Does VMWare Samba go both ways?

[bascule]

I'm running the VMWare Rockbox development environment on my Windows box and I'm wondering if I can access host system resources (specifically my USB-connected Sansa) from within the virtual machine in the same way that I can access the build environment from Windows by browsing '\\debian\user'

[GodEater]

It *may* go both ways, but it depends on how the vmware image was set up.

Samba is the server component running in the image, and allows your windows install to act as a client to see files in the image.

To go the other way, you'll need your windows install to be acting as a server (i.e. you need to "Share" your sansa), and the image must include the client side bits of windows networking.

There are a couple of ways this could work - there's something called "smbclient" which works a lot like command line ftp (only over the windows networking code instead), or you can try and "mount" a share on your windows machine into part of the vmware image's file system with something like :

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mount -t cifs ////your_windows_machine's_ip_address//the_share_name /mnt/some_directory_you_create_here_called_sansa_or_somesuch

That may or may not work though depending on what's installed in the vmimage.

[bascule]

OK, thanks, I'll give it a go. It'll probably have to be the mount option, as I need Sansapatcher to see it in order to overwrite the OF bootloader with the RB one.

...and all this because the Win Sansapatcher does not perform 'sansapatcher -bl' correctly... 

[GodEater]

Ah - when you mentioned samba I assumed you were talking about sharing files - I'm fairly confident sansapatcher won't work like that sorry

[bascule]

OK, never mind. Thanks.

[mcuelenaere]

I'm running the VMWare Rockbox development environment on my Windows box and I'm wondering if I can access host system resources (specifically my USB-connected Sansa) from within the virtual machine in the same way that I can access the build environment from Windows by browsing '\\debian\user'

There is also the option of mounting your Sansa through USB on the VMWare client.
You do this by adding an USB controller (if not already) to the virtual PC and attaching your USB device to your computer when the VMWare image has focus.

I don't know if this works for the Sansa, but it definitely does for my ZVM and CF card reader.

[GodEater]

Yeah, that sounds like a much better idea, and sansapatcher is much more likely to work through that method (although I still don't guarantee it will)

[bascule]

You do this by adding an USB controller (if not already) to the virtual PC...

Unfortunately, my Linux experience is minimal and the Rockbox VMWare image is console only, no X, which I always find more confusing 

So the trouble is I don't know how to find out if a USB driver is pre-installed. How would I do that?

If it's not, I presume I would have to apt-get something?

[mcuelenaere]

You do this by adding an USB controller (if not already) to the virtual PC...

Unfortunately, my Linux experience is minimal and the Rockbox VMWare image is console only, no X, which I always find more confusing 

So the trouble is I don't know how to find out if a USB driver is pre-installed. How would I do that?

If it's not, I presume I would have to apt-get something?

I meant adding it to the VMWare image (close the virtual PC and go to "Edit virtual machine settings"), not to linux itself (Linux will detect it without any fuzz); but it could be that it is already attached.

The Rockbox VMWare image does come with X, are you using the most recent version?

[bascule]

The Rockbox VMWare image does come with X, are you using the most recent version?

My bad   I meant it didn't have a graphical file explorer. But I only wanted that to look for the device, however that was not required in the end...

I meant adding it to the VMWare image, not to linux itself (Linux will detect it without any fuzz); but it could be that it is already attached.

Again, I was showing my complete lack of understanding. You were correct, plugging the Sansa in with the VMWare window active, causes Windows to direct the input to the virtual machine, whereupon Linux auto-mounted the device.

Once I'd built sansapatcher and a fresh bootloader, it was a simple matter to do what I had originally wanted to do, which was to flash the Rockbox bootloader over the OF one.

It worked perfectly and now I have super-fast booting with no silly SanDisk splash. Thanks mcuelenaere.

[bluebrother]

My bad   I meant it didn't have a graphical file explorer. But I only wanted that to look for the device, however that was not required in the end...

If you used Norton Commander before try midnight commander (started as "mc"). It's quite similar but text-based. I won't go into graphical file explorer as there are various around