Basic Linux Lite Power Networking For The Small Office Linux Lite 3.x To & From Windows 10 HE
*(Though these tutorials are dated in places most of the instructions apply. Windows 10 in this case is the Home Edition Build 1600 Series & and Linux Lite is the 3.x Series based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS)
Contents (Scroll to get to tutorials. Contents is not bookmarked)
Introduction/Explanation
Tutorial (1) Setting Up Remote Desktop Connection To Windows 10 Home Edition
Tutorial (2) Setting Up Samba To Windows 10 Home Edition
Tutorial (3) Accessing Ext4 Partitions From Windows 10 Home Edition
Tutorial (4) Adding File Manager Power With Double Commander
Tutorial (5) Setting Up Ad Hoc Wifi Connections To Windows 10 Home Edition
Tutorial (6) Installing And Using The Linux Sub-System Bash Shell In Windows 10 HE
Tutorial (7) Installing Open SSH In Windows 10 For SFTP From Windows 10 To Linux Lite
Congratulations and welcome to Linux Lite. You now have one of the most stable and beautifully executed XFCE Linux distributions up and running on your computer. Chances are pretty good you have been a Windows user in the past, or still are a Windows user, perhaps dual booting Linux Lite with Windows 10, or running Linux Lite on a laptop, with Windows 10 on a desktop. Feel comfortable here, because Linux Lite more than any other Linux distribution out there aims to, and succeeds at, giving Windows users a comfortable and familiar computing experience from the desktop.
The group of tutorials that follow here will help you set up a diversity of power networking functions, most with fully cross platform functionality. You are about to discover the networking power of Linux Lite, a stable GUI friendly Linux system that plays well with Windows, Mac, and many other Linux distributions across platforms on a network.
If you are a small business owner, you probably have joined the list of survivors of the Windows 10 introduction, and more than likely the anniversary update of the summer of 2016. You have either eliminated the upgrade function and MS nuisance pre-load caches from your Windows 7, or Windows 8 computers on your network, or you have gritted your teeth, crossed your fingers, and suffered through the hours of your time required to arrive at currently updated Windows 10 computers on your network. But now it’s all more of the same MS privacy invasions, security leaks, and hardware obsolescences common to MS Windows systems. You have arrived here because of those security and privacy concerns, nuisance updates and upgrades, and recurring hardware obsolescences. Rest assured you are on a new horizon of privacy and security with Linux Lite, and a cross platform functionality in power networking you have never experienced before. Know it or not you about to get free of, or definitely lighten one of the many burdens of the small business person - - your office computing and networking chained to the proprietary wall of Microsoft networking functionality.
Mark Twain once remarked, “You can’t believe your eyes if your imagination is out of focus.” Imagine being able to work remotely with administrative privileges from your Linux Lite laptop using a fully and accurately implemented Windows 10 remote desktop. Imagine having full administrative access with your Linux Lite laptop to all your Windows 10 files via Samba file sharing. Imagine the same remote desktop possibilities for other Linux, or Debian systems on your Linux Lite laptop. Imagine having the secure file transfer protocol from other Linux systems available on your Linux Lite laptop. Imagine having a remote desktop of your Linux Lite laptop available to other Linux computers on your network. Imagine all these powerful networking capabilities via more secure private ad hoc wifi in your home or small business office. Imagine the cross platform device compatibility issues (printers, scanners, faxing, cameras, security systems issues, appliance setups, media setups, etc.) that can be solved using these powerful Linux networking solutions, via inter-office private ad hoc wifi, or NAT via your office router, with your Linux Lite laptop. Imagine being able to work in comfortable ways with Linux and simple user friendly GUIs. Imagine Linux Lite networking power. Imagine I’ve seen all this and more with my eyes. Imagine yourself seeing it too.
Tutorial (1)
Using Remmina To Produce Windows 10 HE Remote Desktop In Linux Lite 3.0
This tutorial is specific to using the user GUIs and setting up the remote desktop protocol in a Windows10 Home Edition desktop, or laptop, and installing the Remmina remote desktop application to your Linux Lite 3.0 desktop or laptop within your home or office wifi network, in order to work on your Windows10 computer with administrator privileges from its remote desktop on your Linux Lite 3.0 computer. For this to work efficiently you will need at least 2 gig of ram on each computer and preferably at least a 2.33 gig cpu on each. The Windows 10 Home Edition computer will normally be 64 bit, but RDP via Reminna will work from Linux Lite 3.0 with either a 32 bit, or 64 bit computer on the Linux end.
*Recommended preparations for Windows 10 Home Edition:
Windows10 Home Edition does not come with much of an onboard office suite. Because Linux Lite 3.0 comes with the powerful Libreoffice suite to increase the functionality of Remmina’s remote Windows10 desktop in Linux Lite 3.0 I suggest you download Libreoffice for Windows10 and install it to your Windows10 Home Edition computer before installing and configuring its missing remote desktop protocol. If you are running Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise and have the complete MS Office suite; it is already compatible with Libreoffice and this step is unnecessary. You can download Libreoffice for Windows from the link below for 64bit:
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/?type=win-x86_64&version=5.1&lang=en-US
After installing Libreoffice and rebooting your Windows10 Home Edition computer open -Menu>Settings>System>Default Apps>Choose Default Apps by File Type, and wherever applicable push the plus sign button and choose the appropriate Libreoffice App as the default.
Now on your Windows10 Home Edition computer making sure you are logged in to a user account with administrative privileges. Open >Menu>Settings>Network & Internet and from the right hand pane choose >Advanced Options. Set the make this PC discoverable button to >On and set the Metered Connection button to >Off. Leave this pane open and running in the background, as properties lists your Windows10 Home Edition computer’s IP address, and takes note of network changes after rdp configuration.
Windows10 Home Edition does not come with remote desktop protocol capabilities so you will first have to download and install rdpwrap. Open your Edge browser to download rdpwrap from the link below:
https://github.com/stascorp/rdpwrap/releases
Choose the zip file RDPWrap-v1.6.zip and download and save to downloads. Do not net install.
Open your Windows10 File Explorer and navigate to downloads. Find RDPwrap-v1.6.zip and extract all the files right where they are, allowing windows to select the directory. A second File Explorer window will appear on top of the original with the listed five extracted files. Click on and install >RDPwrap from the first file in the list. After installation has run click on >RDPconf which is the third file in the list. A window will appear called RDP Configuration. Wrapper state should read as installed, written in green on most computers. Service state may or may not be listed as running in green. Listener state may or may not be listed as listening in green. It’s fine. Check the box >Enable Remote Desktop Protocol. Ignore the port setting. Uncheck the box >Single Session Per User. Select the radio button >Network Level Authentication. This importantly allows you to allow windows to manage windows firewall settings without the necessity of recreating network groups and special private settings for each instance. Finally select the radio button >Full access with user’s permission. Close the window. You do not need to run the RDPcheck file. All the information you need will be in the pane you left open in the background at the beginning of this session. Now run the >update.bat first clicking on the file >update. The >run command is located in Menu>All Apps>Windows System>Run. Go back to your running Linux Lite3.0 computer now, and leave your Windows10 computer as it is for the time being. The link below is a reasonably simple tutorial on this same process:
http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=faq-Windows-10&faq=129
*Installing Remmina on Linux Lite3.0
From your Linux Lite 3.0 computer open >Menu>System>Lite Software. Enter your administrative authentication and click >OK. Click >Yes to update software sources. Select the radio button >Install Software and click >OK. Find Remote Desktop Software on the list and select it with click >highlight and click the >Install button at the bottom of the page. Reminna will then install.
On your Linux Lite 3.0 computer open Menu>System>System Information> and scroll down to the >IP Connections tab in >Networks. Leave this window open and minimized running in the background, or on another desktop workspace in Linux Lite 3.0. You can use it to verify the rdp connection and take note of IP addresses as we go along with our installation.
Now on your Linux Lite 3.0 computer open Menu>Internet and double click Reminna. A window entitled Remmina Remote Desktop Client will appear. Open the tab dialogue called >Connection at the left top of the window and click select >New. A new window will appear on top entitled Remote Desktop Preferences. Go back to your Windows10 Home edition computer and in >File Explorer scroll down and click >Network. The first computer listed in network devices will have the correct netBIOS name of your Windows10 computer. Return to the Remmina window entitled Remote Desktop Preferences and enter the >netBIOS name of your Windows10 computer in the name box. In the group box enter >HomeGroup. Make sure you have an administrator account already in the HomeGroup on your windows10 Computer, and if not join the HomeGroup on your Windows 10 computer with an administrator user account, or create one and join HomeGroup.
The Protocol box should read RDP – Remote Desktop Protocol, which can be selected from the drop down menu. Now go back to your Windows10 computer, to the advanced options window you have left running in the background and obtain your Windows10 IP address. It will begin with 192.168. 0-254. and another number 0-255. You do not need any longer port number following the four segmented address. Return to your Linux Lite computer and type this address into the server box of the Remote Desktop Preferences window. Next in the user name box enter the user name of the user with administrator privileges on your Windows10 computer who is in the HomeGroup. Enter the password of that user in the password box. In the domain box simply enter >Windows.
Click the radio button under resolution selecting >Custom and choose the next smallest resolution to your current resolution, i/e if you are at 1280x1024 select 1024x768. Reminna has tools to enable full screen so there is no need to try and duplicate an impossible resolution and if you select one too big the remote desktop won’t appear when you load.
Leave the color depth box at 256 for now. It can always be changed later anyway. If you already have a smb share folder created in Linux Lite 3.0 enter it in the share folder box, otherwise leave it blank, or set to >none.
In the advanced tab of the Remote Desktop Preferences window select >poor (fastest) in the quality box. Select >Off in the sound box. Select >negotiate in the Security box. Leave the rest of the boxes blank and close the window.
In the Remmina Remote Desktop Client window click tab dialogue >edit>preferences to open Reminna preferences window. In the tab >options check the box >Remember last view mode for each connection. Check the box >Save settings when starting connection. Check the box >Always show tabs. Make sure >Default view mode reads >automatic, Tab interface reads >Tab by groups, and Scale Quality reads >Hyper.
Next click the >Resolutions tab, and select a resolution according to the method discussed above, If you are at 1280x1024 select by >highlight 1024x768.
Next click the >Applet tab. Check the box >Disable tray icon if you run multiple desktops in Linux Lite, otherwise annoyingly a system tray icon will appear on every desktop every time you open Reminna.
Next click the >terminal tab. Check the box >Use system default font. If you are running a 32 bit Linux computer the >Scrollback lines count should be 512, and 1024 if you are running 64 bit.
Next click the >RDP tab. The keyboard layout should be set to >Auto detect. Check the box >Use client keyboard mapping. The >Quality option should read >poor (fastest). You can select other options from the series of displayed check boxes, but I suggest you check none of them, as your settings can all be modified after the fact, and the simpler the better is always best when working with new or unfamiliar software. Close the Remmina window.
Your Linux Lite 3.0 computer is now ready to connect and load the remote desktop of your Windows10 computer onto your Linux Lite 3.0 desktop with full Windows10 file administrator access from your Linux Lite 3.0 computer.
*Connecting
Make sure both computers are running with wifi on and working.
Adding RDPwrap to your Windows10 Home Edition Computer does not change the user interface, so don’t expect to find any new settings options changes regarding RDP in the user interface, however one setting must be checked and/or prepared now, even though it seems counterintuitive. From your Windows10 Home Edition computer logged into the Windows user administrator account you have entered in Remmina, open >Menu>Settings>Network & Internet. Highlight >Wifi in the left pane. Scroll down to >Related settings in the right pane. Click on >Change advanced sharing options. Open the tab drop down menu >Private. Select the radio button >Turn on network discovery. Check the box >Turn on automatic setup of network connected devices. Select the radio button >Turn on file and printer sharing. Select the radio button >Allow Windows to manage HomeGroup connections. If these Settings were already present click the >cancel button. If you had to change them click the >save changes button and close the window. (If the settings were not present you may, or may not have to run the update.bat routine described above again.) DO NOT try setup RDP from the >Remote Desktop selection in >All Apps because Windows10 Home Edition does not contain the GUI options necessary in its standard interface, and they are not added by RDPwrap. Close all windows leaving only the >Menu>Settings>Network & Internet>Advanced options window with the IP information open so we can monitor what happens when try to connect.
Return to your Linux Lite 3.0 computer and leave the >Menu>System Information>Networks>IP connections window open that we opened earlier on another desktop, and open the Reminna again. Right click (it will highlight) on the listed saved connection you created earlier and left click >connect from the opened menu. This will load and enable your remote Windows10 Home Edition desktop onto your Linux Lite 3.0 computer. If a drop down login box appears login with the Windows10 user name with administrator privileges and password that you used in setup. Monitor the connection activity in the >IP connections window. IPv6 authentications should appear, and along with your Windows 10 computer’s IP address. Return to your Windows10 computer and monitor the changes there. If your Windows 10 remote desktop fails to load in Linux Lite, return to your Windows10 computer and run the update.bat routine again.
Once your Windows10 remote desktop loads successfully you can experiment with Remmina’s settings, and other issues like sound and video, keyboard options, file transferring, editors, and Libreoffice cross platform functionality. Using a Windows10 remote desktop in Windows administrator mode allows you make changes in Windows10, and Linux Lite 3.0 from your Linux Lite computer without having to go back and forth between them, or use USB and/or DVD transfers. Household devices such as alarms, cameras, home security, automobile security features, with tweaks and features that are only available for windows can now be controlled from your Linux Lite 3.0 computer. Remmina is powerful tool. I hope this tutorial helps you begin to enjoy its possibilities. Good luck!
*Read This Note: For those of you who set this up before your Windows 10 HE anniversary upgrade, unfortunately you will have to repeat many of these steps again. Take heart everything will work the same as before if you reset your sharing, and HomeGroup settings, adding the same administrator account to HomeGroup again, and installing RDPwrap again, (which will still be saved in downloads) and running the update.bat routine again.
Tutorial (2)
Using Samba To Retrieve Files With Administrator Access In Windows 10 HE To Linux Lite 3.0
I write these simple tutorials specifically for Linux Lite users, only intending on dealing with other operating systems as far as conveniently networking with them with Linux Lite, though many of these routines will work with other Debian and Ubuntu based systems. That said to configure Samba to work with Windows 10 Home Edition and gain full administrative file access to the Windows 10 HE system we need to bend Samba a little to that task. Samba is quite effective on Windows 10 for administrative file access with the network and share settings we have already enabled in the previous tutorial for RDP. In that spirit simply go the Linux section on Samba in the help manual >Linux Lite Help Manual>Network Shares: Menu, System, Network Share Settings and follow the instructions until you reach the section >Accessing Your Linux Lite Shares From Windows which will not work correctly for Windows 10 HE anyway, and stop there. Go ahead and set up a Samba user name, and password, and create a share file folder according to the manual if you like. On the script page make the change workgroup=HomeGroup using the Windows spelling and capitalization. Add your new share folder where appropriate and save the file. Log out and reboot your computer.
Open Thunar and backspace out the URI address bar completely and type smb:// ”the IP address of your Windows computer for the previous tutorial i/e 192.168.0.1-100.”/ and hit enter. When prompted backspace out your Samba user name from the box, and enter the user name of the Windows administrative account we began with here, leave HomeGroup as is, and enter the password for that user and hit >enter. From the folders that appear select >users. You will be prompted for user name and password again. Simply follow the procedure as before, and then click on the folder matching your administrative user name when it appears to access all your Windows 10 HE files from Linux Lite.
*Read This Note: A drive mount bar with address will appear in Thunar at this point below the >Browse Network bar, and as long as you don’t unmount the drive you can open and close Thunar during your session, and you can switch back and forth from your home directory as well using that bar) You can use Samba and Windows 10 remote desktop via Remmina at the same time, pretty much allowing you access and editing to anything on the Windows 10 box that you have editors for.
Tutorial (3)
How To Access Linux Files Ext4 From Windows 10 Via Windows to Linux Lite RDP
If you’re even a little like me, you probably have dual boot Windows/Linux systems on your home or small office computers, and have several computers, and devices as well. Just at home, in my case, two desktops, two laptops, and two tablets, in addition to a printer, a scanner, two blu ray players, two HDMI plasma TV’s, an X-box when the grandson visits, a broadband modem, two routers, not to mention four cell phones, several cameras including a digital movie camera when my son visits, and home and auto security, inside and out. I was hoping (probably just daydreaming unrealistically) that after the anniversary upgrade the Windows 10 installation on the little woman’s Dell would include the support for mounting ext2,3,4 partitions and enabling Linux file access, a feature that is already present in Windows 10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 on the go, but oh well, apparently not.
The Windows 10 HE remote desktop works so flawlessly and conveniently via wifi and Remmina on my Linux Lite 3.0 laptops, that gaining access to the Linux Lite 3.0 partition on the little woman’s Dell and its files from that Windows 10 remote desktop running on my Linux Lite 3.0 laptop would be the icing on the cake for me, at least around my house, and some of my customers’ office networks. It’s awful nice to be able to fix things, edit things for her, and add things to her computer from my laptop, sitting comfortably in bed watching television. Most of what I do these days anyway (in my so called retirement) involves using my Linux laptops to work remotely inside Windows 10, and occasionally inside Debian, mostly with home or small office private wifi and bluetooth device networks. In any case what we have here is a multiple problem if we are going to solve it Windows user (clicker) style.
Luckily for us FOSS has long had an evolving solution for extended partitions, called ext2fsd, and it does now work in Windows 10, but with some limitations in the onboard Windows File Explorer, which is a ram hog we don’t really want to deal with on our remote desktop anyway, so before we download and install ext2fsd, we’re going to download and install Double Commander to the Windows 10 OS. It’s free, nice looking, double paned, and easy to work with (clicker friendly) when dealing with files from two different (extended and NTFS) partitions; unless of course you already shelled out the bucks for Total Commander. The rest of the issues are resolved because per our other tutorial, our Windows 10 remote desktop running on our Linux Lite 3.0 laptop has administrative privileges in Windows 10; and all three of the systems, Linux Lite 3.0 on the laptop, Windows 10 and Linux Lite 3.0 each on their own partition on the desktop, have full updated installations of of Libreoffice.
Okay. Both of the download and installations we are about to do in Windows 10 may warn about signing if you have developer mode enabled like me, or if you have windows store only enabled, which is the default. You can ignore the warnings in this case, but if you want some of these types warnings to stop in the future, just check the Sideload Apps box for trusted sites before downloading, the one in the middle, located at >Windows Start Menu>Settings>Updates and Security>For Developers. Just download from the trusted web sites below and save to downloads, which is also default. Do not net install. You can go ahead and download and save both applications in downloads, but it’s cleaner for the Windows registry to install Double Commander before ext2fsd.
The link below is the web site for Double Commander. Navigate to the latest safe download for Windows from there. Do not use after market software sites to download and install windows apps, like cnet, softpedia, or alternativeto, because they are quite often not up to date for versions and sometimes, especially with Windows apps, contain spyware, adware, and nuisance activate-ware. After installing Double Commander by clicking the install/execute file you saved to downloads, open Double Commander and check to see if it is working, then close it, and log out and reboot your computer.
http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net/
The link here below is the web site for extfsd. Navigate to the latest safe download from there. Download ext2fsd and save to downloads.
The link here below is to a tutorial on installing ext2fsd in Windows 7. It is still functionally instructional for Windows 10 because the wizard is essentially the same. Fairly simple, but read below for my prescription on drive letter assignment.
Windows drive letter assignment is fairly flexible these days, but there are certain inflexibilities that can show up in some older BIOS versions even if you are running Windows 10. C: is always the Windows OS. A: is always a legacy drive. B: is normally used by the BIOS. The second internal HDD used to always be D:, but that is not the common case anymore. Nowadays E: F: and sometimes D: are used for CD/DVD first and then USB. G: used to almost always be used for external HDD’s, and G: and Z: were often used for zip drives a few years back. Q: is reserved as a windows virtual drive if it appears. In any case just keep it simple for future changes. Assign the drive letter L to the first Linux OS partition on the disk after Windows leaving space for later changes to the mount manager registry that will not require any overwriting, such as adding a new HDD, SSD, or external drive. Click on the install/execute file for ext2fsd you saved to downloads, and following the tutorial above, install and then assign the drive letter L: to your ext4 partition, the one with Linux Lite 3.0 on it. Exit the ext2fsd GUI, leaving it set to run at startup, and log out and reboot your computer.
Log in to the Windows 10 computer with the same administrator account you used when you set up your Windows 10 remote desktop in Remmina on your Linux Lite 3.0 laptop. Go sit down on the couch, turn on the TV and fire up your Windows 10 remote desktop on your Linux Lite 3.0 laptop. Then open up Double Commander and select the C: drive in the left pane, and the L: drive in the right pane. Navigation is fairly simple, and you can now drag and drop files from your Linux Lite partition on drive L: over to directories on your Windows 10 partition on drive C:. Once relocated onto drive C: many kinds of Libreoffice files you created on the Linux Lite partition can now be opened in Libreoffice for Windows. From there you can copy and paste them into Libreoffice on your Linux Lite laptop. A user tip: do not save the files into Windows. Just click >edit>select all, then >copy, and then right click paste them into Libreoffice on your Linux Lite laptop.
Tutorial (4)
Add More Versatility With Double Commander In Both Windows 10 And Linux Lite
Open Synaptic in Linux Lite >Menu>System>Install and Remove Software. Set to >All in the left menu. Type “double commander” in the search box. Mark the GTK2 double commander package for installation. Agree to mark the dependencies. Click >Apply from the upper menu bar, and double commander will install. Log out and reboot your computer.
Open Thunar as before in Linux Lite 3.0, loading your Windows files. Close Thunar leaving the Windows drive mounted. Open your Windows 10 remote desktop with Remmina. Open its Double Commander setting the left pane to drive C: and the right pane to drive L:. Now open Double Commander on a second desktop in Linux Lite so you can switch back and forth. Be patient it may take ten seconds or so to load the first time. Set the left hand pane to your home directory, the second symbol to the left of the little arrow in the upper right of the pane “~”. In the right pane click >gvfs. Click the directory entry that appears and reads something like “samba server with your Windows 10 computer’s IP address”, not the Workgroup directory. Your Windows 10 file system will open for navigation. Now switch back to your remote desktop and drag and drop a Linux file into Windows (L: drive to C: drive, right to left pane) from the Linux Lite 3.0 partition that dual boots with Windows 10. Pick a document or png the first time to test. Now switch back to your Linux Lite desktop and drag the same file from Windows 10 (the gvfs pane) into your Linux Lite home directory and open it to test it. With appropriate editors and applications you can now move and work on files from all three systems with ease.
Tutorial (5)
Putting Your Linux Lite To Windows 10 Network Power Onto More Secure Ad Hoc Wifi
*Read Important Note: There is a considerable amount of information on this subject available on the Internet, and most of it is either incomplete, flawed, dated, or just plain confusing. Best to ignore it all even at MS sites, and follow this tutorial exactly. Once everything is working you can create some shortcuts and make additions to simplify things.
Using an ad hoc wifi connection rather than infrastructure mode has some security advantages for small private networking, most notably the air gap principal, because such connections in almost all cases have only a range of thirty to sixty feet. The biggest disadvantage is that they do not scale well, usually only functioning well as connections between two devices at a time, as adding a third device becomes too resource heavy for some system hosts, not to mention localized radio interference problems. In all honesty, adding a short range second router to your home or small office network is a better, easier, and more fully featured solution, which will allow you set up your private network in infrastructure mode without running through your broadband providers router and modem. Not all NICs support ad hoc wifi though support is good for Broadcom, and reasonably there for Atheros, that I am aware of at this time. Linux wifi support is always adding new NIC support, so you may want to check. The first link below has current information on the general state of wifi in Linux, and about everything currently available you would ever want to read on the subject. The second link is a simple explanation of the differences between ad hoc and infrastructure mode from the howtogeek.
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/
To begin, staying within our clicker GUI friendly philosophy, we are going to install a simple little Linux radio network signal monitoring application to our Linux Lite 3.0 laptop. Click >Menu>System>Install/Remove Software to open up Synaptic. Set to >All in the left menu and then type – linssid into the search box. Mark the package for installation and agree to any dependencies and LinSSID will install. After installation click >Menu>Internet>LinSSID and authenticate when prompted, and LinSSID will load. In the window that appears click the >paused button and the application will begin scanning. Click on the 2.4 GHz tab and color coded signal strength and time graphs will appear for all locally accessible wifi networks. You can obtain SSIDs, MACs, Channels, type of Privacy, WPA,WEP, etc., Cipher, Signal, and Protocol information. We will use this to confirm the ad hoc broadcast signal from the hosted network on our Windows 10 computer.
*Configuring ad hoc wifi in Windows 10
The first thing we need to do is check to see if the drivers are there for ad hoc wifi on our Windows 10 computer. Since Windows 7 configuring ad hoc wifi has been disallowed from the GUI. As I chuckle a little at the irony of having to break my promise for a GUI clicker friendly solution because of Windows 10 rather than Linux, we still can enable a relatively quick solution via the Windows 10 command terminal.
If you are not already, log into Windows with the same administrative account we used to configure RDP from Windows, and file sharing in our past tutorials. Open the Windows command prompt terminal by clicking >Start>All Apps>Windows System>Command Prompt. A terminal should appear reading at the prompt – c: users/ “the user name of the administrative account you are logged in with”/ followed by a flashing cursor. We are going to search for ad hoc network drivers. Type carefully at the command prompt – netsh wlan show drivers – and then hit >enter.
A list of drivers should appear. Somewhere around the eleventh line in the list an entry should appear reading – Hosted network supported : Yes. If the entry is not there, you do not have the drivers installed, or your machine NIC does not support ad hoc connections. If the entry does appear now type carefully – netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=”whatever you want to name your network” key=”a password of eight or more characters you choose” and hit >enter again.
A message should appear with a three item list as follows here. - The hosted network mode has been set to allow. - The ssid of the hosted network has been successfully changed. - The user key passphrase of the hosted network has been successfully changed. Now carefully type in – netsh wlan start hostednetwork - and your network should start. A message should appear reading as follows. The hosted network started. Yippee! Maybe.
Now return to your Linux Lite 3.0 laptop and observe LinSSID for any new wifi networks named with the name you just gave yours in Windows. Give it a few minutes. It should appear in the 2.4 GHZ tab, because we began with broadband initially, and be on channel 1 with WPA2 privacy and AES cipher. If it shows up congratulate yourself for using a Windows administrative terminal and not destroying your NIC. The signal will be stronger the closer the two computers are to each other, but quite adequate at twenty feet or so.
*Read this important note: We are not going to enable Internet provider access wifi sharing which can be done on the Dell, only because I have wifi here broad enough to cover about two blocks, and everything I own can connect to it, but it is possible to share wifi Internet access in this way if the router/modem is connected via ethernet cable. It’s just not something I need, or want via windows anyway, and the current ethernet connection is shared by my home blu ray players, and wifi and LTE accessible home camera systems already. The method we are using is easier on Windows resources however, but you will have to stop your hostednetwork server from the command prompt -netsh wlan stop hostednetwork - and re-enable DHCP in Windows again for your regular wifi Internet access provider connection afterwards via Windows network troubleshooter, when you are done using your Windows 10 hosted network. Inconvenient, but an internal Windows 10 quality we can do nothing about because it is linked to their so called troubleshooting applications. And when you want to use the hostednetwork server again you will have to use the command – netsh wlan start hostednetwork – to start it. If you use Windows Desktop icons you can place a shortcut for this on the desktop that will work for starting hostednetwork again. Ah, Windows 10 brilliance at work again.
We know our new network is broadcasting now, so we need to discover its IPv4 address. With Windows hostednetwork the numbers sets will be common across most machines. Return to you Windows computer and click >Start>Settings>Network & Internet, scroll to and click >Change adapter settings. From the list of networks find the one with the name you just gave it and click on it. Click the button above >View status of this connection. From the window that opens click >details… Write down the IPv4 auto-configured address for later reference (i/e should be something like 169.254.231.0-100) then click >Close, and then click >Close again, and exit >Settings.
Return to your Linux Lite 3.0 laptop. We can close LinSSID now. Click the >button now described as >scanning… to pause the scan process. Click >File from the window menu, then from the drop down menu click >exit. Now click >Menu>System>System Information, scroll down and click >Network>IP connections. Leave this window open running in the background or on another desktop. We will use it to confirm our connection. At this point patience should become our watchword, because some of the file sharing protocols will at first be slow on the Windows side, much like the first time we set up samba, because our ad hoc network connection is new to our Windows box. We are all definitely a little spoiled with Linux Lite 3.0 and its speed.
Because our new network is AES cipher, and WPA2 we cannot use the Linux ad hoc protocol to connect to it with Linux Lite because WPA2 has no easily and/or reliably configured support in Linux ad hoc wifi, allowing only WEP which is deprecated. (I usually use none when connecting two Linux computers via ad hoc) We must treat our new Windows hosted network connection much like a broadband provider Internet wifi connection in our Linux network manager. The easiest way to do so requires manual IPv4 addressing with Windows client/server numbering protocols. Our Windows file sharing protocols should already be correct for us in the Windows 10 Homegroup we previously configured, but now must find their way to the new hosted network so there may be a delay when opening files from the server with Thunar the first time.
Now on your Linux Lite laptop click on the >wifi icon in the system tray and click the new network to connect. Let it go through the whole process, enter a password when prompted etc. and let it not connect, because it won’t. Click on the >wifi icon in the tray again, and scroll to and click >edit connections. Highlight the now listed new network and click >edit. Click on the >General tab and uncheck the box >automatically connect to this network when it is available. Check the box >all users may connect to this network. Uncheck the box >automatically connect to a vpn when using this connection. Leave the firewall zone set to >default. Now click the tab >wifi. Mode should be >client and MTU should be >automatic. Now click the tab >wifi security. Security should be >WPA & WPA2 Personal. Check the >show password box, and make sure the password of your new network is correctly entered, or if it’s not there type it in.
Now click the >IPv4 tab and from the Method menu select >Manual. Click the >Add button to the right of the address and type the following address >169.254.231.0 (the numbers that match the port conventions of your Windows computer that we wrote down before, except for the last number which we enter as 0) and hit >enter. Now type 255.255.255.0 and hit >enter. Now type 0.0.0.0 and hit >enter. Now click the IPv6 tab and check to see that it is set to automatic. Click the >Save button. Close the edit connections window. Click the >wifi icon again and select your new network. It will connect if you have not missed any steps. In some cases it may ask for your network password again.
Now open Thunar as we have been doing all along. Click the >browse network bar in the lower left pane. Do not highlight or attempt to open the Windows Share file. Backspace out the URI command line and type in i/e, smb://169.254.231.94 (use the IPv4 address for your Windows computer we wrote down before) and hit >enter. As in our other tutorials when prompted backspace out your samba user name and enter the Windows administrative account user name and password we previously set up leaving Homegroup as it is. Again then click the file >Users from the files that appear and enter the info again leaving Homegroup as is for group. Open the user file that is the administrative account in your case, and access the files on you Windows computer. Once connected, if you decide to use Double Commander click >gvfs in the right hand pane, and look for the entry reading something like, samba server with your Windows computer’s address i/e 169.254.231.94, (not the 192.168.0.5 convention that may be there from our last tutorial) and navigate through the files that appear. You may now access and share files using the more secure ad hoc Windows hosted network via wifi with no router in between. Ranges vary depending sometimes on building construction, and the range of specific 802.11 broadcasters, but I can connect from most areas of the house, except parts of the basement. Best times for channel 1 and 2.4 GHz are of course when there is the least traffic. Give it a try. It may work very well for you, in some cases faster than running through your router.
*Read This Note: As I noted previously, after using the hostednetwork, you will have to re-enable DHCP for your Internet provider broadband wifi connection, something that can be done easily with the Windows network troubleshooter. I have been asked/criticized to elaborate a little bit as to why this must be a condition for Windows, and how it is essentially a part of the network and sharing troubleshooter software, and though it can be be reassigned, most ordinary windows users should not attempt to tamper with this unless they are very sure of what they are doing, because it will disable the auto-configure DHCP functionality in Windows network manager, and render the Windows network troubleshooter ineffective.
Windows uses the APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) Windows reserved range of IPv4 addresses (169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254) for its basic network manager auto-configure DHCP functionality. Basically these addresses are simply client fall back IP addresses included in Windows ARP to allow IP addresses to be assigned for connectivity when DHCP fails on a remote server, or for some reason on a Windows client. They are part of the Windows network troubleshooter, and are automatically assigned in instances of server DHCP failure to allow client side DHCP to continue to run and periodically check for returned DHCP functionality. This process is also one those manually invoked with the Windows network troubleshooter. So in essence we are waylaying the Windows network troubleshooter and putting it to work for us to allow private ad hoc wifi when we use these APIPA addresses.
This particular method of auto-configuring recognition instances of DHCP in the Windows network manager is why we must use APIPA addresses to obtain ad hoc wifi in Windows in the first place. It is falsely recorded by some pseudo-technical advisories that using these addresses for private networking should not be done. As we are essentially only temporarily disabling DHCP auto-configure, and restoring it after use, it is just plain stupid to argue that IP addressing conflicts can arise. In fact IP addressing conflicts cannot occur when auto-configure DHCP is not running in Windows because connectivity to public addressing via DHCP is impossible in Windows under that condition, and if it wasn’t that way APIPA would not serve its intended redundant functions in Windows.
We Linux users may wonder what in the world is the point of this redundant APIPA + ARP convention and auto-configure DHCP fall back protocol, unless of course we consider the Windows network troubleshooter and all the Windows GUI clicker friendly so called repair and fix tools, and the millions of users brought up on such devices, often experiencing their first computing in such environments. Certainly we Linux users can set up ad hoc wifi, and bind specific interfaces to our servers, virtual servers, and clients, and key and password them all, and run several kinds of packet encryption effectively. Finally we downloaded LinSSID simply to provide a simple GUI radio signal scanner to correctly verify our Windows hostednetwork ad hoc wifi broadcast signal because Windows hostednetwork ad hoc wifi cannot be simply pinged, generally returning null replies.
Tutorial
(6)
Installing
And Using Bash In Windows 10 With Remote Desktop And Samba
I
like the fact that the new bash shell in Windows 10 can be called and
worked with directly from a Windows 10 remote desktop running on a
Linux Lite
computer
simultaneously
running samba;
though
there are caveats anyone using it this way should be aware of.
Importantly you should think of the whole Windows bash
thing
more like a old Windows 3.2 system and you’ll get a sense of the
risky system
topology
that sometimes is created in your Windows system with the new bash
shell. Remember why you never ran some DOS games as a Windows
administrator back then? You can change and even break parts of your
Windows system with bash, because it can access Windows files system
wide. I’ve tested this myself, and you need to be rather careful
with remove commands from the bash shell. You can unintentionally
remove
parts of your Windows system by accident.
*Installing Ubuntu Bash In Windows 10
Log into your Windows 10 computer with the administrator account you use for remote desktop and samba we previously set up. With your Windows computer connected to the Internet, click >Start>Settings>Update And Security and select >For developers in the left pane. In the right pane click >Developer mode. Exit settings and next click >Start>All Apps> scroll to and click on >Windows System, then scroll to and click on >Control Panel. Click >Programs, then in the right pane of the window that appears, listed under the heading Programs And Features locate and click on >Turn Windows Features On Or Off. Then in the smaller Windows Features window that appears, scroll and locate and check the box next to >Windows Subsystem For Linux (Beta). Click the >OK button to the lower right of the window. You will be prompted to restart your computer. Accept, and click >Restart Now.
After your computer restarts, log in as the administrator account we have been using all along in our Linux Lite power networking tutorials, and click >Start>All Apps>Windows System>Command Prompt, and type the following command carefully: lxrun /install /y and hit>enter and bash will install with a passwordless root prompt. Otherwise click >Start and type bash and click on the >bash entry that appears in the menu. Bash will appear and you’ll be prompted to accept the terms of service. Type y and hit >enter, and your download will begin. You will eventually be prompted to create a user name and password for bash. In my experience the second method here, though you wouldn’t think it should, took considerably longer than the first, on one computer hanging several times as the subsystem was created, and not returning the command prompt for quite a while, actually a few days or so, and several restarts. It’s a good idea to run any hanging Windows 10 updates you may have before attempting to install bash with the second method described here, or you may wait a day, or more for it to set up and install, especially if you are regularly using the computer you are trying to install to in the meantime. It’s also a good idea to have your Windows 10 system on at least a 250gig partition if you expect it to have any decent longevity of future service.
Once your new bash shell has loaded with the command line, which should read like this: root@localhost:/mnt/c/WINDOWS/system32# you can log out and restart your computer again, logging back in again as the administrator account we have used in our previous tutorials. Click >Start and type bash, and click on >bash from the menu that appears, and your bash shell will appear with its command prompt. Type into the shell at the prompt, and run: apt-get update. Repository updates will load. Nano and Ubuntu/vi stubs are on already on board your bash version, but can be updated if you like though there is rarely anything there. If you like just enter apt-get install nano, and any updates will load. You can add PPAs and git as well if you like.
If you installed your bash using the faster first method above, or if you want to add any other new users to bash type in the command: adduser newusername i/e, whatever user name you like, but it will be easier if you want to set up SSH in your new bash to use your Linux Lite sudo user name and password as we have been doing all along. A dialogue will appear prompting you to create a password. Then annoyingly a dialogue will appear asking for user information, which you thankfully can leave blank, just hit >enter, and your new user and password will be created. To make the user a sudo user the new Ubuntu/Windows way you will have to use the visudo command. Enter the command visudo and the user privileges file will appear. Do not attempt to do this any other way, i/e the new Debian way, or you’ll make a mess. Add your new user below the root user with the privileges ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL if you want sudo, and your new user will have sudo privileges. Hit control+x, then y, then hit >enter to save changes.
Now to set your new user as the default (the one that appears in the bash command line) you will have to open the Windows command prompt. Type exit into your bash shell and hit >enter to close it. Next click >Start >All Apps>Windows System>Command Prompt and a Windows terminal will open. Now enter the command at the Windows command prompt: lxrun /setdefaultuser newusername (the one we just created in bash) Windows will locate the user we created earlier in bash calling it a UNIX user with a UNIX password. Follow the dialogue agreeing where appropriate, and Windows will install your new sudo user as the default user in your bash shell command line.
Now click >Start again and type bash clicking on >bash when it appears in the search menu, and bash will open again. Position the two terminals next to each other, so you can work from both, and this will give you an aesthetic sense of how this system actually works. It is a Windows system, using Windows system calls to emulate Linux system calls. Remember this if you do manage to mess up your new bash, because to remove it and re-install it you will need to use the Windows command line not the bash command line. Your new bash command line should now read differently. The # should now be replaced with the $ indicating you are not root, i/e, newsusername@localhost: followed by /mnt/c/WINDOWS/system32$ Now you will have to enter the sudo prefix and be prompted for a password to make changes. You now have a working bash shell in Windows 10 with a sudo user.
If you have been following our basic power networking tutorials, we have already installed Double Commander to our Windows 10 computer, and to our Linux Lite computer, and enabled samba and remote desktop protocol between our Windows 10 and Linux Lite computers with full administrator privileges in Windows 10. Now make sure both computers are connected to the Internet and open Thunar on your Linux Lite computer, and backspace out the URI address line entering smb://192.168.0.5 (the same IP for your Windows 10 computer that we used for your remote desktop connection) Hit >enter and then backspace out your samba user name when it appears, replacing it with the Windows administrator account we used before, leaving HomeGroup as is, and entering that account’s password. Click on >Users from the files that appear, and repeat the routine as above for account and password. Next click on the >user name that matches our administrator account and the Windows file system will appear. Close Thunar leaving the Windows drive mounted, and open Double Commander.
After Double Commander opens select >gvfs in the right hand pane and click on the directory line that reads something like samba share server with your Windows computer IPv4 address i/e 192.168.0.5. From the directories that appear click on the Windows administrator account >user name we have been using all along. From the directories that appear click >AppData. From the directories that appear click >Local. From the directories that appear click >lxss. Familiar looking Linux directories will then appear. Now click on >rtfs and a familiar Linux root file system will appear, with whatever actual Linux files exist in your bash setup on Windows 10, but keep in mind, this will be a very small file system, not a full Linux kernel installation, as the Windows kernel emulates the Linux kernel.
Okay. Now on another desktop just for convenience sake go ahead and open Remmina and enable our Windows 10 to Linux Lite remote desktop. Give it a minute or two to resolve the dual connection. Now go ahead and click >Start, type in bash, and click on >bash when it appears in the search menu, and your bash shell in Windows 10, on its remote desktop in Linux Lite will load. Now click >Start>AllApps>Windows System>Command Prompt, and your Windows 10 command terminal will load to your remote desktop. The power is there. The rest is up to your imagination.
I expect most new Windows 10 bash users to make mistakes with updates and/or upgrades as it seems the software repositories Windows 10 uses from Canonical do not yet make distinctions concerning initramfs system calls, so don’t be upset if you do too. Unfortunately once installed this usually messes up other software functionality in Windows 10 bash causing an Ubuntu call that cannot be gotten rid of easily. It’s often simpler, given the proprietary nature of the underlying system call emulation beast, to just uninstall and reinstall bash. If you’ve accidentally wrecked your bash in Windows 10 click >Start>AllApps>Windows System>Command Prompt and at the prompt enter: lxrun /uninstall /y This command will not remove the bash home folder from the system containing preferences and saved files. To remove your bash home folder too enter the command: lxrun /uninstall /y /full and bash will be completely removed. To reinstall bash just use the command we used initially lxrun /install /y , and set up your sudo user, and so forth again.
*Read This Note. I initially scanned my home network with nmap after installing bash to Windows 10 with root without password as above, and developer mode enabled. Nmap did not return the Ipv4 address for the Windows 10 computer where bash now resides. I rescanned the undiscovered IPv4 host address directly (which still worked for samba and remote desktop) for both ports and OS, and the host was there, but encrypted in the router tables, so it could not recognized as active with nmap. Apparently adding bash in this fashion (no root password), or enabling Windows developer mode, automatically enables IPv6 addressing, if your router can conform to the protocol, which makes sense if one is going to use a root terminal with no password. For those of you who wish to set up SSH in the Windows 10 bash shell this is something to consider, besides the missing chroot functionality. Make sure SSH and SSL are allowed through your Windows firewall. They are listed with check boxes. Click on >Start>Settings>Network And Internet and in the lower right pane click >Windows Firewall. In the window that appears, in the upper left pane click >Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall. In the next window that appears click the >Change settings button and scroll down to SSH and SSL and check the boxes to allow the protocol through the Windows firewall.
Tutorial (7)
Installing Open SSH In Windows 10 For SFTP Windows 10 To Linux Lite
The reports concerning SSH in Windows 10 post anniversary update systems, are a bit confusing on the Internet thus far. I have sifted through many, including the Windows developer sites, and it seems that Windows 10 does contain an SSH proxy setting service with the new system, for some cross platform cloud connectivity, but with some limitations like requiring Putty and/or Cygwin. Personally I rarely use any of the cross platform emulation tools like Putty, Cygwin, Wine, or even the old Ndiswrapper, finding them mostly unnecessary for my normal small business office network and system administration work. I most often connect one of my Linux laptops to the networks I maintain or configure, usually personally present in the offices, using an ethernet d/c, or an ad hoc wifi connection. My need to use SSH/SFTP is rare at best. All that said, the newest version of open SSH works well enough on Windows 10 so we are going to go ahead with a basic setup and test it connected to my Linux Lite 3.0 laptop.
*Setting up open SSH/SFTP in Windows 10
The first thing we are going to do is locate the newest open SSH version for Windows 10 download site. The link below is the correct link. Go to your Windows 10 computer and bring up the site. Scroll to the newest version which will be the first one (setupssh-7.3p1-2.exe) as of today, and click on the file. No need to download the source files listed below it separately. Save the file to downloads on your Windows 10 computer. Do not net install.
http://www.mls-software.com/opensshd.html
It’s okay to scroll down and follow the tutorial on this download site below the file version listings, but with a few convenient changes since we intend to connect Windows 10 to a Linux computer and recognizing our Linux local users is more Windows work than it’s worth. Open File Explorer and find the setupssh exe. file in downloads and click on it to start the installer wizard. In the first set up window go ahead and select client, server, and Start Menu shortcuts. This will give you options to select where the files are installed (default is okay for this) and where the shortcut is placed. (Windows Administrative Tools folder is what I use) When the installation wizard window appears entitled “Install Local System or SSHD_Server account” you must select >Run as SSHD_server to connect in the simplest way to Linux connections. Click on the password, and backspace it out replacing it with a new strong password of 13 mixed characters. Write it down somewhere. This is the administrative password for the SSH server, not used (do not use it) for SSH login purposes. Click the radio button >No for user privilege separation. Choose an available listener port, or use default 22. Change the encryption bit depth for generating keys to 4096 if you like. In the installation wizard window entitled “Create Password and Group Files” click the radio button >Local Users. (which would be the users of your Windows 10 computer in this case) Click >Next and SSH will install to Windows 10, several terminal screens flashing by during installation depending on how many local users you have.
Open up a command prompt terminal in Windows 10 and type carefully: ssh -V and your openssh version will be listed. To check your open SSH installation without opening a terminal click >Start>Windows Administration Tools>Services and when the service listing window appears scroll through the services in right pane to find >Open SSH Server. It should read >automatic and should be running, as it starts upon installation. Close the service listing window and scroll through the >Windows Administrative Tools folder listings and find >Open SSH For Windows Web Site. Okay. Our installation is complete. Log out and reboot your Windows 10 computer.
Return to your Linux Lite laptop and open Thunar. Backspace out the URI address bar and type:
sftp://192.168.0.5 i/e the IPv4 address of your Windows 10 computer and hit enter. You will be prompted for a user name and password. Because our new open SSH server on our Windows 10 system is set to local users *(see note) simply type in the user name of the Windows 10 administrative account we have been using all along through these tutorials and enter the password and your Windows 10 files will appear in Thunar via SFTP including whatever Linux files you may have added with bash in the WSL system located at >Users / (the administrative account user name we have been using all along) / AppData / Local / lxss/rootfs. *(Note that in our original setup of samba for windows 10 HE we had to enter a Windows administrative account user name, a Windows user group, and password twice. Once for initial file access, and again for user privilege access, a method only best used over an ad hoc wifi or ethernet d/c because of the lack of encryption over radio and a DHCP connection.)
Now close Thunar leaving the Windows 10 volume mounted as in our previous tutorials, and open Double Commander on your Linux Lite 3.0 laptop. Look for an entry in the right pane reading something like sftp:host=192.168.0.5 i/e the IPv4 address of your Windows 10 computer, and click on it to expand and move through your Windows 10 directories, folders and files. Congratulations you now have SFTP enabled and working on Windows 10.