How to Map a Network Drive (from a Windows Share) in Linux
- Create a directory within the Linux file-system. Depending on whether the directory is in the user’s area, this can be done either in the GUI (the same way you would create a folder for Windows, more-or-less) or by going into the terminal and typing “sudo mkdir /path/name”. Then type password.
- Install an application called WINBIND. Go into a repository and work your way all the way down to “winbind”. Note that typing a search may or may not find it, but it is definitely there. Click on the box to install and click “Yes” and “Okay” as many tims as required.
- Update something called the NSSWITCH file by typing “sudo nano /etc/nsswitch.conf” at the Terminal and then, in the document that opens, put the word “wins” prior to the word “dns” on the “hosts:” line. Save document and exit.
- Go into the terminal and type “sudo smbmount //servername/sharename /mountdirectory -o username=username,password=password”. You may have to type in your password again.
- Update something called the FSTAB. From the terminal type “sudo gedit /etc/fstab” (password may be required). Create an entry by typing “//servername/sharename /mountdirectory smbfs username=userename,password=password 0 0”
- For each additional share that you would like to map, repeat steps 4 and 5.
How to map a Windows network drive in Windows 2000 and XP:
- Find drive and share in Network Neighborhood
- Right-click folder, click “Map network drive”, and assign drive letter.
- Repeat steps for each drive that you wish to map.
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4 Responses to Mapping Network Drives
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This having been said, once the drives are mapped, I like the way Linux actually handles the shares a lot better than the way Windows does.
What I really disliked is having to read about six ways of doing it, none of which worked, before piecing together the above steps.
On a sidenote, it could be said that “Of course it’s easier to map a network drive in Windows than it is in Linux!” with maybe a word or two about how it’s Windows’s fault for making it so difficult.
Maybe so, but the above steps were extremely repetitive for the seventeen or so drives that I needed to map. Once you get the steps down, it’s really pretty straightforward. And routine. And, it seems to me, not that difficult to add a GUI face to. If they want converts, this type of thing is going to be a part of most folks’ transition.
I have no idea what you’re talking about here. I don’t even know what a “network drive” is. I suspect you made it up. 😉
Hehe.
“Mapping a network drive” is when you want a hard drive that is on Computer B to be accessible from Computer A. If done successfully, Computer A will pretend that the hard drive is local while accessing the files from the hard drive across the network.
Note to self: instructions now here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=288534
Also:
http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/Mapping_a_Network_Drive
And another:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MountWindowsSharesPermanently
Additional Help:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountWindowsSharesPermanently (Outdated, sort of)
https://www-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/doc/redhat/AS2.1/rhl-gsg-en-7.2/s1-navigating-chmodnum.html (CHmod#)