Device not visible on usb bus by some Ubuntu desktops

frieza 17+ user

When connected over USB, the device is not seen by some Ubuntu (tried on Xenial and Vivid)

Nothing in syslog of the host when the device is connected and nothing in lsusb, although it charges.

I verified that the cable is good, and same cable and host work fine with krillin.

when the tablet is powered on, it's visible for a short time (preloader) then it disconnects.

Feb 16 16:36:24 herm kernel: [177744.999180] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 56 using xhci_hcd
Feb 16 16:36:24 herm kernel: [177745.127627] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0e8d, idProduct=2000
Feb 16 16:36:24 herm kernel: [177745.127644] usb 3-1: Product: MT65xx Preloader
Feb 16 16:36:24 herm kernel: [177745.189651] cdc_acm 3-1:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
Feb 16 16:35:45 herm wpa_supplicant[1322]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 14:0c:76:71:a1:f4 [GTK=CCMP]
Feb 16 16:36:24 herm mtp-probe: checking bus 3, device 56: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1"
Feb 16 16:36:24 herm mtp-probe: bus: 3, device: 56 was not an MTP device
Feb 16 16:36:27 herm kernel: [177747.777852] usb 3-1: USB disconnect, device number 56