Arch Linux

NickC_UK

Member

Registered: 2012-02-16

Posts: 27

How to browse windows network

Hi,

I have installed:

Smbclient
smbnetfs

to allow access to machines windows network.  I can ping other machines but cannot see how to browse the windows network.  Do I need a different file manager to do this, at the moment I have a LXDE desktop.

Thanks,

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: How to browse windows network

Read here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Samba

NickC_UK

Member

Registered: 2012-02-16

Posts: 27

Re: How to browse windows network

Read here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Samba

Thanks but unless I have missunderstood that seems to describe the samba server rather than samba client.

What I am looking for is a GUI way of browsing the windows network and connecting to shares there, not necessarily looking to make Arch a file server just an smb client.

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: How to browse windows network

A little down on that wiki page is the section about accessing shares:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sa … ing_shares

You can access them through the command line, or graphically.

LXDE uses pcmanfm i think, but afaik pcman has no builtin method to access windows shares. You can try nautilus, or maybe thunar would work too.

You'll also need to install gvfs-smb at least with nautilus.

NickC_UK

Member

Registered: 2012-02-16

Posts: 27

Re: How to browse windows network

A little down on that wiki page is the section about accessing shares:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sa … ing_shares

You can access them through the command line, or graphically.

LXDE uses pcmanfm i think, but afaik pcman has no builtin method to access windows shares. You can try nautilus, or maybe thunar would work too.

You'll also need to install gvfs-smb at least with nautilus.

Thats it, thanks x33a.  Just needed to install nautilus and gvfs-smb (don't know if that was actually necessary), now I can see other machines on the network.  Can't actually connect at the moment, just keeps re-authenticating, but will come back to that later.

Nautilus I can now run from the command line but is there some way I can add that to the LXDE menu, to replace PCManFM.

Hang on I have just run PCManFM again and it can now see my NTFS partitions which it couldn't before!  That was another problem i was having.  Has installing nautilus and/or gvfs-smb somehow allowed PCManFM to be able to see NTFS partitions?

Beginning to think going for LXDE desktop may not have been a great idea, looks like I need to install a lot of other modules on top of it to get it working in the way that I need.  The reason I went for LXDE was because I wanted a reasonably light desktop, I certainly didn't want other accessories like a web browser being installed.

NickC_UK

Member

Registered: 2012-02-16

Posts: 27

Re: How to browse windows network

Still having the problem that although I can now see windows machines I still can't attach to them.  Just keep getting 'Password required for myServer' prompt, filling in correct username/password and putting workgroup name in the Domain field.  Any one got suggestions what I might be doing wrong.

Thanks,

NickC_UK

Member

Registered: 2012-02-16

Posts: 27

Re: How to browse windows network

Still having the problem that although I can now see windows machines I still can't attach to them.  Just keep getting 'Password required for myServer' prompt, filling in correct username/password and putting workgroup name in the Domain field.  Any one got suggestions what I might be doing wrong.

Thanks,

Sorry found the answer.  WORKGROUP name needed to be in upper case, I had forgotten about linux being case sensitive.  All connects fine now.

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: How to browse windows network

Maybe it's a problem from the windows side? I rarely need to use samba, but i just use it on the commandline, as i too face all sorts of problem with the gui filemanagers.

EDIT: Well 2 seconds too late

Last edited by x33a (2012-02-21 16:42:06)