how to share files with windows
 

I am running Suse 10. I have started Samba and am trying to share my files and drive on the Linux machine so that they are accessible to the windows XP box. I can see all my windows XP files in my Linux machine after sharing my windows drive, but am unable to access any of the linux files from the windows machine. Is there a simple way to share the Linux files with a wizard like in windows. I have played around for hours in the SuSE help file but there is nothing rational there that is simple to understand. I don't want complicated command line entries, just "click here" and then "do this" just like windows. I have played around with the permissions in the Gnome file browser, but there doesn't seem to be any place to actually SHARE the files or folders. Someone needs to re-write the help pages so that they are user friendly, not tech friendly. The search function is almost useless. Type in "file sharing" or "share" and you get nothing meaningful in Linux. The same entry in windows gives 15 reasonable results. I had a go with Corel Linux five years ago and they had a very intuitive way to share files with windows machines. SUSE is not nearly as friendly.

Don't blame SuSE for a gnome issue.
In KDE, I can just right click on a folder and share it.

Hi
Its not a Gnome issue. Just right click on a folder in Nautilus, select Share from the menu to bring up a dialog box and then select Shared.
Or you can right click a folder, select Properties, goto the Share Tab and get the same dialog.

Seems pretty user friendly to me ;)

Ian

(In KDE)

On Linux computer
1) right-click folder you want to share
2) properties
3) sharing tab
4) checkbox SIMPLE FILE SHARING
5) click the browse folder icon
6) select the folder to share
7) enable read/write in Samba and enable PUBLIC access, OR, add USERS

THEN
On Windows computer
1) click Network Neighborhood
2) address bar type: \\ipaddress (of the Linux computer)
3) select the folder

BAM! All done. Happy sharing

Well there you go, apparently it isn't Gnome or KDE, both have nearly the identical functionality of sharing to Windows XP.

Thanks for the suggestion spitfire5c, but when I right click on a folder in Nautilus and the select properties I don't get a share option. The only options are basic, emblems, permissions, open with, notes. No sign of sharing. However when I open the samba status aplet in system monitor I get an error message "specific library samba could not be found. Possible reasons stated are: An error occurred during your last KDE upgrade, or you have old third party modules lying around. Problem is this is a new install so both of these messages are not pertinent. I seem to recall in a previous install that the sharing option was available but still could not access the Linux box from windows because it always asked for a password that never worked no matter what password I tried. What do you suggest.

Micro420, I have a separate machine running KDE desktop, and after much playing around it appears that I have shared all the folders, but when I go to windows network neighbourhood I see the Samba in my workgroup, but when I click on the samba share I get a message \\linux is not available, the network path was not found. Ialso cannot find an address bar in windows explorer even when i click on the show address bar option. Also I don't know what the IP address of my linux box is as I am working through a router. I am further behind than before because before I could see linux shares showing up in network neighbourhood, but could not gain access to them. I can see all the windows shared folders on my linux box. I dont know what is going on.

Well I played around for another hour and clicked just about everything and then re-booted the linux box and bingo I can now see the shares in windows. Maybe it was the reboot? For now I am OK, but the problem is I don't know what I did to get there. Thanks for the help. It is still much much more of a hassle than sharing in windows.