linux things
Sep. 14th, 2009 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauralhThe other thing I've been occupying myself with is trying to get as much out of my Ubuntu box as I can, as Reg would like to convert his old box to a music/media server. So I switched from Rhythmbox to Banshee, and so far I prefer it a lot, but I had to go and rerate songs and that kind of shit. Mostly just drag'n'drop, and definitely less of a pain in the ass than it was to get it started in RB, but still takes up some time. Now I'm trying to get my sandisk MP3 player to work, and I'm having some issues. Some songs it copies, some it doesn't, and when I "ejected" then reconnected to attempt to fix the issue, it just didn't show up again. Blargh. Oh well, I'll reboot and try again later.
The real issue is Samba. I suppose I need to set up Reg's computer as a Samba server, since that miracle of technology that Windows uses - being able to read AND write over the network - is only one-way here. Reg watches all his movies from that machine over the wireless to his laptop, and if he can't do that, then there's no point in living. And I'll also have to export his torrent settings and ratios and whatnot. Anyway, if anyone has dealt with this kind of stuff, let me know.
(Also, if anyone knows why XP would freeze every hour or so during, say, DVD burning or something like, when it never used to do that...)
The real issue is Samba. I suppose I need to set up Reg's computer as a Samba server, since that miracle of technology that Windows uses - being able to read AND write over the network - is only one-way here. Reg watches all his movies from that machine over the wireless to his laptop, and if he can't do that, then there's no point in living. And I'll also have to export his torrent settings and ratios and whatnot. Anyway, if anyone has dealt with this kind of stuff, let me know.
(Also, if anyone knows why XP would freeze every hour or so during, say, DVD burning or something like, when it never used to do that...)
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-14 08:44 pm (UTC)XP freezing every hour or so during DVD burning probably means failing hardware. Most likely RAM or the DVD drive itself. It COULD also mean a driver problem or a regression in whatever app you're using, though.
You can try to isolate the problem without having to buy parts by trying a different app (InfraRecorder is quite good, and free), and by doing a boot to live Linux environment - most machines in the last several years will boot fine off a USB key, and Ubuntu live from a USB drive is pretty responsive (and won't tie up your optical drive, so you can test burning things).
If you do want to set up a flash drive for booting Ubuntu, you'll want a utility called "unetbootin". Google it, you'll find all the docs you need easily enough; it's brain-dead easy once you know unetbootin exists.
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Date: 2009-09-15 04:33 pm (UTC)Anyway the current problem I have is that I installed Ubuntu on Reg's computer months ago, but he has a wireless keyboard so I never booted into it, and I don't THINK I set up a password, but ummmm.... maybe I did.
sample /etc/samba/smb.conf file
Date: 2009-09-14 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-14 08:58 pm (UTC)You need to have a system user AND a matching Samba user. So let's say you've created a system user named reg (caps counts here). Now you have to make the matching Samba account.
Note however that you MUST HAVE HAD a correspondingly named system account FIRST, before running smbpasswd.
Also, you may have trouble with Windows machines logged in with null passwords. If you keep getting authentication problems, you will probably want to just set a password on the Windows box, and set a matching password using smbpasswd. (You don't need the -a flag if you're changing the password on an already existing Samba account.)
And of course, if you didn't already know how to install Samba in the first place... sudo apt-get install samba.
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Date: 2009-09-14 08:59 pm (UTC)Of course, you don't HAVE to do that - it'll still broadcast also - but Windows "browser elections" suck monkey cock.
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Date: 2009-09-15 03:41 pm (UTC)WINS sucks donkey cock... way too chatty.
to get around that forced browser election in XP you can either: 1. create a domain with a DC set to "auto" in the domain master browser reg key (but it is swatting a fly with a buick for this need) or 2. set ISDOMAINMASTER reg key set to FALSE on that XP box (recommended if not part of domain)
this way it kills off the forced browser elections, and you aren't running that WINS crap
my two cents for a question you didn't ask
:)
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Date: 2009-09-15 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-15 06:33 pm (UTC)but moving on - if you only have a single windows box then you don't need to worry about those forced browser elections.
oh, and if you are running Vista, you may have an option. assuming you're running Ultimate, Professional, or Enterprise you could build a virtual machine hosted on that box. make THAT one your media box with whatever media stuff you use. reg can remote desktop to that wherever he's at and voila! all problems solved.
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Date: 2009-09-15 06:45 pm (UTC)Original situation: media sat on XP box, but XP box freezes, which is not great when watching video
future: media will sit on Ubuntu box, accessed by vista laptop and ubuntu desktop.
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Date: 2009-09-15 06:50 pm (UTC)*lightbulb finally goes off*
that should work pretty damn good. vista can read from an NFS share without too much setup, and is pretty solid afterwards. biggest problem will be your network. it may require your media server to have a static IP (can't remember - i haven't done workstation support in years) and depending on your ISP that may or may not be a problem.
but sounds like you know what you're doing.
for a code jockey you seem to have a better handle on stuff than most systems guys i know.
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Date: 2009-09-15 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-15 09:17 pm (UTC)It works like DNS, but for NetBIOS names. When a client is subscribed to a WINS server, it registers itself in WINS. Then if it needs to get a list of machines in the network, it requests one from the WINS machine; or if it wants to translate a NetBIOS name to an IP, it asks the WINS server for the translation.
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Date: 2009-09-15 09:32 pm (UTC)yes, i know it works like DNS - but also it does some things such as DHCP if asked, or not disabled (just ONE example).
this broadcast traffic at intervals is what i meant by chatty.
with dynamic DNS i don't need wins. either BIND 9 or higher or Windows 2000 or higher does away with the need for netbios resolution.
only reason i've ever seen a need for WINS since the above technologies is if DNS is fubar and the admins have been lazy (or an old NT4 box needed to stay alive - but i haven't seen that in years)
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Date: 2009-09-15 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-15 09:39 pm (UTC)with DNS you need DHCP, with Wins you do not have to.... because of it's fucntionality it can for resolution and addresses what DHCP does. but it does add to network traffic compared to a DNS/DHCP only solution
as i said, we're just gonna have to agree to disagree.
but i bet if you ask most standards and practices experts about it, they'd have you steer away from WINS
my two cents,
peace.
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Date: 2009-09-15 09:56 pm (UTC)DHCP does no resolution, WINS does no allocation. Further, WINS neither broadcasts nor *requires* broadcasts from clients (DHCP servers do no broadcasting themselves, but DHCP clients locate available DHCP servers with a network broadcast to the local segment).
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Date: 2009-09-15 09:58 pm (UTC)you can have this one - if ever we meet irl we can hash it out then if it still seems a good idea.
/this
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Date: 2009-09-15 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-15 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-15 09:19 pm (UTC)