Knoppix - I need a Share between Linux and Windows
I am trying to setup a WatchOCR server. (This is a server that watches a folder for PDF files and when it finds files there, it OCRs the files and places them in to an output folder as searchable PDF files. Very Cool!).
It comes as a bootable CD with Knoppix that is preconfigured to run from the CD. It has an option to install itself on to a hard drive, which I have done. It boots and seems to run good. To test or use it I have to be able to get PDF files from my Windows network onto the Knoppix machine. That is where I am stuck.
In our Windows network we have 2 NAS drives, one uses domain authentication and one uses it's built-in authentication (via windows workgroup connection). We also have Windows servers available (2003 & 2008).
I have tried setting up shares on both NAS drives (with their separate auth. methods) and also tried shares on server drives and workstation drives - all to be accessed by the Knoppix machine.
I have tried setting up shared on the Knoppix machine, both on the linux drive and on an NTFS drive that is also in the machine (ann accessible to Knoppix).
I have followed multiple docments with, slightly different instructions, on exactly how to do this. In some cases I could see the shares, some cases I couldn't. When I could see the shares if I tried to read or write to them, they either went off-line or froze the computer until it times out.
I am a noob to linux and I really need some Expert help. I know there are some really smart people here and I hope one of you can help me.
I need an accessible share between the Knoppix machine and my windows machines. I prefer the share be on the Knoppix machine and accessible by windows, but the other way around will work too. Whatever is easier or more stable.
Thanks!!
Information on the system is here > www.watchocr.com and the ISO download is here > www.watchocr.com/files. They might make more sense that I do.
It comes as a bootable CD with Knoppix that is preconfigured to run from the CD. It has an option to install itself on to a hard drive, which I have done. It boots and seems to run good. To test or use it I have to be able to get PDF files from my Windows network onto the Knoppix machine. That is where I am stuck.
In our Windows network we have 2 NAS drives, one uses domain authentication and one uses it's built-in authentication (via windows workgroup connection). We also have Windows servers available (2003 & 2008).
I have tried setting up shares on both NAS drives (with their separate auth. methods) and also tried shares on server drives and workstation drives - all to be accessed by the Knoppix machine.
I have tried setting up shared on the Knoppix machine, both on the linux drive and on an NTFS drive that is also in the machine (ann accessible to Knoppix).
I have followed multiple docments with, slightly different instructions, on exactly how to do this. In some cases I could see the shares, some cases I couldn't. When I could see the shares if I tried to read or write to them, they either went off-line or froze the computer until it times out.
I am a noob to linux and I really need some Expert help. I know there are some really smart people here and I hope one of you can help me.
I need an accessible share between the Knoppix machine and my windows machines. I prefer the share be on the Knoppix machine and accessible by windows, but the other way around will work too. Whatever is easier or more stable.
Thanks!!
Information on the system is here > www.watchocr.com and the ISO download is here > www.watchocr.com/files. They might make more sense that I do.
SOLUTION
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I was following the instructions at the link above and I got to this statement:
"Then you go to K - Control Center - Internet and Network - Local Network Browsing and set up the details under Windows Shares and Lisa Daemon to match your system."
I'm assuming he is referencing the KDE Control Center, which I do not have on this system. I have tried to install it (w/ info from other posts) but each time it tries to install, it says it can't find the package. I'm not sure what to download for this package nor where to put it. When I search for the KDE install - I get a folder full of files with no real direction of which one(s) - (or all of them?) to download or any real instruction at all.
Any ideas to try?
"Then you go to K - Control Center - Internet and Network - Local Network Browsing and set up the details under Windows Shares and Lisa Daemon to match your system."
I'm assuming he is referencing the KDE Control Center, which I do not have on this system. I have tried to install it (w/ info from other posts) but each time it tries to install, it says it can't find the package. I'm not sure what to download for this package nor where to put it. When I search for the KDE install - I get a folder full of files with no real direction of which one(s) - (or all of them?) to download or any real instruction at all.
Any ideas to try?
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ASKER
rhukat, This is the method I have been mostly using with little tweaks here and there.
I need to catch up the thread on what has happened of late. I came across a VM host program called VirtualBox (from oracle) and the site I found had Instructions on setting up the WatchOCR / Knoppix system in it. I followed these and set it up. VirtualBox prepares the shares. With this setup and the instructions very similar to the ones rhukat provided I was finally able to access a share. It took some work to get all the pieces together so the share was not real-only, but it was finally read-write.
I copied some PDF files to the folder and was able to run the watchocr program for my first test. It was pretty bad. It was very slow (which is a little expected because of the VM situation (VirtualBox only uses 1 core of my 8 core CPU - it says it may become un-stable with more that one core).
But the biggest problem was the quality of the OCR job. I compared the text from the Watchocr output to the text from the same document OCR'd in Acrobat 8 pro - only about 50% of the Watchocr text was accurate, while the Acrobat text was in the high 90% accuracy range.
These results are a deal breaker for us. Too bad, it really was a cool sounding system.
I'm going to close the question since it is a moot point now. Thanks for your responses and the ideas.
Deon :-(
I need to catch up the thread on what has happened of late. I came across a VM host program called VirtualBox (from oracle) and the site I found had Instructions on setting up the WatchOCR / Knoppix system in it. I followed these and set it up. VirtualBox prepares the shares. With this setup and the instructions very similar to the ones rhukat provided I was finally able to access a share. It took some work to get all the pieces together so the share was not real-only, but it was finally read-write.
I copied some PDF files to the folder and was able to run the watchocr program for my first test. It was pretty bad. It was very slow (which is a little expected because of the VM situation (VirtualBox only uses 1 core of my 8 core CPU - it says it may become un-stable with more that one core).
But the biggest problem was the quality of the OCR job. I compared the text from the Watchocr output to the text from the same document OCR'd in Acrobat 8 pro - only about 50% of the Watchocr text was accurate, while the Acrobat text was in the high 90% accuracy range.
These results are a deal breaker for us. Too bad, it really was a cool sounding system.
I'm going to close the question since it is a moot point now. Thanks for your responses and the ideas.
Deon :-(
ASKER
Thanks, Guys!
ASKER
The latter is what I have been trying to do - with common or no logins, so everyone can drop files into a common "inbox" and pick up the searchable files from the common "outbox".
I guess I could create multiple instances of Watchocr and have it process multiple in & out boxes. Is that what you meant?
Either way, I will try this and see if I can get the share to be stable.
Thanks.
D