Considering that ADB allows me to access the root of the filesystem, why does Dolphin solely provide access to /data/media?

Help
,
1

Considering that the Android Debug Bridge allows me to access the root of the filesystem on a stock / OEM AOSP distribution with GMS (so no superuser access):

adb shell
FP5:/ $ pwd
/

FP5:/ $ ls -l
total 72
drwxr-xr-x   2 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 acct
drwxr-xr-x  76 root   root       1580 2025-05-08 17:37 apex
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root         11 2009-01-01 00:00 bin -> /system/bin
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root         50 2009-01-01 00:00 bugreports -> /data/user_de/0/com.android.shell/files/bugreports
l?????????   ? ?      ?             ?                ? cache -> ?
drwxr-xr-x   4 root   root          0 1970-03-01 01:18 config
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root         17 2009-01-01 00:00 d -> /sys/kernel/debug
drwxrwx--x  52 system system     4096 2025-05-06 16:51 data
d?????????   ? ?      ?             ?                ? data_mirror
drwxr-xr-x   2 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 debug_ramdisk
drwxr-xr-x  24 root   root       5940 2025-05-10 01:30 dev
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root         11 2009-01-01 00:00 etc -> /system/etc
l?????????   ? ?      ?             ?                ? init -> ?
-?????????   ? ?      ?             ?                ? init.environ.rc
d?????????   ? ?      ?             ?                ? linkerconfig
drwx------   2 root   root      16384 2009-01-01 00:00 lost+found
d?????????   ? ?      ?             ?                ? metadata
drwxr-xr-x  15 root   system      320 1970-03-01 01:18 mnt
drwxr-xr-x   4 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 odm
drwxr-xr-x   2 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 odm_dlkm
drwxr-xr-x   2 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 oem
d?????????   ? ?      ?             ?                ? postinstall
dr-xr-xr-x 821 root   root          0 1970-01-01 01:00 proc
drwxr-xr-x  13 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 product
drwxr-xr-x   3 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 res
lrw-r--r--   1 root   root         21 2009-01-01 00:00 sdcard -> /storage/self/primary
drwxr-xr-x   2 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 second_stage_resources
drwx--x---   4 shell  everybody    80 1970-03-01 01:18 storage
dr-xr-xr-x  16 root   root          0 1970-03-01 01:18 sys
drwxr-xr-x  14 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 system
d?????????   ? ?      ?             ?                ? system_dlkm
drwxr-xr-x  12 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 system_ext
drwxr-xr-x  16 root   shell      4096 2009-01-01 00:00 vendor
drwxr-xr-x   2 root   root       4096 2009-01-01 00:00 vendor_dlkm

…why does Dolphin solely provide access to merely /data/media (via /storage/emulated/$USER)? It seems like an arbitrary point to prevent the user navigating further from, especially because I don’t see much reason to prevent them doing so whatsoever - it’s not as if they’ve superuser rights by default.

I’m not certain of which KIO package provides this, but I presume it’s KIO which does.

2

As I understand it, that’s not a Dolphin or KIO decision, that’s how MTP works: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/225142/how-much-of-the-android-filesystem-is-visible-over-mtp

The user-accessible and editable files on an Android device seem like an intuitively logical point to use for navigating a device, to me at least - what’s the use case for using Dolphin to browse the largely inaccessible and/or immutable parts of the phone’s actual filesystem?

1 Like
3

@johnandmegh, thanks! I didn’t notice it used MTP – the omnibox obscures the schema in use in button mode – so I didn’t think to ask about the protocol. :person_facepalming:

They are! However, like how Dolphin defaults to $HOME, but still permits navigation above, that’s what I expected when connected via MTP.

Extraction. Although /data is inaccessible because it wants you to go through the virtual FS, accessing /system is possible. That’s useful when one wants to pull an APK or TTF for evaluation or introspection elsewhere (my OS vendor hasn’t updated the damn fonts in eons), or for ascertaining which fonts are installed.

I’d rather not use the terminal when I can avoid it – Dolphin has such a lovely UI.

4

In my feeble memory, I can swear that I could at least browse the full file system on a rooted and rom’d phone via kdeconnect. But that probably was 2018 at the latest.

Kdeconnect uses an ssh type of connection iirc.

Not sure if it helps but might lead to a useful option, perhaps?

2 Likes