Linux to Windows Networking

[SunDizzle]

I am in quandry as to how to get my linux drive to speak with (or recognize) my windows drive in the same machine and my other windows machine on my network.

I am running Red Hat Publisher's Edition 7.2 and Windows xp
the router is a Linksys and a p3 450mhz in the red hat machine and a 2Ghz in the windows machine.


help please, I want to rwx to/from both systems and share the printe that is connected to the windows machine.

thanks in advance....

[krohnjw]

You will just use mount -t smbfs for the local drive and the windows shares
either
mount -t smbfs /dev/hdxX /mount/point
or
mount -t smbfs -o username=Name,password=pass //IP.address/ShareName /mount/point
This will allow Read/Write for all fat32 drives if the login has read/write access.

You can share your files to the windows boxes by setting up a samba server

You can set up your printer using CUPS assuming it is a supported printer. Look in the gimp-printing package for more printer drivesr not in foomatic.

[SunDizzle]

Yeah, how do I get the samba server set up. Sorry, I'm a 100% windows person but I am trying to understand the whole Linux aspect.

[krohnjw]

I would suggest using webmin to set it up, but there is plenty of documentation online. Give these 2 a look

http://www.linuxorbit.com/howto/sambahowto.php3
http://www.linuxjunior.org/cgi-bin/p...Display&id=103

[storm2k]

one thing i would do is upgrade to redhat 9 or fedora, which have much more sophisticated graphical user tools than redhat 7.2 do. they can help you much more easily do some of the tasks you want to do. the printer applet is EXTREMELY useful and makes setting up a printer a breeze.

as for samba, all you should need to do is "service samba start" and make sure that your windows workgroup and the samba workgroup names match (if you haven't changed default windows settings they will be). you will then be able to mount the drives over samba as described above. as an added bonus, it wont' matter if the drive on the windows machine is fat32 or ntfs, as smb is filesystem transparent.

for the local drive, if it's ntfs, you're pretty much out of luck in rh7.2. there is better support for it in 9 or fedora, but your best results are with a fat32 partition. all you should need to do then is find out what linux thinks your hard drive is (/dev/hdX where X is a letter -- you can get it in the hardware browser) and issue a "mount /dev/hdX /mnt/(some mount point)" and it will work. make sure you first go into /mnt and mkdir a directory to mount to.

hope this helps a bit.

as for the windows drive.

[Redwolf]

Originally posted by krohnjw

mount -t smbfs /dev/hdxX /mount/point

You can also say mount -t vfat /dev/hdxX /mount/point. It may be a bit faster in transfers, since the vfat driver is eitehr a module or compiled into the kernel directly.

[jkrohn]

You can also say mount -t vfat /dev/hdxX /mount/point. It may be a bit faster in transfers, since the vfat driver is eitehr a module or compiled into the kernel directly.

Both vfat and smbfs are part of the kernel. smbfs has nothing to do with the samba package, it just allows mounting filesystems via sharing (Either windows or samba). Both can be found under FileSystems in your kernel config.

If vfat is indeed faster in transfers it has nothing to do with it being either a "module of compiled into the kernel directly" but more with it meant for direct access and not networked access.

Jkrohn

[Redwolf]

Ha, didn't know that. I thought thtat smbfs meant that it was calling the smbmount program. Guess I was wrong...again

[nukes]

Yeah, the Samba package is just the server.
Here's how to get your printer working:

Go to www.linuxprinting.org and get the .ppd file for your printer.
Save it in /usr/share/cups/model/
Install CUPS and Ghostscript (foomatic wouldn't hurt either)
Go to the cups web admin thing.
http://localhost:631/
click "Do administration tasks" and login as root.
click "add printer"
Enter stuff into the fields.
Select the printer model

For the device URL use:
smb://usernameass@workgroup/host/printer
username is your username on the windows box
pass is the password
workgroup is the workgroup name
host is the NetBIOS machine name
printer is the share name of the printer.

That's worked for everyone I've shown it to. Hope it does the same for you

[SunDizzle]

All, Thanks for the help.

I will do this as soon as I get a chance and let you know what the deal is.