Networking and GUI issues
 

Hello, I am fairly new to the linux world, So I don't know too much jargon. I've had Ubuntu installed for a few months now though, so I'm not a complete novice.

First off, I have an older computer I wish to use as network storage, For unknown reasons Ubuntu server edition wouldn't ever complete installing, So I decided to try other OSes, I went with cAos, because it seemed small and lightweight, and could run Xfce (im not completley comfortable configuring things with the command line alone yet)

First off, after installation I couldn't configure sidekick to install xfce, (i get "Error: failure No more mirrors to try") the wiki (seems i can't link yet..) has a solution but it didn't do the trick for me.

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Question 2:

I decided to go ahead and try to set it up with the command line only, got samba installed and configured, and could see and browse the files from a windows machine just fine. Although I was sharing "/" only certain files could be played over the network. I mounted two other hard drives, which could play files fine, but on the drive with the OS on it, things seemed to be browse only (no files could be opened or copied).

after playing with the settings some more, I can browse files (still not open them all) but only for a few seconds before windows (or my xbox with xbmc) says it cant find the network device. the only way to get things working again is to restart samba, and then only for a few seconds.

Unless somebody knows of a possible solution right away, I'll post my smb.conf file soon to take a look at.

Sorry for being long-winded, Just wanted to be clear about things. thanks in advance!

Since you havn't invested too much in this server yet, why don't you get a copy of Xubuntu, burn it, and install to it on the server. You can then install Samba for file sharing with your other windoze boxes. You already have some experience with Ubuntu, Xubuntu is the smae system, minus Gnome and with Xfce installed. This will work just fine, and you won't have to learn the ins and outs of a new distro.


What you describe in question 2 is normal for any linux distro. If you open a konsole, go to any directory in the / area, all the files are owned by root, so unless you are root, or belong to the root group ( not recommended ) you may only be able to browse the files.

On that konsole do a su ( switch user ) and enter your root password. Then go to say /etc and run a command like 'ls -l' and you will display the permissions of the files. You will see something like this:

The first line is a directory, notice the 'd' in the first column. Notice root owns the directory and the second line ( its a file ). The wrx on the directory says root can read, write and execute in this directory. Note the file says -rw-. This means root can read and write the file, but not execute it. The next three columns are for group, and the last three are for 'other'. Other can only read the file, no write no execute. You are 'other' unless you log as root.

Hope this explains what is going on...