share files between two pcs on the same nework

[bill-lancaster]

Thanks oshunluvr,
Having added 'users' to fstab on both machines Vostro now has full access to Compaq - great!
Compaq still gets the same error when accessing Vostro. Have checked all the setting and can't see the problem at the moment

[Snowhog]

Post both fstab contents (identified as to which each belongs to) so we can evaluate.

[bill-lancaster]

Thanks Snowhog but I'm now sorted. I'd left a '#' character in front of a line in one of the file.
By and large, the original guide still works with the exception (in my case anyway of the additional 'users' in fstab
Many thanks for everyone's help

[Snowhog]

Good to hear. "...the original guide still works..." Would that be the guide I linked to in reply #6?

[bill-lancaster]

Yes indeed!

[Snowhog]

Would you edit your two fstab files and replace users with user and save/reboot and see if you still have the access on both PCs? While 'users' is a valid option for the fsck, mount and umount commands, it isn't identified as such in fstab, but user is, and user is supposed to allow 'all' to mount, but I am not sure it would then allow 'all' to unmount. Anyway, the author of the guide I linked and that you followed wants to know, as I informed her that she needed to update her guide to include 'users' in the fstab sample.

[bill-lancaster]

'user' works fine on both computers.
If the guide is being updated, may I point out a small typo?
Step 09 has the heading 'SALLY, edit the nfs-kernel-server file with one of these commands:' followed by 'DAVE, edit the nfs-common file with one of these commands:'

[oshunluvr]

Would you edit your two fstab files and replace users with user and save/reboot and see if you still have the access on both PCs? While 'users' is a valid option for the fsck, mount and umount commands, it isn't identified as such in fstab, but user is, and user is supposed to allow 'all' to mount, but I am not sure it would then allow 'all' to unmount. Anyway, the author of the guide I linked and that you followed wants to know, as I informed her that she needed to update her guide to include 'users' in the fstab sample.

Not sure what you mean...

user / users / nouser user permits any user to mount the filesystem. This automatically implies noexec, nosuid, nodev unless overridden. If nouser is specified, only root can mount the filesystem. If users is specified, every user in group users will be able to unmount the volume.

user allows any user to mount but restricts un-mounting to that user
users allows any user to mount and any user to unmount

On a single user system they are functionally identical

As far as "mount -a" - an excerpt:

mount -a [-t type] [-O optlist]
(usually given in a bootscript) causes all filesystems mentioned in fstab (of the proper type and/or having or not having the proper options) to be mounted as indicated, except for those whose line contains the noauto keyword. Adding the -F option will make mount fork, so that the filesystems are mounted simultaneously.

mountall is an Ubuntu tool that behaves similarly

IMO, having the "auto" option in fstab is an error unless you know for sure the device will be available at boot. In this instance, two separate PCs in a single user environment would never likely be both booting at the exact timing to allow both systems to mount the other automatically. Of course all of this is rather out of date because systemd had it's own mount options.

[Little Girl]

Thank you for testing that and also for noticing the typo. I've updated both in the page now.

[bill-lancaster]

Am pleased to make a contribution for a change, I've received so much help in the past.

[Snowhog]

Thank you for testing that and also for noticing the typo. I've updated both in the page now.

OMG! I didn't know that you were a member on our forum! Small world! This is your first post (here) in almost 10-years, but I/we are very grateful for your contributions to the Linux universe.

[Little Girl]

Yeah, I haven't been very active. Sorry about that. I stopped using Kubuntu when KDE 4 happened. I'm coming back to it, though since I'm about to switch back from Ubuntu MATE to Kubuntu, so I'll probably be more actively interested in what's going on in the Kubuntu world. Also, I really appreciate your help with the page. I sometimes neglect my pages and it's always nice when someone lets me know I missed something or that something has changed.

[CharlieDaves]

So. Um. Which PC is host and which becomes Client. I have a main PC for daily use, and another one, mainly for storage, and watching movies. The Storage is almost a copy of the main, as my backup if Main is fried, fails, etc.

Does someone have a copy of the fstab PAM command, example for 'auto' skip if the other computer(s) are switched off, or is this related to server - client?

And do we have to use fstab for mounting. I currently have a 'shortcut' mount in Dolphin that points to my smb share, which I've just tried to modify to remove the windows XP (NT1) component from, and now smb has completely failed.

[Snowhog]

So. Um. Which PC is host and which becomes Client.

Totally up to you to make that decision.

[jlittle]

And do we have to use fstab for mounting.

The udisks sub-system mounts storage too. Dolphin (if there's no fstab entry) talks to udisks, and from the shell you can use udisksctl. The udev sub-system uses udisks to mount removable storage, but non-removable storage can be mounted the same way. On the *buntus, and I imagine debian, things get mounted in /media/username.