BACKGROUND:
I loved Windows7, I could handle Windows10, but I refuse to move to WIndows11. So my choices are to either take a clone of my OS Drive when support ends or try moving to a Windows-friendly version of Linux. Which is why I purchased a copy of Zorin Pro and am trying it out. But I have some questions which I could not find the answers to, so I will be asking them on this Forum one at a time. Hopefully I will end up with an OS that can replace Windows.
Question 1:
I installed Zorin Pro, added SMB so that I could specify which Workgroup the other Windows devices belong to (not WORKGROUP) and started looking at the network.
I have several other devices on my home network: a few Windows10 PCs and laptops, and a handful of QNAP NAS devices. This question will be about the NAS boxes and the volumes on them.
As an example, one of my NAS (call it NAS1) has several volumes on it such as eBooks, Install (for my installation files), Pictures (for my photos), etc. In Windows, I can create a link to NAS1 (the device) on my desktop and when I click on it it would bring up File Manager which would list the volumes I could access. In Zorin, I cannot seem to create a desktop link to the devices. Instead I have to go into Files, open browse the network to open the device and then the individual volumes (having previously saved the user ID/password to access it). At which point (if I configured the desktop that way) the mounted volume would appear on the desktop. This approach would end up generating a lot of icons on the desktop, and I would have to either add each and every one of the volumes in fstab or re-mount them as necessary each time I reboot. Not ideal.
Is there a way to create a link on the Zorin desktop to each DEVICE (not mounted volume) so that I can double-click the device icon to open the list of volumes on that device (and then open the relevant volume)?
Hi and welcome.
I'm no expert either. This from Bravec A.I. search engine via mojeek (used Ubuntu 22.04 in search as Zorin 17 is a fork of it):
Create Desktop Links to QNAP
To create desktop links to a QNAP NAS device and its volumes on Ubuntu 22.04, you can follow these steps:
Access Shared Folders : Use the NFS or Samba protocols to access shared folders on your QNAP device. For example, using Samba, you can mount a shared folder with the format smb://username@device_ip_address/ .
Create a Desktop Shortcut : Once you have mounted the shared folders, you can create a desktop shortcut to access them easily. Here’s how you can do it:
Right-click on the desktop and select "Create Launcher".
In the "Name" field, enter a name for the shortcut, such as "QNAP Shared Folder".
In the "Command" field, enter the path to the mounted folder. For example, if your shared folder is mounted at /mnt/qnap , you can use nautilus /mnt/qnap where nautilus is the file manager for GNOME desktop environments.
Optionally, you can choose an icon for the shortcut by clicking on the "Browse" button and selecting an icon file.Alternatively, you can create a .desktop file manually. Here’s an example of a .desktop file for a QNAP shared folder:
Save this file with a .desktop extension, for example, qnap_shared_folder.desktop , and place it in ~/.local/share/applications/ or /usr/share/applications/ to make it available system-wide.
Mounting the Shared Folder at Startup : To ensure that the shared folder is mounted automatically at startup, you can add an entry to the /etc/fstab file. For example, using NFS, you can add a line like this:
Replace 192.x.x.x with the IP address of your QNAP device and /path/in/qnap with the path to the shared folder on the QNAP device. After adding the line, run sudo mount -a to mount the folder immediately or reboot the system for the changes to take effect.
By following these steps, you can create desktop links to your QNAP NAS device and its volumes on Ubuntu 22.04, making it easy to access your shared folders directly from the desktop.
I'm no expert either. This from Bravec A.I. search engine via mojeek (used Ubuntu 22.04 in search as Zorin 17 is a fork of it):
Create Desktop Links to QNAP
To create desktop links to a QNAP NAS device and its volumes on Ubuntu 22.04, you can follow these steps:
Access Shared Folders : Use the NFS or Samba protocols to access shared folders on your QNAP device. For example, using Samba, you can mount a shared folder with the format smb://username@device_ip_address/ .
Create a Desktop Shortcut : Once you have mounted the shared folders, you can create a desktop shortcut to access them easily. Here’s how you can do it:
Right-click on the desktop and select "Create Launcher".
In the "Name" field, enter a name for the shortcut, such as "QNAP Shared Folder".
In the "Command" field, enter the path to the mounted folder. For example, if your shared folder is mounted at /mnt/qnap , you can use nautilus /mnt/qnap where nautilus is the file manager for GNOME desktop environments.
Optionally, you can choose an icon for the shortcut by clicking on the "Browse" button and selecting an icon file.Alternatively, you can create a .desktop file manually. Here’s an example of a .desktop file for a QNAP shared folder:
Save this file with a .desktop extension, for example, qnap_shared_folder.desktop , and place it in ~/.local/share/applications/ or /usr/share/applications/ to make it available system-wide.
Mounting the Shared Folder at Startup : To ensure that the shared folder is mounted automatically at startup, you can add an entry to the /etc/fstab file. For example, using NFS, you can add a line like this:
Replace 192.x.x.x with the IP address of your QNAP device and /path/in/qnap with the path to the shared folder on the QNAP device. After adding the line, run sudo mount -a to mount the folder immediately or reboot the system for the changes to take effect.
By following these steps, you can create desktop links to your QNAP NAS device and its volumes on Ubuntu 22.04, making it easy to access your shared folders directly from the desktop.