Symbolic links to a shared folder on a another XP PC

[suse_tpx60s]

I need to create a symbolic link to a folder on a shared drive on a WinXP PC my network. Is this possible and how?

I can browse the folder no problems with Samba client.

[caf4926]

Login to the remote
Drag the folder to either 'Places' in dolphin
or to your Desktop Folder View on the plasma desktop.

[ken_yap]

No, not the types of symlinks that Linux supports. They can only point to other locations on a filesystem, not URLs in general. Unless you mount the share as a SMB filesystem on Linux.

You may be able to create a SMB Link to a Location under KDE but it would only work with the application that is assigned to handle such links, probably Dolphin or Konqueror.

[suse_tpx60s]

Wow those were quick replies.

Bit confused now.
caf4926, I tried that method and the folder shows up as a network folder in dolphin. The problem is that the network folders don't show up in the browse window on some apps so you cannot select it.

ken_yap, so even mounting the folder as a SMB filesystem will probably not work either if it only works with apps assigned to work with such links.

I'll expalin what I'm trying to do.
We use Thunderbird for our mail and have a mail archive folder sitting on a XP server. We use this to store an archive of all our mail which can be accessed (read only) by all the mail users on the network.

So in each Thunderbird client we have set the Local Folder location to point to the archive folder on the XP server. In XP it's no problem, the Windows version of TB will accept the remote location, you simply click browse and navigate to the remote folder. The problem is my Thunderbird under opensuse will not accept the remote location, clicking browse only shows the local file system and no remote folders so I wanted to create a local link to the folder of the server.

Any ideas on how I can do this?

[ken_yap]

Originally Posted by suse_tpx60s

ken_yap, so even mounting the folder as a SMB filesystem will probably not work either if it only works with apps assigned to work with such links.

There are two ways of linking referred to here:

The correct interpretation of the term "symbolic link" is what Linux/Unix supports and can be done from the command line using "ln -s". See the man page for ln. This works for all applications, including CLI applications, but the target filesystem must be mounted. It cannot be a URL.

What caf4926 and I described as Link to Location is a desktop link and only works with the assigned application. The location is not a folder and hence cannot be used for Thunderbird.

What you need is the former, and to get that you need to mount the remote filesystem locally. Look up swerdna on the users list and follow his signature for tutes on how to mount Windows filesystems on Linux.

[suse_tpx60s]

Thanks. I'll have another look at Swerdna's article. I read it a while ago when I first set up my system and wanted to mount my ntfs partitions. I didn't realise you could mount a remote file system.

On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:16:02 GMT, suse tpx60s
<suse_tpx60s@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

>
>Wow those were quick replies.
>
>Bit confused now.
>caf4926, I tried that method and the folder shows up as a network
>folder in dolphin. The problem is that the network folders don't show up
>in the browse window on some apps so you cannot select it.
>
>ken_yap, so even mounting the folder as a SMB filesystem will probably
>not work either if it only works with apps assigned to work with such
>links.
>
>I'll expalin what I'm trying to do.
>We use Thunderbird for our mail and have a mail archive folder sitting
>on a XP server. We use this to store an archive of all our mail which
>can be accessed (read only) by all the mail users on the network.
>
>So in each Thunderbird client we have set the Local Folder location to
>point to the archive folder on the XP server. In XP it's no problem, the
>Windows version of TB will accept the remote location, you simply click
>browse and navigate to the remote folder. The problem is my Thunderbird
>under opensuse will not accept the remote location, clicking browse only
>shows the local file system and no remote folders so I wanted to create
>a local link to the folder of the server.
>
>Any ideas on how I can do this?

OK so far. But the problem description is not complete yet. IIRC XP
servers use IMAP servers by default. The Linux world uses POP clients
by default. Tbird can talk to both. But notice IMAP servers store
most everything on the server, and POP clients store all received mail
locally. There are other twists as well.
I learned this while trying to setup a local POP server for my
personal net. My ISP would only support this for a much more
expensive business account. I could not justify going there.