Continuing my evening attempts to get all linux-y… [Previous entries here: 1 2 3 4 5]

One of the commenters on previous postings said that I really have to get over my Windows-based instinct to reboot whenever I have a problem with linux. But I just switched the monitor over to the linux box for the first time since last night and my screen is frozen. Keyboard and mouse input do nothing. So, I can’t see anything to do but press the Off switch. I can’t say that so far linux has been a never-reboot experience.

This time, GRUB the boot loader showed me two linux installations I could boot from. What’s that about? Is it because I updated the kernel during the previous session? I let it choose whichever it counted as its default.

Tonight I’m going to see if I can make any progress seeing files on the Windows machines on my network. I have instructions from my nephew, who is a serious linux admin, about how to do this. First, I check to see if Samba is installed by going to the services panel under system settings. Nope, it’s not there as “samba” or as “smb.”

I try browsing for more info, but I forgot that last night I unplugged the ethernet cable. I plug it back in. Linux doesn’t recognize that I’ve done so. (XP does.) I know how to force XP to recognize a new connection but I don’t know how with linux. It’s here somewhere but I don’t even know where to look. Aha! Network Device Control. It sees the ethernet. Click to activate. Nope, can’t activate it. I don;t know why. Press configure. Tell it to get the DNS from the server, although it concerns me that that wasn’t the default config I’d been using. Confirm. And, baddabing, I’m back on line.

Now Add/Remove Packages. RedHat is checking which packages are installed. Windows File Server isn’t. Also, it looks System Tools may be needed. I’ll install them off the RedHat disk. RedHat computes the dependencies among the packages; apparently doing this by hand is a major pain in the butt. But the installation program terminates abruptly and then it stops recognizing my mouse. So, I tell it to log me out, but it does a full cold boot. I have to say that I’m doing more reboots than with a normal XP install, although that may be due to Gnome (the desktop GUI) and in no small part is due to Stupid User Syndrome.

Ok, re-do the Add/Remove Packages. It seems to have worked the last time. And I can now see files on my Windows machines. Yeah!

When I try to open an html file on one of the XP machines, the linux apps say they can’t access files at smb locations. Go to System Services and turn on smb…it’s now listed. Still can’t open the files though. On the advice of my nephew, I go to LinuxQuestions.org where there are detailed instructions – not quite detailed enough for the likes of me – on how to do mount a samba share. Hmm. It won’t let me mount the share unless I’m root but it’s rejecting my password as root. Yet it accepts that pwd when I login as root for other admin activities. Odd. I’ve just added myself to the adm group but that did nothing obvious. So, I’m logging in as root. And the mount command seems to have taken; smbfs is listed when I do a “mount.” But when I navigate there through the GUI, I still can’t open the file.

Meanwhile, another window refuses to close. This happened a couple of nights ago, too. I don’t see it listed in the System Monitor. Oops, it’s gone away now. I re-open it – it was the System Settings panel – but now Gnome tells me that Nautilus (its Explorer) has no viewer capable of opening the applets. Funny, they opened before.

Gnome seems really flaky. Far worse than XP. One of the comments to an earlier blog recommended I install a different desktop manager, but even after only a few days I feel like I’ve invested too much in Gnome to switch right now. So, off to bed and still not able to open files on networked XP machines. But the linux workgroup is showing up on the XP machine; it can’t get any further than the workgroup icon, but that’s progress.

Categories: Uncategorized dw