Everything takes longer than you expect

[triadruid]

Slowly but surely, Shit Is Getting Done. A lot of that has to do with finding my motivation again yesterday after a couple of weeks of Bleah, which has allowed some serious whittling of the to-do lists.

On a related note, do any of the Linux users reading this know of a GOOD tutorial for using Samba to share documents and printer access? Everything I'm coming across is either written in Esoterigeek, or doesn't match what I've got. And I feel stupid for not being able to figure it out, because it seems like networking would be one of those things that's a no-brainer, right? Except I don't even know where to start with this one... which computer is the server and which is the client? Or are they both? Do you have to make a new account for the 'other' computer's primary user on the server computer? If not, where is it getting its access list? Obviously just opening everything to the universe isn't helpful...

If it matters, we're running Ubuntu 8.04 and Kubuntu 7.something. I'm happy to ditch 7.x off my machine and upgrade if it simplifies things.

Comments

Samba pointers

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

Networking is far from a no-brainer. Especially network printing and file-serving.

Server is the machine with the resource you want (printer, disk), Client is the machine that wants to use that resource. Server runs a samba daemon (smbd) or two (+nmbd). Client uses various other programs that talk that protocol, but generally not samba itself.

Both machines could be Servers and Clients if both have resources the other wants.

Authentication with Samba is a tricky issue on its own, because there are multiple paradigms you can configure. (The security= configuration option.) One way ("user" I think) assumes the client user has a user account on the server. Another ("share") uses a single password per shared resource, but is a bit complex on the server side. Another option is "public", open to everyone who can get to the port.

Since nobody can (theoretically) get into my network from outside, I just use "public" and limit what is actually accessible -- my printer and my music disk.

A couple easy ways to check from the client side are the smbclient command-line program (starting with the -L switch to list everything available) and Konqueror with the "smb:/machinename/" URL scheme.

Re: Samba pointers

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I looked at the public option, but we haven't done any real stress-testing of our router's firewall. I kinda like the option of locking things down to a few folders+printer, that's a good idea.

We're probably looking at a dual client+server config, since both machines have resources the other wants. Although I could handle just setting up featherynscale as the server, since she has the iPod, printer, and financial data.

Re: Samba pointers

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

If you go the public route, it's best to make the public shares read-only.

It's probably a good idea to have accounts on each other's machines anyway though, and it's possible that "security=user" will work fairly easily in that case. (It's also possible that it won't.)

I got nothing.

[lexpendragon.livejournal.com]

I have no resources or training help on this, but I'd be happy to help you try to muddle though over IM if you'd like.

Re: I got nothing.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

You guys aren't networked?

Re: I got nothing.

[lexpendragon.livejournal.com]

Which guys?

I've got a Linux server at home, but no Samba shares set up, yet.

There's Linux servers at work, but I don't admin those, so I have no specifics there. (Also, I don't think any at as a Samba server)

My laptop acts as a Samba client, but that's always just worked.

Re: I got nothing.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

You and mullein is who I meant; I figured you'd already tackled networking everything in the house, up to and including the toaster. :)

Re: I got nothing.

[lexpendragon.livejournal.com]

Not a Samba network...

Re: I got nothing.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Okay, I figured Samba was the biggest and simplest. What are you running, something more bare-metal?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten to play with it at all yet. Maybe I'll have some time this weekend...

A Thought: No Samba

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

You don't necessarily need to deal with Samba if you don't have non-Linux clients.

For printing, the CUPS system is set up so machines can network directly to each other. No Samba required there.

For file sharing it's a little more tricky; Samba is one of the better ways, but not necessarily the best or easiest. My preferred solution is to have user accounts on both machines, and use ssh/sftp -- specifically, the sftp://machinename/dirname/ URL scheme in Konqueror. I think Gnome's file manager has similar functionality.

Re: A Thought: No Samba

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Huh. Maybe that's why I'm having such a mess of a time with it...

Anyway, have to run to catch the bus. More later if I need help... thanks, you've cleared up quite a bit already!