Vista -> Linux *Solvered*

[x-Swamp]

Kai, i need these two operating systems to get married.

I have a vista laptop (macbook pro), and a Ubuntu desktop, both on my home local network. Connecting through a wireless router / modem. The two computers can ping each other, so thats not a problem.

How can i get them to talk? I need to transfer ~40Gb of stuff beetween them (the wan is N-draft, so speed is good).

I need to do this very soon, thank you for your help (in advance, so if you don't you feel bad).

-Swamp

(and before anyone starts a fan war, the object of this is to remove vista )

[ThomasS]

Start sshd on the linux box if necessary (it'll almost certainly be installed, but may or may not be configured to start on boot). Then install an ssh/scp client on the windows machine - http://www.jfitz.com/tips/ssh_for_windows.html has a list. Then use scp to copy the files. e.g. if you have a unix like command line scp installed something like "scp thomas@10.1.1.1:*.txt ." will try to log in as thomas and copy all the txt files from his home directory to the local machine.

[b.i.o]

Could you just set up a share in Vista (right click -> share) or a Samba share in Ubuntu and copy them that way? It takes about 30s to set up on Vista and is completely painless.

[x-Swamp]

I created the share in vista without a password, but ubuntu asks for a password all the same.

Odd.

Now i can connect, but still rejects password. I havn't set a domain name as such, but it defaults to "M".

any suggestions?

[hotaru]

any suggestions?

try SCP? in my experience SMB is unreliable and sometimes very difficult to get working right.

[x-Swamp]

I can't figure out ssh xD

THe server is installed under ubuntu, but then what?

(i used apt-get ssh-server)

[phlip]

THe server is installed under ubuntu, but then what?

On the Ubuntu box:

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$ sudo /etc/init.d/ssh start

(Not sure if that's necessary... it might be started automatically... I can't remember. It doesn't hurt to do it again.)

There's a bunch of configure options you can mess with (man sshd_config)... but the defaults should be fine. If you were going to have the ssh server accessible from the Internet, you'd want to give it a bit of a look for anything security-related... but for what you're doing that shouldn't be an issue.

Then, on the Windows box, grab PuTTY - in particular, grap PSFTP. Then use that to connect to the Linux box (again, all the defaults should be fine... you just need IP, username and password).

[TomBot]

Get the ssh server running. I think to do it once it's something like /etc/init.d/ssh start, and you can make it start each time with rc-update add sshd default. (Not sure if that's right for ubuntu, though.)

Once you have that, get any ssh client anywhere, and try to connect to your box. You can test it on the linux machine by running "ssh localhost" and it should ask you for a username / password. (These are the same as your linux users.) It runs on port 22.

Edit: damn, ninja'd.

[Ubik]

Then, on the Windows box, grab PuTTY - in particular, grap PSFTP. Then use that to connect to the Linux box (again, all the defaults should be fine... you just need IP, username and password).

Graphical alternative to PSFTP is WinSCP. (I just thought it is worth mentioning when talking about SFTP clients.)

[Bruce]

ssh is completely awesome but it is certainly not the best tool for talking with typical Windows machines.

There is no reason SMB/Samba would not work. I have no Vista experience, so I am not sure about setting that share up, but you could certainly create a Samba share in Ubuntu (there are gui tools) and connect to it in Windows.

[enk]

ssh is completely awesome but it is certainly not the best tool for talking with typical Windows machines.

There is no reason SMB/Samba would not work. I have no Vista experience, so I am not sure about setting that share up, but you could certainly create a Samba share in Ubuntu (there are gui tools) and connect to it in Windows.

I'd use WinSCP too. Windows file sharing is just more prone to failure in my experience. Haven't used it much in Vista, though.

[b.i.o]

I created the share in vista without a password, but ubuntu asks for a password all the same.

Odd.

Now i can connect, but still rejects password. I havn't set a domain name as such, but it defaults to "M".

any suggestions?

When you're sharing from Vista, make sure you add an additional permission level (for 'guest').

When you right click -> share, hit the drop down list, select 'guest', and click add. Then you can select what permission level you want a guest to have--default is read-only, but you'll likely want to change that for what you're doing. Click 'next', and you should be all set. I've never had any problems with it working. (Also, make sure that Password Protected Sharing is OFF in the Network and Sharing Center in the Control Panel--Network Discovery and File Sharing will of course have to be ON.)

[x-Swamp]

OK, after a father eventful time with getting a modem fried. I am about to have another go at this.

Kai, now i have ths ssh server running.

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sudo /etc/init.d/ssh start
* Starting OpenBSD Secure Shell server sshd [ OK}

Conecting to the server though, through PuTTY, just times out. "ssh localhost" connects fine though.

[phlip]

"Times out"? Sounds like a firewall problem.

If the two computers were able to talk properly, you'd either get a connection, or connection refused, or something like that... "timed out" means that the computer can't talk... either the connection is dodgy, or it's firewalled.

Personally, I'd check whether PuTTY is able to connect out from the Vista machine at all, before checking anything on the linux machine... try putting PuTTY in "Raw" mode (it's one of the protocol options, along with telnet and SSH), and connecting to www.xkcd.com on port 80... then type "GET / HTTP/1.0" in the magic terminal and hit enter twice... if you don't get a bunch of HTML code back, then PuTTY's not working.

[ThomasS]

Does either machine have a software firewall? Also as an intermediate debugging step you can try to telnet to port 22, it should connect (but won't give a useful prompt). If it doesn't, check the configuration of any software firewalls on both machines. Ssh only need tcp port 22. The other (probably less likely possibility) is that your default config file only binds sshd to your loopback. Check /etc/sshd/sshd_config and make sure that it is binding to 0.0.0.0, this is the alias for binding to all interfaces.

[x-Swamp]

This was a truimph.
I'm making a note here:
HUGE SUCCESS

Thank you so much guys for your help, windows firewall was screwing things up a bit.

I now have all my backups of my damaged hdd (see my other thread) and my macosx partition fuly restored.

Now i can play portal again!

[zenten]

Could you just set up a share in Vista (right click -> share) or a Samba share in Ubuntu and copy them that way? It takes about 30s to set up on Vista and is completely painless.

I have lost many files backing things up with smb. That was true ever before I started using Linux.

[b.i.o]

Well, I've never had problems with it.

What do you mean by 'losing files'?

[zenten]

Well, I've never had problems with it.

What do you mean by 'losing files'?

I mean I transfer over a large complex directory accumulated over many years (backups within backups within backups), and it fails to include all the files within one of the sub directories (and all the files in the subdirectories in it). It's happened to me a few times.

[b.i.o]

Hmm, ok. I'll keep that in mind in the future then, good to know, thanks.