How to share files between Host machine (windowsXP) and VM (FC9)

gyc · 12-01-2008, 09:44 AM

I have installed VmPlayer on WindowsXP, can anyone tell me how to transfer files between the host and VM?

I have been trying with SAMBA but it doesn't work for me. Many thanks in advance.

booionic · 12-01-2008, 10:15 AM

Hi Friend.

Both OS will have a similar stack of protocols you can dig into to achieve your task.

I'll keep my suggestions very basic to start with as there is no value in being over complicated.

Your HOST machine will have an IP address. Does your FC9 pick up it's own IP address from the same DNS. Can you ping either machine from the other?

If you can then you could use FTP for transferring data, or enable SMB sharing on Windows as you should have done.

When trying to log in to the Windows Machine from FC9 you should have the same username and password. This is not essential but Access tokens for authentication under Windows are not clever.

If both machines can see each other from the desktop of each environment then SAMBA is probably the way to go. You have to create shares under Windows and attach accounts to them to run SMB in a useful way unless you only want guest permissions.

Let me know how you get on and if you need more technical help I will be happy to see what I can do.

Keep it simple, less to go wrong, makes you happier......

rizwanrafique · 12-01-2008, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gyc

I have installed VmPlayer on WindowsXP, can anyone tell me how to transfer files between the host and VM?

I have been trying with SAMBA but it doesn't work for me. Many thanks in advance.

Are you using samba to share a directory in FC and then map it in winxp or using a windows share and mounting it on FC using mount.cifs or mount.smbfs?

What did you do with samba so far. If you briefly list down the steps (or may be important bits from the config) someone should be able to help you.

Also, checkout logs (dig out /var/logs/samba) and see what it says.

Setting up samba server is not tricky for basic use. Here are the steps.

1. Install it
2. Open smb.conf in your editor (it should be located in /etc, /etc/samba, or /etc/smb etc).
3. Create your share. A sample share is here:

Code:

[share_name]
        comment = home samba server
        path = /path/to/directory/to/share/
        writable = yes
        valid users = <username>
        browsable = no

4. Add your linux user to allowed samba users using

Code:

sudo smbpasswd -a <username>

and give new password for samba user.
5. restart samba server.

Code:

/etc/init.d/samba stop ;/etc/init.d/samba start

should do the trick.
6. Go to the windows xp and in run type: \\<your_fc_server_ip\<share_name>
7. Enter username/password (same as the one you entered in smbpasswd in step 4).
8. See what happens.

gyc · 12-01-2008, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rizwanrafique

Are you using samba to share a directory in FC and then map it in winxp or using a windows share and mounting it on FC using mount.cifs or mount.smbfs?

What did you do with samba so far. If you briefly list down the steps (or may be important bits from the config) someone should be able to help you.

Also, checkout logs (dig out /var/logs/samba) and see what it says.

Setting up samba server is not tricky for basic use. Here are the steps.

1. Install it
2. Open smb.conf in your editor (it should be located in /etc, /etc/samba, or /etc/smb etc).
3. Create your share. A sample share is here:

Code:

[share_name]
        comment = home samba server
        path = /path/to/directory/to/share/
        writable = yes
        valid users = <username>
        browsable = no

4. Add your linux user to allowed samba users using

Code:

sudo smbpasswd -a <username>

and give new password for samba user.
5. restart samba server.

Code:

/etc/init.d/samba stop ;/etc/init.d/samba start

should do the trick.
6. Go to the windows xp and in run type: \\<your_fc_server_ip\<share_name>
7. Enter username/password (same as the one you entered in smbpasswd in step 4).
8. See what happens.

Many thanks. But it doesn't seem to work for me. When I run and entered the \\ip\<share_name>, i don't see any window asking me for password. I have tried disabling my xp firewall, and disabling the SELinux on FC. I also didn't find any log on FC showing the smb request from my host pc.

Any suggestions?

rizwanrafique · 12-02-2008, 12:05 PM

Ok let's try something basic.

On your linux machine as root in your home directory try this:

Code:

mkdir temp_share
mount -v -t cifs -o user=<username>,password=<pass>,rw //127.0.0.1/<share_name> temp_share

If it doesnt work try with smbfs rather than cifs. Also try it with //localhost rather than 127.0.0.1 and with your linux machine's ip address.

Please let me know if it mounts successfully or gives any error. If finishes silently then it mounted fine and you can verify it by going in temp_share directory. In this case the problem is network. If it didn't mount properly please copy-paste the error message here.

gyc · 12-02-2008, 07:10 PM

There was no error mounting the samba share on the local machine, so it must be the network problem.

But what problem could it be?

rizwanrafique · 12-03-2008, 05:07 AM

There could be a number of things.

Lets do first thing first. Do these checks:

- Can you ping winxp to FC and vice versa?
- Do you have network connectivity on FC/winxp?
- If you have any other services (ssh, telnet, ftp, apache etc) running on FC. Try using them from winxp box.
- Do you have any firewall running on FC/winxp?