Nautilus unable to see the storage in my Fuji HS30EXR PTP canera since upgrading from Ubuntu 17.04 to 17.10

[Alan]

What happens:
Something appears to have changed in Nautilus after Nautilus version 1:3.20.4-0ubuntu2 (as in Ubuntu 17.04) and by version 1:3.26.0.0ubuntu1 (as in Ubuntu 17.10)*, causing the storage on my USB PTP camera (a Fujifilm HS30EXR) not to be visible to Nautilus when the camera is connected to the computer via USB and switched on. (Camera firmware was updated and the camera retested on two Ubuntu 17.10 computers)

What is expected to happen:
On my remaining Ubuntu 17.04 computer (and earlier versions) the camera always pops up in the Nautilus left-hand sidebar when the camera is connected via USB and switched on.

To reproduce the bug:
1. Launch "Files" from the Dock
2. Connect a Fujifilm HS30EXR camera (WITH an SD card installed) via USB
3. Observe if camera can be browsed in Nautilus.

What is still working:
Three other cameras were tested and found not to have this problem with Nautilus: Acorn Ltl5310A (with SD card storage), Nikon P340 (SD card) and Olympus C8080WZ (xD and CF cards).

More detail:
Apport information report attached.

Problem occurs when logged in to either Gnome or Unity Desktop in Ubuntu 17.10.

On a prompt from an askubuntu.com user I also tested the Fuji camera on a Ubuntu 17.10 live USB (64 bit ISO downloaded 2 Nov 2017) and found the problem to occur there as well.

Problems with Fuji cameras may have occurred in the past and been fixed - see Bug #1273498

* Problem may have appeared on or before Nautilus version 3.24.2.1 (Fedora WS 26), but was not observed in Fedora 25

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: linux-image-4.13.0-16-generic 4.13.0-16.19
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC2: alan 1376 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: alan 1376 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: alan 1376 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Nov 5 11:33:43 2017
GvfsMonitorError:
 This tool has been deprecated, use 'gio mount' instead.
 See 'gio help mount' for more info.
GvfsMonitorLog: Monitoring events. Press Ctrl+C to quit.
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=d20ac35f-b382-4cd9-8e3d-89b62ff15b02
HotplugNewDevices:

HotplugNewMounts:

InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-02-09 (268 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.10 "Yakkety Yak" - Release amd64 (20161012.2)
IwConfig:
 enp2s0 no wireless extensions.

 lo no wireless extensions.
MachineType: MSI MS-7817
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-16-generic root=UUID=4f5ff60f-71fa-4354-8c46-85a532f5e205 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-4.13.0-16-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-4.13.0-16-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.169
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux
Symptom: storage
UdisksMonitorLog:
 Monitoring the udisks daemon. Press Ctrl+C to exit.
 11:34:19.352: The udisks-daemon is running (name-owner :1.1).
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2017-10-20 (15 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 04/21/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: V10.9
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: B85M-E45 (MS-7817)
dmi.board.vendor: MSI
dmi.board.version: 2.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: MSI
dmi.chassis.version: 2.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrV10.9:bd04/21/2015:svnMSI:pnMS-7817:pvr2.0:rvnMSI:rnB85M-E45(MS-7817):rvr2.0:cvnMSI:ct3:cvr2.0:
dmi.product.family: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: MS-7817
dmi.product.version: 2.0
dmi.sys.vendor: MSI

[Alan (alchap)]

Apology for typo: "canera" in the heading should read "camera"

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Does this bug go away if you boot back into the 17.04 kernel version?

[Alan (alchap)]

Thanks Joseph, if you are referring to the option "Ubuntu, with Linux 4.10.0.37-Generic" in the boot menu advanced options, I tried this and the bug was still present.

[Alan (alchap)]

Today I installed Android File Transfer for Linux on a computer affected by this bug. This app appears to be an effective workaround for the problem with Nautilus, as it can see the camera, navigate its SD card storage and transfer ("Download") files to the computer.

[Alan (alchap)]

Today I observed this problem is fixed in Nautilus 3.26.2 (as supplied with Fedora 27). Assuming this version or higher will flow to Ubuntu in the future, I would regard this bug as resolved "in the fullness of time". Thanks

[Alan (alchap)]

Update

On learning that a Nautilus upgrade for Ubuntu is unlikely in the forseeable future, today I installed gphoto2, gphotofs and gtkam on one of my Ubuntu 17.10 computers, then re-tested the Fuji camera.

When the camera is connected to a USB port, no notification appears and no PTP camera device appears in the Nautilus side bar.
The output of lsusb displays the camera maker's name "Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd" in the line relating to the camera's USB port.
Gtkam's "Add Camera" dialog can display the camera's make and model when clicking on the "Detect" button, but clicking the "OK" button gives a "Could not initialise camera" dialog.
The "gphoto2 --auto-detect" command generates the camera's make, model and USB port in its output. However the commands "gphoto2 --summary", "gphoto2 --list-files" and "gphoto2 --get-all-files" each return (in part):

"An error occurred in the io-library ('Unspecified error'): No error description available
 *** Error (-1: 'Unspecified error') ***".

As of today, Ubuntu 17.04 and Fedora 27 are still mounting and reading the files on the camera correctly (Nautilus 3.20.4 and 3.26.4 respectively). Note the problem was observed in Fedora 26 but not in Fedora 25

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Alan (alchap)]

Problem appears to have been resolved via one or more updates to 18.04 released by late May 2018. When connected via USB, the Fuji camera is now recognised by Nautilus and a new window pops up for "USB PTP Camera".

[wrapperband (drajdoyle)]

This bug stops access to cameras. Why wasn't this fixed in 17.10? - which I'm still using - thanks for the indication it might be fixed in 18.04.

What happened summery :

Note: that the actual bug was fixed a long time ago, the compile of that source code was not added to 17.10. The longevity and constant repeat of introducing this bug, is due to the slow uptake of fixes.

Even though they are reported and diagnosed relatively quickly. The updated compiled version is not getting through the system. A particularly bad example of this was a virtual machine bug in 17.04, that wasn't minor but still the fix didn't get in.

Please, if anyone can, inform Canonical Management to see if they can ameliorate this situation somehow, perhaps add a resource to fast track minor bug fixes through the build to release procedure...