung Galaxy S II and soon a new Sony for the wife.

Best Answer

If you install the xbmc packages (and use that environment), you can control your machine from android, because there is an app called xbmc remote in google play. It works flawlessly for me.

Why you don't see it

Mounting file systems is a privileged operation on Unix systems. The udisks daemon is used to provide a way for non-privileged users to mount volumes (such as the USB Mass Storage service offered by your phone), but will only allow active sessions to perform the operation.

When you are logged on at the console and haven't locked the screen, you are considered to have an active session. When you ssh into the system, this is not the case. The idea is to only let someone with physical access to the system mount removable devices.

If you mount the phone manually, your music player should be able to access the files on it.

How to find it

Run dmesg and look for your device. It should show up as something like /dev/sdb2. "sd" for scsi disk (scsi instructions are standard for disks now), a letter for the disk (a, b, c, etc), and a number for the partition.
Or run sudo fdisk -l to get a list of your disks and partitions. You'll see it here somewhere.

Mount it manually

Once you find the device path (eg, /dev/sdb2), mount it with this command:

mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt

If you want, make a folder and mount it there instead:

mkdir ~/android
mount /dev/sdb2 ~/android

Ubuntu – How to use android 2.1 phone as remote audio receiver

I think you're over-working the idea, trying to make your phone do something it was never intended to do (connect to PulseAudio or something even more low-level). Make your computer do the hard work.

I'd suggest going with something like Icecast (tutorial here) and using one of the 30-odd apps for Android that can stream it.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Why can I not see the USB connected Android device over SSH

Why you don't see it

How to find it

Mount it manually

Ubuntu – How to use android 2.1 phone as remote audio receiver

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