accessing files on 2000 servers w/ redhat 9

[linuxtest]

I am a new user and I installed Redhat 9 using all the default settings . It seems to be work correctly. I am trying to access files on a Win2000 server with NTFS partition.

I go to the Network Servers application which i guess is called Nautilus. It allows me to browse the workgroup and the machines on the network. Double clicking on a server brings up a dialog box asking for name and password. I fill that in and I can browse the shares and files inside of them but I can;t run them off the share. I can make directories and copy files though so I think my rights are okay. when i try to view a text file or a word or excel document i get the follwing messages:

"View failed" The Text View failed and cannot continue. for a text file

"Can't open Location" Openoffice.org cannot open file.xls because Oppen office can't open files from "smb" locations....-on a excel file. i was able to copy the file locally and open it but that kind of defeats the purpose.

i don't think I have Samba installed. it was not part of the default personal desktop install. is that needed?

any help would be great. Thanks in advance

[blobaugh]

Ok lets see if I can help any. Are you just browsing the server or are you mounting the share somewhere? If your not mounting it that may be your problem. Try this command:
mount -t smbfs //server/share /mnt/point
Or better yet download and run LinNeighborhood and it will do it all graphically for you, and it is easy to specify the user logging in(I did a quick review of the mount manpage and it didn't say how to specify the user for smbfs). Otherwise it will use your current username.

Hope thats helps and is not too confusing!!

[linuxtest]

Thanks for the reply.

I did not mount the share using any sort of command so i guess i was just started out by browsing. I clicked on the network viewer and when the workgroup, , servers and shares popped up, I thought maybe that was all I needed to do. i got confused/excited when i was able to make directories and copy some files so I thought that it was not a security issue. But i just couldn;t execute viewing or loading a data file.

I will try what you suggested. Thanks again!

just to clarify, can open office read and write to smb shares? or is that function not available in this version of open office?

[blobaugh]

I have never had a problem writing to any smb share using any program once I had it mounted. Openoffice worked fine for me also. Basically when you mount the share you your computer it thinks it is part of the harddrive and uses it as such.

[seabass55]

Originally posted by blobaugh
I did a quick review of the mount manpage and it didn't say how to specify the user for smbfs

mount -t smbfs -o username=user,password=userspassword //server/share /mnt/point

That will allow the password to show on screen..if you just type user=whatevertheusernameis then it will prompt for password it it won't show on screen.

Sebastian

[linuxtest]

Thanks again for all your help. I was able to mount and unmount a smbfs volume successfully.

what i did not realize is that the mount destination had to be a directory physically located on the linux machine.

however, that seems a little limiting to me. is there any way to dynamically create these directories based on the share you are trying to connect to rather than having to make a directory for each? could you assign it to a drive letter?

thanks again