Why can't I mount remote disk partitions over a network?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I seem to have gotten the home networking thing down between all my computers. I can login to each computer from each computer. I am then able to mount the home directory for that user account. This is nice and all, but what if I want to access other HD partitions on that remote computer? I don't see any obvious way to do that. Can this be done between 2 OSX computers? If I am logging into an OS9 computer over a network, I can get access to any other partitions on that HD, as well. This is the access I would like to duplicate in OSX. Is there a way?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Works for me. My remote machine has 4 partitions, and when I click Network on the local machine, I see the remote machine name, and when I click the Connect button, I get the Login dialog box, and after that I get a dialog with all 4 partitions listed. Whichever one I click gets mounted.



    It might be a permissions problem, depending on which user name you log in with.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    randycat99randycat99 Posts: 1,919member
    If you do a "get info" on one of your partitions (not the system partition), is the box that says, "ignore ownership permissions" checked or not checked? If not checked, is your user account given read/write priviledges to that partition, or is there a different owner specified? If you could give it a check and post back, I would appreciate it.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    gajonesgajones Posts: 12member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Randycat99

    I seem to have gotten the home networking thing down between all my computers. I can login to each computer from each computer. I am then able to mount the home directory for that user account. This is nice and all, but what if I want to access other HD partitions on that remote computer? I don't see any obvious way to do that. Can this be done between 2 OSX computers? If I am logging into an OS9 computer over a network, I can get access to any other partitions on that HD, as well. This is the access I would like to duplicate in OSX. Is there a way?



    You can certainly achieve this by using Sharepoints. Otherwise try entering the other machine's main username and password in the login box, seems to work for me.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    randycat99randycat99 Posts: 1,919member
    Point taken with the Sharepoints thing. I did take a look and may give it a try at a later point. I'm just not quite hyped with the idea of creating "public sharepoints" for something I only intend myself to have access to.



    The latest thing I discovered is that if you login using a regular user account, you will only get access to the home directory of that user (sounds logical enough).



    If you login as an administrator, you are given the choice to either mount that administrator's home directory or you can mount the system partition (which would be the entire HD if you did not partition anything, as would be the case for most people). This would be some forward progress for what I had asked for, but not quite the gist of what really would solve my problem.



    Now if you have other partitions (apart from the system partition), how can you login to mount those? That is the full monty question...
  • Reply 5 of 10
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Randycat99

    Now if you have other partitions (apart from the system partition), how can you login to mount those? That is the full monty question...



    Well, the "Dual G4" shot shows all 4 partitions on the target machine. As long as I log into the G4 with my Admin account name and password, I see them all.



    Screenshot
  • Reply 6 of 10
    It sounds to me like he wants to have it automatically mouse all the partitions instead of having to mount each one manually.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Randycat, it sounds as if you should log onto that machine locally and get info on those other partitions and see what the permissions are set to. As my screenshot shows, there are 4 partitions on my remote machine and they all show up when I login as Admin. I don't know for sure, but if I changed permissions on two of them they might not show up.



    I just want to know why the "Servers" item always shows the local machine. This has been there since 10.0. You'd think they would wise up by now.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    gajonesgajones Posts: 12member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Randycat99

    Point taken with the Sharepoints thing. I did take a look and may give it a try at a later point. I'm just not quite hyped with the idea of creating "public sharepoints" for something I only intend myself to have access to.



    I think you can do this with Sharepoints.



    Follow these steps (from Sharepoints website):



    To add a new File Sharing Only user using SharePoints, follow these 3 steps.



    1. Click on the Users & "Public" Shares tab.

    2. Fill in the information for the new user.

    3. Click Add New User.



    Then on the Normal Shares tab, set a share name, directory and enable AppleFileServer sharing. Create the Share, then highlight it. Click the Show File System Properties button and set Everyone permissions to none. That should prevent any guest access to the shares.



    Quote:

    Now if you have other partitions (apart from the system partition), how can you login to mount those? That is the full monty question...



    Now, when you Connect to Server on your other machine using the username and password for the File Sharing Only user you have just set up, the shares you have created should appear for you to mount.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    randycat99randycat99 Posts: 1,919member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lundy

    Well, the "Dual G4" shot shows all 4 partitions on the target machine. As long as I log into the G4 with my Admin account name and password, I see them all.



    Screenshot




    Thank you for taking the time to make the pic. It must be some setting somewhere that is inhibiting my access. I have already tried logging into the administrator account, but all I get for mount choices are the administrator home directory and the partition that contains that home directory. I've tried it even with the other partitions on the remote machine set to "ignore ownership settings", but no luck. I can try it again with the remote partitions where the administrator is the "owner", instead of the primary user. If it works, I'll be dumbstruck, as that seems like a rather counter-security technique to get this kind of access.



    Also, thank you for posting the additional directions, gajones. I will evaluate it closer to see if this procedure suits my needs.



    The General, no, it doesn't really matter if I can mount all of them automatically or individually. I just want to be able to mount a non-system partition, period.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    randycat99randycat99 Posts: 1,919member
    UPDATE:



    Yes, by changing ownership of the partition to the administrator and then logging in as that administrator, you will get access to the remote partition. That was kind of lame, because then you get blocked from that partition if you are the main user of that computer (one would think that if you are sitting at the computer, and its your stuff on that extra partition, you should be able to get at it using your standard user account, but oh well).



    So I returned ownership of that partition back to my main user account. Then I switched the "group access" from "admin" to my administrator account. Seems kind of like a cheesy workaround (in that a "group access" should be used by "groups" rather than set to one specific person), but I guess it will serve my purposes.



    Permissions and accesses can be a real pain sometimes, imo. I'm almost certain this was not the "proper" use of the user access system, but I cannot seem to fathom how they expected me to get the access I wanted "legitimately". Maybe this is more academic concern than practical concern. As far as Windows security "best practices", you don't go around logging in via administrator accounts unless you actually need to administrate the system. You don't want to "expose" administrator accesses unless absolutely necessary. Hence, it would seem that accessing a remote, external partition to read/write files should fall outside of that, and instead should be tied to a standard user ownership. Maybe I am just unaware of a larger imperative that inspires this security situation. It just does not seem logical at the level I am working at.



    ...and what are you guys doing running around with your administrator account as your main user account?! Naughty, naughty, naughty, Mac users!
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