Samba saves the day

allenskd

allenskd

Active Member
I've always saw Samba as this weird big complicated monster that's ultra hard to configure. I'm not the type of person who wishes to mix stacks of Microsoft and Linux so I never really tried to connect to workgroups, but in a household it actually comes pretty handy since some of your family members will inevitably use Windows, it's also easier to share stuff like music, etc. (although in all honesty I won't be trying this any time soon)

So my sister asked me if I could do a backup of her dying netbook and I complied to her request. I connected a external 2TB HDD and noticed that there was something wonky about windows not recognizing the USB, so it was already becoming impossible to come up with a solution and I don't have any other computer so... what I thought up was "why not try samba and connect to her laptop directly?" Granted it's not the fastest solution in the world, as I speak it's going at 1-1.5 MiB/s according to the notification system, it could have been so much faster with USB at 20 MiB/s but oh well, you gotta come up with weird solutions all the time.

So I plugged the 2TB HDD to my laptop, went ahead and configured SAMBA to connect to my custom workgroup and there we go, it was fully working. It didn't let me go to C$ for some reason though, even though the account should be an administrator one.

She's a non-techie person and I kinda threw that jab that some of us do: "hey, why don't you try linux in your system?"

I'm waiting for the reply hoping it's a yes. Maybe I'll go with Debian jessie with GNOME 3.14 which I have been trying out on my virtual box. It might be perfect for her, else, Ubuntu all the way.

For more about Samba:

http://www.samba.org/
Debian Handbook section
 
Was her notebook Windows XP or Vista?
It might be time for her to learn a little Linux...

I have rescued laptops by using live USB with Fedora and Mint
Boot to the USB, login, then backup their files to the local server or backup drive.
Works like-a-charm!

As long as the hard drive is working, I can get all of their files off that computer.
Its amazing how simple it is and yet you STILL can't do anything like that with Windows.
 
It's a netbook. I don't like them much, mostly because my hands are big and they are too tiny. I didn't have any USB flash drives available, well, more like it has gone missing :(, else that would have been my first option!

Yea the hard drive is working... it just that the netbook has been a victim of viruses/malware.

Also... Geez! I tried GNOME 3.14 yesterday and I still can't get used to it. It feels like I'm using a tablet, it's all backwards. I might just settle with Linux Mint MATE or Ubuntu.

When I was working on IT a few months ago there was a live cd with windows xp that could practically do the same by the way. It just a little tougher to look for but it's there. Some coworkers told me that there are plenty of tools for windows to do recoveries. Of course I tried and saw them myself and they were pretty neat. Of course, if you want a faster alternative just download a live cd of whatever distro!


Right now I'm thinking of setting up networking booting (PXE Boot) to do the installations (since I don't have a USB flash drive with me)
 
Man, I have at least two live USB distros in my pocket at all times and a rescue USB where I can reset passwords.
Not to mention Linux always comes with Memtest.

I didn't know Windows had some boot/recovery programs that were similar. Its about time! Hopefully they are free like Linux, otherwise Linux is still my first option.

What kind of netbook?
I have a Chromebook (Acer c720) and got ChrUbuntu installed on it. Works pretty well, but was based on Ubuntu 12
So just last friday I updated to Ubuntu 14.04
Took a long time, but it worked!
It retained my programs and files too. So now I'm using 14.04 but am still having problems with Intel HD drivers.
 
I know there was this amazing tool a coworker told me about where you can have ALL linux/rescue cds in one single USB and all you needed was grub to work its magic. GRUB is amazing. If I find the name, I'll link it here. I think you are going to LOVE it. You can put like 80 ISOs and make them all bootable no problem.

Actually here's the tool: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

As for the laptop, it's a Acer netbook. I already backed it up now I'm just looking forward to install a distro.
 
Yes, I might actually use that!

I forgot to mention...
I use Samba on my Fedora 16 server so all of my Win/Linux machines can connect to it. Takes a while to configure so the shares work properly and the firewall allows everything, but once its in place everything is good.
My windows machines connect perfectly and I can copy large game folders to and from Steam.
 
That's nice! I wish I had a spare computer to use as file server/media server! You know when I was initially planning to work on Jester I thought about "hey, why not run windows applications through WINE using NFS"

By the way, my sister said yes. She was impressed by my desktop so it's time to nuke that netbook with Debian love!
 
My server has proven invaluable! I can store all of my games, music, movies, projects on a RAID 5 with a spare, then backup everything to my internal 1 TB drive. As if that wasn't enough, I backup to an external drive that I take with me every day.
Redundancy is the key!

Awesome, Linux wins again! I hope she doesn't experience any problems, but instead experiences freedom.
I finally put Ubuntu 14.04 on my family laptop. It runs GREAT! Can't play a lot of games, but runs Skype, Chrome, Flash games, Youtube, Remote Desktop, VLC just fine. No extra tweaks needed.
 
I just finished installing it. My opinion on GNOME 3 has shifted a bit and now I see the value behind it.

One thing for certain, fixing network problems in linux is still hell. I solved a wireless driver problem which was easy but now the network-manager is playing hide and seek.

I gotta say she's gonna love Shotwell. I need to ensure to install her Office 2010 since imho, it's better and I don't think she'll grow used to LibreOffice. (I prefer Office 2007)

Installed skype, spotify, flash. I think that's it for today. I'm lagging behind on my chores/studies setting up this laptop.
 
Good luck with Office 2010. It "should" work, but may have some side-affects.
I have successfully installed Office 2007 on Mac with PlayOnMac. It ran fine except Outlook would not sync the calendar.
If she doesn't use a lot of advanced tool or functions (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) then Libre Office would be way more stable.
I usually end up using Google Docs instead of Libre Office.
 
yes, you can just click File, Connect to Server, type IP address and select "Windows Share"
There is no native Linux sharing protocol that I know of. So Samba works perfectly or FTP. But I found that Samba is faster
 
That's what I thought. I was looking for an specific mutually accepted sharing protocol but it seems it's either Samba or NFS. WebDav seems to be around... oh well I'll just go for Samba. It just that gnome 3 automatically used webdav and I didn't like that at all.

I'm running into some problems I guess. I thought it would work out of the box but Samba seems to have its quirks in Debian compared to other distros.
 
I had to modify the smb.conf, set network, set password, setup shared folders and then mess with the firewall a bit.
I basically made two network connections on my Fedora server.
  1. Offline - firewall disabled
  2. Online - firewall enabled
I also had to install a GUI to help me set SELinux too.
 
But uh... did you use your file manager (nautilus, dolphin) to do the sharing? seems to be quite lacking if you have to set up folders manually
 
Yes, Mint is using Nemo
Look for "Connect to Server"
should be under file
In Nautilus there is a gear on the right
 
Great!
I bought a Fedora quick guide and it sits in my desk.
I found that everything I need is online :)
 
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