B is for BlackBerry: Connect BlackBerry® Playbook™ tablet to Ubuntu to access files

Linux can take some time to catch up with official support for new devices. The BlackBerry® Playbook™ tablet is adequately supported by BlackBerry® Desktop Manager but if you use a Linux distribution you may find that nothing happens when you connect it to your computer. Well this is how you get around that...

[Credit to Tech Drive-In for this advice.]

On your BlackBerry® Playbook™ tablet...

First you need to connect your BlackBerry® Playbook™ tablet to your computer using a mini-USB to USB cable.

Select the Settings icon (it looks like a cog) at the top right corner of your BlackBerry® Playbook™ tablet's homescreen.
Swipe up to scroll down the left hand menu.
Select "Storage & Sharing" then tap the arrow to open the drop-down list next to the words "USB Connections" as in the image below.
Select "Connect to Windows" from the menu.
In the same window, toggle the "File Sharing" button to "ON" if says "OFF" and is greyed out.

BlackBerry® Playbook™ tablet OS 2.0+ Storage & Sharing Menu

Next you need to retrieve the PlayBook's IP address.

Still in the Settings menu swipe down to scroll up to the "About" option on the left hand menu. Select it.
From the drop-down menu list next to the words "View information about your tablet", select the word "Network".
Make a note of IPv4 address (consisting of 4 numbers separated by dots - ignore the "/" and following numbers).

Go to your file explorer (the place you can browse through your documents and other files) - in my case its called Nautilus - and from the "File" menu in the top left area of your screen select "Connect to Server...".
A window will appear as below:

Select the drop-down list next to the words "Type:" and select "Windows share" from the list.
In the box labelled "Server:" put your IPv4 address from earlier and select the "Connect" button (leave all other options as they are).

Once you are connect your file browser will open with two networked folders. One labelled "certs". The other "media". If you want to transfer content from/to your BlackBerry® Playbook™ tablet you want the "media" folder. Inside you will find folders similar to the ones on your computer including:

documents
photos
videos
music
etc

Use these folders as you would the ones on your computer, drag files to the respective folders or copy and paste them into the folders. Now you know how to get content on and off your BlackBerry® Playbook™ tablet using a computer running a Linux distribution.

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[Note: An uncommon network set-up may cause problems with this method.]

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Connect BlackBerry® Playbook™ tablet to Ubuntu to access files