As there're several, more or less well working howtos about creating udev rules to allow access to the USB debug devices of Android phones out there in the wild, I decided to write my own one. It works at least for Debian Testing/Squeeze. The udev rules file I provide here works at least for the HTC Dream models (aka T-Mobile G1 and Google Devphone).

As a computer may be used by more than one user, I've decided to create a group called androiddev. Members of the group will be allowed to access the debug interface. Running (hint: become root first)

addgroup --system androiddev

will create the group for you. Add your developers to the group with

adduser username androiddev

(of course replace username with the user you'd like to add) and we're ready to configure udev. Open /etc/udev/rules.d/android.rules in an editor and add the following lines:

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bb4", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0c01", GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android%n"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bb4", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0c02", GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android%n"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bb4", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0fff", GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android-fastboot%n"

That's it. Udev will reload and activate the new ruleset. Don't forget to re-login to make sure your new shiny group will show up! Now have fun with adb and fastboot :) Thanks to TauPan from #debian/freenode.net who gave me the idea for this blog post.

Second Update: Added the proper line for fastboot and cleaned up the howto.

Comments:
Thanks
Thats work for me. Thanks
Comment by Romeo Ordos Fri 19 Jun 2009 02:21:27 PM CEST
works on debian lenny, awesome!
I'd just like to add that after you do all this you might need to run "adb kill-server" then run "adb devices" for the device to show up.
Comment by Kevin Septor Tue 25 Aug 2009 02:21:40 AM CEST
Woks for my HTC Hero on sid
Fantastic! Thanks a lot! Works with my HTC Hero on Debian squeeze/sid too!
Comment by Dirk Fri 23 Oct 2009 10:34:08 AM CEST