connect to remote server filesystem

I am having this exact same problem.

If I connect to the root of the share I see nothing, but if I go directly into a folder it works.

Does not work:
smb://serverName/

Does work:

smb://serverName/folder/

Now I'm running Intrepid Ibex alpha1..

I no longer have the problem "it's already mounted"... So I guess that was a temporary problem (although it happened several times)...

But still, when I go to Locations -> connect to server, and only type in the server name... I get the error popup: "Cannot open location smb://server/ -- No application to open this type of file" (rough translation).

When I open Nautilus however, and enter "smb://server/", it nicely displays the available shares. Why doesn't the "connect to server" feature in "Locations" menu, not attempt to open smb://<servername>/ in nautilus?

This has never worked for me..

--

A similar / related problem:

When I use the "execute a command" feature (such as opened through ALT+F2), I can type "/", and it will open nautilus... But it doesn't work with smb:// paths

I would think this is perhaps more a request for change of behaviour / feature request.. And to me this behaviour is so obvious that I'm surprised this is still not 'fixed' in Intrepid.

Using "Intrepid"

You say "And also, when I instead try ALT+F2, and type smb://10.0.0.217, it *does* show the shares and I can mount a share by right-clicking on it."

Using ALT+F2 i must type "nautilus smb://net_pc_name" to view the remote shared pc directory
To mount locally the remote pc shared dir you must type: smb://net_pc_name/shared_dir_name

-------------------------

But i find is best (wait to improving from develpoer) to mount the network shared dir locally than use this local mount point for example with OpenOffice and other without any issue:

Using a terminal:

First create the mount dir if there isn't:
mkdir $HOME/net_pc_name_shared_dir/

Then mount network shared dir locally ( you can do this using a little shell script ) :
sudo mount -t smbfs -o username=you_remote_username,password=xxxxxx //net_pc_name/shared_dir_name /home/you_user_name/net_pc_name_shared_dir/

Then to access to remote dir open the /home/you_user_name/net_pc_name_shared_dir/

Hope this help

Thanks for answering marcobra,

Yeah I can see it makes sense you would type 'nautilus <smbshare>' instead of '<smbshare>' when using the application launcher.

However my main question was about using Locations -> Connect to server.

This tool's primary purpose is to access for instance, smb shares. When you:

 - select "Windows share" in this tool;
 - then type in the server name (and optionally username/password)
 - hit 'connect'
 - you get the error: "Can't display location 'smb://localhost/' - No application is registered as handling this file

Now, why would it need to throw this error, as it is not impossible for nautilus to show me the shares on this server. It appears to me that the "Connect to server feature" simply doesn't "understand" how to correctly handle this situation.

Correction, I mean the tool Places -> Connect to server.

I can do this without error:

Using tools Places->Connect to server
Server: your_remote_pc_name or your_remote_pc_ip_number
Share: remote_share_name
User: your_remote_user_name

Check Add to bookmark

Press Connect

Or

ALT+F2 smb://your_remote_user_name@192.168.1.65/remote_share_name/

or

ALT+F2 smb://your_remote_user_name@your_remote_pc_name/remote_share_name/

Hope this helps

Yes. But i'm not saying the whole tool doesn't work...

As long as you enter the share name itself, it works. It doesn't work without share name (enter only server name). I would expect, when I don't specify a share name, it will connect and show the shares available on that server. Nautilus can do that (command: nautilus <server>)

This seems to me like a little bug in the 'connect to server' tool. It just shows the error message, and then it quits.

Thanks marcobra, that solved my question.

In the end.. I think the error message is a bit user unfriendly.

It should require the input of the sharename, or otherwise show a list of available shares on that server. Instead of showing an unclear error message, and quitting :)

I agree with you, i have already sent some bug report concerning not clear messages sent from the system to user:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/262632
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/271125

Thank you

Yeah.

I was thinking of a solution to this. If you look at the tool 'connect to server', it generalizes several protocol connections in one, like FTP and SSH. The latter don't require you to input the folder name.. But for SMB share, it does..

So I think, to change this tool to add support for selecting samba shares on a server, that would require a lot of protocol-specific code. That could be thought to be undesirable. At least that would take time.

So, to compromise, perhaps it is better to let the tool indicate which of the input fields are required. Perhaps put a red line around 'server name' and 'share'. And to show a pop-up when the user doesn't enter all required fields.

Also the name of the tool "Connect to server" is confusing. It does not really indicate the true purpose of it. But I don't really know what else to call it either :)

Still agree with you Ubuntu must take care of this Ubuntu slogan is "Linux for human beings..." so user interface and messages must be clear...

Please send a communication bug report about this... i can't explain as you can do because i'm italian and my english is very poor... the right package i think is nautilus concernig "nautilus-connect" function...

Here the link https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus

Thank you

Thanks a lot. Okay, I have filed it here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/272324

Haven't been too involved - but I want to - in helping ubuntu development. But it's nice to collaborate with people like you.

By the way, I'm not english either, from the netherlands :)

There are many places you can help Ubuntu...
Might be you can help to translate the 8.10 release into Netherlands from here: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/

Thank you

Thanks..
The dutch translations are not bad... but I would like to do something more technical.
I'm a full-time Unix system administrator.. and I can do a little programming, have been using Linux since 1999, and I'm more looking for more technical projects. Maybe I can start helping with packages or something. I'm still in the orientation phase :).

May you are interested of blueprints, the place for new projects and ideas, there might be someone need technical help
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu

Thank you

i resolved this issue in ubuntu by using those commands:

$ gconftool-2 --set --type=string /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/smb/command 'nautilus "%s"'
$ gconftool-2 --set --type=bool /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/smb/enabled true
$ gconftool-2 --set --type=bool /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/smb/need-terminal false

i thing that this information should be in the gnome config in the first place.