Solved WSL and Canary (PRO) sharing . Networking Linux disk problem --Now SOLVED !!!

Hi folks
Latest Canary and WSL allows OK to mount a Linux drive and access it from Windows via File explorer etc - but I can't seem to Network share it -- not sure if this is a Windows Networking problem (probably judging by myexperience with Windows Networking), or WSL. AFAIK any disk viewable via file explorer should be "shareable" .

The object of the exercise is to be able to share some drives without needing to install a full VM. I only want to share the drives - not really do much else so I don't need a whole slew of GUI apps on WSL.

Any ideas folks

Cheers
jimbo

Hi folks == seems a bummer -- not possible --so have to use Hyper-V after all. If I can share other disks via network why cant I share those on /mnt. BONKERS ----BONKERS Ms -- half way decent product and you've hosed it up !!!!

Added -- 99% of the stuff explain how you can access a network drive FROM another system BY the WSL -- bit I want the OTHER systems to be able to access a WSL attached physical drive !!!!! THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

No sharing option --



I can see the standard Windows Drives from other systems but not the one I'm interested in - the one on /mnt/c/wsl.

Cheers
jimbo

just a thought.
have you tried installing nautilus file manager on the WSL
then try sharing from the WSL nautilus side.

best of luck, Steve ..

You'd need something like samba server install and you would need to adjust the network settings for WSL. By default WSL are NAT to windows. Check out the section for accessing WSL from your LAN
Accessing network applications with WSL

Hi folks

Thanks for the suggestions -- but :

both of you @neemobeer and @XxXxX have got the problem the WRONG way around !!!

problem is to share a mounted LINUX Physical Disk which is mounted ON the host Windows running WSL machine with remote Linux machines / other clients including other Windows machines from OUTSIDE the Windows Host !!! and also remote Fire sticks. There's no problem accessing a NAS from WITHIN Windows !!!. Samba etc. works fine.

So I just want to mount the Linux physical disk as a shared network drive.

It might be possible using some sort of NFS client and server via nfsmount -- will look at that later.

The problem is I have a 14TB Linux formatted (xfs file system) disk full of Multi-media stuff that I want to share across a LAN and with remote TV's fire a fire stick and I can't physically attach this disk to the NAS servers --otherwise I'd do it that way. I'm stuck with a Windows machine - and short of dual booting (I don't like that anyway) the only choices were using a VM and using WSL. I had hoped it would be a doddle using WSL --but not so simple it seems. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

I'll be honest your description of the setup isn't that clear.

If it is a volume using XFS windows won't understand it, can't mount or share it natively. WSL certainly could, you would have to make changes to the Windows firewall and the networking mode within WSL, mount and share it within WSL

@XxXxX @neemobeer

Problem solved using the nfs server -- wee bit complex but this guy got it right !!!

So what I wanted was a LOCAL Disk on WSL (linux file) running on Windows 11 to be acessible from OTHER systems

the only mod I made was to choose mirrored networking rather than NAT (use the WSL configuration) so the IP address is the same as the Windows machine -- it all works !! - I'm using Fedora instead of upuntu so the package manager is dnf rather than apt. Otherwise same procedure.



Marking as solved.

On the remote firesticks in Kodi -- I just add in the video section "add file" -- browse NFS and the share shows up !!!!
All done. !! Works on 3 TV's !!.

Cheers
jimbo

@XxXxX - It also works if you use NAT (default) - but follow the instructions carefully and open the relevant Windows ports and firewall exceptions.

Thanks for the "Like".

I'm running this whole kybosh from an external WintoGo type of system for testing - but it;s still 100% OK.

IMHO NFS seems a lot better and more secure than the SMB SAMBA type of connections as it doesn't rely on SMB1 which is not very safe these days and will be 100% deprecated soon. NFS is used by almost all cloud servers etc - so should be safe and secure - while the actual file system of the NFS mounted drive can be almost anything. !!!

Please though before testing with Linux file systems create a "dummy" Linux file system on any spare piece of kit you have - even a decent USB stick and use that rather than an actual drive with important data on it -- these things while testing can lead to errors for all sorts of reasons and you don't want to lose 20 years worth of multi-media data because of a silly mistake !!!.

Cheers
jimbo