[PLUG] Accessing files on a local network

[John Jordan]

On 26 Jun 2005, at 16:57, Richard C. Steffens wrote:

> I have Red Hat 7.0 running on a machine with my largest hard drive. I
> run Samba on it, and have been using it regularly with my Winders
> machines (Win98), and can open files on it with Winders applications.
> I can also move files between it and my SuSE 9.1 machine using a Samba
> client on the SuSE machine.
> 
> I am trying to make a bigger break with Winders. I still need to be
> able to see and edit some MS Office files kept on the RH 7 machine,
> but I'd also like to be able to edit those same files using Open
> Office on the SuSE machine. 
> 
> It appears that Open Office doesn't interact with Samba. Am I missing
> something in Open Office, or do I need to set up a different network
> file sharing system between the RH machine and the SuSE machine, and
> if so, will it and Samba play nice together? I'm happy to read the
> documentation, but I don't know what system to read about.

I've been using OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 on my Windows machine for a 
long time. So when I got my new laptop and installed Linux on it, 
naturally I went for OpenOffice.org. At this time it has 1.1.3 
because it is running Ubuntu and that is all Ubuntu seems to offer. 
In fact, I just went through a lot of frustration trying to get the beta 
of 2.0 installed, and unsuccessfully.

The reason I wanted the beta of 2.0 is that I have been given to 
understand that it fixes a serious problem I am having with 1.1.3 on 
the Ubuntu machine. It seems that OpenOffice.org calls your 
default printer "Generic Printer," and doesn't seem to recognize 
much of its features. I have a big-ass networked Laserjet 5SiMx 
with all kinds of trays and options, most of which I would not be 
able to use, although all my other applications on the Ubuntu 
computer can print to it with the same ease that I can print to it 
from applications on the Windows computer. To solve this problem, 
OpenOffice.org comes with a GUI utility launched by spadmin, a 
script. Unfortunately, spadmin launches for me, but the minute I 
click on a button to do anything it disappears from my desktop.

Worse, I can't even print to the printer from OpenOffice.org on the 
Ubuntu computer because it sends the print job into outer space 
somewhere. The print job never gets to the printer. Again, no 
problem printing to the printer from any other program on the 
Ubuntu computer.

I wanted the beta of 2.0 because I am told that it fixes this problem 
completely. In 2.0 it just uses whatever printer is defined in CUPS 
and uses however it is set up there.

Now, I related this sad tale to you to point out that OpenOffice.org 
on Linux does some odd things. It does not play nicely in the Linux 
world. It seriously needs to work on sharing. Everyone else is 
happy to use stuff that is installed on the Linux computer, but it 
seems to think it needs to have its own personal version of 
everything, all to itself.

So it does not surprise me that it ignores Samba. I haven't tried to 
use Samba yet, as I had to give up on it for the time being. Until 
2.0 comes out and there is a debian package that I can install, I'm 
having to do my word processing on the Windows computer.

Just now I tried using OpenOffice.org Writer on the Ubuntu 
computer to open .sxw files on the Windows share. No go. Can't 
browse to it because all it sees is the Ubuntu filesystem. Then I 
tried opening a Nautilus window to display the Windows share, and 
then dragging and dropping the file on Writer. It showed a + in the 
mouse pointer, but when I dropped it, nothing happened.

So I guess I have no solution. But you might buzz off to 
openoffice.org and look through the feature list for 2.0 to see if it 
will fix this problem. That may be your only hope. Unless you want 
to drag the files to a folder on your Linux computer and open them 
from there, then copy them back to the Windows share.

:(