Accessing data from Windows machines in Linux
There are two primary techniques for accessing remote filesystems in Linux
- Browsing remote shares - similar to browsing network neighborhood in Windows. This is best used for copying files back and forth, as not all applications will be able to access it. No command line tools will be able to access data from the browsing mode.
- Mounting a remote share - analagous to mapping a drive in Windows. You take a remote location, and map it to a local directory. Every application will be able to access these files. This directory is (by default) available to multiple users on the machine until unmounted or rebooted.
Browsing remote shares
Konqueror (KDE)If you load up your file manager (called Konqueror), you should be able to type in an smb:// URL that contains the name of the machine, and the share name you wish to connect to. For example, you can type:
smb://bl-chem-isildur
NOTE: SUSE Linux 9.1 and Fedora Core 2 cannot browse shares within Konqueror if the shares require domain authentication. Please upgrade your Linux distribution.
Nautilus (GNOME)I have never got it to work, but supposedly you can type smb:// URL's into the Nautilus file manager that is used by gnome.
smbclient (Command-Line)Please see Using smbclient to connect to Windows shares.
Mounting a remote share
smb4k (KDE)smb4k is a nifty applet for KDE that makes it easy to map drives from Windows hosts. We have smb4k documentation available on a separate smb4k page.
smbmount (command-line)Using smbmount, you can map a remote share to a local directory using the command line. Unless you have changed the permissions for smbmnt, you must be root or use sudo to map a drive. In this example I will map //bl-chem-admin/users to the /mnt directory.
% mount -t smbfs -o username=tstrombe,workgroup=ADS //bl-chem-admin/users /mnt
Password:
When you are done with the mountpoint, it's a good idea to unmount it:
% sudo umount /mnt
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