connect cell phone's "usb mass storage" to access files

Can you give the output of:

sudo fdisk -l; mount

Thanks.

Make sure the phone is set to be seen as a HDD if it needs setting in some way.

I did it on a Smartphone. I depends of OS in the cellphone.
For Windows cellphone, you could have to use a protocol for Windows Embedded Devices. Some such devices have an option to be seen as simple Mass Memory Storage.
For Android, you have an option to be seen as simple Mass Memory Storage.
You can search solution also by digging in Internet same issue with MP3 player.

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00053bc1

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1703 13670400 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1703 1827 1000448 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 1827 60802 473713664 83 Linux
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
/dev/sda3 on /home type ext3 (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/ben/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=ben)

My phone can only be set to usb mass storage or no connection, also i installed BitPim to try and use it to access my data, it shows the qualcomm device but it says that it cannnot open the port

What make / model is it?

Check you are not using a "Mediaplayer" protocol, but a "usb mass storage" in iPhone..
---
See
1) http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1145846.html
2) http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?pid=3770362 which translated give
  For 10.10 you should comment line
      ATTRS{idVendor}=="05c6", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1000", RUN+="usb_modeswitch '%b/%k'"
  which lie in conf file
      /lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules
I prefer solution (2) which should have less unexpected side effects.

@actionparsnip: a good trick to identify a USB device is to google result of lsusb e.g. "ID 05c6:1000 Qualcomm, Inc"

Hey, my phone is a Samsung SCH-R355l.... i do have it set to usb mass storage device.... It just opens and works in windows... but not yet in linux...

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

lp
rtc
usb-storage option_zero_cd=2

i added that last line per delance's possible fix #1 then rebooted, no luck. still says, in bitpim that basically it is finding the qualcomm but it cannot open the port, so should i remove the line from /etc/modules or what? What to try now, i really need this to work for me

Please, don't test with bitpim, which is a tool I don't know, but simply see if you can mount phone as a "hard drive".
I don't know which protocol bitpim use.

i see, well i still cannot mount as a hard drive.... adding usb-storage option_zero_cd=2 to /etc/modules did not fix it.... any other ideas please?

As I have anew time, I'm unstacking old questions.
What's the status of your question ?

Ben...did you get ubuntu to recognize your cell phone? I have a Samsung schr451c (Straight talk). Never could get ubuntu to even acknowledge it was there.