Absinth

[dkeg]

I used fstab to mount box. Although my problem was different, still similar. MB's suggestion to mount in fstab may be a good route to try.

[Neil Edmond]

Wanted to update you guys on this situation...it still doesn't make much sense to me.
Since machinebacon said Mate works better at this, I've installed BBQ with Mate DE, LMDE (Mate) and ElementaryOS (Gnome shell) on the same laptop, just for comparison. I also run another Xubuntu laptop, and it doesn't exhibit any of the weirdness that Absinthe does. And, I've set up a Linux server too, and put it on the network to see what differences I can see between browsing Linux shares and Windows shares (so far, none really).

LMDE has Samba already installed, so with little, or no, extra configuration, I am able to browse Windows shares and view files from the laptop.

With BBQ Mate, which is of course just a basic Debian Sid with the Mate DE, I had to install Samba and a bunch of other stuff that I can't recall at the moment. But, I now have BBQ Mate functioning pretty much the same as LMDE.

However, Absinthe still doesn't want to behave. I installed all the same stuff on Absinthe as I did on BBQ Mate, and configured them exactly the same (as far as I can tell), and now Absinthe can browse the Windows directories and displays the files in them, same thing on the Linux server. But, it will not display the content of those files unless I copy the files from the server (either Windows or Linux) to a local directory on the Absinthe machine. Then, and only then, it will display the content of the files. That is what is still not making any sense to me.

[ivanovnegro]

Maybe it has something to do with the file manager, Thunar vs Caja. I know Thunar sometimes does weird things, e.g. with CD drives. I can see them in all file managers but in Thunar I have to mount it manually, try it several times or use VLC.

[machinebacon]

Neil,
thanks for the update. When you say "it will not display the content of those files unless I copy the files from the server", what is "it"? Is "it" the file manager that you use to open a photo or a mp3, or the local program that should open the certain file (for example feh opening the photo, or mplayer opening the mp3)? I just want to rule out a problem with Thunar (or the file manager).

[Neil Edmond]

"It" is the local application, either text editor, photo viewer or pdf viewer, etc. For example, I've been using a simple .txt file on the servers as a test. I can browse the directories in Thunar to where this file is located, double click the file to open it, a text editor automatically opens on the local Absinthe machine, but the text editor does not populate with the contents of the file. The editor application windows remains blank. And yes, I have waited for several minutes just in case there was a delay of some sort.

If I first copy and paste the file from the server to the Absinthe machine, then open the file, the contents of the file almost imediately displays in the text editor. Same thing with .pdf and other files I have tried.

In an effort to test for a Thunar issue, I installed Caja on Absinthe, but the result was the same, so it doesn't seem to be a file manager issue.

[machinebacon]

sshfs is installed? We start with startx and the .xinitrc ending with the line:

exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session startxfce4

[rhowaldt]

have you considered a permission issue? dunno where it would spit out errorcodes in that case, but this is the issue when dealing with GUI of course... try it through commandline?

[machinebacon]

http://askubuntu.com/questions/70423/ho ... in-xubuntu

see all answers for more confusion

[ivanovnegro]

What a mess.

[Neil Edmond]

sshfs is installed?

Well, it wasn't (thought it was), but now it is, and still behaves the same.

We start with startx and the .xinitrc ending with the line:

exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session startxfce4

You lost me there...

have you considered a permission issue? dunno where it would spit out errorcodes in that case, but this is the issue when dealing with GUI of course... try it through commandline?

I dunno either. Wouldn't think I would be able to access the files and copy them over the network to the Absinthe machine if there were permission issues. Doing this through the command line would be a fun project, but no whaqt I'm up to right now. I guess BBQ is really all about CLI, and I want to try CLI computing some day. Just not today.

I hope you guys understand that I don't need to make this work. It's more of a project to understand why Absinthe misbehaves as it does.

[dkeg]

...that I don't need to make this work. It's more of a project to understand why...

isn't that what its all about?
anyway, definitely sounds like a permission error. You seem to have permission to browse, like I can browse /etc. I can see all that is there, like you can. But if I try to open a file, say, /etc/network/interfaces, its blank. But if I open with sudo, correct permissions, I can view the contents.

Now, I have never attempted anything in discussion here, but like rho pointed out, permissions seem to be at fault here.

[rhowaldt]

thanks for explaining my comment in more detail Drew. this is not my area of expertise either, but i have learned when it comes to Linux: weird shit happening that does not make much sense? can't figure out what the issue is? often a permission problem. at least have a look at it. and yesh, you have to use CLI for the simple reason that a GUI won't allow you to view errorcodes. so the CLI is your troubleshooting tool. no need to go entirely CLI or whatever, just use it for fixing your issue.

[dkeg]

I do all my mounting manually and through CLI; copy, dropbox, box, other partitions, usb. Sure its nice to open thunar, or whatever, and have your mount points there, but tbh, I find the control and power (mount when you need it, umount when done, plus what rho points out above) to be a clear decision factor here, not to mention unnecessary bloat. I mean fuck, I don't even use a GUI file manager at all. I have rox-filer installed, which is great, but can't remember the last time I used it.

And to emphasize what rho says again, you will also see the error listed out through CLI. Its one of your, or should be, tools in your toolkit.

Neil, give it a try, lets get this figured out, even just for fuck's sake.

[Neil Edmond]

OK...thanks for all the helpful comments. I have to leave to work in a few minutes, but I'll try some stuff out later this evening, and let you all know how I get along.

I do all my mounting manually and through CLI...And to emphasize what rho says again, you will also see the error listed out through CLI. Neil, give it a try, lets get this figured out.

Now I understand the preference for CLI, but I don't have a clue how to do it, and after an hour of reading old forum posts and searching the interwebs for help...I'm still getting nowhere.

Some one please help me get started here, so I can generate some terminal errors that will hopefully lead us to an answer.

[Neil Edmond]

So I've searched this forum, and several others. Searched the web and read articles 'till my eyes hurt, but have yet to find out how one mounts a network share in the terminal. Oh, I've found several "how-to" mount shares posts, but so far I have not found one that works for me.

I'm getting frustrated over something that I don't even need to accomplish. I can just use Solyanka, and make that my default BBQ system. So far I can do everything I want there.

lets get this figured out

That is so much easier said than done one my own! Someone needs to show me what command to enter, and if that doesn't work out, I can post the terminal output for further assistance.

[pidsley]

Oh, I've found several "how-to" mount shares posts, but so far I have not found one that works for me.

We need to see what you have tried (at least links to the pages) and some of the errors you received. "I have not found one that works for me" tells us nothing useful.

Am I correct in understanding that you are (now) trying to mount a Windows share using samba on your Linux box? I know almost nothing about samba, but if I was trying to manually mount a Windows share I would probably start here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sa ... l_mounting

The important part of that topic is the "mount -t cifs" command. You may need to install the "cifs-utils" package for this to work properly.

I read all the previous posts about possible permission problems and it seems you have found a workaround for that, and now you are just trying to understand what's going on and learn some CLI methods; is this correct?

[Neil Edmond]

Yes, pretty much correct. I can browse Samba shares in Thunar, and copy files from the Samba server and paste them to a directory on Absinthe, then work with them from there. I just don't yet understand Absinthe doesn't allow me to work with those files directly off the server, when Solyanka (and every other distro I've ever used) will.

As for smbclient...it's already installed.

Here are a few of the pages I've read about samba shares:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/SMB-HOWTO-8.html
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/mount-sm ... 31706.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1868083

One of the problems is, I sometimes can't tell how old the posts are, and the tools and methods used seem to have changed over the years, if not in just recent months. Some suggest using smbmount, other cifs, etc. I've tried to follow guides for both.

So entering: smbclient //[my server's IP address]/[server's name] returns: "tree connect failed: NT_STATUS_BAD_NETWORK_NAME" If that tells you anything, maybe we can start there and with a little guidance, take the next step. BTW, there are no passwords needed to access these servers. I wanted to make things are simple as possible while I'm testing and learning.

[pidsley]

The Arch wiki page says this is supposed to work:

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smbclient -L <hostname> -U%

What happens if you try that?

Or the "mount -t cifs" command from the Arch page? https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sa ... l_mounting

If you still have Solyanka installed, try doing a diff on the smb.conf files from that install and Absinthe. There has to be something different in the way the machines are configured.

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diff -j solyanka-smb.conf absinthe-smb.conf > difflist

Then look at the file "difflist" to see if anything looks obvious.

[Neil Edmond]

Thanks pidsley, this is the kind of guidance I need.
smbclient -L <hostname> -U% returns:

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Domain=[<my_domain_name>] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]
Error returning browse lists:  NT_STATUS_DENIED
Domain=[<my_domain_name>] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Also listed are two of the three servers running on the network, and the two Workgroup names on my network.

I have made the directory: /mnt/network to use during these attempts. Running the code:

Code: Select all

mount -t cifs //<my server name>/<my share name> /mnt/network

returns this output:

Code: Select all

mount error(115):  Operation now in progress
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs)

I will check the difference between Solyanka and Absinthe smb.conf files and report back.

[pidsley]

You may need to try adding some of the options at the end of the "mount -t cifs" command, but at this point it looks like some kind of permission error, and if one machine works and another doesn't the usual suspect is a config file somewhere.

I'll be away for a few hours; good luck.