whats missing

networking with windows machines?
how do i setup printer?

had to burn it on to DVD so i dont see the sense in such a stripped down distro.
the more that works out of the the better. imo

rotylee wrote:

networking with windows machines?
how do i setup printer?

There are common linux tasks - you can search Ubuntu or Debian forums for instructions. At first you have to install "cups" for printing service in linux.

rotylee wrote:

had to burn it on to DVD so i dont see the sense in such a stripped down distro.
the more that works out of the the better. imo

?
Sorry, I don't understand what do you mean.

ya ya whatever.
ive installed samba and cups. and frontend for networking
pyneighborhood and smb4k.
does not work.

i have no problems doing these taskes in ubuntu.

Remix_OS has almost nothing to work with printers. I also didn't test it with any local network. But it should work as any linux. I think you can find the solution searching Puredyne forum - it has the same packages suite for printing and networking as Remix_OS.
http://puredyne.org/support.html
And check this link
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Puredyne/Share_File_across_local_network

The Wikibooks page linked to by admin has, under its Samba section, only the world "FIXME". Not much help there Here's how I got it working. This guide seemed to be the most helpful for me, since the printer I wanted to use is on the network:

Adding a Network Printer

Still, it didn't use Samba, but only works for HP's. I like to use the more generic (although seemingly dependent printers on Windows computers) Samba interface when I can, even though I am connecting an HP printer. I guess the article helped me in showing me the interface usually used to do this. It seems most printer support is not already in Remix_OS. Here are the packages that I installed in Synaptic in order to get this to work:

system-config-printer-gnome
samba
system-config-samba
cups
cups-client
hplip
foomatic

When I first installed system-config-printer-gnome, I had a new System | Printing entry that I couldn't get to do much. Gathering that cups was the usual Linux printing subsystem, and that samba was how I wanted to find my printer, I installed cups and samba. I could then find the printer on samba, but the HP driver didn't work. Installing hplip gave me a list of printer models to choose from, as it seems to be a database of HP printer definitions. Finally, I got some error that Foomatic wasn't installed, so I went and installed it. You also won't be able to find any computers on your network until you set the correct workgroup name, which is "MSHOME" for these WinXP computers - but can be set to anything so long as they all are the same. While there are command line ways of doing it, I installed "system-config-samba" and started it with System | Samba. Preferences | Server settings allowed me to change the workgroup name, which is evidently not case sensitive, and gets converted into lowercase.

Now, I can use System | Printing, and click the "+" toolbar tool to add a printer. I choose Network Printer | Windows Printer via Samba and I browse for it. I have two choices for this printer, so I chose the one that had the specific model number. Click OK and Forward. Choose your make of printer, and probably make sure you have printer information for your make of printer installed. I chose "HP" and clicked Forward. I then could choose my exact model from the list, and clicked Forward. You then change the printer name or description if you want to. I now had a printer icon with the appropriate model in system-config-printer, and was asked if I wanted to print a test page. It worked, and Firefox even found the printer when I told it to print, without restarting. The printer worked fine.

This approach is a bit hackish, because it brings in a number of Gnome components. There will be an XFCE way of doing this too, but I don't know what it is. Presumably, some other package replaces "system-config-printer-gnome", and might hypothetically not need Foomatic. The KDE way of setting up printers might be better yet. That being said, this gets me up and printing.

The hplip-gui didn't find my network printer for me, and the foomatic-gui also didn't seem to do anything helpful for me, so I uninstalled them. I have yet to set up any shared folders, but will probably give it a try if nobody else posts a solution in the near to medium future.

Enjoy,
CodeLurker

Grrrr. Damn. That was too long a wait. You can enable Samba network browsing and find shared folders on Windows computers by installing:

gvfs-backends

It installs some BlueTooth files, so if you have actual BlueTooth devices, it it may cause privacy concerns (for those smart enough to still have any).

There were wrong turns in finding this. There is a package, xfce4-goodies that depends on an old version of xfce4-panel, which supposedly includes thunar-shares-plugin. However, there is no thunar-shares-plugin in the default repositories, nor in the kxstudio repositories. xfce4-goodies steadfastly refuses to install, although I was able to install one of its packages. I suppose they will update them eventually.

When the gvfs plugin is installed, you will get a "Network" folder in Thunar along the left (a reboot may be required). You can browse your Samba network from there. I am using PCManFM, for the sake of its multiple tabbed folders, but it doesn't bring up a "Network" entry along the left. You can use an address like "network:///", or just use Go | Network Drives. PCManFM can bookmark that location, and show it to you along the left. Interestingly, Thunar will show you bookmarks made by PCManFM, but it does not seem to be able to bookmark places itself. Also interesting: when you go into Settings | Preferred Applications, and set your preferred file manager to PCManFM, it keeps opening desktop shortcuts with Thunar; but the File Manager links on the menu and the desktop open PCManFM.

CodeLurker