Arch Linux

mrbrich

Member

Registered: 2010-04-24

Posts: 42

How to share files between home computers

This is a really newb question, but I'd like to make the disks (both internal and external) on my arch desktop accessible to another computer in my home (happens to be a mac). Should I be using samba or NFS? Can I share the root directory, or would that be dumb? I've been trying using samba, and although I can see the arch desktop in the mac in finder, I haven't been able to connect to it either as guest, or by giving my credentials. Thanks for your help!

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,349

Re: How to share files between home computers

You may want to investigate sftp and sshfs

Not a high performance system, but secure and simple.

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TheSaint

Member

From: my computer

Registered: 2007-08-19

Posts: 1,532

Re: How to share files between home computers

I opted to samba over WiFi is also easy to use with smartphones and smartTV. Including printing. One more point should go for DLNA.

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do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint

TheChickenMan

Member

From: United States

Registered: 2015-07-25

Posts: 354

Re: How to share files between home computers

I use scp / sftp quite a bit between my linux systems for the ease of setup and use.
Samba makes playing nice with Windows and Android a bit easier though.

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mrbrich

Member

Registered: 2010-04-24

Posts: 42

Re: How to share files between home computers

So I think I want to use samba. I like the fact that the server is auto-discovered - it pops up on the mac as soon as I start smbd (NFS can do this as well, I believe). I'm also interested in the Android possibility - if someone could tell me more about that I'd appreciate it.

The problem I'm having is that I can't connect to it. To test it out, I created a share in /etc/samba/smb.conf like this:

[pictures]
   path = /home/sam/Pictures
   public = yes
   guest ok = yes
   writable = yes
   printable = no
   force user = sam

But the mac just says "connection failed". Can anyone help with this?

jocheem67

Member

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 245

Re: How to share files between home computers

Did you thoroughly follow the wiki ? Is there a Apple samba wiki ?

Off the record: did you consider something like -> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Syncthing

mrbrich

Member

Registered: 2010-04-24

Posts: 42

Re: How to share files between home computers

No, I don't think I want to sync files, just be able to access them, but thanks for the suggestion.

Roken

Member

From: South Wales, UK

Registered: 2012-01-16

Posts: 1,304

Re: How to share files between home computers

Follow the wiki for samba to the letter, and hunt down a comprehensive Mac samba wiki (I can't help, never used a mac, and no intention to). It is, however, one of the easiest file sharing systems I've used, and is platform agnostic these days.

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nstgc

Member

Registered: 2014-03-17

Posts: 393

Re: How to share files between home computers

I've been very happy with ssh+rsync, sftp, and btrfs send/receive. Which I use depends on the job.