Using DiskDrake to mount shares
From BEL
What is DiskDrake
DiskDrake is the partitioning and management tool originally provided by Mandriva in the Control Center.
Although, it has other uses beyond just partitioning. It has shown itself to be a tremendously easy way to locate and mount NFS and SAMBA shares on your LAN.
DiskDrake is, of course, used in the PCLinuxOS Control Center and by using certain flags, can accomplish these other functions not only quite handily, but outside of the PCC window as well.
Using DiskDrake to locate LAN shares
By using the -nfs or -smb flags, at a command line or in a special function area, such as a menu launcher, one can use DiskDrake to mount the NFS and SAMBA shares setup on your LAN.
For example, both Server Basic Xfce and X Home both make use of these commands in the right click desktop menus to make shares as easy as pie to access.
To find and mount NFS shares, you would use the command "diskdrake -nfs".
this will provide a small pop-up window with a button that allows you to 'Search for Servers'. Upon clicking that button, diskdrake will search your entire LAN for NFS shares.
When a machine on the LAN is located that offers an NFS share, it's IP address will appear on the side window and can be clicked (by selecting the little black arrow next to the address)and the actual names or locations of the shares will appear below the address.
The same process is used to locate SAMBA shares as well.
It has been noted that in the absence of functioning DNS from a local router or machine, some LANS with SAMBA shares might not be found. In this case, it may solve the issue if one were to modify the /etc/hosts file on each machine on the LAN to allow the tool to identify these shares.
Mounting the shares
Once the shares, NFS or SMB, have been located, by selecting the one you would like to mount, you are presented with an expanded box with more options.
You are given the opportunity to select a "mount point" which can be any empty sub directory on your local computer. The default is offered as /mnt/sharename .
Once a mount point has been decided on, you can elect to then mount that share in that local point.
You will see a "plug in" icon next to share name in side window, not connected until you mount the share. After it is mounted, the icon will show it "connected".
You are done. As a matter of fact, you then click on the "Done" button and it will ask you if you would like this share to be made permanent by adding it to local fstab.
If you say yes, then it will be there every time you log in. If you say no, it is only for this session.
