how to make a network

[Tom]

Right, can someone, in language that Fred Dibnah would understand, please tell me how I can make it so that my XP desktop and Ubuntu laptop can share files?

Or if you don't know how to do it on Ubuntu, what about Vista?

Because I'm tearing my hair out here. I'm utterly clueless as to what to do. All I want is to be able to copy files around between the machines, music, video etc. The XP machine is cabled to a router. The laptop is wireless.

I have tried pinging each machine to the other, that works, but I can't 'see' any shared folders or anything at all tbh.

HALP!

[WPKenny]

in ubuntu you want to do something like "connect to folder" I think.

Then type in the box:

smb://[xpmachine's ip]/[name of shared folder]

And I think that should do it.

Oh and you might want to enable the Guest account on the XP machine just to be sure. (control panel...user accounts)

EDIT:

Ok above is how it's done on a mac. Not very helpful to you.
On Ubuntu you want to connect to server and select Windows Share and type in your xp machine's ip.

[Bob007]

SAMBA Windows Linux file sharing notes

Been a while since i tried, But am sure with Samba installed and configuered its fairly simple to sup up shares.

[throdgrain]

I networked my laptop with Vista and my PC with XP, no problem. Vista sees it automatically. Plug em together then run the "set up a small home network" thing on XP. Worked fine for me

[MYstIC G]

How to share files and folders in Ubuntu - Simplehelp

[Tom]

bah, I can't do it. In either Vista or XP or Ubuntu, nothing sees anything else. I don't understand I tried Meg's link and that just gave me "net usershare returned error 255"

/edit - ok I fixed that by logging out and then back in

[Tom]

Ah I did something to get it working, not sure what. I edited a file in Ubuntu to put them both in the same workgroup, and now the shared Ubuntu folders appear in XP. I still can't see any XP folders in Ubuntu, although I can now see the MSHOME workgroup they're both in.

[Bob007]

Just need to mount the share now in linux to access it from ubuntu to windows.

mkdir /mnt/WindowsShare

then

mount -t smbfs //WindowsBoxName/sharename /WindowsShare -o username=mywindowsusername,password=mywindowspassword

That should mount Windows XP share in folder WindowsShare. But rebooting/logging out of ubuntu will reset it. To make the Mount Perma you have to edit fstab file adding the line..

mount -t smbfs //WindowsBoxName/sharename /WindowsShare -o username=mywindowsusername,password=mywindowspassword 0 0

[Tom]

When I type the second command it says "only root can do that"

If I type su it asks for my password but then says "su: Authentification failure" - but when I use sudo for other things, I use the same password without issue?

If I try it with the sudo command it just lists the parameters for the mount command and doesn't even ask for my password

I typed this:

sudo mount -t smbfs //DESKTOPPC/My Documents /WindowsShare -o username=(the username that appears when I log in to XP as admin),password=(the password I type when I log in)

Where DESKTOPPC is the full computer name and My Documents is the shared 'my documents' folder on my XP desktop

Is that right?

[TdC]

you may need to enclose your username and password in quotes. otherwise I'd not know.

[Tom]

Ok ignore the su 'only root can do that' bit, I fixed that. But even without now typing sudo mount.... I still get the same problem, a big list of parameters for mount.

[Bob007]

mount -t smbfs "//DESKTOPPC/My Documents" /WindowsShare -o username=xpusername,password=xppassword

Should work now. As said, been a while. Will check on a VM when i get home, at a client house atm and came here to grab sp3 link.

Post update if ya try it. Will poke head in if i get home soon....

P.S. Hate laptop keyboards, took about 5 mins to type this lol.

[Tom]

closer...

"mount point /WindowsShare does not exist"

But it's definitely there. I tried /mnt/WindowsShare in that command above but it got all funny about that telling me "wrong fs type, bad option blah blah"

Thanks for the help on this, I've a packet of biscuits waiting.

[Bob007]

"mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on \\mrserver\share,
missing codepage or other error"

Sounds like an issue with Samba as much as anything else. Make sure samba updated/installed proper. apt-get install smbfs


Next try modprobe smbfs as root, if it comes back clear, alls good. then type lsmod and try mkdir /mnt/windowshare again. Hopefully that should have samba loaded and working with the kernel.
[FONT=monospace][/FONT]

[Bob007]

Ubuntu Forums

Is a good stop if all else fails. (un)fortunatly its a hive of information and getting through it to what ya want/need can be a bit of a drag.