problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

mechmg93 · 2009-11-03 17:04:32

i use archlinux64/kde 4.3.3 at work. my laptop is conneted to a network having a windows 2003 server. All the network shares(if i remember correctly are ntfs) are on this server, so i use the smb:// protocol through dolphin and konqueror(as far as i know smbclient is used on the background).

the server is full of pdf and doc files and my problem is that i cannot access these files directly, getting an error saying that it is not supported by the os, so every time i have to copy the file locally and then open it.

any suggestions to avoid copying the files locally?

panosk · 2009-11-03 17:46:09

Can you copy files at the shares?

It seems like a permissions issue. Have you checked with your administrator?

Last edited by panosk (2009-11-03 17:47:01)

mechmg93 · 2009-11-03 17:48:11

panosk wrote:

Can you copy files at the shares?
It seems like a permissions issue. Have you checked with your administrator?

i have no problem with permissions. i can copy-write-delete etc. my problem is that i cannot open the files using openoffice and okular directly.

panosk · 2009-11-03 18:04:18

Hmm...I tried to access my samba shares directly with smb:// and I noticed that files get downloaded in my machine before they can be opened. Anyways, I mount my samba shares with entries in fstab. For example:

//192.168.1.2/Server\040Data   /mnt/Server\040Data     cifs    username=user,password=pass,iocharset=utf8,noauto    0       0

Try to use this approach and I think you will be fine. If you want to automount your shares, change "noauto" to "auto" (but this isn't a good idea for laptops since they change networks often). Otherwise, when you want to connect to a share, you can just run

sudo mount /mnt/YourShare

Also, notice the 040 code for spaces in share name. My server is a Linux box with ext3 filesystems though, but I hope this won't make any difference in your case.

mechmg93 · 2009-11-03 18:16:13

i want to avoid mounting my shares over fstab, because i use a laptop and there is no permanent network connection which makes the whole thing more complexed(order of daemons, when netfs should be started etc).

i read that a possible solutuon is changing the command of openoffice writer from oowriter %U to oowriter %f, which makes it copy the file to /tmp .

I cannot test it right now, cause im at home, but it seems that it may solve my problem.

Last edited by mechmg93 (2009-11-03 18:16:39)

panosk · 2009-11-03 18:33:57

mechmg93 wrote:

i want to avoid mounting my shares over fstab, because i use a laptop and there is no permanent network connection which makes the whole thing more complexed(order of daemons, when netfs should be started etc).
i read that a possible solutuon is changing the command of openoffice writer from oowriter %U to oowriter %f, which makes it copy the file to /tmp .
I cannot test it right now, cause im at home, but it seems that it may solve my problem.

As I mentioned in my previous post, you can set "noauto" in your fstab entries and mount selectively the shares you want with "sudo mount /share". That way you won't have to mess with daemons' order etc. The solution you found with openoffice reminds me of the problems I had with mplayer playing files through samba - I had to add a parameter like the one you post, but still I couldn't get it to work properly as the files had to get downloaded locally first. The only way to use my shares as local drives was to use the fstab.

mechmg93 · 2009-11-03 18:35:52

panosk thanks for your answers and solutions. tomorrow morning will be the test day. thanks again.

mechmg93 · 2009-11-04 06:51:00

i tried the solution with oowriter %f.

it opens the file normally, after it had downloaded it to /tmp, but there is a problem while saving, necaused the saved doc is not uploaded to windowsh share again.

i just did some test with various file extentions and programs and all except openoffice work fine. the only problem is with openoffice. i have to mention that i use go-openoffice.

Last edited by mechmg93 (2009-11-04 06:54:43)

panosk · 2009-11-04 10:14:20

mechmg93 wrote:

i tried the solution with oowriter %f.
it opens the file normally, after it had downloaded it to /tmp, but there is a problem while saving, necaused the saved doc is not uploaded to windowsh share again.

i just did some test with various file extentions and programs and all except openoffice work fine. the only problem is with openoffice. i have to mention that i use go-openoffice.

Good morning

I am glad you are getting close, but your main problem with this approach is that the shares don't get actually mounted. As you noticed, the files have to be copied first, and this is very frustrating when you have to deal with large documents. Since you are at work now, give the fstab method a try and report your results.

mechmg93 · 2009-11-04 11:13:52

Panosk, it seems that the fstab method is the best solution. I added each share to /etc/fstab and now i mount my shares via command line using netfs daemon. With this method everything is fine with openoffice

thanks again for help!

edit:

i managed to "automount" the shares, using the feature of pre and post connection/disconnection scripts of wicd.

Last edited by mechmg93 (2009-11-04 11:23:32)

panosk · 2009-11-04 12:03:06

mechmg93 wrote:

Panosk, it seems that the fstab method is the best solution. I added each share to /etc/fstab and now i mount my shares via command line using netfs daemon. With this method everything is fine with openoffice
thanks again for help!

edit:
i managed to "automount" the shares, using the feature of pre and post connection/disconnection scripts of wicd.

Glad you worked it out.

Take care.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-03 17:04:32

problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#2 2009-11-03 17:46:09

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#3 2009-11-03 17:48:11

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#4 2009-11-03 18:04:18

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#5 2009-11-03 18:16:13

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#6 2009-11-03 18:33:57

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#7 2009-11-03 18:35:52

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#8 2009-11-04 06:51:00

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#9 2009-11-04 10:14:20

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#10 2009-11-04 11:13:52

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

#11 2009-11-04 12:03:06

Re: problem opening files stored in a windows server using kde/smblcient

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