Sync to Samba Share via GUI [ unsolved ] (feddit.uk)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by ian@feddit.uk to c/kde@lemmy.kde.social

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I’m looking for a way in Plasma to backup and sync my data from PC to a LAN Samba share on my NAS, using a GUI program.

The many sync apps (Grsync, Unison, Lucky, RealTime, Kup etc.) I’ve tried over many years, don’t let me set a remote/samba target. Most navigate locally only. I would mount the share, but nobody I’ve found knows of a GUI way to permanently mount it.

Everything else I need on Plasma has a GUI solution. Just a sync fails. I’d be grateful to hear of a GUI solution

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[-] gerdesj@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Problem: I want to sync data from a Linux PC to a NAS Samba share. You do impose a constraint that a GUI should be available. I'll bear that in mind.

If you can access it via scp (which is very likely, but you don't mention the NAS model) then use rsync or similar - multiple GUIs are available and it sounds like you've found some already

It's a Samba share, mount it and then sync data. GUIs are available for the sync bit. Depending on your distro a GUI may be available for the mounting thing. If you specify a mount in /etc/fstab then it is a permanent mount.

I suggest you break the problem down into two bits and solve those independently. The first one is data access ie via Samba and the second is the sync bit.

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The shares are on a WD-MyCloud 4Tb off the shelf NAS. With setup page via a browser.
I've never found a GUI way to permanently mount a share. I hope someone develops one.
RcloneBrowser doesn't achieve any more than Dolphin and is not designed for normal users. I'll be trying smb4k again. But it has not been reliable in past attempts.
Backup needs to be something straight forward for non IT users. There are real benefits to all, if more people use Linux and increase the market share. More drivers and applications for example. I find it strange that this is missing from Plasma.

[-] leopold@lemmy.kde.social 2 points 11 months ago

try Smb4K

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Thanks. I already tried Smb4K. It finds the LAN shares and mounts them. But they are only mounted when Smb4K is running. I need them permanently mounted.

[-] kloud@ioc.exchange 1 points 10 months ago

@ian @leopold
I believe you can add a mount in fstab with the nofail flag, so the pc still boots even if the share is not accessible

//192.168.0.5/storage /mnt/data cifs guest,uid=myuser,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,noperm,nofail 0 0

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks. I'm sure that is technically possible. However I'm looking for an easy GUI way to do this for non IT specialists. Plasma fails badly here. Unless I'm missing a trick...

[-] kloud@ioc.exchange 0 points 10 months ago

@ian
You only do it 1 time, then you can access it via dolphin.
Also, do you really need it mounted? You can always access your share in dolphin directly via network -> smb shares.
Another option is to add smb4k to autostart.
And to conclude, I don't think any de specifically allows you to to that, so that's not a kdes' fault

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

Typing magic spells is not something I want to explain to my kids. Bad usability is bad usability, even if they have to do it just once. Also it's not always worked for me. Maybe I got just 1 letter wrong? That is the weakness with a hack. Some time ago I did autostart smb4k. But after a while it no longer mounted any shares. Also I suspect running an app just to mount the share seems like an iffy workaround. Does everyone do it? And no I don't really want to mount the share at all. Yes I can already access it via Dolphin easily. But then I'd have to manually copy any new files and navigate to folders every time. More poor usability compared to 1 click in a sync app. I think Plasma is better than this.

[-] Lem453@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

Also it seems like this app allows windows shares as the remote location

https://flathub.org/apps/org.gnome.DejaDup

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks. Yes Gnome is better for apps accessing the LAN. And Deja Dup does connect as I'd expect. But it creates special files that can't be accessed on the LAN itself. Only via restore, that cant be used by other PCs or if you change your distro. So yes there is almost a way with Plasma. But if that is totally useless, it's still a fail.

[-] Lem453@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

You're right, there probably should be a GUI way to do this but the GUI is literally going to do exactly what you described as a 'magic spell'. All GUIs in Linux just run commands like the one above in the background. Everything starts out as a command and sometimes people make a GUI that run it. Naturally not every command has a GUI yet.

Framing this as a hack or magic spell is the wrong way to think about it.

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

For what I use Linux for, Inkscape, Blender, web browser etc. do you think they send text commands from the GUI to another UI, the CLI? Sounds like an inefficient, legacy irrelevance to the user.

Remember this a usability issue, so for non IT users, incoherent text strings or commands are indeed magic spells. Any inappropriate UI is bad usability. They have put a lot of effort into usability on Plasma. So it's quite a shame that they got this so wrong.

[-] panda@pandas.social 1 points 10 months ago

@ian @Lem453

> do you think they send text commands from the GUI to another UI, the CLI? Sounds like an inefficient, legacy irrelevance to the user.

This is literally what programs do in one way or another.

[-] kloud@ioc.exchange 0 points 10 months ago

@ian
I still don't get how this is a plasma issue. It's more of a "linux mindset" issue.

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

I just meant that, as a Plasma user, there is a missing function. And backing up is quite important too.

[-] panda@pandas.social -1 points 10 months ago

@ian @Lem453

They didn't get it "wrong". There's a million ways to do it, no matter what system you're using and none of them is zero effort. If you don't test your backups somewhat regularly, you don't have backups.
Your kids shouldn't need to worry about backups. Script them.
If you're scared of a cli and you're not willing to step out of your comfort zone, go for MacOS with Time Capsule, which is the only fully integrated solution that brings you zero involvement.

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It doesn't have to be zero effort. But it's good to have commands available for non IT specialists too. Where they don't have to learn IT or memorise complex commands or use an unfamiliar type of UI. Usability.
My kids need to learn about backups. Backups should be easy. They are easy on Windows or Android. It could be easy on Plasma too.

Script them? That sound like a lot of IT skills are needed for that. I've never seen or used a script. Nor have my kids. Telling non IT users to do that is going to scare people back to Windows.

You might be into IT tools, and not in to usability. But this is a usability issue. If I can find a GUI way that you haven't heard about because you are not interested in the GUI, then that is a benefit to Plasma non IT users, as I can share it around. Telling Plasma users to use another OS because Plasma can't do it is quite bad. Especially if it turns out Plasma 'can' do it.

I'm not 'scared of the cli'. I'm scared of wasting my time. I'm scared other people being told to use inappropriate tools and end up dropping Linux thinking it's a nerds OS. I'm prepared to put effort in, to try out lots of methods to find appropriate solutions. And share the results.

[-] panda@pandas.social 0 points 10 months ago

@ian

> That sounds like a lot of IT skills are needed for that. I’ve never seen or used a script. Nor have my kids. Telling non IT users to do that is going to scare people back to Windows.

You might be surprised, but you could have both learned scripting and already have a working solution in the time you spent replying to this thread.

Windows is a good solution to people who don't care how something works.

> I’m scared of wasting my time.
Learning something useful is never a waste of time

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

already have a working solution

The solution, as I posted at the start, is to do it with a GUI. So a script could never have helped.
Solving this and sharing it, will also help everyone who uses a GUI. Not just me.
Also, you might also be forgetting that I would have a whole lot more to learn as a non IT user. So a script would be a massive investment. And I will have forgotten it all again if I ever need to do another one in the future. I think that is unlikely. So a lot of effort for a one-off. Also I'd need to have the script in the App launcher. Even if that is possible, it's yet more to legacy crap to learn.

Learning something useful is never a waste of time

Sure. I will happily spend my time learning useful stuff. I don't want to waste time using bad UX because something is broken in a strange domain. I want to discover and share a good solution.

If you are not in to usability that's OK. But this is a usability issue. A different world from yours. Software is there to help people. Never change the user to help the software.

[-] kloud@ioc.exchange 0 points 10 months ago

@ian
> Also I suspect running an app just to mount the share seems like an iffy workaround.

There is always some process mounting the shares, be it graphical or not, even on windows

> And no I don’t really want to mount the share at all.

Ah, yes, then you can try freefilesync, it supports a bunch of clouds and ftp, smb, etc
There is also rclone

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

There is always some process mounting the shares, be it graphical or not, even on windows

OK. Thanks. I thought the fstab entry looked a lot less involved, process wise.

Ah, yes, then you can try freefilesync, it supports a bunch of clouds and ftp, smb, etc There is also rclone

Freefile sync Files mode, can't navigate to the LAN and Cloud mode only has SFTP, FTP and Google Drive. I tried anyway and it did not like it. Maybe there is a trick.

Rclone command line tool has a web GUI mode. I'll try that next. Edit: No go. It seems the command line is needed to launch the rclone Web interface.

[-] kloud@ioc.exchange 0 points 10 months ago

@ian
For rclone I use this: https://kapitainsky.github.io/RcloneBrowser/

As for freefilesync, I mixed it up with something, sorry. You are right, it doesn't support smb sadly

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yes I tried the RcloneBrowser. But there is no way to create a new Sync in the GUI. Only manage already configured ones. Unless it's well hidden.

[-] kloud@ioc.exchange 0 points 10 months ago

@ian
Yes, but doing it in terminal doesn't require any obscure commands, it will guide you through and ask questions for everything

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

The terminal is obscure in itself. I'm not sure how to start it or what commands to use.

[-] kloud@ioc.exchange 0 points 10 months ago

@ian
There is a button in the gui to add a remote which opens a terminal which asks you for stuff

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

Oh thats what that was. It looked like an error message. So I tried it. Horrible UX, and it did not have samba. I tried a few of the alternatives and it didn't manage to connect.

[-] kloud@ioc.exchange 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

@ian
Ah, I think it spawns xterm by default, which looks bad. And it has smb, does not have it for you?
(It's option 44 for me)

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks I founf CIFS/smb on 35. It connected. Now trying to find out how to use the remote.

[-] leopold@lemmy.kde.social 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

You should be able to access SMB shares in Dolphin by typing smb://[ip address] in the location bar. If needed you can also set default username and password in System Settings->Network->Settings->Windows Shares.

Also, you can make Smb4K start automatically with Plasma by adding it in System Settings -> Workspace -> Startup and Shutdown -> Autostart.

I've never really used SMB, so maybe there are better solutions.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 11 months ago

Try Duplicati. I'm not sure if it supports smb but its worth a try.

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

Duplicati Thanks. I just tried it. It doesn't list Samba under storage type. I tried it anyway and never managed to get it to work. It's really designed for cloud services. It might be possible to make it work if I knew networking trickery. But I can't do it.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 10 months ago

That's what I suspected but it was worth a shot.

[-] Lem453@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

Search "duplicati corruption". You'll find lots of stories of people finding out their backup repos are all corrupt.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 10 months ago

I've never had a issue

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 months ago

Can you install Syncthing on your NAS? I've been using it with my Synology NAS to sync my music from my PC.

I set my PC to be read only for the share, so that nothing else on my network can accidentally overwrite anything.

[-] ian@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks but no. It's an off the shelf NAS disk (WD My-Cloud 4TB) with setup access via a web page. Technically it might be possible, requiring an IT hack. But I'm looking for a user-centric way.

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

That's a shame, it would have made things easier

this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023

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