Question I'm new to LAN and can't work out what words to search for ?

[chuffedas]

Please could I get some basic overall help. I have been trying to search around to work out the words I need to search for.

This will be quite a long question, but I am not sure which parts are important.

I have never really done LAN stuff before. Well, sort of. I have a volumio pi in the garage that i feed into.
So, I know about looking up IPs etc. I know how to SSH into things as well. I can control my two volumio Pi, I can run my pc in another room via Nomachine.
I have only used one pc before, but I would like to have a ccentral place with files and music on that i can connect to from my Pi5 desktop and my laptop and my big PC when I need to use it.

I am now using a Pi5 as a desktop. RaspiOS with KDE.
My router is a Hub 2 with Plusnet.
My laptop has Mint Cinnamon.
My big PC also has Mint Cinnamon.
I have two different pi with Volumio that I want to play music from the central point.


I have a Pi 4 as my PVR with Libreelec.
As it is always on, I thought it would make sense to add an SSD to it and it to be my NAS.
As I understand it, the files on the LE Pi are, by default, open to view.
I can access it from my phone and my Volumio machines.

What I can't work out how to do, is to access it with my Pi5 and my laptop and big PC.
I believe it is something to do with Samba, but I can't work out what to look up.

Please could somebody tell me the magic words?
Thanks.

 

[lantis3]

I installed LibreElec VM using VMware OVA file,
installed Mint LMDE6,
installed Raspberry Pi Desktop x86, added smbclient with command

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt-get install  samba-common smbclient samba-common-bin smbclient  cifs-utils
sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop

All of the above desktop VMs plus my Win11 laptop were able to browse LibreElec shares even not adding any media files/folders yet

Win11, didn't change anything (make sure you are in Private network profile, not Public profile)

Mint LMDE6 (basically same as Mint Cinnamon)

RPI Desktop OS x86 with KDE Plasma, Dolphin file explorer

 

[chuffedas]

Sorry. I don't understand the words
'I installed LibreElec VM using VMware OVA file,'
Are you saying i need to add a Virtual Machine to my devices before I can browse LE?
I thought I would just be able to browse it like I can on my phone once added Samba.
I have done the samba install as you suggested.

I don't have a windows machine (just to clarify in case that helps)

 

[chuffedas]

Oh, did you mean that you also have LE? The only difference to me being that you have it as a virtual machine?
So, it should be the same?

After that command, lets say on my Pi5, how do you then find the LE machine in Dolphin for eg?
I also have dolphin. Am I missing something real obvious?

https://imgur.com/a/Tbj7tjD

View: https://imgur.com/a/Tbj7tjD


PCPi is the Pi5 that I am currently on.

Edit:
OK, so all is good on my laptop and big PC. (both Mint.) Don't know what I have done, but they just show up like I would expect them to do, so all is mostly good.

Just my Pi5 that doesn't.

 

[lantis3]

No. I didn't have LibreELEC before seeing your posting, I just described the way I installed the virtual machine since LibreELEC website provided OVA for VM installation.

All other Linux distro are also created under VMware. VM acted just the same as physical machine, so it doesn't matter.

I'm not Linux expert. But I do know if you want to see smb share you have to install smb client manually if the Linux distro does not have it pre-installed.

When I installed Raspberry Pi Desktop, and installed smb client, I still can't see LibreELEC.

I also have to install KDE Plasma desktop, reboot, open Dolphin file explorer, and click Network icon, and then Shared Folders(SMB) to see LibreELEC.

==

OK. I was able to use File Explorer to view LibreELEC if I use Raspberry Pi Desktop x86 (which probably has same desktop UI as Pi5's OS) finally. I have to open File Explorer, click menu Go, then click Network to seeLibreELEC.

 

[chuffedas]

Hmmmmm, thanks for all of this.
I have just tried the same.
go>network...... no LE.
It doesn't show up for me. I wonder if somehow I have samba set up wrong.

I have windows network though.
when I click on that it does the smb at the top but states :
Failed to retrieve share list from server: no such file or directory

 

[lantis3]

No idea why your setup doesn't work.

You can try DietPi, a NAS OS with a lot of packages, including media server Kodi.

Lightweight justice for your SBC!

Optimised | Simplified | For everyone - Backed by community, DietPi is a minimal OS image for SBCs - Raspberry Pi, Odroid, PINE64 etc. Install software optimised for you!

dietpi.com

https://www.tomshardware.com/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-5-support-arrives-with-dietpi-v91

Be sure select smb client & server too during text based installation.

You can also select desktop (several to choose from) & browser installation, to start the desktop, enter startx command

DietPi.com Docs - DietPi Launcher

Official documentation pages for DietPi OS

dietpi.com

Dietpi-Launcher is the entry point to everything.

 

[chuffedas]

I was just thinking similar. I might try a fresh install and start again.
It just doesn't seem to be making sense.
At least I know it isn't just me not able to find the thing.
Thank you again for your time.

 

[chuffedas]

No idea why your setup doesn't work.

You can try DietPi, a NAS OS with a lot of packages, including media server Kodi.

Lightweight justice for your SBC!

Optimised | Simplified | For everyone - Backed by community, DietPi is a minimal OS image for SBCs - Raspberry Pi, Odroid, PINE64 etc. Install software optimised for you!

dietpi.com

https://www.tomshardware.com/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-5-support-arrives-with-dietpi-v91

Be sure select smb client & server too during text based installation.

You can also select desktop (several to choose from) & browser installation, to start the desktop, enter startx command

DietPi.com Docs - DietPi Launcher

Official documentation pages for DietPi OS

dietpi.com

Dietpi-Launcher is the entry point to everything.

I did a fresh install and installed samba as you directed, can access everything instantly.
Thanks again.

Edit:
Well, having said that, I can see them, I just can't actually open them, but I guess I can work that out, I think it is a password thing.

Definitely not as straightforward as with Mint, where they just open.
I thought i would try the cinnamon desktop, but that didn't help

 

[chuffedas]

Final comment.
I realised that i skipped some advice without realising it.
I was installing desktops on top of full RaspiOS.
So, I like kde but it was a little laggy and realised people were saying i should use Lite.
I didn't know what that was, so installed kde on top of lite and things def seem quicker which is nice.
I can open straight to docs no issue, just like I can on the other computers.

The speed thing is noticeable. I can open the remote file quicker than I could open it natively when I had installed kde on top of full raspiOS.

Thanks again, I have learned a few things from this.