Need Help with LAN

[LaneLester]

I'm new to Kubuntu, having been running both Linspire and Mepis, the latter a Unbuntu flavor. I'm not finding the tools I know for setting up file sharing.

I read somewhere to run kcontrol, instead of the Kubuntu System Settings, so that I could get access to Samba and enter a workgroup.

But why is File Sharing grayed out in Internet & Network? What do I do to activate it?

I'm also missing Smb4K to set up the shares, and it is not listed in the default repositories.

Lane

[Gezzer]

Re: Need Help with LAN

try in a konsole
kdesu kcontrol
see if samba can be configured from there ...

[LaneLester]

Re: Need Help with LAN

try in a konsole
kdesu kcontrol
see if samba can be configured from there ...

Yes, that seems to be the way to set up Samba, but why is the whole file sharing section grayed out? I've never seen that in any other distro.

In the Network Settings, everything looks OK. I added the IP and alias of the Windows box on my LAN to the list of static hosts.

I feel like I'm close, but I'm missing some essential step.

In Konqueror, I tried to create a new link to a URL as a way of creating a link to a shared directory on the Windows computer. When I tried to browse the Samba shares, it said it couldn't find a workgroup (one is specified for both computers). It said that perhaps a firewall is in the way. OK, somehow the Windows firewall got turn on. I've turned it off with no effect yet. Maybe some rebooting or something is needed...

Nope, Samba is still saying it can't see a workgroup. Is there a firewall in Kubuntu?

Lane

[randcoop]

Re: Need Help with LAN

There's something missing from your setup, but I don't know what it is. In my Kubuntu system, file sharing is not grayed out; it is completely accessible.

I'm wondering if KDE is fully installed.

[basho]

Re: Need Help with LAN

There's something missing from your setup, but I don't know what it is.  In my Kubuntu system, file sharing is not grayed out; it is completely accessible.

I'm wondering if KDE is fully installed. 

check whether nfs-common and nfs-user-server are installed

[LaneLester]

Re: Need Help with LAN

There's something missing from your setup, but I don't know what it is.  In my Kubuntu system, file sharing is not grayed out; it is completely accessible.

I'm wondering if KDE is fully installed. 

check whether nfs-common and nfs-user-server are installed

Thanks, guys, those files were missing, and now they're in... and File Sharing is no longer grayed out. I wonder if that's a fault with the amd64 version.

Is the Zeroconf Service Discovery used? It's all grayed out except for the radio button "Local network" which is checked.

In Linspire and Mepis, I had Smb4K to help me get connected. So I installed it and solved the problem, sort of. Its scan could not find the network, but I was able to manually mount a share on the Windows box. So now I can at least get to the files.

Networking is wonderful, but it always is a big headache for me. There never seems to be a step-by-step route to getting everything working.

Lane

[randcoop]

Re: Need Help with LAN

There never seems to be a step-by-step route to getting everything working.

Agreed, but we're getting closer. I now use knetworkmanager (the kde gui for network-manager). I run that with Samba and access wireless networks, wired networks, windows machines...and I can easily pick between wireless and wired and select different wireless networks.

The program took some getting used to (it doesn't use /etc/network/interfaces and that file needs to be basicallly de-activated for it to work), but once it is working, it's very good.

And Samba does keep getting better as well.

[osekavage]

Re: Need Help with LAN

Thanks for that info! I had installed Dapper on three different PCs and was having this problem on all of them.

[ckiraly]

Re: Need Help with LAN

I thought that my problem was along these lines, but I've done this and I'm still not able to share my home directories between my laptop and my mainbox.

Both machines are running Kubuntu 6.06.

I have verified that both machines have nfs-common and nfs-user-server installed.

I don't have a problem "sharing" out folders. The problem is that the other box doesn't see them.

For example, I downloaded some SuperKaramba themes for my laptop. I have a folder in my laptop home directory named SuperKaramba. It is share for both NFS and Samba.

I go to my main box, click on the System Menu, click on "Remote Places" (knetworkmanager). I then click on Samba shares, and get "Unable to find any workgroups in your local network. This might be caused by an enabled firewall."

What is really odd, is I took my laptop to work today, and it saw every computer on the network without any problems. So something is working right.

So now I just need to get my linux boxes talking to each other.

Any additional ideas would be greatly appreciated.