fstab help please
 

i have finnaly gotten myself comfortable with smbmount with regards to mounting windows shares, now i am ready to learn how to manipulate the fstab and the shadowpassword file directory thing.

i still feel extreemly new to linux even though i have come a long way in the past 18 months or so.

if someone could give me very detailed explanasion on were and what and how to edit the files that need editing so i can get the windows shares (not on the same system, but a remote system. win2k server to be exact) in a way that is as secure as possible as a few of the shares are administrative shares (C$ type) that i need access to for running the business here.

i am slowly converting from a windows enviroment to a linux one. only 1 thing left so i can be 100% linux here at my office/school and that is finding a replacement for PageMaker 7 then getting comfortable with it.

at that point i will be able to go 100% linux at my school... cheers getting much closer and this is just one more step to making that a reality.

I'm not sure what you're after exactly, but to answer the request in the subject -- man fstab.

thanks, but no thanks, that does me little good as i dont understand 90% of the man pages out there. it talks to people who already know how to do most things in linux, i am not there yet.

No, they talk to the average person and tell you how to do things. When you need help with something, the man pages are really the first place you should turn. In your case, it looks like you should be reading the manpage for smbmount and the one for fstab.

I don't think that anyone can explain it to you in any simpler terms than the man pages will, at least not without just doing the work for you... It's really not that difficult. If you're comfortable with mounting things, both those man pages should really just build on what you already know.

ok thanks for the non-help.

ill look other places then.

I'd not give up on this thread yet. Maybe someone will come along and write your config files for you. :rolleyes:

It's probably my fault. I assumed that someone with over a thousand posts under their belt and 2 steps away from going to 100% linux would be able to read documentation.

i can read the doc, but if you dont understand what it is telling you then it is not worth the headache. i have looked at it several times, but its like looking at something foreign.

it would be like me asking you to perform Choong-Moo or Moon-Moo and expect you to do it as flawlessly as i can without teaching you everything you need to know how to perform the more challanging moves.

if you do not have the basics to start from then looking at the advance details does no good.

dont want someone to make a config for me, but i do need a HOWTO so i can creat what i need. i need some basic steps to learn how to deal with this part of the linux command structor or interaction.

I guess your first post where you said you were comfortable with smbmount was what threw me.

At any rate -- I turned this up by hitting google with "linux smbmount fstab". It looks like it takes all the work out of it for you (and it's even on this site) :p

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Samba

i can get access to windows shares by typing the following commands on that wiki and am now comfortable with doing that to just about any type of windows share...

that wiki is the basics of what i need, but does that file not leave the user/password in plane text? what about the shadowed password file, were is that located?

that had the unsecure file, now to find the more secure (encrypted i guess is the proper term) way of making that p/w file.

If you place the credentials file in your home directory and set the file permissions as shown, someone is going to already have your password before they can read the file
If you have root access to the server, try placing the credentials file in root's home directory. If someone get's root access to your server and is able to read the contents of the file, it's the least of your problems.
There's no way you're going to be able to encrypt the credentials file and have it be read when the shares are mounted from fstab. Hiding it in a home directory with the proper permissions is about the best you are going to do. That's the way I've always done it and I haven't had any problems yet after using Linux/Samba for over 3 years.

ok nice, so for example i can creat that file in / and set the permissions to 600 (that will make it only work for root correct? not what i want).

let me explain a little more about this workstation.

i have 2 at the school. 1 is a POS (point of sale) box that is used to RCP (think that is the protocal that TS uses) to connect to a win2k server for access to QuickBooks.

the 2nd one, the one in question is my workstation that i will often times alow helpers to use for what ever they need to do like access qucikbooks or internet or e-mail or what ever. most of them do not know enough to break anything intentionally, but you never can tell.

as i use the user account on both system and only access root when i need to do a root level job (if i understand that is the proper way to do things) i would like ot keep the p/w file away from courious eyes.

The user root's home directory is /root, not / . Place the credentials file in /root, make it hidden(start the file name with a period such as .credentials, and make the permissions 600. If anyone ever get's a look at that file, they have your root password.

Here's how I do it:

http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Filesys...rmanently.html

I don't think that really provides any more info than the wiki link though.

ok now i see how things work. so a "." in front of a file hides it, but it can be seen with a ls -la correct? can user add a file to /root? or is that something i need to be root to accomplish?

ls -a will show you the hidden files. Adding the -l option presents it in long format.

From my experience with /root, only the root user can see or access anything in that directory. Log in as yourself and try to access /root. You should be denied.

ok if i make the .smbpasswd file as root will it still be readable if the user does the smbmount?

still trying to understand the entire linux permissions thing.