Android adb error: “device not found” on Ubuntu

http://www.pocketmagic.net/?p=762Android adb error: “device not found” on UbuntuBy Radu Motisan Posted on June 2nd, 2009

I've been getting this error way too often recently, so I've decided to point out some of the causes.

1) using my older desktop pc I cannot use adb to connect to the Android device, but I can see the files on the micro SDCard. Seems to be related to hardware, and not much I could do to fix it. On the other hand, I can use my notebook to connect with adb wihtout any issues.

2) under ubuntu, using latest SDK from google, I remember everything worked smooth: adb shell, adb push, and the others. Suddently, I got this error:
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
error: device not found

Same for adb devices, adb-getstate and so on.

The problem is that we need to run everything with root privileges.
So the correct way to do it is:

sudo ./adb kill-server
sudo ./adb shell

Hope this saves you some precious time.

Radu Motisan

By Radu Motisan