Can't get samba to work on LXDE.

[Howard]

I'm trying LXDE2010 on my Dell mini.  I tried to set up a samba share using the same method I use in KDE in the PCC and everything seemed the same.  But I cannot find the network anywhere.  How do I access samba?

[muungwana]

can you elaborate a little bit more.

you will want to set up samba on your dell mini if you want files and folders on it to be accessed over the network. Is this what you want?

what do you mean by "I cannot find the network anywhere"? you can not connect to your networ(wired/wireless) or you can connect to your network but you can not see network shares or you have set up network shares on your dell mini but they do not show up on the network?
 

[Howard]

Yes, sorry Muungwana it is a bit vague, but that's just an indication of my knowledge of networking. 

What I meant was that I have set up a samba share in LXDE using the PCC in the same way as I have done successfully in KDE.  But I cannot find out how to access it, In LXDE there's no "my computer" as in KDE3, and no "network" appears in the left-hand pane of the PCman window as in Dolphin.  (NB. no smb4k in LXDE.) 

I want to be able to easily transfer files between any two of my three computers (all running some versions of PCLOS).  There's no security problem, I'm the only one doing this, and my location is remote.  In the past I have stumbled around setting up shares and changing parameters until it eventually works. 

What I would like is a reference to a simple explanation of how networks work.  I set up a workgroup, but obviously it only exists when one or more of the computers is switched on, and this seems to depend on the order of switching on.  At present I can copy files from an iBuddie computer running PCLOS 2009.2 updated with KDE4 onto my Dell running KDE3.5, but not send them back, in fact the iBuddie doesn't even see the Dell share.  I don't have much idea as to what's happening - I'm just stumbling around.

[muungwana]

I don't have much idea as to what's happening - I'm just stumbling around.

i can see that, you started with a dell running pclinuxos2010-LXDE and you finished with a dell running KDE3.5  

anyway, what you are trying to do is independent of desktop environment and should work across them

samba is made of two parts, samba-server and samba-client.

You need samba-client if you want to access shares on a remote computer on your network.

you need samba-server to be installed and running if you want shares on one computer to be accessible from another computer over the network.

After you have set up a share, go to pcc services section and make sure samba service is running. A computer will show up on a network if samba server is running.

Now back to your problem.

after you have make sure samba service is running on all your computers, open the terminal from one of them and type "smbtree --no-pass" ..what did you get? all three computer and their shares should show up.

What I meant was that I have set up a samba share in LXDE using the PCC in the same way as I have done successfully in KDE.  But I cannot find out how to access it

if you have set up shares on your LXDE system, go to pcc services section and make sure samba-service is running and then go to another computer on your network and this system will show up there. You do not set up samba shares on one computer and then attempt to access them from the same computer.

I want to be able to easily transfer files between any two of my three computers (all running some versions of PCLOS).  There's no security problem, I'm the only one doing this, and my location is remote.  In the past I have stumbled around setting up shares and changing parameters until it eventually works.

make sure samba-server service is running on all three computers. If they are, all computer should atleast be able to see each other.

How to access remote shares on the local file system for access using PCC.

1. Make sure you have a package called "nss_wins" installed.
2.  Go to pcc -> network sharing -> access samba shared drives and directories
3. Click on "search servers" all computers on your network will show up
4.  click on the computer you want to have access to and then click on the icon that show up to expand the computer name to see its shares.
5. click on the share you want then click "mount point", you can go with the suggestion name or can change it if you want and then click "ok" and then click "mount" to mount it.
6, i think its best if you dont save these shares to fstab so say no when asked.

[Howard]

Thanks very much.  Lots of info. That should help me sort it out - when I have time.

i can see that, you started with a dell running pclinuxos2010-LXDE and you finished with a dell running KDE3.5 

I'm not that confused: all of my machines have more than one PCLOS installed, a stable one and a "tester"; sometimes there are three.

(Actually this saved me earlier when I managed to set the user for one of my home directories to nobody and couldn't log on.  I went into one of the other installations and switched it back - less bother than using a live CD on a machine with an unreliable CD reader!)

[old_guy]

Howard

The problem is that pcman file manager doesn't handle networking. You can set up samba in PCC and be able to see your shared Lxde folders on other machines. To see the other machines on Lxde you can install task-kde-minimal which will give you dolphin which works fine, but kind of defeats the minimal lxde install. Or you can do it from a terminal:
su
password
mount.cifs //(your other machine) /(where too mount it)
for example (one of mine)
mount.cifs //192.168.1.100/data /home/earl/mnt

Earl