LXDE won't share from server to laptop. <SOLVED, thanks>

[BJF]

Another NFS problem I'm afraid.

Machinery: Desktop with LXDE 2010.12 updated, installed to / after a crash and burn. / is on a 10Gb partition as /home/mdm. There is a second partition of around 20Gb with all the previous install data on it, which mounts as /media/disk/mdm.
Laptop with 2-week-old LXDE .iso installed (2010.Final?) and updated, also to / for the same reasons as the desktop. This machine too has a second partition that mounts as /media/disk/mdm with all the data on it.

What I did: (With a little, make that a lot of, help from Just19)
Desktop; created folder in /home/mdm called Shared_Stuff and gave ownership to mdm and everyone given rw.
Did PCC>Sharing Things>Share Drives, and created a share from the Browse box of /home/mdm/Shared_Stuff with the default noid and all the Advanced settings at no. Closed out and rebooted.
Laptop; From PCC> >Access Shares, the server wasn't visible to the laptop. So I did Just19's suggestion to a previous query of mine on the Forum and modified /etc/fstab by adding a line pointing to the server share. Rebooted, and the laptop could see the server but not the share. Interestingly, in around a week of experimentation I have had the share visible and had >>Access Shares modify my dummy fstab line into a proper entry in the file but never, NEVER, would it mount. Alas, now the share cannot be found at all.

Some numbers; The server id is 192.168.2.3 and the laptop is 192.168.2.2

Just as an aside, I flashed up my EeePC and modified the fstab file to point to the server share but the result was the same as the laptop; 192.168.2.3 is visible but no share. The EeePC has, for reasons we need not go into here, LXDE 2010.06 updated to around last December installed fully to a SD card and doing quite well thank you.

Firewalls are off. Printer attached to the desktop server connected wirelessly to 2 laptops and the Eeep works.

Conclusion; The server isn't mounting the share?? What to do.  

Thank you for your consideration of this,

John.    

[pupthai]

could it be hosts allow and deny?

/etc/  txt files to list allowable.

I use fixed IP's in the lan so I list them and deny all others

[BJF]

Sorry, Pupthai, can you speak a bit slower please. I'm still down on the steep bit of the Linux Learning Curve. Could you include what to look at and what to try in order to change the findings in /etc/. Thanks.

[pupthai]

host.deny is a text file in the directory /etc of root exp:   would read like this inside it won't take a connection from all ip's

#
# hosts.deny   This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#      *not* allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#      by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#
# The portmap line is redundant, but it is left to remind you that
# the new secure portmap uses hosts.deny and hosts.allow.  In particular
# you should know that NFS uses portmap!

ALL:ALL

but host.allow will override that as follows as it is a text file also where you list what it will connect to this list allows my fixed ip's a range of local ip's and the host names used in any group to be used on the fixed IP listed

#
# hosts.allow   This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#      allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#      by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#

192.168.5.2 250GXP
192.168.5.3 24GXP
192.168.5.4 PClosMain
192.168.5.5 Laplin12
192.168.5.6 VBXP10G
127.0.0.1 PClosMain localhost
192.168.5.
127.0.

I think without it you may have some issues with connecting PC's in the LAN but remote PC may also need this I have not done remote shares.  I have always set this up first and the samba and other shares seem to go better.
ps as root you can modify the text file and save it with kwrite or other

[BJF]

Pupthai: This is what my hosts.deny file looks like on the laptop 192.168.2.2

#
# hosts.deny   This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#      *not* allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#      by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#
# The portmap line is redundant, but it is left to remind you that
# the new secure portmap uses hosts.deny and hosts.allow.  In particular
# you should know that NFS uses portmap!

Presumably hosts.allow comes into this? this the content of that file on laptop:

#
# hosts.allow   This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#      allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#      by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#

The same files on the server desktop look identical. What do I do next, please? Add ALL:ALL? Or the machine ID's of my household LAN connecting computers.

Thanks.

[Rudge]

If this is all "in house",, in other words, all you want to do is share a directory between two computers behind the same router.

Install GSSHFS from the repo.

It is easy to configure and once done you can access any folder you want freely at any time.

I use it to freely access my entire /home folder on my other box. Copy and paste back and forth, watch videos on the other box just as if it were on my hard drive.

It might not be what you are looking for but,, it might?

[pupthai]

I am not sure of the effect of having nothing in both is -  

If you add ALL:ALL to deny no one gets in so if you do that use allow

Over ride with a list in allow at least the range of ip that dhcp is using like 192.168.   that would allow all local ip starting with those numbers.  the host names included means it should accept them in the address rather then just using an ip to address the share.

like I can access /PClin12g/share rather then using  /192.168.5.4/share  just an example.  

I would back up the orig text files and edit them both and see what happens - you can name them back to undo it.  I would use both ip's and names in allow.  try is free.

I recall having share issues like this that went away after this.

GSSHFS sound interesting have to check it out to.

[Rudge]

GSSHFS sound interesting have to check it out to.

I think you will like it for accessing files on your other Linux boxes 

[BJF]

Rudge: Could you give me a quick walk-through on configuration please. GSSHFS is installed now on both my machines. Suppose I want to access 192.168.2.3:/home/mdm/Shared_Stuff from 192.168.2.2 and mount it in /home/mdm/Shares_From_Server. Note that both boxes have the same named /home just to be confusing. What goes in which box? I've dabbled but get error messages for host from the laptop.

Pupthai: Have added the other machines' id to both server and laptop hosts.allow file followed by a blank line, and saved. So 192.168.2.3 allows 192.168.2.2 and vice-versa. Going to bed now. 0500 start at work tomorrow. Will check if shares can be seen when I get up.

Thank you both.

[BJF]

Pupthai: the addition of the appropriate id to each machine  host.allow file still does not make the share visible to the laptop.

Thanks.

[BJF]

Rudge: I did a bit of searching via Gooooogle while I was bored at work today, and found Parnote's review of his household filesharing in the magazine. Make that The Magazine! So I now have the instruction I need, and once dinner is out of the way and people stop phoning and dropping round I'll give it a crack. It's been one of those evenings! Sorry if I come across as a numpty asking obvious questions but there's just so much to know it's daunting, and sometimes plain scary. Bless the Forum.

  John.

[Rudge]

To be honest, I had so little trouble setting it up, I could not remember how I did it. That was the only reason I did not respond.

The best I can recollect, I just told it what IP I wanted to connect to and what directory and clicked on "connect".

Parnote is the one that turned me on to it so if you found something in the magazine, follow whatever he says. Good luck.

It rocks once you get it working!    

[BJF]

OK, I'm following Parnote's instructions and I find with
192.168.2.3, mdm, Shared_Stuff, mdm@192.168.2.3:Shared_Stuff in the boxes I can't get a tick in the box under Mounted and an error shows up when I Connect: Error: could not retrieve host key.

Any clues?

[Rudge]

OK, I'm following Parnote's instructions and I find with
192.168.2.3, mdm, Shared_Stuff, mdm@192.168.2.3:Shared_Stuff in the boxes I can't get a tick in the box under Mounted and an error shows up when I Connect: Error: could not retrieve host key.

Any clues?

Try it the other way.  (From the other Box) I had that problem too.

[Rudge]

A working connection should look like this.

* Technical issues, I removed the pic *