I’ve read swerdna’s samba page and others. While I can find all the settings, I don’t know which to choose. I have pretty simple needs. I have a desktop and a laptop in my home network. I would like to share files between them since the desktop is on a fast ethernet connection and the laptop has a slow wifi card. Downloading files is much, much slower on the laptop.
Do both machines have to be set up as servers? If not, how is the second machine setup? What are the preferred settings for the other aspects of the setup? I’m not being lazy; I’m just clueless.
When you have the files stored on the Windows system, that is the server and the openSUSE system is the client.
When you have the files stored on the openSUSE system, that is the server and the Windows system is the client.
Of course it is also possible that both systems have files stored that must be used by the other system. Then both must be servers and both must be clients.
@Prexy, if I remember correctly you’re on KDE. Why not use SSH and use the Dolphin Network option? If you can ssh from the laptop to the desktop, you’re almost there. Chose the SFTP option whilst creating a new Network connection, Enter the desktop’s IP address, your desktop username and password, connect and you can download from your desktop user’s homedir ( and other folders ).
You have a good memory; I am on KDE! I never thought of this option but I can’t get it to work. I try in either direction and it fails to connect to the server. I am using the ip address and port 22 (or 21), which are the default entries depending on where I start: laptop or desktop. I use my username on each computer and the /home directory. It doesn’t get far enough to ask for a password. I see nothing in the directions that helps. I tried using root as user with the same result.
Is there a username/password combo that is supposed to go into the box in the wizard? If so, what is the syntax? username/password? username: password? Or just username password? None of those seem reasonable given the example in the manual. Thinking about samba again: do I need to start a server somewhere?
Did you enable sshd.service on the respective machines? Do you have active firewalls on each of the machines? If so, that might need to be adjusted first.
sudo systemctl status sshd
sudo systemctl status firewalld
If active, check allowed services
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all
Report back if unsure about next steps.
Thinking about samba again: do I need to start a server somewhere?
Yes, as Henk already hinted at. If both machines are sharing files, both need to have an active samba server…
sudo systemctl enable smb
sudo systemctl start smb
and again make sure that respective firewalls allow the requisite traffic.
Trying to go from laptop to desktop, I get “connection refused” and I wonder if the problem is that the port 22 is not open. In response to the commands about sshd and firewalld, both are “inactive (dead).”
I enabled and started smb. Now, I can see the machines in Dolphin-Network. However, a popup asks for username (I enter mine), a workgroup name which I leave at default (WORKGROUP) and a password (I enter mine.) But that’s where I get stuck. The box asking for this info pops up each time I click on “OK” endlessly. Leaving the password blank, the anonymous option, gives the same result: endless recurrence of that pop up.
It worked! But not without hiccups. I started using the laptop to connect to the desktop. I got a pop-up warning about the security certificate. I said connect anyway and it did!
Then, I went to the desktop to connect to the laptop and the same procedure failed. I did get as far as the warning when it failed. I tried changing the port on one end and that didn’t work. So, I did the same procedure over and over and on the third try, with all the same inputs, it finally worked. And it’s FAST!
Thanks, Knurpht! I’ll stick with ssh and forget about samba.
Nice to hear, Prexy.
The procdure on both systems if you want to be able to do it is the same on both machines, as you may have found now. The only thing to concern is, certainly for a laptop that you take outside your network is to have a firewall active. But it’s not that hard to use YaST, enable it and for the public zone add the ssh service.
Yeah, it’s so fast that a couple of years ago I stopped editing files locally, then sending them to the web. Kate easily opens ~200 files directly from the webserver development site ( owned by my user there ), so that I do edit them on my laptop where the actual files are in the datacenter. To update the actual webapp after developing and testing I use a simple shell scripts that syncs the changed files as wwwrun, so that the permissions on the actual webapp are as they should be.
Nice to read that you got SSH connectivity working. That’s the reason I asked you about the status of sshd.service. The general idea is to post output of requested commands, so that we can gain an idea about where you are at, and advise further.
Sorry I didn’t post output. Trying to solve two problems at once and got confused. Still confused about one thing. What settings are used for the firewall if I take the laptop out of the house???
By default, the public zone is used with firewalld, so any active interface will be assigned to this zone (unless otherwise configured by the user/administrator). You can use YaST > Security and Users > Firewall to make most common adjustments to the firewall (eg allowing ssh on port 22). Additionally firewalld has the ‘firewall-cmd’ CLI for examining and configuring the firewall as well, and it has a comprehensive graphical utility called ‘firewall-config’ (via package of the same name) that can be used as well.
Looking at yast to set up the firewall. Under “public” , ssh is allowed. Checking the ports tab, no port is listed as open. There are 4 types of ports listed: TCP, UDP, SCTP and DCTP. Should I add port 22 to one of these? Firewall is not currently running. Before I turn it on, I want to have ssh continue to work.
Is there a tutorial to show how to connect to home pc if I use my laptop outside my local lan? Never thought about doing this until you guys got me started with ssh!
In YaST firewall, the Ports tab is for ports that are not attached to a service. But, since ssh is enabled there should be no issue.
Probably too many tutorials. Basically, you need to open the port 22 in your (modem)router and forward it to your desktop machine’s IP. That would allow you to connect to it from anywhere in the world provided you have an internet connection.
Hi
I would recommend a non-standard external (change it often and only enable when needed) port on the internet side and forward on the router to port 22 to avoid the script kiddies
That’s sufficient for a predefined service using the standard port. The command I gave in post #5 will summarise for clarification and showing those trying to assist. Here it is again
Just a few of them. Most of them scan open ports on an IP address and their scripts try various services. It’s better to disable root over ssh, and only accept private key auth. At least that’s what I was told.