When I plug my N900 into my PC Ilcan choose one of 3 " Connection modes:"
) Mass Storage
) PC Siut
) Charge only

I often want to switch between Mass Storage and Charge Only. The only way I know how to do so is to un-plug/re-plug the USB. Given the potential for damage, I'd like another way....

Any XTerm commands, etc. to do this?

Thanks,

In my experience, there potential for damage to the USB port is, well, limited. It's basically a matter of luck: Either your hardware's from a shitty-usb-port batch, or it isn't. I don't know exactly how much coddling the port can help if you've got one of the shitty batches. I'm always careful with mine, but it seems relatively sturdy. Whether that means I got a shitty batch and I'm just careful with it, or I got one from a good batch, well, no clue.

Anyway, there must be some X-Term commands for them, and I know part of it is "rmmod/modprobe g_ether/g_file_storage/g_nokia" - depending on what exactly you're trying to do. But doing those by itself isn't enough, because it throws an error about the module/device/resource being in use.

So you have to somehow halt the actual connection, and I don't know what the command for that is.

However, there's an easy user-friendly (relatively) way in the form of Mad Developer. Install that (not sure if it's in Extras or Testing... should be, but it may never have made it down there), and then you can just press the buttons for each of the usb modules. The current version doesn't tell you what each module actually is, just tells you some more user-friendly way of putting it. All I remember is that g_file_storage and g_nokia are Mass Storage mode and PC Suite mode respectively... g_ether is the module that lets you use internet-forwarding through the USB port. Mad Developer installs it, though power kernel has it by default. (Stock kernel used to have it, but nokia removed it in their infinite wisdom...) I think the N900's OS switches between g_file_storage and g_nokia automatically. The only thing to keep in mind is when using mad developer, it will still pop up the option menu regardless of which module you use. For g_ether, I don't think any of them actually do anything. For the other two, I'm not sure, I think they auto-switch themselves anyway... But I haven't had Mad Developer installed for a while, because I only used it for USB-internet, and with power kernel, I have the requisite module anyway.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=52053
you could always unplug the other end of the usb cable too...

Creamy Goodness - I LOVE how I in no way though of unplugging the other end... Human brain is funny like that.

Except it's under the desk behind the PC :-(

yeah mine at work is backwards because the office is too cold (so the hot air from the back blows on the keyboard) so it's pretty obvious for me
well, you could always get a different usb cable, like add an extension or something if you find yourself needing to unplug it all the time.
btw, we would have made an app to improve that usb interface by now except it's one of the closed source components

I also need this when coding, and have taken to unplugging the other end of the cable, but it should also be possible via the terminal.

IIRC there's a command something along the lines of pc-suite.sh in /usr/sbin and presumably something similar which starts storage mode. Have a dig around in there and let us know what you find.

I also agree that it should be possible to change the mode on the fly by e.g. clicking on the item in the status bar.