First I want to thank those who have developed this site. I think without it, many would be lost, especially comming from a Windows environment. Thanks guys/girls.

First off, I'm using Slackware - version I don't know. I have a buddy that is really knowlegable with all of this, and he is the one that did the install for me (he really babied me), so I didn't really understand all of what was done. Anyway, I have 2 internal hard drives. One is 200GB, Windows installed there, and a 160GB that Linux is installed on. Everything boots up fine, with both OS, and seems to be working nicely.

I have also, one file server - Snap Server 2200 -. It has (2) 80GB drives that are mirrored. On that "server" , I have some music, programs, etc...

Okay, to my question. Basicly I want to be able to play music through the music player I have. I have set the IP, and I can see all the files on the server, that's no problem. But in order to play the music (while I peael through all these Linux books) I have to copy all the music files to the local disk. I know in Windows I can just map the drive, and play the music directly from the file server. I don't know if I have to mount the device, or what. If so, I don't know where to find the device name/number to mount. I have tried to ask my buddy, but he stays pretty busy and I don't want to be a bother.

So I guess my question is, How do I use files from a file server as though they're local?

Hi there,

NFS is your solution

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/answers.php?action=viewarticle&artid=537

Its in "tutorials -> networking" section

regards

You'd need to mount them for Linux to see and use them. By server, I take it you mean drives with a Windows file system on them. Even though you have Snap Server on them, while Linux is live, it's just another hard drive to it.

At boot time it's all controlled by a file called fstab which lives in your /etc directory

My entries for my Windows drives look like this
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/win_d vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda6 /mnt/win_e vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda7 /mnt/win_f vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda8 /mnt/win_g vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda9 /mnt/win_h vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0

All that gibberish to the right means I can read/write to them from Linux as a user as opposed to being root. All of my mp3's, oggs, etc are on my D: drive (/mnt/win_d) and I play them from Linux.

You'd need to bone up on the mount command (man mount) to get a good idea of how this works.

pardon me if i've given the wrong URL..........just check out in the tutoria -> networking -> NFS

regards

Johnnycab,

/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/win_d vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda6 /mnt/win_e vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda7 /mnt/win_f vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda8 /mnt/win_g vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda9 /mnt/win_h vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0

How do I know what the device name is? You have hda1-9. Does Linux automaticly find this drive, and wait for a line in the etc/fstab file? This is where I am lost.

Currently mine looks like (er well something like) this:

/dev/hda1 /mnt/win2k-c vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda2 /mnt/win2k-d vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/{Linux drive here} users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
(I probably have the letters and numbers mixed up as far as the hda1 hda2 hdb1 goes)

So if I added /dev/hda3 /mnt/win_c vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0, would that automaticly know to look for another harddrive? I don't understand how all this works.

I wish I had internet at my house, so I could be more informative, I'm at work now. But basicly I have the 200GB drive partitioned into 2 drives for Windows. The 160GB drive for Linux is one drive.

Hi,

hda : primary master
hdb : primary slave
hdc : secondary master
hdd : seconfary slave

write "fdisk /dev/hdx" on the konsole where "x" is a/b/c/d.
one by one replace "x" with 'a', 'b', 'c' ,'d'
and whenever it gives some information regarding your drive......press "p" there to look the partition table.
you will come to know which drives you have.

your will have to mount every partition of windows file system on linux

regards

so how do you mount a drive that is on a different server that is windows? i have the share on the server giving full access to the share for everyone. thanks in advance.

Umm...if you want an easy way to do it, install "smb4k". It's a simple point and click application, similar to Window's My Network Places. You can browse your Windows network and when you click on a network share, it will mount it and open it.

After you get used to doing it "the easy way", you can delve into what's going on "behind the scenes".

BTW, I'm not sure it's such a hot idea for a newbie to be trying to use Slackware...

BTW, I'm not sure it's such a hot idea for a newbie to be trying to use Slackware...

I don't know. My buddy said that this is the most manual version of Linux, and that kind of turned me onto it. I am not worried about how much I have to read, or learn. I am interested in the process, and I am tired of not being able to see through the "Windows".

Man, this is the first time I've posted a question on any sort of system like this, and I have to say you guys are very helpful. I work for a company that writes software for automotive dealerships, and I am on the hardware install/support side of it. I spend most of my time repairing Windows problems for users that don't know/don't care. I would like to be able to understand Linux enough to be able to point out ways in which we can benefit from using it here at my workplace.

I do notice that the learning process will be a life-long endeavor, but I find that the time flies when your having fun.

Again you guys, thank-you, a lot.BTW, I'm not sure it's such a hot idea for a newbie to be trying to use Slackware...

In my example, I failed to mention you need to actually have a directory named /mnt/win_c for those commands to work otherwise fstab will fail. Doesn't need to be named win_c etc, of course, I just name them that to reflect their Windows drive letters. They don't even need to be mounted in /mnt either. You could mount them anywhere.

/mnt is just the "conventional" place for it to be done.

I managed to get the thing done this weekend. I ended up mapping it like this:

mount //Neptune/root /mnt/neptune
Server name = Neptune
Share name = root

I think this is not the correct way to do it, but it will do for now. I included this statement in fstab, and when booting it asks for the password to the server, and looks as if it has mounted, but doen not accually do anything. I have to mount it after boot. Even though I assume this is not the corect way to do this, when I saw the thing was mounted, I was very pleased.
I almost gave up on the whole idea, and had contemplated throwing the thing down my driveway. Glad I didn't.