When shared folder capability for linux?

C

consultmac

Junior Member
I use Parallels for linux as much as I use it for Windoze, so I'm sad that there's no shared folder capability for use in it.
Can anyone assure me that its going to be available eventually? Any guesses as to when?

Can someone describe an effective work-around in the mean time?

Thanks

-bC
 
joem said:
Network share.
Click to expand...

Could you actually describe it rather than just name it? or point me to a resource or page in the user's manual because I haven't found a good explanation of how to use the networking to share files between the mac host and the linux guest OS.

Thanks.
 
Mr SA said:
I use NFS successfully from the Mac side of things up to my Linux virtual machines.

I used this method:

http://mactechnotes.blogspot.com/2005/09/mac-os-x-as-nfs-server.html

But this looks promising:

http://www.bresink.de/osx/NFSManager.html
Click to expand...


Thanks very much for that! I was able to follow the directions in the mactechnotes article. But I haven't yet tested it via an 'external' client.

My other problem now in getting a functional equivalent to the shared folder capability using Parallels with linux.... is that I haven't yet experimented with using NFS clients in linux. And even if that turns out to be fairly easy, I'm not yet familiar with how I determine what the host ID (IP? other?) will be to the guest OS.
Can you help with that?


(The NFSManager tool sure looks easier, but I'm not sure it I can justify the cost of it.)
 
consultmac said:
My other problem now in getting a functional equivalent to the shared folder capability using Parallels with linux.... is that I haven't yet experimented with using NFS clients in linux. And even if that turns out to be fairly easy, I'm not yet familiar with how I determine what the host ID (IP? other?) will be to the guest OS.
Can you help with that?
Click to expand...
I maanged that. Go to the System Preferences/Network tab in OS X. There you should see the IP address for OS X. Mine was 192.168.0.6

Using Fedora, I ran a terminal and typed the following:

# su
# password: <enter your root password>
# mkdir /home/alan/macpro
# mount 192.168.0.6:/Users/alan /home/alan/macpro
# exit

Those commands do the following:
- switched user to root
- validated root password
- created a new directory in my Linux home directory
- mounted my exports OS X directory (Users/alan)
- returned to my normal login

I could then use ~/macpro/ in Linux as though it was a Linux local directory, with the privileges I assigned using the NetInfo Manager setup procedure.

(The NFSManager tool sure looks easier, but I'm not sure it I can justify the cost of it.)
Click to expand...
It doesn't seem to me to be necessary to spend the cash, given the ease of setting it up with NetInfo and the OS X terminal.
 
AlanH said:
I maanged that. Go to the System Preferences/Network tab in OS X. There you should see the IP address for OS X. Mine was 192.168.0.6

Using Fedora, I ran a terminal and typed the following:

# su
# password: <enter your root password>
# mkdir /home/alan/macpro
# mount 192.168.0.6:/Users/alan /home/alan/macpro
# exit

Those commands do the following:
- switched user to root
- validated root password
- created a new directory in my Linux home directory
- mounted my exports OS X directory (Users/alan)
- returned to my normal login

I could then use ~/macpro/ in Linux as though it was a Linux local directory, with the privileges I assigned using the NetInfo Manager setup procedure.


It doesn't seem to me to be necessary to spend the cash, given the ease of setting it up with NetInfo and the OS X terminal.
Click to expand...

I wish I could say the same.
I was able to follow the directions on the mactechnotes.blogspot.com article, and the showmount -e command on the Mac seems to indicate that its serving correctly.

Then I followed your instructions inside Fedora (Core 3 for me. . . .which do you use?) and created a local directory there, su-ed into root and attempted to mount the published directory from the host on the local guest directory.
However, it doesn't succeed. . . . . it eventually times-out.
"Mount to NFS server '192.168.123.114' failed: server is down."
192.168.123.114 is the Host's IP according to the System Preference.
ping 192.168.123.114 from Fedora shows success.

Is there something else I'm missing?

Thanks
 
Fedora Core 3 here as well, as it happens :)

I'm running the default networking arrangement, so each host has an address provided by my broadband router's DHCP server. It looks as if you *may* be running software network sharing, either using Parallels NAT or Host-only neworking, as that IP address looks suspiciously like one provided by your ISP.

You can check what network your Fedora is connected to by typing netstat -r in a terminal window. That should give you an output like the following, but with diffferent numbers:

Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS WIndow irtt Iface
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0

The Destination address and the Genmask together define the network address that Linux is using. The Genmask defines the part of the address that is significant for the network - in my case it's the first three parts (octets): 192.168.0.

Now go to the OS X System Preferences/Network tab, select Network Status, and look for an address on one of the adapters that matches that network address. It *may* be the address you have already tried - if so we're back to the drawing board. But it *may* be one of the Parallels adapters. That is the address that Linux needs to try to mount.
 
AlanH said:
Fedora Core 3 here as well, as it happens :)

I'm running the default networking arrangement, so each host has an address provided by my broadband router's DHCP server. It looks as if you *may* be running software network sharing, either using Parallels NAT or Host-only neworking, as that IP address looks suspiciously like one provided by your ISP.

.....

The Destination address and the Genmask together define the network address that Linux is using. The Genmask defines the part of the address that is significant for the network - in my case it's the first three parts (octets): 192.168.0.

Now go to the OS X System Preferences/Network tab, select Network Status, and look for an address on one of the adapters that matches that network address. It *may* be the address you have already tried - if so we're back to the drawing board. But it *may* be one of the Parallels adapters. That is the address that Linux needs to try to mount.
Click to expand...

I too am using the default networking (bridged). I thought it might be a problem and tried the other two types without improvement, so I turned it back to bridged networking. With that mode active,
netstat -r in Fedora tells me:
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS WIndow irtt Iface
192.168.123.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
168.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
default 192.168.123.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

In my Mac OS X Network preference pane shows 192.168.123.114 as the Built-in Ethernet address. Its got that via DHCP from my Asante router, I'm pretty sure. My actual Verizon IP is typically something that looks completely different.

Still no joy.....
 
I must admit, after I re-read the posts, I was not very happy with my theory, as you did say you could ping the Mac from Fedora at the 192.168 address.

Do you have the OS X firewall enabled? Mine is switched off (System Prferences/Sharing/Firewall). NFS requires access via port 2049 by default, but I'm not sure whether this is hard and fast. With a hardware firewalled NAT Internet connection and trusted local computers, I feel no need for the OS X firewall to be switched on.
 
AlanH said:
Does that mean you are in business? :)
Click to expand...

Well, I WAS anyway.

In the example I started with, the server volume was set up with 'ro' permissions, and that's not really what I want. So, I went back and removed the option hoping that would enable read/write, as its listed as the default in the man pages.

I used the "sudo kill -1 `cat /var/run/mountd.pid`" command as shown in the tutorial to notify the system of the change. . . . but the VM still can only mount it as if it still had 'ro' privileges.
 
Hmm! I tried a couple of things to see if I could get read/write access to my home folder, and failed. I'm no expert on nfs (Translation: this is the first time I've ever tried it :p ), so I guess I've hit my limits. I tried putting opts = rw in place of ro in the NetInfo properties for the exports entry, but if I try to mount the directory from Fedora it gives a permissions error. So I think there must be some other option required to get rw access.
 
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