finding mount point path for Windows CIFS volume visible in Ubuntu file browser

knighttof3 · 01-08-2010, 11:48 AM

Hi,
using Ubuntu file browser, I browsed my Windows network and logged on to a Windows PC. Now Ubuntu file browser shows me "C$ on WinPC" as a folder. I can open it, read/write files, etc.
But from bash prompt, I don't see anything of type CIFS/SMBFS listed in the output of "mount". Only the usual suspects (like local CDROM). How can refer to Windows files from Linux commandline?

lbutler · 01-08-2010, 12:17 PM

Please post the output of mount.

The filesystem should be mounted under /media. Have you tried the command
ls -l /media to see if it is there?

camorri · 01-08-2010, 12:23 PM

I suspect you do not have the windows share mounted on your Ubuntu system, unless you manually mounted the remote file system. That takes a mount command to be issued by you, in a terminal.

If the share was being mounted because of an entry in /etc/fstab, you would have an entry that looks like this:

Quote:

//i-think/Pictures /mnt/Pictures cifs username=% 0 0

The first part is the remote system name, followed by the shared directory. Next is the mount point. On my system, I mount the remote directory at /mnt/Pictures. That directory structure is on my system, I made the 'Pictures' part, /mnt was there from the install. Those directories are there, even when the share is not mounted. When mounted, the remote file system shows up.

You are correct, it could be a cifs file system, or smbfs, either can work.

To get it mounted, create an empty directory were you want the mount to occur. Then create the /etc/fstab entry. As root you can issue a 'mount -a' ( without quotes ) command to cause the entries in fstab to be mounted.

Once you have it mounted, just use the 'cd' command to put yourself at the mount point, and a 'ls' command will show the files.

knighttof3 · 01-08-2010, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lbutler

Please post the output of mount.

The filesystem should be mounted under /media. Have you tried the command
ls -l /media to see if it is there?

$ mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.24-26-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
/dev/scd0 on /media/cdrom1 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,utf8,user=knighttof3)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/knighttof3/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=knighttof3)

$ ls -l /media
total 10
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2010-01-04 05:06 cdrom -> cdrom0/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-01-04 05:06 cdrom0/
dr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 2048 2010-01-04 16:23 cdrom1/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 2010-01-04 05:06 floppy -> floppy0/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-01-04 05:06 floppy0/

knighttof3 · 01-08-2010, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camorri

I suspect you do not have the windows share mounted on your Ubuntu system, unless you manually mounted the remote file system. That takes a mount command to be issued by you, in a terminal.

If the share was being mounted because of an entry in /etc/fstab, you would have an entry that looks like this:

The first part is the remote system name, followed by the shared directory. Next is the mount point. On my system, I mount the remote directory at /mnt/Pictures. That directory structure is on my system, I made the 'Pictures' part, /mnt was there from the install. Those directories are there, even when the share is not mounted. When mounted, the remote file system shows up.

You are correct, it could be a cifs file system, or smbfs, either can work.

To get it mounted, create an empty directory were you want the mount to occur. Then create the /etc/fstab entry. As root you can issue a 'mount -a' ( without quotes ) command to cause the entries in fstab to be mounted.

Once you have it mounted, just use the 'cd' command to put yourself at the mount point, and a 'ls' command will show the files.

OK, I am really confused now.
I did not manually mount anything. I clicked on the Ubuntu tab Places > Network > Windows Network and navigated to my WinPC from there.

Perhaps my question should be; does whatever backend (smbclient?) used by Ubuntu file browser actually mount the CIFS volume on some local Linux pathname or not? If yes, how can I find that pathname?

knighttof3 · 01-08-2010, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knighttof3

$ mount

gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/knighttof3/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=knighttof3)

D'oh!
That's it. Eyes completely skipped over this line until now.

camorri · 01-08-2010, 03:40 PM

Quote:

OK, I am really confused now.
I did not manually mount anything. I clicked on the Ubuntu tab Places > Network > Windows Network and navigated to my WinPC from there.

I didn't mean to confuse you, sorry if I did. You can navigate to a remote share without mounting it to your file system.

The output of mount will show mounts.