• XFCE and Fuse

    From George at Clug@21:1/5 to All on Mon Dec 30 21:40:01 2024
    Hi,


    Is anyone familiar with using Thunar to access Windows shares or Samba
    shares? I have found that after installing Debian Bookworm with XFCE,
    that Thunar is 1) not able to display Windows shares or Samba shares,
    2) not able to connect to connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.


    Does someone know how get Thunar to display and access Windows shares
    or Samba shares?


    In Debian Bookworm installations, why is gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse
    not installed by default when installing Debian with XFCE?



    https://wiki.debian.org/DebianDesktopHowTo
    Xfce

    For network browsing in the thunar file manager, install gvfs-backends
    and gvfs-fuse, and add your users to the "fuse" group (sudo adduser
    fuse).
    Thunar is missing a plugin to create network shares (bug 672539).
    Workaround: define custom actions (adjust the permissions (setguid)
    according to the samba section above).


    What is the issue of not having these two packages installed?


    The most obvious issue I observe is that Thunar is 1) not able to
    display Windows shares or Samba shares, 2) not able to connect to
    connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.


    I can do install gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse.
    # apt install gvfs-backends gvfs-fuse


    But when try to add my userid to the fuse group, I discover that the
    fuse group does not exist, why is this?  I have read on the Internet
    that with Bookworm there is no need to add the userid to the fuse
    group, but the instructions on the DesktopHowTo, does recommend this
    step.

    # adduser fuse
    adduser: The group `fuse' does not exist.


    I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install
    the fuse package?
    # apt install fuse3


    Even after installing the fuse package, there is no group in
    /etc/group called "fuse".
    # grep fuse /etc/group


    I then created the fuse group and added my userid to the fuse group.
    Is this correct?  Is doing this a problem? Does creating the fuse
    group and adding the userid to the group actually help?

    # groupadd fuse
    # adduser fuse


    I read the statement "Thunar is missing a plugin to create network
    shares". And checking the bug report it seems this bug was reported in
    "Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 21:12:03 UTC". Will this bug be fixed? 
    resolved? There is a comment "If you are still interested in packaging thunar-shares-plugin, please..." from 2015.


    I could not find a package called thunar-shares-plugin in Synaptic, so
    I guess this plug in, if it still exists, was never packaged?


    With the popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network
    browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by
    default by now. Is there a reason it is not?  My guess is there must
    be some policy related reason.




    George.

    <html>
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    <div>Hi,</div><div><br></div><div>Is anyone familiar with using Thunar to access Windows shares or Samba shares? I have found that after installing Debian Bookworm with XFCE, that Thunar is 1) not able to display Windows shares or Samba shares, 2) not
    able to connect to connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.</div><div><br></div><div>Does someone know how get Thunar to display and access Windows shares or Samba shares?</div><div><br></div><div>In Debian Bookworm installations, why is gvfs-backends
    and gvfs-fuse not installed by default when installing Debian with XFCE? <br></div><div><br></div><div><a target="_blank" class="blue" href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianDesktopHowTo">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianDesktopHowTo</a><br><i><b>Xfce</b><br><
    For network browsing in the thunar file manager, install gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse, and add your users to the "fuse" group (sudo adduser &lt;user&gt; fuse).<br>Thunar is missing a plugin to create network shares (bug 672539). Workaround: define
    custom actions (adjust the permissions (setguid) according to the samba section above).</i></div><div><br></div><div>What is the issue of not having these two packages installed?</div><div><br></div><div>The most obvious issue I observe is that Thunar is
    1) not able to display Windows shares or Samba shares, 2) not able to connect to connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.</div><div><br></div><div>I can do install gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse.</div><div># apt install gvfs-backends gvfs-fuse</div><div><
    </div><div>But when try to add my userid to the fuse group, I discover that the fuse group does not exist, why is this?&nbsp; I have read on the Internet that with Bookworm there is no need to add the userid to the fuse group, but the instructions on
    the DesktopHowTo, does recommend this step.<br></div><div># adduser &lt;user&gt; fuse</div><div>adduser: The group `fuse' does not exist.</div><div><br></div><div>I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install the fuse package?</
    <div># apt install fuse3</div><div><br></div><div>Even after installing the fuse package, there is no group in /etc/group called "fuse".</div><div># grep fuse /etc/group</div><div><br></div><div>I then created the fuse group and added my userid to
    the fuse group. Is this correct?&nbsp; Is doing this a problem? Does creating the fuse group and adding the userid to the group actually help?<br></div><div># groupadd fuse</div><div># adduser &lt;user&gt; fuse</div><div><br></div><div><div>I read the
    statement "Thunar is missing a plugin to create network shares". And checking the bug report it seems this bug was reported in "Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 21:12:03 UTC". Will this bug be fixed?&nbsp; resolved? There is a comment "If you are still interested
    in packaging thunar-shares-plugin, please..." from 2015.</div><div><br></div><div>I could not find a package called thunar-shares-plugin in Synaptic, so I guess this plug in, if it still exists, was never packaged?</div><div><br></div><div>With the
    popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by default by now. Is there a reason it is not?&nbsp; My guess is there must be some policy related reason.<br></div><div><br></div><br><
    George.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><br></div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
    </body></html>

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  • From Joe@21:1/5 to George at Clug on Mon Dec 30 22:40:01 2024
    On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 07:34:20 +1100
    George at Clug <Clug@goproject.info> wrote:

    Hi,


    Is anyone familiar with using Thunar to access Windows shares or Samba shares? I have found that after installing Debian Bookworm with XFCE,
    that Thunar is 1) not able to display Windows shares or Samba shares,
    2) not able to connect to connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.


    Is it vital for you?

    Does someone know how get Thunar to display and access Windows shares
    or Samba shares?

    I've never tried, but Thunar is generally not as polished or capable as Nautilus. It is still under development, still gaining capabilities. I
    can remember when it didn't have 'extract here' for zip archives, not
    that long ago.

    But I mount shares on local directories with /etc/fstab, where of course
    Thunar has no difficulty in accessing them. They need to be mounted
    noauto or boot will hang if they go missing, and are automounted on
    first access. I access shares from various applications, so it makes
    sense to mount them, I don't need to try browsing for shares in
    unfamiliar networks. I'd probably use Nautilus or Konqueror for
    something like that.

    A quick Google does suggest difficulties with Thunar, but then SMB
    shares are always difficult, especially where Windows is involved. Much sacrificing of chickens needed. These days I have no shares on
    Windows, but it's hard enough getting Windows to deal properly with
    Samba shares.

    --
    Joe

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  • From David Wright@21:1/5 to George at Clug on Tue Dec 31 02:20:02 2024
    On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 07:34:20 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:

    In Debian Bookworm installations, why is gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse
    not installed by default when installing Debian with XFCE?

    Because gvfs will function without those backends, so it would
    be against policy to depend on those packages. OTOH gvfs-daemons
    appears to be a dependency, and includes a minimal set of backends.

    For network browsing in the thunar file manager, install gvfs-backends
    and gvfs-fuse, and add your users to the "fuse" group (sudo adduser
    fuse).

    What is the issue of not having these two packages installed?

    The package descriptions tell you:

    "This package contains the afc, afp, archive, cdda, dav, dnssd, ftp,
    gphoto2, http, mtp, network, sftp, smb and smb-browse backends."

    and

    "This package contains the gvfs-fuse server that exports gvfs mounts
    to all applications using FUSE."

    But when try to add my userid to the fuse group, I discover that the
    fuse group does not exist, why is this?

    Because there's no need for it as /dev/fuse has been read/writeable
    since jessie; and no one has updated the wiki.

    I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install
    the fuse package?
    # apt install fuse3

    I don't understand: fuse and fuse3 aren't the same package. I see that gvfs-fuse depends on fuse3, so I assume fuse won't work.

    I then created the fuse group and added my userid to the fuse group.
    Is this correct?  Is doing this a problem? Does creating the fuse
    group and adding the userid to the group actually help?

    # groupadd fuse
    # adduser fuse

    I don't think there's any harm in your creating random groups
    for fun :)

    With the popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network
    browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by
    default by now. Is there a reason it is not?  My guess is there must
    be some policy related reason.

    No idea. Maybe the answer is at https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=157776
    and maybe not. I don't use gvfs, so most of the information above
    comes from reading the package files.

    Cheers,
    David.

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  • From George at Clug@21:1/5 to All on Tue Dec 31 03:50:01 2024
    Joe,

    Thanks for your reply which provides me with more information.

    What do you know about Nemo? I noticed it is installed. When running Nemo, it seems quite similar to Thunar.

    I installed Nautilus. When I go to "Other Locations" in Nautilus, I do not see any listed Windows/Samba shares. When I attempt to access "Windows Network", I get the message "Failed to retrieve share list from server..." message so I am guessing there is
    still something missing in my Debian XFCE installation that would allow Nautilus to discover Windows/Samba shares.

    Thank you for your comment on mapping shares via fstab as I had wondered if mounting shares with noauto would be possible.

    Our main file share is SAMBA, which has worked well over the past years with Windows 7 and Windows 10, and also Debian Linux.

    For XFCE, I always install gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse, then in Thunar I use "smb://[ip address of Share]/[sharename] and bookmark this connection. This process works well for me, but it would be nice if Thunar was able do discover shares as I believe
    Thunar could discover shares if whatever required supporting packages were installed. Since Nemo is also not able to discover shares in my XFCE computer, I assume other supporting packages need to be installed for this feature to work. But what would
    they be?

    I have a test Fedora Gnome and a LDME Cinnamon computers and while both behave differently, both find our file shares. I was not able to see any difference in file share related packages between the LDME computer and my Debian XFCE, though I expect I am
    missing something as even Nautilus on my XFCE is not able to discover the file shares. Of course Nautilus, Nemo, and Thunar work if I explicitly connect to these shares.

    George.



    On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 08:39 Joe wrote:
    On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 07:34:20 +1100
    George at Clug <Clug@goproject.info> wrote:

    Hi,


    Is anyone familiar with using Thunar to access Windows shares or Samba shares? I have found that after installing Debian Bookworm with XFCE,
    that Thunar is 1) not able to display Windows shares or Samba shares,
    2) not able to connect to connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.


    Is it vital for you?

    Does someone know how get Thunar to display and access Windows shares
    or Samba shares?

    I've never tried, but Thunar is generally not as polished or capable as Nautilus. It is still under development, still gaining capabilities. I
    can remember when it didn't have 'extract here' for zip archives, not
    that long ago.

    But I mount shares on local directories with /etc/fstab, where of course Thunar has no difficulty in accessing them. They need to be mounted
    noauto or boot will hang if they go missing, and are automounted on
    first access. I access shares from various applications, so it makes
    sense to mount them, I don't need to try browsing for shares in
    unfamiliar networks. I'd probably use Nautilus or Konqueror for
    something like that.

    A quick Google does suggest difficulties with Thunar, but then SMB
    shares are always difficult, especially where Windows is involved. Much sacrificing of chickens needed. These days I have no shares on
    Windows, but it's hard enough getting Windows to deal properly with
    Samba shares.

    --
    Joe



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  • From George at Clug@21:1/5 to All on Tue Dec 31 04:20:01 2024
    David,

    Thanks for your reply.

    On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 12:12 David Wright wrote:
    On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 07:34:20 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:

    In Debian Bookworm installations, why is gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse
    not installed by default when installing Debian with XFCE?

    Because gvfs will function without those backends, so it would
    be against policy to depend on those packages. OTOH gvfs-daemons
    appears to be a dependency, and includes a minimal set of backends.

    For network browsing in the thunar file manager, install gvfs-backends
    and gvfs-fuse, and add your users to the "fuse" group (sudo adduser
    fuse).

    What is the issue of not having these two packages installed?

    The package descriptions tell you:

    "This package contains the afc, afp, archive, cdda, dav, dnssd, ftp,
    gphoto2, http, mtp, network, sftp, smb and smb-browse backends."

    and

    "This package contains the gvfs-fuse server that exports gvfs mounts
    to all applications using FUSE."

    But when try to add my userid to the fuse group, I discover that the
    fuse group does not exist, why is this?

    Because there's no need for it as /dev/fuse has been read/writeable
    since jessie; and no one has updated the wiki.

    I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install
    the fuse package?
    # apt install fuse3

    I don't understand: fuse and fuse3 aren't the same package. I see that gvfs-fuse depends on fuse3, so I assume fuse won't work.

    I did notice that when I installed gvfs-fuse that gvfs-fuse3 was removed. Hence I assumed that gvfs-fuse3 is a later version of gvfs-fuse. gvfs-fuse3 package does not exist in my LDME, nor in Debian Bookworm Gnome, so I am confused.


    I then created the fuse group and added my userid to the fuse group.
    Is this correct?  Is doing this a problem? Does creating the fuse
    group and adding the userid to the group actually help?

    # groupadd fuse
    # adduser fuse

    I don't think there's any harm in your creating random groups
    for fun :)

    Thanks for this info, in future I will not bother creating the group and adding my userid to it.


    With the popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network
    browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by
    default by now. Is there a reason it is not?  My guess is there must
    be some policy related reason.

    No idea. Maybe the answer is at https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=157776
    and maybe not. I don't use gvfs, so most of the information above
    comes from reading the package files.

    Well it will remain a mystery to me until one day finding file shares just works, lol.


    Cheers,
    David.



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  • From David Wright@21:1/5 to George at Clug on Tue Dec 31 05:10:01 2024
    On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 14:10:16 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:
    On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 12:12 David Wright wrote:
    On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 07:34:20 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:

    I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install the fuse package?
    # apt install fuse3

    I don't understand: fuse and fuse3 aren't the same package. I see that gvfs-fuse depends on fuse3, so I assume fuse won't work.

    I did notice that when I installed gvfs-fuse that gvfs-fuse3 was removed. Hence I assumed that gvfs-fuse3 is a later version of gvfs-fuse. gvfs-fuse3 package does not exist in my LDME, nor in Debian Bookworm Gnome, so I am confused.

    I am too: I can't find any google hits for gvfs-fuse3, and neither https://packages.debian.org/ nor https://tracker.debian.org/
    can find it. The only mention is:

    AI Overview
    Learn more

    GVfs-fuse3 is a package that provides limited access to GVfs
    filesystems for applications that don't use GIO:

    GVfs-fuse3

    What it does
    Exports GVfs mounts to applications that use FUSE

    Part of
    GVfs, a userspace virtual filesystem

    Dependencies
    Includes fuse3

    GVfs is a userspace virtual filesystem that uses D-Bus to
    communicate with mounts that run as separate processes.
    It has a set of backends that support trash, SFTP, SMB, HTTP,
    DAV, and more. GVfs also has modules for GIO that implement
    volume monitors and persistent metadata storage.

    but that could be AI just parroting.

    Cheers,
    David.

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  • From George at Clug@21:1/5 to All on Tue Dec 31 06:20:01 2024
    On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 14:59 David Wright wrote:
    On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 14:10:16 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:
    On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 12:12 David Wright wrote:
    On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 07:34:20 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:

    I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install the fuse package?
    # apt install fuse3

    I don't understand: fuse and fuse3 aren't the same package. I see that gvfs-fuse depends on fuse3, so I assume fuse won't work.

    I did notice that when I installed gvfs-fuse that gvfs-fuse3 was removed. Hence I assumed that gvfs-fuse3 is a later version of gvfs-fuse. gvfs-fuse3 package does not exist in my LDME.

    I am too: I can't find any google hits for gvfs-fuse3, and neither

    That is because I was the one who was confused.

    It was not gvfs but was actually fuse and fuse3 for which I was mentioning.

    fuse - Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) is a simple interface for userspace programs to
    export a virtual filesystem to the Linux kernel. It also aims to provide a secure method for non privileged users to create and mount their own filesystem implementations.

    fuse3 - Filesystem in Userspace (3.x version)
    Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) is a simple interface for userspace programs to export a virtual filesystem to the Linux kernel. It also aims to provide a secure method for non privileged users to create and mount their own filesystem implementations.

    And fuse3 is installed in Debian Gnome.

    George

    https://packages.debian.org/ nor https://tracker.debian.org/
    can find it. The only mention is:

    AI Overview
    Learn more

    GVfs-fuse3 is a package that provides limited access to GVfs
    filesystems for applications that don't use GIO:

    GVfs-fuse3

    What it does
    Exports GVfs mounts to applications that use FUSE

    Part of
    GVfs, a userspace virtual filesystem

    Dependencies
    Includes fuse3

    GVfs is a userspace virtual filesystem that uses D-Bus to
    communicate with mounts that run as separate processes.
    It has a set of backends that support trash, SFTP, SMB, HTTP,
    DAV, and more. GVfs also has modules for GIO that implement
    volume monitors and persistent metadata storage.

    but that could be AI just parroting.

    Cheers,
    David.



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  • From Joe@21:1/5 to George at Clug on Tue Dec 31 15:10:01 2024
    On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 13:47:50 +1100
    George at Clug <Clug@goproject.info> wrote:

    Joe,

    Thanks for your reply which provides me with more information.

    What do you know about Nemo? I noticed it is installed. When running
    Nemo, it seems quite similar to Thunar.

    I've heard of it, I've never used it, and it isn't installed here. My
    usual workstation is unstable, installed as bookworm. There are
    Cinnamon users here, so presumably they know about it.

    I installed Nautilus. When I go to "Other Locations" in Nautilus, I
    do not see any listed Windows/Samba shares. When I attempt to access
    "Windows Network", I get the message "Failed to retrieve share list
    from server..." message so I am guessing there is still something
    missing in my Debian XFCE installation that would allow Nautilus to
    discover Windows/Samba shares.

    Don't know. Nautilus here (called 'Files' now for anyone confused) can
    see shares on my Raspberry Pi running the RasPi version of bookworm,
    but not the shares on an older NAS.

    Thank you for your comment on mapping shares via fstab as I had
    wondered if mounting shares with noauto would be possible.

    My fstab lines are like this:

    //piserve2/Documents /mnt/piserve2/Documents cifs
    noauto,x-systemd.automount,user,guest,noperm,uid=65534,gid=65534,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0777,rw

    I notice that the server that Nautilus can't see has the extra parameter vers=1.0, so it has an older operating system that can't use the
    current SMB version. Presumably Nautilus can't, either.

    Our main file share is SAMBA, which has worked well over the past
    years with Windows 7 and Windows 10, and also Debian Linux.

    For XFCE, I always install gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse, then in
    Thunar I use "smb://[ip address of Share]/[sharename] and bookmark
    this connection. This process works well for me, but it would be nice
    if Thunar was able do discover shares as I believe Thunar could
    discover shares if whatever required supporting packages were
    installed. Since Nemo is also not able to discover shares in my XFCE computer, I assume other supporting packages need to be installed for
    this feature to work. But what would they be?

    I have a test Fedora Gnome and a LDME Cinnamon computers and while
    both behave differently, both find our file shares. I was not able to
    see any difference in file share related packages between the LDME
    computer and my Debian XFCE, though I expect I am missing something
    as even Nautilus on my XFCE is not able to discover the file shares.
    Of course Nautilus, Nemo, and Thunar work if I explicitly connect to
    these shares.

    Browsing is a bit of a black art even among Windows versions, as they
    squabble over who gets to be the Master Browser and who must download
    their browse lists from it. It was basically developed from the
    primitive DOS networking before Windows 95 and carries baggage...

    --
    Joe

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  • From Joe@21:1/5 to All on Tue Dec 31 16:20:01 2024
    On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 14:05:39 +0000
    Joe <joe@jretrading.com> wrote:

    P.S. Having checked Nautilus, I now see that Thunar has a Browse
    Network icon that I swear it doesn't usually have, and it can see the
    Pi, but nothing else.

    --
    Joe

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  • From Roy J. Tellason, Sr.@21:1/5 to All on Tue Dec 31 22:20:01 2024
    On Monday 30 December 2024 03:34:20 pm George at Clug wrote:
    With the popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network
    browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by
    default by now.

    No windows here at all, so I have no use for "windows shares" nor do I see any need for Samba and "samba shares" (is there a differene?). I do have network shares, originating on my file server, and specified in /etc/fstab. Works with thunar or any
    other file manager...

    --
    Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
    ablest -- form of life in this section of space, áa critter that can
    be killed but can't be tamed. á--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
    -
    Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

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  • From David Wright@21:1/5 to Sr. on Thu Jan 2 05:30:02 2025
    On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 16:20:21 (-0500), Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:
    On Monday 30 December 2024 03:34:20 pm George at Clug wrote:
    With the popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network
    browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by
    default by now.

    I understood that paragraph to be complaining about the lack of
    backends and fuse for browsing, but I suppose it could include the
    missing shares-plugin as well.

    No windows here at all, so I have no use for "windows shares" nor do I see any need for Samba and "samba shares" (is there a differene?). I do have network shares, originating on my file server, and specified in /etc/fstab. Works with thunar or
    any other file manager...

    However, I don't think that's the OP's issue, because if you've
    involved /etc/fstab then you must have root access. The plugin
    is meant to allow users to share their folders _without_ needing
    root access.

    Cheers,
    David.

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  • From George at Clug@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jan 2 06:00:01 2025
    On Thursday, 02-01-2025 at 15:22 David Wright wrote:
    On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 16:20:21 (-0500), Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:
    On Monday 30 December 2024 03:34:20 pm George at Clug wrote:
    With the popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network
    browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by
    default by now.

    I understood that paragraph to be complaining about the lack of
    backends and fuse for browsing, but I suppose it could include the
    missing shares-plugin as well.

    Thanks for replying.

    What I would like to see, is an average (non IT admin) install Debian XFCE and for the installation to provide usual features provided by an operating system.
    Within the realms of FOSS, thinks like play videos, look at pictures, email client, web browers, manage files, access Windows style shares/NAS devices, read (but not necessarily write) NTFS USB storage, for a short list.

    Default installation of Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon, Mate can all connect to a Windows style share (e.g. NAS), so what not XFCE, if all is required is to have gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse installed?

    Some users might like to share a folder on their PC to allow others on the LAN access the foders, however I do not care myself, as I don't recall anyone I know who did this (in Windows or Linux). But this my bias, I would be curious to know how many do
    use this feature, as I have not seen anyone do this (other than myself for testing purposes).


    No windows here at all, so I have no use for "windows shares" nor do I see any need for Samba and "samba shares" (is there a differene?). I do have network shares, originating on my file server, and specified in /etc/fstab. Works with thunar or
    any other file manager...

    I never replied back to this original statement, though I was very curious what technology had been used for the "shares, originating on my file server" if SMB was not being used?

    NFS is the only other technology I am familiar with, but to my knowledge such shares are not easily access from Windows users.

    But alternative sharing technology was what my original question was about , but my original concern was "can XFCE, by default installation, be enabled to access SMB (i.e. Windows) shares".

    Thanks, George.


    However, I don't think that's the OP's issue, because if you've
    involved /etc/fstab then you must have root access. The plugin
    is meant to allow users to share their folders _without_ needing
    root access.

    Cheers,
    David.



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