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Novell Networks and Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the interoperability-good dept.

lengau asks: "Has anyone got Linux working with a Novell Network? I'm building a Gentoo system and need to be able to mount a Netware drive. I have IPX compiled into the kernel, already. This is to be a school computer that most students should be able to use like the Windows machines. I'm going to use KDE with OpenOffice and Firefox as the main applications to be used. My ultimate goal is to just have a desktop icon that one can click that goes to one's Netware directory (mounted under $HOME/MyDocuments or something). Any suggestions?"

6 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Did you even try to find it yourself? by Trepalium · · Score: 4, Informative

    A simple Google query would've given you what you seek, but what you need is ncpmount. There are numerous HOWTOs and FAQs on this topic. If people have written these HOWTOs, they've surely implemented it at some point.

    --
    I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
    1. Re:Did you even try to find it yourself? by bluelip · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's even easier than ncpmount nowadays. There was the novelclient (yep, that's the spelling). It was basically a front end for ncpmount.

      Novell has published a nearly full featured client. http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/15402. html

      They also have integrated Groupwise support into evolution. The native windows fat client is still better, but at least i don't have to keep a seperate box just for running groupwise. http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/features/ev olution.html

      --

      Yep, I never spell check.
      More incorrect spellings can be found he
  2. Re:Right here.. by Curmudgeonlyoldbloke · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, that'd work, and when I had to work with an IPX-only server a few years ago that was what I did. You probably don't need to read much further than http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/IPX-HOWTO.html (although that dates from 1988 - I suspect that the "caldera.com" links may not be helpful any more).

    However - does the server that you're working with really only run IPX? I've encountered quite a few Novell (Groupwise) systems over the last couple of years - some Windows, some Linux, but most Netware. None of them has been IPX-only. Even Novell don't recommend installing IPX with Netware these days, and if it does support TCP/IP why not use that?

  3. I was in the exact same situation.. by iantri · · Score: 4, Informative
    .. I was able to get authentication (via PAM) against an NDS tree and automounting of Netware Home drives working without too much difficulty.

    Google for ncpfs, and this site will be particularly helpful too, with step by step instructions.

  4. Two Possibilities by Radical+Rad · · Score: 2, Informative

    Novell has a very nice proprietary client out now which runs on Suse 9.3, 10.0, and the Novell Linux Desktop. But it doesn't do IPX as far as I know. Also I don't know that it will run on Gentoo. If you get it to work you should submit a how-to to the Novell Cool Solutions site. For older distributions and ones which aren't from Novell you can try the Open Source Novel Client for Linux which doesn't support Gentoo per se but might be made to work with minimal fiddling.

  5. The offical linux client by swimnurd · · Score: 2, Informative

    Novell now offers an official linux client that works really well. I beta tested it at work and now use it on a regular basis, the only catch is that you need SuSE or NLD, but you may or may not be able to hack it to work with Gentoo (if you do I would like to know, cus i prefer Gentoo over SuSE). I have found that it has better performance than the open source alternatives and it reads your log in scripts as well. You can find the linux client at http://download.novell.com./ This is the best way to solve your problem.