Folder and File Sharing
 

I have 4 laptops with Slackware, they all are pretty much configure the same except for a few packages. I want them to see each other on the lan. How do I do this? None of the linux comps act as servers, they are all clients.

Hi,

You have several options, the "simplest" way might just be to setup samba shares on each. Or if you're lazy and don't care about security you could try NFS, but permissions might be tricky to setup safely :).

Those are just tracks you want to investigate.

If you want something where you don't have to do anything once it's configured, samba or nfs are probably the way to go, but they can take a bit to get set up properly. If you just need to simply transfer some files, sftp is by far the easiest way as long as you have ssh running. If you want to share a printer, I think that can only be done over samba. NFS seems to be best for streaming (at least it was a few years ago... I was getting constant buffering on my htpc when I had my media shared over samba).

Most file managers support the sftp protocol, so you could just type sftp://username@192.168.1.100 and be prompted for a password or sftp://username:password@192.168.1.100 if you don't want the prompt. Many file managers will allow you to set up bookmarks to save those sftp addresses. If your favorite file manager doesn't support it, gftp does, and that's included in a stock Slackware install.

Oh yes I forgot this obvious one :). You can have easy sftp using FileZilla, but also there's a fuse sftp - sshfs, which allow to 'mount' remote directory almost seamlessly (other remote accounts permissions might have funny values, but that should not be a big deal).

fish://192.168.1.100 too

I don't know anything about nfs/samba. I will probably stream home videos from the network, but they are only a 30mb or less. I have been using Slackware about a year, and within that time, I only have about a dedicated 5 months under my belt.

sshfs. Its part of a slackware full install now in current or available at SBo.

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...rk/sshfs-fuse/

Here is an example.

It will work with both other devices in your lan network as it will with remote servers you have access to.

Do any of the solutions have a gui? I used Windows and dos a lot in the pass, I prefer not to have to use terminal/command prompt. If I have to I will, but prefer it not.

See bassmadrigal's answer in second paragraph of post #3. Examples:

• In dolphin (shipped in Slackware) go to Network then "Add a network folder"
• In pcmanfm in the menu click Go then "Connect to Server..."

pcmanfm is not shipped in Slackware but you can build it from slackbuilds.org with its dependencies. Then build from top to bottom:
libfm-extra
lxmenu-data
menu-cache
libfm
pcmanfm

Maybe that's possible also with thunar, I didn't find how.

PS in Slint the default file manager is PCManFM, I like it.

A warning though: whilst it's very handy to access remote folders through the file manager, it can be very dangerous too, as you can very easily inadvertently remove a file or folder, or do paste or move the wrong way, for instance. Be very careful.

Didier

Did you try repalace PCManFM with SpaceFM ?

I did it and no regret .More fun :-)

NoStressHQ

the "simplest" is:

:-)

I did. Actually I tried many file managers for Slint, but found that PCManFM had more features and was easier to user than SpaceFM.

So, PCManFM is the default file manager in Slint 14.2 and that won't change.

I fail to see something that I could do with SpaceFM but not with PCManFM. Also, PCManFM integrates well with other components included in Slint, like Engrampa as file archiver.

And for the future it should be easy to provide LXDE with PCManFM (and Fvwm as window manager), either as an additional desktop or as a standalone "one desktop" edition.

However, it's easy to add SpaceFM to Slint, with its optional dependency udevil. I just did it this way:

Personally I find spacefm to be world's better than pcmanfm or any other gui file manager.

So, what I need to do is, install nfs-utils-1.3.3, configure fstab, and all my network computers will show up when I click Browse Network? I'm using thunar btw. I'm not sure if I need thunar share plugin.

So nfs-utils-1.3.3 is not installed? Then why didn't you do a full Slackware installation, why, but why?

How many times should we repeat that folks requesting help in this forum are assumed to have made a full installation, or at the very least should state that they didn't in the first post of the new thread they create???

Actually it is installed. I just check with ls /var/log/packages

OK. However, before editing this post you stated that you are running MLED that trims some packages. Please state this next time you request help, as knowing as much as possible on your system can avoid misleading people who try to answer your questions.

Samba is installed too.

Just an FYI to share a printer from a slackware computer it just needs to be enabled in the cups . I even have my windows laptops printing from it.

Ok, so what are the next steps to get the computers to show up. And sorry for not being specific in posting.

Argl ! Python, stay away ! Although I kinda *love* snakes, python gives me urticaria...

«Oh Great Haskell, please deliver us all !»

:)

Well beware with NFS, it's not really distributed, although you "could" have a two way setup between two computers, in order for the remote FS to be mounted, the remote NFS server must be already up... So it can't really be automated (you will always have a machine up before the other, or willing to stop one, which will close the server and "kill" the remotes accesses to the local machine). You will have to "restart" the nfs mount quite often.

samba/sshfs should be more seamless.

Edit: also NFS *DOES NOT* makes remote computers to appears "anywhere", it just MOUNT a remote directory onto your local filesystem. The "remote" directory becomes accessible as if it was a local mounted disk.

There is NO server. I'm trying to share between the 4 slackware clients. I'll give nfs a shot, if that doesn't work, I'll try you guys other methods.

Here is what I did.

Created a folder /home/problemchyld/Desktop/JohnDoe/ Now, I would like to share that folder with my other 3 slackware clients. Each client will have a folder on the desktop that needs to be shared with the other clients. Full read and write access for all clients on the network. How do I accomplish this with thunar and nf s?

Maybe see answer #87 in this page under Host file. Caveat: I didn't try.

Also I do not understand what you mean by "LAN" if there is no server (but the case of two machines linked by a crossover cable). What is the physical link between the machines? Are they connected to Internet through the same NAT router or DSL box with Ethernet cables?

All computers connect through a router with static ips. What is meant by this my.nfs.server? I don't understand because I don't have a linux server.

can you ping each machine from another one using its static IP then? If yes you should be able to write an hostname for each machine in /etc/hosts (that would mean 4 lines in /etc/hosts in each machine).

Yes

I think that you don't know what a "server" is... Even if we might call a machine a "server" because it have a "main usage of servicing", a server is NOT a machine, a server is a process ON a machine which serves something. It can even not be through network. You have a LOT of servers on your computer... A NFS server is just a special process which is a DEAMON and a SERVER (A daemon can also be a client)...

Anyway, every machine have multiples serving processes in memory, as many client processes.

NFS is a client/server architecture, if you'd like to use NFS in your contex ALL MACHINES would be both clients and servers...

This method didn't work for me. I have spent half of the day trying to network my linux comps. I can't afford another 6 months trying to get something to work. My solution is strip linux off all the computers and go back to Windows. Sorry if I have wasted your time, but mines has been wasted as well. I don't have countless time to read every article and try every solution. Again, thanks.

Samba is the way to go for your file sharing.

http://blog.microlinux.fr/samba-slackware/

Beware that DHCP/DNS must be setup properly for this to work. If you had one machine acting as LAN server, you could setup Dnsmasq to do that:

http://blog.microlinux.fr/dnsmasq-slackware/

A laptop isn't very suited for this, so you have to use your router to do this. Depending on the model of your router, this can be easy or difficult to setup.

Other solution: get an el-cheapo desktop PC, put two NICs in it, install a headless Slackware and learn to configure it as a local server/gateway/firewall. You might want to use two hard disks and use software RAID 1, so you'll improve on reliability.

Have fun,

Niki

I think there is some misunderstanding.

Example: Lets say, I have 4 computers with Win 7 home edition. I then, create a folder on each of the desktops called Share1. The other 3 computers will follow the same with Share2, Share3 etc... so on and so forth. I know how to connect the 4 Win 7 comps and share the folders on the network. This has been done in Windows with no headaches. I'm trying to do the exact same thing in linux. It can't be that hard, or is it? I have a router that connects all wireless devices. All linux computers have static ips 192.168.1.100-104. The only device connected directly to the router is the XBOX with ethernet. All linux distros are connected wirelessly with assign ip addresses.

I want to be able to browse my local network, and see my other 3 computers. Each computer will serve a purpose and share different content.

To sum it all up,
I should be able to create a folder on the desktop of my Slackware distro, share it with the other Slackware distros.
When I click Browse Network, I should see my other linux distros and their shared folders. Thats it and thats all.

How Do I Accomplish This?

Learn, learn and think :-)
M$ systems not require that even .... this is unwelcome because all that magic disapear in touch with the thinking user :-)

There is several way to do this in linux.

So if you are a M$ child the samba do this like M$ does but this is not "black box" for dummies like Win7
You have to run samba on every station and make config in samba.conf to share folders in this way.

or

do this /simpler IMHO/ the way Linux /NFS/.

some nice tutorial by AlienBob


and

There is no Magic Wizard like in Win7 you must to know what to do.
Otherwise go back to M$.

I have tried NFS and get mount.nfs error. Failed to resolve server. Btw, it has nothing to do with a Wizard, it about convenience. In Windows you still have to configure the setup.
And like I told the last person, just like you won't lose any sleep, why the heck would you think I would lose any? Some of you fanboys, smdh!!!!!!

It's about knowledge.
You have knowledge about M$ /what window open , and where to click/ but you don't have it in Linux /its different because most of the time you do not click but changing config txt files and is so many options.to know.
Thats all.


So if you do not have waste your time to learn something different stay with M$ and get some sleep :-)

But if by any chance you could fall asleep you yourself have something to read :

http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:net...home_nfs_howto
http://www.techradar.com/news/networ...indows-1154705

Hope helps or not . Nevermind.

Again sir or ma'am, your post doesn't help. You are about to turn this into an all-out-war. Linux vs Windows. I was giving an example how I would like to have my linux distros setup. Kinda the same layout as my Windows. If linux can't do it, just say it doesn't have the capability. But all the babbling you doing is sucking up bandwidth. Maybe you don't have 4 laptops to connect, so you may have not experience my situation.

I have my desktop upstairs act as both an NFS server and a CIFS (Samba) server. The NFS serves all my media to my htpc and my Samba server shares directories that my Windows 10 laptop connects to. NFS is extremely easy to set up. Just edit your /etc/exports, make sure /etc/rc.d/rc.rpcd and /etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd are both executable, and then start rc.nfsd (/etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd start). A very simple (with absolutely no security) /etc/exports is:

This will allow any host to connect to that folder. Then you should be able to mount it on a remote system via mount:

Or in your /etc/fstab

For samba, you would need to edit your /etc/samba/smb.conf. A simple setup would be like below (workgroup name doesn't matter as long as it matches... I think Windows now defaults to MYGROUP, so that's what I'm using).

It's been a long time since I set this up, but I think you need to run smbpasswd to add your username to the samba password database.

Then on your other computer, you can mount it manually using:

Or via fstab:

Samba shares are also supported in Windows, so you can use "Map Network Drive" in My Computer to semi-permanently map the network location as a drive letter. On my laptop, I have my 5 shares mapped to U:\ - Z:\ drives. If my laptop isn't connected to the samba server, the drives just become unavailable, but will work again once I am connected to the samba server.

I believe samba shares should also show up under various network locations options under some file managers, but I'm not home now and I can't check. NFS might show up automatically with Linux machines, but most Windows editions do not provide native NFS support.

"Yes because I have 15 workstations and 6 laptops :-)
And NFS and Samba is a piece of cake in my situation.

You have everything in how to's that I linked for You /all what I know in my situation/ to know but you do not want to waste time to learn.

/etc/samba/smb.conf:
As root:
In KDE Dolphin right click on a folder you want to share, select Properties and go to the Share tab.

Do the same for all your boxes.

Now you should be able to browse the network and connect to shares in Network/Samba shares.


Cheers

File browsers can not browse NFS shares by default like CIFS(samba). I did find a Gnome plugin called nfs-lan but do not have any idea whether it works or not. As stated if you want to browse your linux computers like windows then you need to use samba. To make the shares visible in the file browser you need to use the browseable=yes directive for that share.

Udevil+SpaceFM combo do this right.

Better than Dolphin :-)

Some progress is being made.

Here is what I did, I added one line per category below on the 4 laptops. But I still can't see the computers. I get the error during bootup, mount does not exist.

exports
/home/john/Desktop/Share1 *(rw,insecure,sync,root_squash,subtree_check)
/home/bob/Desktop/Share2 *(rw,insecure,sync,root_squash,subtree_check)
/home/billy/Desktop/Share3 *(rw,insecure,sync,root_squash,subtree_check)
/home/randy/Desktop/Share4 *(rw,insecure,sync,root_squash,subtree_check)

fstab
192.168.1.101:/home/john/Desktop/Share1 /mnt/Share1 nfs defaults 1 1
192.168.1.102:/home/bob/Desktop/Share2 /mnt/Share2 nfs defaults 1 1
192.168.1.103:/home/billy/Desktop/Share3 /mnt/Share3 nfs defaults 1 1
192.168.1.104:/home/randy/Desktop/Share4 /mnt/Share4 nfs defaults 1 1

It might be possible to use NFS with thunar. Quoted from the web

Ok, that /etc/export file is for each computer that is serving information. So, if computer 101 has user john, and computer 102 has user bob, then for computer 101, you'd need the following in it's /etc/exports:

For computer 102 with bob, you'd have the following:

As far as the fstab, keep in mind that it can only mount whatever computers are online at the time. So, if you just have 101 and 102, if you start 101 and then start 102, 101 won't be able to connect to 102 when it tries to mount network locations, since 102 wouldn't be up. Once 102 comes up, it should be able to mount 101. After both are up, a mount -a should mount everything.

So the fstab would at least not contain the share from its own computer.

To verify it is working as it should, check using showmount.

I would also try mounting manually to verify that works before you try using the fstab.

I'm stomped

[root@darkstar:test] # mount -a
mount: devpts is already mounted or /dev/pts busy
mount.nfs: mount point /home/john/Desktop/share1 does not exist

Linux is asking you politely:

Did You create mountpoint first ????

Yes, BratPit brings up what I forgot to mention. All folders you intend to mount to and the folders being shared should be created first.

But, why don't you show us the output of the showmount -e ip.ad.dr.ess to one of the computers that has /etc/export set up and /etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd started. Also, it would be beneficial to probably just start with one computer acting as a server and another computer acting as the client and forget about all the other machines for now. This will help simplify things and narrow down possible issues. Once you get one system set up, the others will likely be far easier. Plus only working on one system can limit confusion on all of our ends :)

I don't know what it means by mount point. I will set up the first 2 then report back.

When you go to mount something to a location on your computer, that location is the mount point. So, for your main drive, the mount point is /. If you have /home on a separate partition, that mount point is /home.

So, based on your previous posts, your mount point would be /mnt/share1/. And when you go browse that directory after mounting the NFS share, you should see the files on the other computer.

If I put this command in fstab
there is no error, but I can't see the other linux computers.

If I put this command in fstab
there is an error, but I still can't see the other linux computers.

The ironic thing, is my Windows Server shows up in Browse Network along with my router, asked for a password and allowed me to see and access the shared folders. I can't seem to do this in linux. But we are getting close. Thanks for your patience and time. What is it I need to do next?

Running the ip command gives me this on both computers and vice versa

Ok, let's forget about the fstab for a bit. Let's simply try it with the mount command... this way we'll get immediate report of errors and hopefully they'll be informative enough to help us figure out the issue.

Based on your output of the showmount commands, the NFS server seems to be working properly. As long as /home/john/Desktop/share1 exists on 101 and /home/bob/Desktop/share2 exists on 102 (you'd likely see an error when you start or restart /etc/rc.d/rc.nfsd if they don't exist), then you shouldn't need to touch the server portion to get the mounts working.

Now, for the mount command... we're going to start with 101 and try to mount the drive on 102. So to do that, we need the mount command (mount, obviously ;)), then specify the type of "filesystem" is nfs (-t nfs), then the share address and name (192.168.1.102:/home/bob/Desktop/share2), and where you want it on the local filesystem (/mnt/share2)... keep in mind, the folder on the local filesystem needs to exist.

Then we would just reverse this on the 102 computer.

To clarify, on 101, you need the folders /home/john/Desktop/share1 and /mnt/share2 on there, and on 102, you'd need /home/bob/Desktop/share2 and /mnt/share1 for these commands to work.

As for seeing a computer through the "Browse network", it is likely most network browsers won't support NFS, so you wouldn't be able to browse for it. That is when samba would come into play. It mimics a Windows share, so it should function in the same manor as your Windows Server machine. I did cover samba in my earlier post. But, even if you'd prefer samba, it would probably be beneficial to finish with the NFS so you can see how it works. There's benefits to both protocols, and even if you don't end up wanting to use NFS now, you may later :)

@PROBLEMCHYLD: Let me gather some information for you (beware: I won't do that twice):
http://www.linfo.org/mounting.html
https://fosswire.com/post/2007/04/un...-mount-points/