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Ubuntu noob questions.

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InThrees

Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2003
Location
Southeast US
Ok, so I have limited experience with FreeBSD (enough to install onto a slicked system, install and configure samba, php, apache, etc using reference material to double check myself.)

I installed Ubuntu onto my laptop, and decided to seriously give it a go since it's the first *nix OS that just plain worked with my odd screen size. (nvidia gfGO with 1400x1050 pixel lcd).

So, I use the package manager to install apache, php, mysql, and in the course of rooting around and declaring a share, the OS prompts me to install samba to effect the sharing.

Great, outstanding.

However... HOW THE HELL DO I CONFIGURE THIS STUFF? I can't find any entries or areas to configure these things, short of hitting a different tty and doing it the old fashioned way. Is there any GUI support for this? I couldn't actually access the share from my desktop machine because I wasn't able to find any way to add a samba user/pw.

I want to do a little php developing on the box, but that's not going to work either unless I can add a mysql account and get that running correctly.

Also, I was able to figure out how to mount an external enclosure 200gb drive with UFS2 after I installed a 2.6.x kernel, but... this drive has a lot of tv eps like sealab and athf on it, and ubuntu's default media player (totem?) doesn't have the codecs needed to play them. How do I get proper codec support for 'internet standard' mpeg and avi? Divx, etc.

A lot of questions, I know. :confused:
 
go to ubuntuforums.com and do a search, guarentee its there. They is the ultimate repository for info on ubuntu. They are very friendly and will answer almost any question.

You need to enable third party repositories and download w32codecs to get those files to play. Also there are howtos on how to do that over there too
 
*BSD now comes with graphical tools to configure samba and mysql now? My, how the mighty have fallen :)

Debian based distros are normally configured via dpkg-reconfigure <package name>. It has already shown you that when you installed the package. All other config is usually done via console plus editor. Especially server software like mysql.

Samba you can add users via smbpasswd (man smbpasswd). For mysql the best solution is phpmyadmin imho.

For the codec stuff I suggest easybuntu or if you insist automatrix. Two packages, either of one will give you the codecs (and other things) automatically. If you need w32codecs (wma, wmv), you should probably go to www.debian-multimedia.org
 
klingens said:
*BSD now comes with graphical tools to configure samba and mysql now? My, how the mighty have fallen :)

I don't know, it might. I always did it via shell prompt. (I never had a desktop on any of my bsd boxes, pure text.)

I'm asking about Ubuntu because Ubuntu's shell prompts irritate the heck out of me. =P Having to type sudo EVERY TIME I want to do something mildly important gets old fast and makes me more error prone. Ubuntu is also touted as an extremely gui-driven *nix OS, and the blurbs I've seen on it lead me to believe that these sorts of things would have gui front ends. If that's not the case, I'll just yell at sudo a lot.

Debian based distros are normally configured via dpkg-reconfigure <package name>. It has already shown you that when you installed the package. All other config is usually done via console plus editor. Especially server software like mysql.

Samba you can add users via smbpasswd (man smbpasswd). For mysql the best solution is phpmyadmin imho.

For the codec stuff I suggest easybuntu or if you insist automatrix. Two packages, either of one will give you the codecs (and other things) automatically. If you need w32codecs (wma, wmv), you should probably go to www.debian-multimedia.org

w32codecs would be for what, .asf and .wmv? If so, I don't need those. I'll check out the packages you suggested, and dive into a shell prompt.

I was easily able to mount a UFS2 file system on an external drive after googling for a bit, so that's a plus.

(I'm planning on rebuilding my main machine, transferring the guts into a superflower server case out of the antec steel behemoth they're in now, and I'd like to watch some tv episodes / movies while I do it, basically. =p)
 
I also commented on my ubuntu experience thus far at another forum I frequent, and several people suggested webmin for gui management tools.
 
I second the recommendation for "automatix" to get you set up for streaming video in most formats. I didn't have much luck trying to install the necessary codecs manually, and further it was a pain to get Totem to play streaming video. I now use Mplayer (installed with Automatix) and it works fine.

Yeah, as far as I know, there is no GUI for setting up Samba in Ubuntu, and I agree that it's silly. I just followed a guide for manually editing the smb.conf file in /etc/samba, and created the user passwords from the command line as described previously.
 
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