Browsing shares on Windows computers

[Cohan]

Just finished installing VL 5.8 gold on my laptop. Now, how can I browse shares on other Windows computers on the network?
I've tried searching the forum but didn't find anything except an discussion on fusesmb which didn't help me.

[nightflier]

Do a quick test: In a terminal, issue command smbtree (just use a blank password) and post the output you get.

[larkl]

There is a GUI alternative, but it's a lot slower than smbtree, it's under Network, Samba Network. 

[mtdub2]

I have a similar problem where I cannot browse shares on our Windows server.  I have just downloaded and installed Vector Linux 5.9 Standard Gold.  In the "Vector Linux - Help Center" documentation, I went to the "HOW-TOs" section, then to "Network and Security HOW-TOs," then to the link labeled "Samba Guide."  Tried a couple of things there, but when I start up pyNeighborhood, I am still unable to mount a Windows share.  I can see the network, and the domain controller, and I can "open" the domain controller and see the shares, but when I double-click on one of the shares, I get an error message that simply says "Failed to mount."

In pyNeighborhood Preferences, I have a mount folder of /mnt/lan (which does/did already exist, so I did not touch it).  In one of the other postings or in the documentation somewhere, I saw where someone had suggested that one require a username and password, but don't enter them.  So, I checked the "Always use default username and password" option, but did not enter a default username or password.  Still would not mount (I did also try it with my network username and password, but that did not work either).  On the "Network" tab in pyNeighborhood Preferences, I have tried unchecking the "Always use msbrowse" and entering the domain name for our network where it says "Workgroup."  Still no-go.  I've tried a couple of other options in Preferences, but I guess I haven't yet stumbled upon the right combination.

And now this morning I started having another problem -- totally unrelated -- where when I try to click on a news story link on Yahoo.com, Firefox shuts down.  Works fine on my Mandriva 2008 computer, and it worked fine yesterday (I think).  Anyhow, I should probably post this in another forum if I continue to have this problem.  Although, in all honesty, if I don't get the "browsing the Windows shares" problem resolved, I probably won't continue using VL -- and that's not to give anybody a hard time.  It's simply that that (browsing the network) is something I need to have and something I don't typically have a problem with with other distros.

Michael Wood
Oakland, CA

edit:  The Firefox problem must be something weird with the page the story is linked to because other links do not cause Firefox to shut down -- but as I wrote originally, the same story link works fine with Firefox in another distro.

[newt]

mtdub2, I've found that starting pyNeighborhood as root (either from command prompt or add 'gksu ' to the desktop file on the 'Exec' line; e.g. 'Exec=gksu pyNeighborhood') fixes the issues you're encountering.  It's probably just a simple permissions problem somewhere (I've never bothered to figure it out).  Also, I DO use the 'mount as user' option and it works fine for me but the alternative should work as well.

I can't help much on the firefox issue. Sorry

[nightflier]

pyNeighborhood:

For it to work, one either needs to change the default mount path in preferences, or create a user-writable directory /mnt/lan

While in the preferences, one might as well change file manager from "xterm -e mc" to "xfterm4 -e mc". With xterm you get a tiny little window and mc has a color scheme that makes it almost unusable.

[mtdub2]

mtdub2, I've found that starting pyNeighborhood as root (either from command prompt or add 'gksu ' to the desktop file on the 'Exec' line; e.g. 'Exec=gksu pyNeighborhood') fixes the issues you're encountering.  It's probably just a simple permissions problem somewhere (I've never bothered to figure it out).  Also, I DO use the 'mount as user' option and it works fine for me but the alternative should work as well.

Hi Newtor,

While I appreciate the suggestion, I have been starting pyNeighborhood from a command prompt as root.  I'll try adding gksu to the exec line . . . stand by...  Hmmm...  I don't know.  I mean, it seems to be working now.  I tried starting it from a root command prompt, as before, got the same results, then I tried changing the "Always use default user" setting, added my user name and password, and 'poof' it was working.  I mean, immediately after changing the "default user" setting, I double-clicked on a share that it previously would not mount, and it mounted it.  My problem now :-) is that when Midnight Commander comes up (I'm assuming it's Midnight Commander -- maybe it's something else, I don't know), the directory names are in white text. (?)  Being as the background is also white, I don't see them until they are selected.  How would I go about changing the colors?  I did also try "gksu pyNeighborhood" from a user terminal ($ gksu pyNeighborhood), and after entering the root password, it worked fine too.  Well, sorry for the trouble guys, I honestly thought I had tried to run pyNeighborhood from a root command prompt already or I wouldn't have posted.  Any ideas though, on how to set the colors so I can see the directories?

-  Michael

While in the preferences, one might as well change file manager from "xterm -e mc" to "xfterm4 -e mc". With xterm you get a tiny little window and mc has a color scheme that makes it almost unusable.

Too funny...  Thanks, guys.  Before I got the previous post done, you had answered that question.

Now I have another problem...  when I mount a share, I do now get a readable window, but it only displays /proc -- on both sides of the window.  I shut down pyNeighborhood, started it up again, and it does the same thing.  Any idea what's causing that?  Because before, with "xterm -e mc" at least it was displaying the share I had just mounted.  Well, I think I just figured out what's going on with that:  the share I'm trying to mount has a space in the name.  If I try to mount a share without a space in the name, it works fine.  Okay.  So, any ideas on how to get it to work with a share that has a space in the name?  :-)

Thanks again for your quick response.

-  Michael

[nightflier]

File manager: You can experiment with several options. I use KDE, and I added konqueror to the options. You can right-click on the mounted share and select your file manager. Try adding thunar and see how it does.

[mtdub2]

Too cool.  Well, all I can say is "Thanks" again.  Adding thunar to the file manager option, and then selecting it after I had mounted the share in question displayed the share's contents properly.  And I tried opening files, and they opened fine -- no errors.

So, thank you very much.  I will continue using and playing with Vector Linux.

-  Michael

[Witek Mozga]

I have a similar problem where I cannot browse shares on our Windows server. 

The best solution for me is to use konqueror to browse samba. You just type smb://address (sometimes using IP address works better than the share name). [Example: smb://192.168.1.3/public/ ; similiary you can use other popular protocols: sftp://your.server.com or http://ftp://ftp.slackware.com which makes using additional clients unnecessary]

Furthermore, using KDE makes it easy to install network printer via samba.
All these are why I consider KDE superior to XFCE.

[toothandnail]

While in the preferences, one might as well change file manager from "xterm -e mc" to "xfterm4 -e mc". With xterm you get a tiny little window and mc has a color scheme that makes it almost unusable.

Even better, install Aterm and change it to something like this:

Code:

aterm -g 102x34 -fn 6x13 +sb +tr -e mc

Aterm is nice and light, so it uses minimal system resources and starts fast. Changing the geometry gets a usefully wide window. I like the small font size, though that would depend on the screen resolution and ones eyesight....

paul.

[nightflier]

If you do a lot of networking, KDE's konqueror will quickly spoil you. I just use bookmarks to access remote servers, be it samba, fish, ftp and more.

[subgeniusd]

Hello people-

At this point Win networking is a necessity for me. Have managed to do so with several distros.  Using tips from this thread and lots of messing around with SWAT and pyNeighborhood I was finally able to get a basic SOHO Workgoup running with VL 5.9.  Never could get there with 5.8 so maybe 5.9 includes enhanced networking or I just got a bit smarter about this voodoo called Samba......

Anyway thanks to nightflier and the others here. I love VL and VL 5.9 rocks. Its great to be back .  D.