Easy access to shared folder by both Win11 and Zorin

[ldkuch]

I'm still a noobie, with lots of Windows experience that is getting in my way. My goal is to have Zorin set up on my home network with a folder that is shared in such a way that I can easily copy files to it over my home network.

So far:
in smb.conf, I have a shared folder (called share) that I found is located at srv/samba/share. I can even access that folder from my Win11Pro computer and copy/paste/write files to that folder.

I can access that folder in Zorin by navigating to it; however, I would like an easy way, like an icon on the desktop or favorite in the file manager, to open that folder so that even my wife (no offense) can do it.

I have not been able to star, make a link or shortcut to this folder. I'm not tied to having this particular folder; just a way to have an easy-to-access folder on my Zorin box.

One use of this folder: copy a home-made video from the Win11 box to Zorin for viewing on the larger screen attached to Zorin.

[ldkuch]

@ldkuch

My goal is to have Zorin set up on my home network with a folder that is shared in such a way that I can easily copy files to it over my home network.

Is this not possible in Zorin/Linux? Any suggestions of where to look for how this can be done???

[zenzen]

Hi, sorry I missed this post!

@ldkuch

I would like an easy way, like an icon on the desktop or favorite in the file manager

So, just to clarify, you mean that you can already access the remote shared through Zorin OS but you cannot create a bookmark inside of Nautilus?

I have a different setup, using NFS, and it should be working like so:

Keep in mind however, that for an actual shortcut elsewhere you would have to create a slightly more involved setup. This means installing additional packages and mounting volumes through /etc/fstab. Whereas, this approach through Nautilus is much more straight forward, but cannot interact with other parts of the system.

[ldkuch]

Yes, I can access the folder "share" on the Zorin box from Win11. I just want an easy way to access that folder from within Zorin. I don't mind having to set it up if it's a one-time process.

This folder is in Computer/srv/samba/share. I do not have an option to add a bookmark.

If I add a folder to Home/Documents, I do have a right-click option to "Create a Link" that I can copy to the desktop.

I had read that it's best not to share folders from Documents, but that doesn't make sense to me. What do you think? Since this is a home network, it may be just fine...?

[swarfendor437]

On a different distro I found NFS to be much easier to setup than Samba/CIFS ib respect of sharing between Linux machines.

[zenzen]

Take a look at this post and see if it helps, making sure to replace the locations and other details with the ones relevant to your own case.

Best way to get my Windows shares to show up by default in File Manager

I don't know why it's not detecting it automatically when you visit Other Locations, but you can set that up manually. I don't know if this is the simplest choice, however, it's just the one that I know. Launch a terminal from the applications menu. Run the following command to install the necessary packages for mounting SMB network drives: sudo apt install cifs-utils Choose a location in your system where to mount the network drive. For example, if you want it under Documents create a ne…

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@ldkuch

I had read that it's best not to share folders from Documents

Without any more context, I don't see how this would be a bad idea. Maybe if there are sensitive documents being transmitted, since SMB doesn't add any encryption and someone snooping on the network could read the contents while in transit.

[ldkuch]

Thank you for that link and for your insight. My understanding, though, is that would be for the share to be seen by the Windows network?

I am able to see the shared folder (via Nautilus) that is in my Home/documents folder from Windows and can copy/edit from both computers. That is my goal, as long as there is no inherent problem with sharing a folder in documents.

I was intrigued, though , to find information there about not saving on NTFS. That's good to know, because I was tempted to dual-boot and keep the Windows side as my shared folder, which, I'm learning, is not a good idea.

But what about USB drives? Many are formatted NTFS... this is probably outside this thread, but I must find out so I don't mangle important files...

[zenzen]

@ldkuch

Thank you for that link and for your insight. My understanding, though, is that would be for the share to be seen by the Windows network?

The other way around, those instructions would make a folder shared by a Windows computer visible on your Zorin OS computer. Once setup, you can edit files normally on either end, though.

@ldkuch

But what about USB drives? Many are formatted NTFS...

Zorin OS can read files from devices formatted as NTFS because of a driver that can handle the translation. When it comes to sharing files, however, the use of the SMB protocol takes care of that for you.

There is one small caveat with SMB and that is it doesn't preserve certain file system level attributes used in Linux, but not in Windows i.e.: user ownership and permissions. If you were setting up a network file share between Linux only hosts, you'd want to use NFS instead which is more Linux-friendly in that regard.