How-Tos

Setting Up A Linux Office Server

PCQ Bureau

06 Sep 2001 23:46 IST

New Update

The advantages of having a Local Area Network are well

known. However, people have been scared away by the cost–both of the Network

Operating System (NOS) software and hardware required by these commercial

NOSs.

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One major objective we set was to give our readers a

feasible alternative–one that doesn’t cost much and will work on mortal

hardware, while providing all the services one would expect from a proper office server.

Linux does a good job in fulfilling these objectives.

At this point we assume that you have successfully

installed Linux, using the previous article Installing Rad Hat as a guide.

We will now configure Linux box to become a file, print

and, domain/security server for your network. It isn’t very difficult–all it

takes is a bit of file editing.

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width="400" height="239">Setting up a printer

Before you begin, make sure that you have installed a

printer (if you intend to use print services) and configured Linux to use it. If you didn’t

do it at the time of installation, you can do so now–just fire up X Windows

(startx)

while you are logged in as root, and click the Printer icon in the Control Panel

that appears on the left side of your screen. It won’t hurt to run through the

process quickly again even if you have configured a printer–just skip the

adding stuff and go straight to the tests. If things don’t work, this is where to set

them right.

Here is a quick description of the process (we assume that

the printer is directly attached to the Linux machine):

Fire up the printer configuration tool from the Control

Panel.

Click the Add button, and select Local Printer.

You will get a panel showing the ports available. You have nothing to worry about unless

every port shown is "not detected".

Next you will be asked for details about the printer. Choose

a name (you can leave the default or put in something like hplj4 if your printer is a HP

LaserJet 4), the spool directory (leave this as the default), the file limit (leave this

at 0 KB, indicating no limit), and the printer device (the default should be OK).

Next you have to select the Input Filter. Hit that button

and select your printer (or a close match). If your printer supports Postscript, select Postscript

Printer, else make sure you select a reasonably close relative of your printer.

Some printers let you choose the desired resolution but the default is usually fine. One

particularly nasty item can be the paper size–set it to the paper size you use most

often, especially if you have a printer that senses the paper size. Otherwise, it might

prompt you to insert paper matching size A4 or something similar (thereby stopping

the print process) if you have wrong paper loaded. Finally, enable Fix Stair-stepping

text, though this option plays a role only with text that originates from a Unix

machine.

When you hit OK, you get back to the Printer definition

panel, where you should definitely select Suppress Headers unless you like a lot of

user information printed at the beginning of every new print job!

Finally, click OK, and your printer definition is over. Now you should test the new printer. Make sure paper is

loaded and printer is online. Select the printer definition and pull down the Tests menu.
Select Print ASCII test page and make sure

everything is printed normally. You should not see Stair-stepping-text that

advances to the next line but not to the beginning of the line.

Next, test Postscript printing. Here you will see your

first minor miracle–even if your printer is non-postscript, it will print graphics

using Postscript! This is because the print-job is routed through the supplied utility,

GhostScript, which converts the Postscript code into something your printer can

understand.

If both tests are cleared, your printer is properly

installed and you can proceed.

Configuring for Windows networking

Windows-style networking is probably the most common one

today (Netware enthusiasts, don’t gnash your teeth–read Netware and Linux) and

that’s what we are going to set up now.

There are two kinds of Windows networking–Domain-based

(where you have to log into the server to even see its resources) and Share-based

(where you need to know the password for resources you wish to access). The former is the

type of networking used by Windows NT, while the latter, also called Workgroup computing,

is typically found in Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Each has its merits, and we do not want

to get too deep into that now. We will assume that you want to set up Linux to offer

Domain-based networking, complete with a security login.

The technical name for Windows-style networking is SMB

(Server Message Block) protocol-based networking or LanManager-style networking. Though

Microsoft refers to it only as Windows Networking, it is actually used by many

operating systems and architectures, including OS/2, Digital PathWorks, and so on. There

is nothing really Microsoft or Windows specific in the protocol.

SMB-style networking is implemented under Linux using

Andrew Tridgell’s original implementation of the SMB protocol for Unix, called SAMBA.

It is an extremely complex piece of work, but fortunately very easy to configure–just

about every configuration item is stored within a single configuration file that is plain

text, with plenty of comments included to help you along.

This text file is called smb.conf and is found in

the /etc directory (like just about every configuration file in Red Hat Linux-based

systems). A few changes in that file are required to get your server up and running, so

let’s quickly make them.

Note:
The SAMBA code originally shipped with Red Hat

Linux 5.0 is not optimal, so we upgrade it during the installation process using the

upgrades kit we have supplied along with our CD-ROM. If you have not yet applied those

upgrades, you should do so now. The SAMBA code originally shipped with Red Hat

Linux 5.0 is not optimal, so we upgrade it during the installation process using the

upgrades kit we have supplied along with our CD-ROM. If you have not yet applied those

upgrades, you should do so now.

Here we also introduce our favorite little text editor, JOE

(Joe’s Own Editor), and anyone who has ever used WordStar or Borland’s original

programmer editor is going to feel right at home using it. (Why did we mention this here?

Because, you wouldn’t believe how many people have shied away from Unix/Linux in the

past saying "I don’t won’t to learn VI or EMACS….".) Learn to use JOE, now, while working:

Make sure that you are logged in as root, and issue the command joe /etc/smb.conf. This
will fire up the editor and load configuration items.

Go ahead, use your cursor keys to scroll and read the file.

If you already know something about Windows Networking, you’ll see many familiar

terms and settings.

Now hit Ctrl-T-W. (This turns off the word-wrap

feature that could otherwise mess up the file).

Done? OK, now watch how easy it is to get things

configured:

Scroll down and find the item workgroup =. Here your

Windows workgroup (and also domain) is defined. The default is something like

Mygroup. In

your office, you probably don’t want to have a name like that for a network group, so

let’s change it to something meaningful. Here at PC Quest Labs, we changed it

to PCQLABS, though you could use any other name. Make sure it is eight characters or less,

and contains no spaces. This is not a limitation of SAMBA but of some older Windows

clients.

Scroll down further till you find the item security =.

This defines whether you require a formal login into the server before shares are made

available, or whether you just want a user to know his password for the actual shared

resource. The default is set to security = user and you should leave it that way.

Find the item called local master = and set it to yes,

then the item os level =, which should be set to 33. The next item is domain

master = which you should also set to yes. Ditto for preferred master =.

Make sure that no semicolon (;) is given before any of these entries or the entry will be

disabled.

Now comes the important thing–find the item domain

logons = and set it to yes.

Almost there, scroll down till you find a commented-section ;.

Remove the semicolons from the beginning of each line in that section. Note that the path

is shown as

/home/netlogon (we will need this value later).

Finally, scroll down till you find a commented-section ;

and remove the semicolons from that section too.

Now save the file and quit (Ctrl-KXI).

We could have done more, but let’s first get these

running. To create the netlogon directory

(/home/netlogon), enter the command mkdir /home/netlogon. Enter chmod 0755
/home/netlogon
to give it read and execute, but not write permissions.

Done? OK, let’s test that using the command testparm

| less. Scroll through the results and look for any error messages–if you have

followed the above steps correctly, your shouldn’t see any. Hit q to quit the

viewer and go back to the command prompt.

Finally, enter the command /etc/rc.d/init.d/smb restart to

tell the SAMBA server components to restart using this new configuration file. You should

see the existing components being stopped and then restarted. At this point, your Linux-based file, print, and security

server is ready for action!

Configuring Windows clients

To access the Linux file server, your Windows clients must

be configured for Windows NT networking–Linux running SAMBA and configured the way we

did emulates a Windows NT server. In fact, Windows, if asked what server it is connected

to, will report a Microsoft Windows NT server! (If you don’t have Win 95 distribution

on your hard disk, as is often found with pre-installed Win 95 setups, make sure you have

your Win 95 CD-ROM or disks at hand.)

In Win 95, select Start-Settings-Control Panel-Network.

If you do not have Client for Microsoft Networks

installed, click on Add-Client, Add-Microsoft, Client for Microsoft

Networks, and click OK.

Select Client for Microsoft Networks, and click on Properties.

Enable Logon to Windows NT domain, and enter the

Domain/Workgroup name you have earlier defined in /etc/smb.conf in Windows NT

Domain field. In our case, this was PCQLABS–you may have chosen some other name.

On the same screen make sure you enable Quick logon.

Then click on OK.

Now make sure you have TCP/IP installed. If you don’t

have, click on Add-Protocol-Add-Microsoft-TCP/IP-OK.

If you have several TCP/IP entries appearing in the network

component list, select the one pointing to your network card and click on Properties.

Select IP Address. If you already have a TCP/IP-based

network running, you will probably have a network address shown there. Since the preferred

way of doing things is to use DHCP to obtain such information, and since we have

configured a DHCP server (Read Configuring DHCP and DNS Services), let’s use that.

Enable Obtain an IP address automatically.

Select WINS and make sure that Use DHCP for WINS

resolution is checked.

Select Gateway and make sure no gateways are defined

(delete any that are shown there). You will be issued a Gateway address by the DHCP

process.

Select DNS configuration and disable DNS (don’t

worry, DHCP will supply you with the needed values).

Select Bindings and ensure that Client for

Microsoft Networks is enabled.

Select Advanced and make sure that this protocol is

set as the default protocol, then click on OK.

At the Network configuration screen, make sure Primary

Network Logon is set to Client for Microsoft Networks.

Now click the Identification tab at the top. Enter a

unique name for your computer, and set the Workgroup to your Domain/Workgroup name (which

we set to PCQLABS). You can also enter a short description for your computer.

Finally, click on OK in the Network Configuration

screen. This will probably install a number of components–some of which require the

Windows CD-ROM/disks. When it is through, it will ask you whether it can restart your

computer. Click on Yes after closing all applications. The machine will reboot. If all went well, you should be presented with a Network

Logon screen, with your domain name already filled in. At this point, you need to make

sure that you have a user account on the Linux machine. If you don’t, create one

(while logged in as root) using the command useradd userid or use the User

configuration applet from the Linux control panel if you have X Windows running. In either

case, make sure that a password is assigned to the user. From the Linux command line you

can do that with the command passwd userid. OK, now try logging in from your

Windows machine! Enter your user ID and the password. After a brief delay, you should see

your Windows desktop, complete with Network Neighborhood icon.

Note:
You may be prompted for a Windows password if

this is the first time you logged in this way. Typically, the password will already be

filled in in the first field (it uses your network login password). Do not confirm the

password! Wipe out this pre-filled password and click on OK. This will stop Windows from

asking you for this (effectively useless) password in the future. You may be prompted for a Windows password if

this is the first time you logged in this way. Typically, the password will already be

filled in in the first field (it uses your network login password). Do not confirm the

password! Wipe out this pre-filled password and click on OK. This will stop Windows from

asking you for this (effectively useless) password in the future.

Once you are succesfully logged in, you should be able to

see your Linux server’s name through the Network Neighborhood icon. Double click on

that, and you should see various items, including your private home directory folder, the

Tmp (temporary files) folder, and the printer you defined at the beginning.

Open your personal folder. You can now copy files into it

and use it just the way a file server should be used.

Ready for some network printing? Open My Computer

and select Printers. Choose Add printer-Next-Network Printer-Next-Browse,

select the entry for your Linux server, find the printer icon, click OK-Next, set

it as your Windows default printer, and allow it to print a test page. If your network

printer is ready, online, and loaded with paper, you should now see the familiar Windows

printer test page printing out. Tell Windows that it printed OK, and that’s it!

Adding more resources

You will now want to add more sharable resources. For

example, let’s make the CD-ROM drive on the Linux server sharable by everyone on the

network.

Simply run joe /etc/smb.conf, go to the bottom of

the file (Ctrl-KV will get you there), and add these lines:

comment = LAN CDROM drive (if empty, no CDROM mounted)

path = /mnt/cdrom

public = yes

writable = no

printable = no

Now restart SAMBA server components with

/etc/rc.d/init.d/smb restart. If you refresh your Network Neighborhood, you should
see a share called cdrom which will show you the contents of the CD-ROM (which you

do by inserting a CD-ROM and running the command mount /mnt/cdrom), or nothing if

no CD-ROM is mounted.

Congratulations, your server is up and running!

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