Friday, August 18, 2006

Using Linux in a Microsoft World

Open Networks - Denver Linux Networking Part 1

Open Networks - Denver Linux Networking Part 2

I also work for a Microsoft/ Dell shop.  I am one of 4 network/ system administrators managing 530 desktops and around 20 Windows 2003 servers.  I have been using Linux (Debian and recently Ubuntu) for about 3 years.



Since I had control over my machine, I installed a second hard drive and attempted to install Linux without touching the Windows drive.  It was possible if I had Linux as the primary drive, but Windows doesn't work if it believes it is not on the primary drive.  I had to use grub to trick Windows into thinking it was the primary drive.  It is much easier to allow Linux to modify the boot sector on the Windows drive because you can always run fixmbr.exe from an old Win98 boot disk to revert.



You can authenticate on a Windows domain without joining the computer to Active Directory.



smbclient \computernameshare -U username -W domain                # ftp client

smb://username@computername/share                                        # for Gnome Nautilus smb.conf needs
the domain listed to resolve to the default domain



Kerberos is even better but I never figured out how to get Gnome's Nautilus to work with Kerberos without joining the computer to the domain.



After I got XGL working with Ubuntu Dapper, I went Linux full time for a week.  XGL sounds like just fluff but I found it to be very useful for my dual monitor workstation



Just note, when I joined my computer to the domain, it showed up in the AD find box as a Domain Controller and in the properties box as a workstation or server.  I don't have rights to join a Linux computer as a domain controller and this field must be an reporting error.



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