Novell share

I have been looking through google archives, forum posts, etc without
finding any "working" examples of how to make an entry in /etc/fstab to
auto mount a Novell share at boot. It says something like "bad fs type,
bad superblock, or too many shares mounted" whenever i try to mount it.
Has anybody successfully gotten a Novell share to auto mount using
fstab? If so could you enlighten me? Thanks!

--Luke

Luke Matthews <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<EDSQc.237793$JR4.201188@attbi_s54>...
> I have been looking through google archives, forum posts, etc without
> finding any "working" examples of how to make an entry in /etc/fstab to
> auto mount a Novell share at boot. It says something like "bad fs type,
> bad superblock, or too many shares mounted" whenever i try to mount it.
> Has anybody successfully gotten a Novell share to auto mount using
> fstab? If so could you enlighten me? Thanks!
>
> --Luke

A copy of your /etc/fstab attempts would be most helpful -- though be
warned it's been a _long_ time since I've done this. Also the net
protocol used and whether you're using DHCP and how your nics should
be/are configured.

In older days -- circa '97 -- when we were still using IPX, the ncpfs
utils would allow Linux something like the old DOS diskless stations
in the "computer labs" -- ie., you could script a "login" prompt. We
did get something like this post going but never used it much:
http://boudicca.tux.org/mhonarc/ma-l...-May/0222.html
Something like this may be all you need _if_ your NetWare setup is
pretty vanilla. Google something like:
linux ncpfs automount novell

I'm assuming you're using TCP/IP on your NetWare servers and truth be
told, you'll need a NetWare client to use NetWare servers in a fashion
similar to windows. I keep waiting for Novell to produce one since
they acquired Suse and it appears they intend to extend NDS fully to
Linux.

Anyway, I just googled again (as I do from time to time) for:
linux netware client
and nothing much has changed. Haven't checked with Novell since
beginning of summer, so can't say what they have to say.

This one looks promising and the how-to page gives some idea what is
involved:
http://novelclient.sourceforge.net/howto.html
Haven't had a chance to try it -- maybe this fall at the school where
I work?

If you would be more specific about your Netware setup and what you
want the client workstations to be capable of, I would be more than
happy to share anything useful my own snooping turns up -- I need to
catch up on the latest happenings with NetWare and Linux. Right now
it seems they are intent on pushing GroupWise collaboration, etc.
rather than _just_ a simple, reliable client for file and print
sharing. I'm more interested in integrating Linux servers with their
LDAP NDS services myself.

If I find something solid this weekend, I'll post it here.

good luck,
prg
email above disabled

P Gentry wrote:
> Luke Matthews <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<EDSQc.237793$JR4.201188@attbi_s54>...
>
>>I have been looking through google archives, forum posts, etc without
>>finding any "working" examples of how to make an entry in /etc/fstab to
>>auto mount a Novell share at boot. It says something like "bad fs type,
>>bad superblock, or too many shares mounted" whenever i try to mount it.
>>Has anybody successfully gotten a Novell share to auto mount using
>>fstab? If so could you enlighten me? Thanks!
>>
>> --Luke
>
>
> A copy of your /etc/fstab attempts would be most helpful -- though be
> warned it's been a _long_ time since I've done this. Also the net
> protocol used and whether you're using DHCP and how your nics should
> be/are configured.
>
> In older days -- circa '97 -- when we were still using IPX, the ncpfs
> utils would allow Linux something like the old DOS diskless stations
> in the "computer labs" -- ie., you could script a "login" prompt. We
> did get something like this post going but never used it much:
> http://boudicca.tux.org/mhonarc/ma-l...-May/0222.html
> Something like this may be all you need _if_ your NetWare setup is
> pretty vanilla. Google something like:
> linux ncpfs automount novell
>
> I'm assuming you're using TCP/IP on your NetWare servers and truth be
> told, you'll need a NetWare client to use NetWare servers in a fashion
> similar to windows. I keep waiting for Novell to produce one since
> they acquired Suse and it appears they intend to extend NDS fully to
> Linux.
>
> Anyway, I just googled again (as I do from time to time) for:
> linux netware client
> and nothing much has changed. Haven't checked with Novell since
> beginning of summer, so can't say what they have to say.
>
> This one looks promising and the how-to page gives some idea what is
> involved:
> http://novelclient.sourceforge.net/howto.html
> Haven't had a chance to try it -- maybe this fall at the school where
> I work?
>
> If you would be more specific about your Netware setup and what you
> want the client workstations to be capable of, I would be more than
> happy to share anything useful my own snooping turns up -- I need to
> catch up on the latest happenings with NetWare and Linux. Right now
> it seems they are intent on pushing GroupWise collaboration, etc.
> rather than _just_ a simple, reliable client for file and print
> sharing. I'm more interested in integrating Linux servers with their
> LDAP NDS services myself.
>
> If I find something solid this weekend, I'll post it here.
>
> good luck,
> prg
> email above disabled


Unfortunately I don't work until Tuesday so I couldn't post the fstab
file until then. I think I just might understand how it works now. The
howto document here: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/IPX-HOWTO-9.html#ss9.4
(was linked to on the one site you posted) gives a pretty good
explanation on how to mount the share when booting using rc.local. It
doesn't really matter to me how the share is mounted (fstab or command
line) as long as it gets mounted. Basically what I need to do is have a
ftp user on the Linux box be able to see files on the Novell share. It
definitely would be really nice if Novell would release some decent
Netware tools with good documentation. Thanks for leading me in the
right direction though!

--Luke

P Gentry wrote:
> Luke Matthews <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<EDSQc.237793$JR4.201188@attbi_s54>...
>
>>I have been looking through google archives, forum posts, etc without
>>finding any "working" examples of how to make an entry in /etc/fstab to
>>auto mount a Novell share at boot. It says something like "bad fs type,
>>bad superblock, or too many shares mounted" whenever i try to mount it.
>>Has anybody successfully gotten a Novell share to auto mount using
>>fstab? If so could you enlighten me? Thanks!
>>
>> --Luke
>
>
> A copy of your /etc/fstab attempts would be most helpful -- though be
> warned it's been a _long_ time since I've done this. Also the net
> protocol used and whether you're using DHCP and how your nics should
> be/are configured.
>
> In older days -- circa '97 -- when we were still using IPX, the ncpfs
> utils would allow Linux something like the old DOS diskless stations
> in the "computer labs" -- ie., you could script a "login" prompt. We
> did get something like this post going but never used it much:
> http://boudicca.tux.org/mhonarc/ma-l...-May/0222.html
> Something like this may be all you need _if_ your NetWare setup is
> pretty vanilla. Google something like:
> linux ncpfs automount novell
>
> I'm assuming you're using TCP/IP on your NetWare servers and truth be
> told, you'll need a NetWare client to use NetWare servers in a fashion
> similar to windows. I keep waiting for Novell to produce one since
> they acquired Suse and it appears they intend to extend NDS fully to
> Linux.
>
> Anyway, I just googled again (as I do from time to time) for:
> linux netware client
> and nothing much has changed. Haven't checked with Novell since
> beginning of summer, so can't say what they have to say.
>
> This one looks promising and the how-to page gives some idea what is
> involved:
> http://novelclient.sourceforge.net/howto.html
> Haven't had a chance to try it -- maybe this fall at the school where
> I work?
>
> If you would be more specific about your Netware setup and what you
> want the client workstations to be capable of, I would be more than
> happy to share anything useful my own snooping turns up -- I need to
> catch up on the latest happenings with NetWare and Linux. Right now
> it seems they are intent on pushing GroupWise collaboration, etc.
> rather than _just_ a simple, reliable client for file and print
> sharing. I'm more interested in integrating Linux servers with their
> LDAP NDS services myself.
>
> If I find something solid this weekend, I'll post it here.
>
> good luck,
> prg
> email above disabled


In case you are interested, I did get this working.

First off the ncp (Novell) filesystem wasn't compiled into the kernel
(nor was a module), so I had to recompile that and get the new kernel
working.

Then I needed to get ncpfs from here (compile and install it of course
too):ftp://platan.vc.cvut.cz/pub/linux/ncpfs/.

Then I added "ipx_configure --auto-interface=on --auto-config=on" to my
rc.local file to run at bootup.

I then used ncpmount in rc.local to mount my Novell share. I can't
remember the exact syntax, but it wasn't too hard to figure out with the
man page for ncpmount. Actually, before I did ncpmount, I added in
rc.local "sleep 10". I put that right after doing ipx_configure, but
before mounting the share. Otherwise it would try and mount the share
before the nic was configured for ipx, so it needed a few seconds for
ipx to get going. I made it 10 seconds just to be absolutely sure.

I also had an entry in fstab which did *sort of* work. Since the
interface was "initialized" in rc.local the fstab mount would fail
because startup stuff in rc.local runs after it would try to mount the
share (ipx isn't working until rc.local is run). This wasn't desirable
since I wanted it to be mounted at boot without having to worry about
remembering to login and mount it manually. However, the fstab entry
would mount the share and work after the system was up and running. I
wasn't really in the mood to create a special init script when rc.local
would do. heh

Anyways, sounds kinda wacky, but it worked like a charm. Thanks for the
info you provided!

Luke Matthews <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<rVbSc.237603$%_6.159414@attbi_s01>...
[snip]
>
> In case you are interested, I did get this working.
>
> First off the ncp (Novell) filesystem wasn't compiled into the kernel
> (nor was a module), so I had to recompile that and get the new kernel
> working.
>
> Then I needed to get ncpfs from here (compile and install it of course
> too):ftp://platan.vc.cvut.cz/pub/linux/ncpfs/.
>
> Then I added "ipx_configure --auto-interface=on --auto-config=on" to my
> rc.local file to run at bootup.
>
> I then used ncpmount in rc.local to mount my Novell share. I can't
> remember the exact syntax, but it wasn't too hard to figure out with the
> man page for ncpmount. Actually, before I did ncpmount, I added in
> rc.local "sleep 10". I put that right after doing ipx_configure, but
> before mounting the share. Otherwise it would try and mount the share
> before the nic was configured for ipx, so it needed a few seconds for
> ipx to get going. I made it 10 seconds just to be absolutely sure.
>
> I also had an entry in fstab which did *sort of* work. Since the
> interface was "initialized" in rc.local the fstab mount would fail
> because startup stuff in rc.local runs after it would try to mount the
> share (ipx isn't working until rc.local is run). This wasn't desirable
> since I wanted it to be mounted at boot without having to worry about
> remembering to login and mount it manually. However, the fstab entry
> would mount the share and work after the system was up and running. I
> wasn't really in the mood to create a special init script when rc.local
> would do. heh
>
> Anyways, sounds kinda wacky, but it worked like a charm. Thanks for the
> info you provided!

Your description brings back "fond?" memories -- sounds strangley
familiar even after 6-7 years ;-)

Good that you came up with a "boot time" mount on your own -- IIRC, we
used rc.local to mount/access the files for the person logging onto
the Linux box.

Anyway, it's always nice to hear that someone has got things working
-- and _how_ they did it. Now there is a recent record that that can
be searched via Google groups in case someone else has a similar need.
If only more folks would follow your example ;-)

glad it's working,
prg
email above disabled