linux box on XP home network

Please be patient with me; it's been 10 years since I played with Linux
and I've forgotten a LOT. Not to mention, the last time I played with
Linux I had one computer on a dial-up, not 4 computers on a home LAN.

The situation. I have a cable modem. Attached to the cable modem is a
four-port router. Attached to the router are 3 desktops running Windows
XP and one laptop running Mandrake 10. I just installed Mandrake on the
laptop last night. (FWIW, it's a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a built-in
ethernet card.)

The laptop can reach the internet. I can browse the web. But I can't
find the other computers on the home network (which means I can't reach
the shared printer on one of the XP boxes). I can't find any reference
to the XP workgroup anywhere, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place.

Using KDE desktop, which utility do I use to try to find the network?
Do I assume correctly that I'm going to have to tell it the workgroup
name and all that? I can't even find where to do that.

Would it be better if I wiped everything and started over with another
distribution, if there's one better for a mixed home network?

I have other issues with the touchpad and X -- would someone please
point me to the proper group to ask about those? I can take a stab and
guess, but I'm frankly afraid to ask the wrong question on the wrong
newsgroup.

Any information greatly appreciated. Email addy works as-is if that is
more convenient.

-km

--
Only cowards fight kids -- unidentified Moscow protester
the black rose
proud to be owned by a yorkie
http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts

On 2004-09-21, the black rose <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> find the other computers on the home network

Read the Samba-HOWTO. http://www.tldp.org

Davide

--
"I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

the black rose wrote:
> Please be patient with me; it's been 10 years since I played with Linux
> and I've forgotten a LOT. Not to mention, the last time I played with
> Linux I had one computer on a dial-up, not 4 computers on a home LAN.
>
> The situation. I have a cable modem. Attached to the cable modem is a
> four-port router. Attached to the router are 3 desktops running Windows
> XP and one laptop running Mandrake 10. I just installed Mandrake on the
> laptop last night. (FWIW, it's a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a built-in
> ethernet card.)
>
> The laptop can reach the internet. I can browse the web. But I can't
> find the other computers on the home network (which means I can't reach
> the shared printer on one of the XP boxes). I can't find any reference
> to the XP workgroup anywhere, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place.
>

You probably need to configure and use samba. Then, it would allow you
access to the Windows System (And vice-versa - you could access specific
directories in the linux system from the windows boxes.

The samba configuration is probably easy using the desktop. You might
consider looking at /etc/samba/smb.conf (IIRC) to configure the system.

[HTH]

Abhinav

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004 13:35:36 +0000, Davide Bianchi wrote:

> On 2004-09-21, the black rose <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> find the other computers on the home network
>
> Read the Samba-HOWTO. http://www.tldp.org

and he might find these useful:

nmbstatus --allworkgroups
nmbstatus --members
smbclient -L <servername>

--
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.

the black rose <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<N3W3d.239796$(E-Mail Removed) >...
> Please be patient with me; it's been 10 years since I played with Linux
> and I've forgotten a LOT. Not to mention, the last time I played with
> Linux I had one computer on a dial-up, not 4 computers on a home LAN.
>
> The situation. I have a cable modem. Attached to the cable modem is a
> four-port router. Attached to the router are 3 desktops running Windows
> XP and one laptop running Mandrake 10. I just installed Mandrake on the
> laptop last night. (FWIW, it's a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a built-in
> ethernet card.)
>
> The laptop can reach the internet. I can browse the web. But I can't
> find the other computers on the home network (which means I can't reach
> the shared printer on one of the XP boxes). I can't find any reference
> to the XP workgroup anywhere, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place.

First thing to confirm is that you can ping the other computers --
ie., that you can acutally reach them. Till then, all else is moot.

> Using KDE desktop, which utility do I use to try to find the network?
> Do I assume correctly that I'm going to have to tell it the workgroup
> name and all that? I can't even find where to do that.

See below for some links that may get you started -- not sure how
complete the instructions are since I don't use MDK. I'm also not
sure what software you already have at hand (on disk or cd) or what
you might have to download.

> Would it be better if I wiped everything and started over with another
> distribution, if there's one better for a mixed home network?

Seems doubtful to me from reading the few docs I read. MDK is
considered more user friendly than most of the others and this is an
area that requires user friendliness :-)

> I have other issues with the touchpad and X -- would someone please
> point me to the proper group to ask about those? I can take a stab and
> guess, but I'm frankly afraid to ask the wrong question on the wrong
> newsgroup.

All things laptop are pretty brand/model specific as well as what
distro you run. Try here for some help:
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/
http://www.tuxmobil.org/howtos.html

Not sure what on-line support MDK has that might help.

> Any information greatly appreciated. Email addy works as-is if that is
> more convenient.
>
> -km

Here's some links I picked up from Google -- ah, remember Google?

http://www.google.com/search?num=50&...nt&btnG=Search
gave up these and many others ...
http://mandrakeuser.org/docs/connect/csamba.html
https://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/28/SMBClients.pdf
These two integrate SMB into Konqueror -- you likely already have the
software and just need to configure it, hopefully


More general results:
http://www.google.com/search?num=50&...fs&btnG=Search

http://us4.samba.org/samba/docs/
http://us4.samba.org/samba/GUI/
http://linux-cifs.samba.org/

A couple of network browsers (there are a number of others at GUI
above):
http://smb4k.berlios.de/
http://www.obdev.at/products/sharity/

Background on the newer cifs client:
http://www.linux-mag.com/2004-01/guru_01.html
http://www.linux-mag.com/2004-05/guru_01.html

Well, you get the picture. Perhaps someone with recent MDK10
experience can point you directly to what you need to know.

hth,
prg
email above disabled

I have a similar setup with exactly the same problem. The problem,
however, is with Mandrake's default setup. My LAN consists of a cable
modem/router with 5 machines - 3 windows, 1 red hat linux, and one which
can boot to windows 2000 or red hat 9, or mandrake 10.0. The red hat
machine or the triple boot machine in red hat mode have no trouble with
the SAMBA connections. The mandrake machine cannot find any of those
machines or ping them, even though it used DHCP to find its internet
connection & THAT WORKS FINE. A hint, however. When I try to use the
printer configuration tool under drakconf to set up a printer, the
wizard shows a message that says: "WARNING: No local network connection
active, remote printers can neither be connected or detected!" And, as
advertised, the wizard fails to connect to the same SAMBA printer that
the red hat on the same machine finds easily.

Thus, I suspect the problem is that there is no local network turned on
and I cannot figure out how to do that. Also, the Mandrake system cannot
ping any of the other machines on the LAN (unlike the Red Hat systems
which can ping anything except the Mandrake system - which I turned off
incoming pinging on). Anyone have a solution? How do I turn on a local
network?


--
Lynn R. Ziegler Email Address: (E-Mail Removed)

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 02:38:51 -0500, Lynn R. Ziegler wrote:

> I have a similar setup with exactly the same problem. The problem,
> however, is with Mandrake's default setup. My LAN consists of a cable
> modem/router with 5 machines - 3 windows, 1 red hat linux, and one which
> can boot to windows 2000 or red hat 9, or mandrake 10.0. The red hat
> machine or the triple boot machine in red hat mode have no trouble with
> the SAMBA connections. The mandrake machine cannot find any of those
> machines or ping them, even though it used DHCP to find its internet
> connection & THAT WORKS FINE. [ .. ]

Try installing the Samba package, then add "wins" to /etc/nsswitch.conf

hosts: files dns wins

--
-Menno.

Lynn R. Ziegler wrote:
> I have a similar setup with exactly the same problem. The problem,
> however, is with Mandrake's default setup. My LAN consists of a cable
> modem/router with 5 machines - 3 windows, 1 red hat linux, and one which
> can boot to windows 2000 or red hat 9, or mandrake 10.0. The red hat
> machine or the triple boot machine in red hat mode have no trouble with
> the SAMBA connections. The mandrake machine cannot find any of those
> machines or ping them, even though it used DHCP to find its internet
> connection & THAT WORKS FINE. A hint, however. When I try to use the
> printer configuration tool under drakconf to set up a printer, the
> wizard shows a message that says: "WARNING: No local network connection
> active, remote printers can neither be connected or detected!" And, as
> advertised, the wizard fails to connect to the same SAMBA printer that
> the red hat on the same machine finds easily.

I gave up on Mandrake on my laptop and tried Fedora Core 2. I can find
the windows network now. I still can't find the printer. So I think
I'm now about where you are, problem-wise. I'm a bit clueless, though;
I'm VERY rusty at all this.

-km

--
Only cowards fight kids -- unidentified Moscow protester
the black rose
proud to be owned by a yorkie
http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts

I finally got the printer connected by using the raw ip address. This is
not, of course, acceptable in the long run since I use DHCP but it will
work until I get a real answer.

--
Lynn R. Ziegler Email Address: (E-Mail Removed)

the black rose <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<gte4d.240686$(E-Mail Removed)> ...
> Lynn R. Ziegler wrote:
[snip]
> > The red hat
> > machine or the triple boot machine in red hat mode have no trouble with
> > the SAMBA connections. The mandrake machine cannot find any of those
> > machines or ping them, even though it used DHCP to find its internet
> > connection & THAT WORKS FINE. A hint, however. When I try to use the
> > printer configuration tool under drakconf to set up a printer, the
> > wizard shows a message that says: "WARNING: No local network connection
> > active, remote printers can neither be connected or detected!" And, as
> > advertised, the wizard fails to connect to the same SAMBA printer that
> > the red hat on the same machine finds easily.
>
> I gave up on Mandrake on my laptop and tried Fedora Core 2. I can find
> the windows network now. I still can't find the printer. So I think
> I'm now about where you are, problem-wise. I'm a bit clueless, though;
> I'm VERY rusty at all this.
>
> -km

Mandrake is an unknown quantitiy to me, but that should mostly be
differences re: just the distro specific config utils. MDK and Redhat
are otherwise very similar, so may below will help.

First thing is that if you can't ping to another commputer, you can't
reach it, period, sneaker net only, ... you get the picture.

Always start with the computer itself, ie.,
$ ping -c4 127.0.0.1
then try
$ ping -c4 ip.addr.of.computer
if the IP is acquired via DHCP you can find it with
$ /sbin/ifconfig

This simply tells you that the nic is properly initialized with
loopback and IP address.

Now you ping the "nearest" neighbor computer -- one on the same
subnet. If you are using a _switch_ (most likely) all the other
connections are on the same subnet, so ping them one by one with their
IP address (I assume all your lan boxes have a private IP).

If you _do_ have a router things get more complicated as each
connection on the router is to a _different_ subnet and the router
must be correctly configured to forward (ie., route) packets from one
connection (interface) to another. Unless the router is a Linux box,
can't help you here as the commands/configuration will vary depending
on brand/model Hopefully this is working OK

On Linux there are several commands that will help diagnose what's
going on:
ping << tests connectivity
netstat -nr <<< routing table
/sbin/route <<< routing table
/sbin/ifconfig <<< reports/sets interface config
/usr/sbin/traceroute <<< reports each hop from src to dst

Use man [command] for more info.

Be prepared to send _exact_ output in posts for others to see (you can
obscure public IPs with x.x.35.48 -- leave last two intact).

Go here and get all the howtos -- at least the networking ones -- to
have handy. Everyone should keep a copy on disk.
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/
or download ...
http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...-HOWTOs.tar.gz

Connectivity issues have to be addressed one by one and with exact
info. At this point it _sounds_ like MDK is not properly inializing
the nics at startup. The setup and config files are probably just
like the RH/Fedora ones, but there are several of them scattered
about. Look here for info:

https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/ << all docs

The Reference and the Customization Guides are good to have around.
The graphical config tools update _all_ the files for you --
recommended for unfamiliar.

If the interface config looks OK and you can ping yourself, then you
have a routing table problem most likely.

If you can't establish connectivity and need help, I suggest you
search the groups on Google then post a new request for help re: just
the connectivity.

Now ... on to accessing Windows shares...

This is KDE only -- don't use Gnome -- so it may depend on whether you
have the proper packages installed (at least both MDK and RH/FC are
rpm based).

[me@pbrain]$ rpm -qa | grep samba
samba-client-3.0.6-3.1.rh80.kde
samba-common-3.0.6-3.1.rh80.kde
samba-swat-3.0.6-3.1.rh80.kde
samba-3.0.6-3.1.rh80.kde

Your specific version may differ but you need these 4 packages. Test
them individually if you wish like this one example:

[me@pbrain]$ rpm -qi samba-client
Name : samba-client Relocations: (not
relocateable)
Version : 3.0.6 Vendor: The KDE-RedHat
Project
Release : 3.1.rh80.kde
blah, blah, blah ...output

If everything is there you should be able to do everyting from the KDE
Control Center.

Since the specific navigation varies with version I hope you can find
these:

Internet & Network -> Local Network Browsing <<< to set up access to
Win

Peripherals -> Printers
- click Add Printer/Class icon <<< to set up printer access with
Wizard

For both of these you _may_ have to go to Administrator Mode at some
point to supply the root password -- not sure as I don't have a Win
p2p here.

The specific details of setting up access will vary with how you have
the Win shares set up, but default Win shares are pretty generic/easy.
Try the online help if you need some aid. Also Google for a how-to
article like the one in the first post. If that still doesn't help,
try the Samba docs for some guidance. Have a drink ;-)

If you post to the groups include what you _have_ done as accurately
as possible along with symptoms and where you think it's failing.
Hint: people will probably ask for proof that connectivity is
established, so send along ping output. Maybe traceroute too.

Be aware that there are other network browsers available that may be
easier/better -- I can't say as I don't use 'em. The commandline has
been sufficient for my limited uses for file access. Printing --
you're on your own.

In KDE Help nav (left) panel select Control Center Modules and find
(in the right panel) Windows Shares. For help with printing select
Application Manuals and in the right panel locate Settings -> KDE
Printing Manager and in the index page select "7. The Add Printer
Wizard for CUPS". Have another drink ;-)

Good luck.

hth,
prg
email above disabled