LinNeighborhood - A Linux port of the Windows Network Neighborhood
==================================================================
This Software is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see the
accompanying COPYING file for more details.
You can reach the authors at:
Hans Schmid <[email protected]>
Richard Stemmer <[email protected]>
You can get the latest version at official LinNeighborhood web site:
http://www.bnro.de/~schmidjo/
Description
===========
LinNeighborhood is a Xwindow graphical port of Network Neighborhood,
running over Samba utilities and the Linux smbfs programs.
It permits to browse an SMB (CIFS) network consisting of Samba, Windows
(WfWg, 95, 98, NT) and probably (not tested) OS/2, LanManager for DOS and
others. It also offers an interface to mount the found shares. Because the
smb-filesystem and smbmount utility is only available in Linux this is a
Linux only* program.
*Stefan.Eilemann <[email protected]> reported that it compiles and
works on irix (thanks for his patch).
Requirements
============
See the INSTALL-file for the needed software to compile LinNeighborhood.
Also look into CONFIGURATION-file for configuration possibilities and path
descriptions. For running it you need:
Installed Samba package, especially smbclient and nmblookup utility
Samba is available at http://samba.org/samba/
Use a recent version of Samba, we tested with 1.9.18 and 2.0.4...2.0.7,
especially look for supported name resolve order (only applies to very old
versions of Samba), because resolving is mostly done by broadcasts and this
must be supported if you need it in your network.
Smbfs-Package smbfs-2.0.x.tgz with smbmount and smbumount utilities from
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/smbfs for Kernel-Versions < 2.1.70, for
higher versions you must use smbmount/smbumount from the Samba package.
Support for the changed command syntax is included in LinNeighborhood at
runtime, using the uname function call. This means you can use a program
that was compiled with 2.0 Kernel on a 2.2 machine and vice versa (if your
libraries are the same), but of course the correct smbmount/umount must be
installed. The command line syntax has changed from samba 2.0.4 to 2.0.5 to
>=2.0.6, you must configure this in the preferences.
smbfs-2.0.x.tgz does not compile on glibc based Linux (problems with
include files), but there are patched versions available that work, e.g.
Redhat's smbfs-2.0.1-4.src.rpm package.
Support for SMB file system must be compiled into your kernel to use
smbmount, please read the smbf-documentation in your kernel tree to see if
you should use CONFIG_SMB_WIN95 (dropped in recent 2.2 -kernels).
The above stuff is included in most Linux distributions, so you normally
should have the programs.
Running LinNeighborhood
=========================
Command Line Parameters
-----------------------
If Linneighborhood is started with one of the following parameters, it will
run without starting the GUI and do one of these actions:
-h {--help} prints out the commmand line parameters
.-v {--version} prints out the program version
-m {--mountshares} mounts the memorized shares without starting the GUI
- i {--iconify} start program iconified (minimized)
- u {--user} [username] does the network scan as user
-p {--password} [userpswd] does the user network scan with password
-j {--job} [number] number of max simultaneous browse jobs
Configuration
-------------
When running the program for the first time open the "Options/Preferences"
menu. Enter the following information in the scan page (if it has not been
preconfigured by your sysadmin):
- Workgroup
This is the group of your preferred master browser, not necessarily your
workgroup. This setting is mandatory.
- Primary Master browser
If you know a fixed master browser in your network you can enter it here.
LinNeighborhood will try to retrieve the workgroup list from this machine.
This will only work if it is permanently on and has a high os level (see
smb.conf.5), so it is probable that a NT or Samba server will always be a
master browser among Windows 95 machines if set accordingly. This also
means that windows 9x machines should only run one protocol (TCP/IP),
otherwise it is more likely that they become a master browser, see
BROWSING-Config.txt. You can always set a Samba server (this could be your
machine with running Samba) as your master browser, because it always
offers a small group list where it shows the master for its group.
LinNeighborhood evaluates this and asks the real master browser for the
group list in a second pass. Check the box to make this setting active. If
you have a WINS server, you can also use it as a master browser, but enter
its name and not the ip-address, and also its group and it must be
configured in smb.conf.
- Additional Master Browsers
If you press the "Edit Master Browser List" -Button you can add a list of
master browsers in your network, that you know. This should preferably be
machines that are permanently running and always have a groups -list, check
this with smbclient. These master browsers can even be in other network
segments, but you need name resolution (wins, hosts) of all computers for
this to work. Enter a name and not an ip-address if possible. When looking
for groups in your network, the master browsers are queried for groups
additional to the primary browsing scheme.
Normally you will only have to enter the workgroup, and no master browser.
But there is a bug in WfWg, Win95 (with winsock Version 1, you can upgrade
to Version 2, look for ws2setup.exe at microsoft.com) and WinNT3.5 that
makes it impossible for normal users to get the name of the master browser
(node status query). See UNIX-SMB.txt and nmblookup.1 (only in Samba-2.0.x)
from Samba documentation for more details. Then it could be necessary to
use a configured master browser. It is also a good idea to enter a
workgroup where you know that none of the buggy windows machines could ever
be the master browser.
We admit that this situation is not quite satisfying if you have many of
these buggy machines in your network and none of the above solutions works
for you. Then the only solution we see is to change the nmblookup call in
smbbrowse.c so that it binds to udp port 137 (-r option). But then root
privileges are needed to run the program and nmbd must not run, this is
mostly unacceptable. A smarter approach would be to have a root privileged
lookup daemon, queried by nmblookup, which can bind to this port and is
integrated in nmbd, but doing this is not within the scope of this work,
only the Samba maintainers can manage it (this is an item for the Samba
wish list).
- always scan as user
If the box is checked you will be prompted for user/password information
when you browse a host, and hosts are always browsed with user/password.
See the Browsing section ("scan as user") to decide if you need it. Yo can
configure what browses are done as user:
- Groups scan as user
A browse for groups is done as user if this is checked.
- group scan as user
A browse for hosts (query of group master broswer) is done as user if this
is checked.
- ask user / password once
All scans that are configured to be browsed with user/password are done
with the user/password information you enter at your first browse after
program startup, no additional queries are done. Use scan as user popup
menu if you want to change user/password information.
- Use group name on browse
If you set this option to on, the smbclient command is called with the -W
option when doing a browse for machines and shares, the group name where
the hosts are in is used. Otherwise the -W option is not used and smbclient
uses the group in smb.conf. This option is important if the computers you
browse insist on being in the correct domain. This is often the group you
are browsing, but it can also be the group you are in, if the administrator
uses trusted domains.
- Use group name on mount
If you set this option to on, the smbmount command uses the -D (for 2.0
Kernels) or -W option when mounting, the group name where the hosts are in
is used because this is sometimes necessary if you are in an other
workgroup and access is only given to computers in the same group. You can
turn it off, because older 2.0 kernels/smbfs packages break when it is on.
Also turn it off if the computers you browse insist on your computer to be
in the correct domain, taken from the smb.conf-file for the same reasons as
explained in 'Use group name on browse'.
- Initial browse on startup
If this is checked Linneighborhood will immediately do a groups browse
after startup. You may want to disable this if there are many groups in
your network and you only want to access your favorite hosts, you don't
have a browsing delay then.
- Quick browse
Normally, when you scan for groups only the groups are shown, information
about the hosts in the group is only available when you do a group scan. If
you check here, all groups are immediately scanned, and you see the
available hosts by clicking the '+'-sign.
The Programs page:
- smbclient
Enter the location of the smbclient program, full path is required if it is
not in your path. Note that this program retrieves configuration
information from the smb.conf file, see the documentation to set it up
correctly. Important options are "name resolve order", "wins server",
"interfaces". Make smb.conf readable to users.
- nmblookup
Same as with smbclient. There is a bug in nmblookup (at least in 1.9.18 and
2.0.3) which disables the correct behavior when "debug level" or "log
level" in smb.conf is set to "0", so set it to "1" (or higher) or leave the
option away until this is fixed by the Samba people, the command line
option -d1 is useless. (Fixed in >=2.0.4!)
-smbmount
Enter the location of the smbmount program, with full path if necessary.
This program should be setuid root (smbmnt with >=2.1.70 kernel), so that
every user can mount shares, it should be safe to do so. If you use
smbmount from the samba package, SMBFS_DEBUG must not be defined (around
line 40 in smbmount.c, it is the default now), otherwise it does not close
the stdout pipe back to LinNeighborhood process, which LinNeighborhood
depends on. This will cause strange behavior, because the program will get
the mount callback when unmounting is done. (Also recommended for programs
like automount.). The smbmnt program (called by smbmount) must always be in
your path, it is not found in the same directory where smbmount is.
-smbumount
Same as with smbmount, also setuid root recommended.
- smbmount Version
Select your smbmount version here, if you are using a >=2.1.70 Kernel. This
is needed, because the command line syntax has changed dependant on the
version. We do not recommend to use Version 2.0.5, because it is less
stable than the previous one and has less mount options, but >=2.0.6 seems
to work fine again. Hope this list will not grow any more in the future.
The Miscellaneous page:
-Use 'RootMountDir/machine/share' as default mount point
If this box is checked there will be a suggestion for the mount point in
the style 'RootMountDir/machine/share' for the mount point in the mount
dialog.
-Root mount dir
When opening the mount dialog this directory will be the base directory for
the mount point. Normally you will create a subdirectory from here for each
single share. You can use system environment variables here as explained in
CONFIGURATION.
- Memorize Mounted Shares / Remount on next startup
If you want LinNeighborhood to memorize the shares you mounted in this
session in order to remount them on next startup, check this option.
LinNeighborhood inserts all successful mounts in an internal database, it
also will remove them from this database when unmounting. This database is
stored in the ~/.linneighborhood/mountpoints file on program termination.
Be careful, any smb password you typed in during mount process will be
stored in this file in an unencrypted manner (file permission 0600). If you
don't want this, deactivate this feature.
For security issues, any mount actions performed as root aren't stored
in this database-file. That also means that you cannot use this feature
with this kind of mount action.
Command Parameter -m --mountshares:
It's possible to start LinNeighborhood in order to remount all shares
stored in ~/.linneighborhood/mountpoints without starting the GUI, e.g. on
system startup. Type 'LinNeighborhood -m' to do so.
This function is internally done by storing the actual command line
parameters of smbmount in the configured version. If you change your
Version to an incompatible one (e.g. upgrade from Kernel 2.0 to 2.2), the
old memorized mounts will not work any more and are thrown out.
- Save Default Password
If checked, the default password you entered into the edit field is
stored in ~/.linneighborhood/password with permission 0600 and will
be reused in the next session. The password will be stored in a
clear text file
The Post Mount page:
- Run File Manager after Mounting
It's possible to start a file manager after a successful mount action.
Activate the "Run File Mananger after Mounting" checkbox in the
preferences' "Post Mount" tab to activate this feature. There are some
predefined command syntaxes for commonly used file managers in the combo
box. Select yours and press the arrow button to move it into the edit
field. The "$MOUNTPOINT" macro of the command syntax will be replaced with
the directory you mounted the share. Indeed it's possible to run any
command you type into the edit field. For example, if you want to start
your own file manager called 'MyFileManager' and this file manager does
accept an option like '-f /any/directory' to start on a certain directory,
insert the following into the edit field:
'MyFileManager -f $MOUNTPOINT'
If you have a file manager not predefined in the combobox, feel free to
send us the command syntax and we'll pick it up into the next release of
the software.
Additional settings in Edit menu
- Additional Master Browsers
Same functionality as in Options/Preferences
- Group masters
You can add master browsers that you know to browse a group. The found
results (hosts) are added to the results found by the normal master
browser. It is important, that the group is correct here, because
Linneighborhood can not always detect (with smbclient) if it is really a
master of that group and then you have hosts in the group that don't belong
to it. Only add computers here that improve the result, because it will
slow down browsing.
Browsing
--------
When you start the program and everything is set up correctly it begins
with a "groups browse" (if the initial browse option is set) and you see
the groups in the network. This is internally done by searching a master
browser with nmblookup if none is configured (see preferences), following a
call of smbclient to get the workgroup list with groups and master
browsers. You can repeat this by double clicking or using the popup menus.
the differences between these is:
double click: use browse method defined in preferences, scan as user or
not.
scan as user: ask for domain (if useful), user and password or give chance
to alter it if "ask user/password once" is selected in the
preferences
rescan: do a scan without use of user/password
When groups are visible double click groups or use the "rescan group" menu
to see the hosts in the group. LinNeighborhood gets this information from
the master browser determined by the "groups browse". It is possible that
you don't get information here, because the master browser has changed or
shut down meanwhile. Then do a "rescan groups" again and hope the correct
master browser for the group is available now. There is a shortcut built in
that shows you at least the master browser when it gets an empty browse
list, then you get a "(master without browse list)" comment. Note that you
may not find all groups and hosts compared to a Windows machine. One reason
is that windows has another browsing strategy, it does not trust in master
browser's browse lists, it finds the group members with broadcasts and can
so compensate the unreliability of windows master browsers. But because of
the windows port 137 bug we had not very much success in doing this and
didn't implement it. Another common reason for not finding hosts is the use
of another protocol like NetBEUI, Samba can of course only access to hosts
running NetBIOS over TCP/IP.
Double click the host or do "rescan machine" to see what shares are
available. This is normally done with the -U% option of smbclient, which
uses the guest account of a server. But some shares are only shown to the
owner, e.g. the home directory of a Samba user. If the server is in user
level security a password is necessary too. Then you must use "scan as
user". Be careful when browsing fails and you have entered a user/password
pair, check the information for correctness before you retry because
sometimes the Server is configured to lock you out when you try a wrong
password too often.
The right popup menu 'show information' can show you some interesting
information about computers, which is available after browsing, i.e. Name,
Domain, OS, Server, IP-Address. This data is output by smbclient, note that
Windows 3.x and 9.x machines don't show Domain, OS and Server.
You can stop all browsing actions if something hangs (hosts do not respond)
by pressing the stop button in the toolbar.
Mounting shares
---------------
When you find the desired share you can mount it. You can only mount file
shares; printers are not supported by this application - you must set up
your printing system accordingly or print a single file with smbclient. You
will get the mount dialog if you right click "mount". The smbmount options
are reflected in this dialog, see smbmount.8 for details. Samba 2.05
smbmount does not support UID, GID, File Mode, Dir Mode options, so you
cannot use these options. Note that the file mode field in mount dialog is
4 digits long to enable Win95 mount options at runtime (with early 2.2
Kernel, see linux/Documentation/filesystems/smbfs.txt). The mount point can
be easily selected and created in a file select dialog. You can also create
a mount point with root permissions if you had checked "mount as root"
before you have pressed the file select button. If you have checked "Use
'RootMountDir/machine/share' as default mount point" there is a suggestion
for a mount point according to the server/share name and the "Root mount
dir". This mount point will be created if it does not exist, with root
permissions if "mount as root" is used. There is only one user/password
pair cached in the application for all "scan as user" and "mount"
operations. As normal user you can only mount to a directory that you own.
You can mount to any directory if you mount as root, then check the box and
enter the password. The root password is never cached. Smbmount from the
smbfs package does not support encrypted passwords (this is a restriction
of SMB file system driver in 2.0.x kernels). So you can only mount shares
if your server allows clear text passwords (most servers do, but it may be
disabled, ask your admin). If you set up Samba with encrypted passwords and
this is different from your normal user password you may be confused,
because newer smbclient versions support encrypted passwords and thus you
must use the encrypted password for browsing and the clear text password
for mounting.
You can mount a share more than once to different mount points, use the
toolbar button or popup menu 'additional mount'. This is especially
intended for different users on one computer, who want to mount the same
share into their home directories.
You can unmount shares accordingly, you will be prompted for the root
password if you are not the owner. The mount point directory will not be
deleted, you have to do this manually. You will also be prompted for the
root password if smbumount fails because of a "could not open device"
error. This mostly happens if network connection is broken after mounting
or the share had been deleted. Then you can try a regular "umount" as root,
which will remove the mount entry.
The stop button in the toolbar stops pending mount actions too.
Adding Hosts
------------
If, for any reason, a host is not found by browsing or you don't want to
search for it you can still connect to it. Use "add favorite host" to add
it to the browse list. This is done without checking if it is accessible.
You can also enter a group name, if you omit it no group is given as
argument to smbmount, but this does not always work. Some servers give
shares only to domain members what you fake when you enter a group (this is
M$ security). You can browse hosts and mount shares in the same way as with
the machines found by browsing.
If you don't know the group or only have an IP-address instead of the name
use the 'Query' button. This will do a node status query, but as mentioned
earlier this does not always work with some M$ machines (port 137 problem).
If there are netbios aliases you will only get the first name here, perhaps
you will have to change it if the server has different behavior dependant
on the name.
There is a point "edit machine" in the popup menu which allows you to edit
the information of already entered hosts, you can try a bit here if browse
problems encounter.
Only name or IP-address are mandatory, but all information gives you the
best chance to access problematical hosts.
All manually added hosts (and some other information like window sizes and
memorized shares) are stored automatically on program termination in the
.linneighborhood directory, which is located in your home directory.
Configuration data is also stored here, but only on request, see
configuration part and also read CONFIGURATION file.
Other Menu Functions
--------------------
Import lmhosts File
You can add your lmhosts file (or any other file in this format) to the
list of your favorite hosts. This is interesting for people having long
lmhosts files with machines they often access.
Export mountscript
You can write a script file with the smbmount commands needed for mounting
all shares that are presently mounted. Note that only user (not root)
mounts are honored and passwords are stored in clear text here, so be
careful with the script, for security reasons it has 700 permissions.
Browse entire network
Tries to browse a network completely with all groups, hosts and shares. If
you do this remember that this can produce a lot of network traffic and
browsing shares may be logged as not allowed access to computers by some
network administrators.
Export network image
This will write a structured list of all detected smb network resources
which are presently in your browse tree. You may want to use this
preferably after "Browse entire network".
