Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

A lot of folks here have trouble trying to figure out all the INs and OUTs of Terminal windows, SSH Clients, SSH Servers, SFTP, MC, VI, VIM, XTerm commands, etc

If you've never done all this stuff before, I have empathy for you, really I do. I have bad eyesight and don't type worth a crap, so it is tedious to me at times even if you do have Linux/UNIX experience.

Here's the solution for you Linux non-experts or Noobs.

BEWARE! This gives you FULL Point & Click Instantaneous destructive capabilities!

You will have FULL Root access to your N900 as a drive Letter in Windows.

Ain't no Cryin' in Baseball, remember that. Goes for UNIX too, if you do cry, do it quietly out back...

Very Easy

1) Go to Application Manager, install SSH Client and Server. I don't know if this is in Extras or Extras-testing, or wherever.
2) During install, you will be asked to set the root password, remember this.
3) Install this version of Netdrive from this webpage: http://www.medorion.net/p/24.xhtml Read the page it tells you how to setup to connect a drive letter as SFTP over SSH2.

I set this up on Win 7 in a few minutes.

Drive N: for my N900! Yippeee!

Username will be root
Password will be whatever you set up as

Use the IP address on your LAN for your URL/IP address to connect to.

If this was a help for you, heap some praise on me in the form of the THNAKS BUTTON!

EDIT: I was using Webdrive on my x64 Win 7 because Netdrive doesn't have 64 bit comparability yet(supposedly in a month). The Webdrive is not freeware. I liked it so much I put it on both my 32 and 64 bit systems. You can get it here.

http://www.webdrive.com/products/webdrive/index.html

Here's another well reviewed and slightly cheaper option from WebDrive.

http://www.expandrive.com/windows/

:cool:

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

is this the same as connecting to root@ip with winscp?

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

yes... but you can work with any prog you want.... examlpe i use totalcmd....

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

I use WinSCP at the mo, if i do it as said up above will my N900 show up in My Computer as the drive? And work like e.g my computers C drive? Meaning i just goto my computer, double click n900 drive to open it to view all directories and edit etc so i can access my n900 via my comp instead of a 3rd party app? Thanx

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

was really lookin forward to this, but that netdrive is not compatible with x64. is there an altetnative u know of

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

This is pretty sweet, because it just places a drive letter in "My Computer" so you work on it just like your "C" drive.

I opened Winrar and just dragged and dropped to the "N" drive.

I was using SecureCRT and SecureFX, but this works a ton more intuitive. Basically makes your N900 "drive" letter almost as nice as a Samba share.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Have you tried running in comparability mode. I haven't got around to Win 7 x64 yet.

EDIT: That does indeed suck. It works great on 32 bit Win 7 but not 64 bit. So back to the drawing board.

I'll post back when I find it.

All you 32 bit folks, Party On!

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

If you are afraid of the "FULL DESTRUCTIVE CAPABILITIES" you can connect as user instead of root. In fact I would highly recommend doing this as saving stuff to places like MyDocs as root can cause you all worlds of permissions headaches.

However it is slightly more complicated than simply connecting as root, as you need to use x terminal to set the password for user as by default it does not have one. You also need to be root so install rootsh from App manager before you start.

HOW TO SET A PASSWORD FOR USER:
Everything in quotes should be typed MINUS the quotes then press enter afterwards.

Now once rootsh is installed simply open x terminal (pressing Ctrl+Shift+X is the quickest way I find) then type "sudo gainroot". Now type "passwd user" and you will be asked for a new password for user, follow the instructions given. Once done if you get "Password changed" then all went well so you can just close x terminal now, if not then try again, you may have made a typo. If in doubt, close x terminal and start from scratch. The N900 will happily work even if you do not know the password for user and root can always change the user password without you needing to know what it currently is, so there is no worry of getting it wrong (as long as you do not mess up your root password when installing OpenSSH that is).

Once done, follow the instructions as in the first post but instead using user instead of root, and of course the user password you just set. This is far far safer as you cannot damage the root filesystem as user plus the permissions will correctly be set as user for any files you copy over to your N900.

DISCLAIMER:
I have not noticed any negative effect of setting a user password on my N900 but as the OS by default expects no password for user, I cannot guarantee something strange wont happen especially after a firmware update. But then you ALWAYS make a backup before a firmware update anyway, don't you!? Of course as long as your N900 boots correctly, you can always remove the password again later by doing the same thing but just leaving the password blank, so it would take a major cockup to cause a problem.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Here's the same solution for 64 bit users

However, it is Commercial, not Freeware.

http://www.webdrive.com/products/webdrive/winindex.html

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Netdrive is "supposed" to be offering 64 bit Support next month.

http://www.netdrive.net/phpBB2/viewt...c327911a93eda7

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Expect a bunch of "I copied some files back and forth, now it won't boot" posts with ****ed up file permissions.

ps. TotalCommander works just fine with sftp with a simple plugin (on 64 bit OS too).
http://elhana.ru/tc.jpg

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Hmmm, I haven't had any problems with it.

What dirs and what files did you have problems with?

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

I didn't have any problems either, but if you start messing with system files in root from windows you will eventually break it somewhere.
like /bin

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

can i use this setup for wifi connections

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Don't know about op - netdrive (I assume yes, it's just a wrapper), but sftp itself and tc plugin works over wifi just fine.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

I just use Tunnelier myself for both remote terminal and for sftp.
But this is a good method for those who want an explorer interface.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Yes, that's what it is for.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

THANKS,

winscp just became obsolete to me :D

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

The N900 looks and works just like any other drive in "My Computer"

SCHWEEEETT!!

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

I got this kind of thing working a while back using Dokan SSHFS for Windows. Not sure if it's better or worse, but it's an alternative. I did however find it made the N900 CPU run hot, so it's not recommended for streaming files off the N900 filesystem.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

no, it wont show up in "my computer".
but you will be able to access it as if it would be a drive thats listed in "my computer", its just that you access it through winscp, not through the windows explorer.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

You should read his question again carefully. He was not asking about winscp.


The Program mounts the N900 file system in Windows as a "Hard Drive" with whatever drive letter you assign to it. It does this with SFTP over SSH and creates the Virtual drive.

If you want to edit a file, you open the drive letter, in my case N: for N900. You then double click on the file, if it is a doc file, Word opens, you edit the file and hit save and close, and you're done, just like it was in Windows.

If Windows does not know which program to open, it asks you to pick a program. You don't have to learn Vi. No Terminal windows.

You can Right Click, cut -n- past, drag -n- drop, etc. And use all the tools you are used to.

This is the reason I posted this here. A lot of people have problem juggling all the things they need to do to change icons, or edit config files. This makes it a no brainer of you can work Windows.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

please read my post above this one, it answers your questions.


I ended up using Netdrive on Win 7 32 and Webdrive on Win 7 x64

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Wow, this is awesome, especially the TC plugin(since I use it most of the time at my computer). I forgot that TC needed a restart before the options would show up though, or I might just be blind :p
Oh well, working good right now.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Thanks for this thread - my N: looks very nice in explorer now.

A question about the speed: I get something like 300 kBytes/s when copying files from/to N900. It's damn slow! Is this normal, or am I missing something?

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

It's not going to be a speed demon for sure. It still has to do ssh and sftp. If I want to transfer large amounts, I plugin via the USB port. Smaller amounts this is perfect.

Hit the thanx button if any of this was any use to you!

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Found another piece of SW for doing this that has good reviews:

http://www.expandrive.com/windows/

Not Free, but cheaper than WebDrive and rated as highly.

I really like Webdrive. Not buggy and works well. I have two connections setup, one for the Real Root Dir and one for MyDocs. Can mount them both as different drive letters!

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

word of warning on NetDrive - I've found that it doesn't handle files/folders on WinXP with embedded spaces in the name very well - eg a folder "A test folder" containing "test file 1.txt" and "test_file_2.txt" on XP.

If I drag & drop that folder to n900 using the netDrive N: mapping I get the XP graphic for copy in progress but the netDrive pops up a message from the system tray saying "remote file not found". The copy operation on XP appears to complete (I end up with a folder "test folder" highlighted on the n900 window) - but if I refresh that window, the folder now shows just as "test" and has no contents in it.

If I highlight the folder and select "copy" manually form a right click, same thing happens (except the new folder on n900 is immediately visible as "test" without a refresh).

If you copy a folder that doesn't have embedded spaces (but contains files that DO) - eg. rename "test flfer" above as "test" - the operation succeeds ok, however you can't rename or delete "test file 1.txt" via XP's explorer window, netDrive gives "quote command returned error". Seems to me like the s/w is trying to put quotes around problematic DOS filenames, but is doing it unsuccessfully under some circumatances?

Still a very useful solution for drag & drop if you have well behaved folder/filenames, but unless there is a work around (and the NetDrive support forum is a tumbleweed repository!) then you should pay attention to the pop-ups (they're easily missed as they don't grab focus) and check results of all operations to ensure that they have done what you asked (like I said, it can appear to have worked OK until you do a window refresh ...)

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Thanx for that. I had some strange behavior but didn't notice that pattern. I have started using webdrive and it does not seem to have any of these issues. It is not freeware though, unfortunately.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Thanks very much for this, found a torrent of webdrive as I'm on Win7 64bit and works flawlessly.

+1 :D

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Is there anyway to do this over USB and not network?

(desktop pc is on a wired network and n900 is on a wireless network that is totally separate)

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

There is USB-Networking while in PC-Suite-Mode

Have a closer Look at

http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_USB_networking
[Edit: Corrected Link]

Never tried in Windows but it should work (ssh works perfectly for me over usb-networking)

Maybe you need to adopt your /etc/network/interfaces file on n900 if u want to disable setting up gateway through your pc

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

OK, got NetDrive running - and can log in.

;-)

Anyone an idea how to then have Windows Explorer go straight to:

[ IP number N900 ] /home/user/MyDocs/DCIM ?


Thanks for any help !

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

For example, you could use OpenSSH with WinSCP.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

OpenSSH is running - it all works fine.

But Windows Explorer starts in root on the N900, when I am connected by NetDrive.

I just want Windows Explorer straight open the subdirectory ../../../DCIM.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Edit: It was all lies :).

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Maybe setup a shortcut in Windows to point to there?

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Keep looking in the Netdrive options for initial directory, or whatever it is called.

I have different drive letters matched to different directories.

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Maybe you have a different version / configuration.

See comment at home website of NetDrive:

http://www.netdrive.net/phpBB2/viewt...ab432ed313c8d7

Re: Howto Work with N900 as a Drive Letter in Windows
 

Sorry, didn't read real close. I switched to WebDrive.