# How do i access my network shares?

## blazer78

I want to access the network drive on a samba server. However, i have not compiled anything with the samba use variable, nor have i emerged samba yet. I can share the internet easily via the servers proxy, although i can't seem to access my network drive at all. I can see the computers attached to the network via lisa, but i get a "unknown host" error when i access the drives.

Is there something i can do to access these drives? And must i have samba to access these drives? i can readily access them in Windows XP x64 edition, although not in gentoo+kde =/

thanks for you time.

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## extremebfn

To get things clear: Are you in gentoo, and want to view a Windows Share ?

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## blazer78

yes.

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## tuxmin

Two things you need:

1. smbfs and/or CIFS support in kernel

  CONFIG_SMB_FS=m

  CONFIG_CIFS=m

2. USE=samba emerge -v --newuse world (pulls in samba)

  You don't need to run the samba server if you want to mount only, but it

  helps when you adjust the WORKGROUP variable in smb.conf

This enables you to either use the smb kioslave from within KDE or you can directly mount smbshares with smbmount.

Hth, Alex!!!

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## blazer78

awww... damn.. i didn't enable support for smb in my kernel, and i didn't compile CIFS into the kernel as modules.

looks like its back to configuring the kernel again.

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## tuxmin

CIFS is not imperative for smbmount to work, it's merely the successor of smbfs and is said to work better with w2k+. Although in my opinion smbfs is more stable.

Alex!!

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## The Mad Crapper

i have never been able to mount 2003/XP with anything but CIFS.

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## tuxmin

Hm, I admit, I'm no troll on these things, but we run a w2k3 fileserver in my company and smbfs works just fine...

And at home I mount shares from my XP laptop with smbfs.

Even Win98 can connect to W2k3 shares, and 98 doesn't speak CIFS!?

Can anyone clear this up? These Windows protocols are still a myth to me ;P

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## The Mad Crapper

smbfs may have been updated? remember trying to use smbfs to connect to win2k3 at work a few years ago, and couldn't-. thats when my research found cifs. being that, that was a awhile about, maybe smbfs now has support for it?

i know with win2k3 you can kinda 'turn down' the security so as to let win9x clients connect... but out of the box, i don't think win9x machines can connect to win2k3 for file sharing. but i am not the windows guru at work   :Confused: 

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## blazer78

omg tuxmin, your a bloody legend! it worked!

thanks a bunch for your time.

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## z00mIn

 *tuxmin wrote:*   

> Can anyone clear this up? These Windows protocols are still a myth to me ;P

 

I think you're not the only one - lo contrario: I heard Samba is the best documentation in that area, because Microsoft knitted SMB with a hot needle and most developers who know about the inner workings are now either gazillionaires or in a mental asylum.

CU Z>

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