Tutorial To Access Linux Lite files (ext4) From Windows 10 via rdp With Remmina
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. 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 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.
http://www.ext2fsd.com/ 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.
http://www.techgainer.com/how-to-mount-and-access-linux-partitions-ext4ext3ext2-in-windows-explorer-easily/ 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 left click paste them into Libreoffice on your Linux Lite laptop.
A Note About Samba, Remmina, and Windows 10 In Linux Lite 3.0
We enabled Samba a while back and noted a hitch in the manual tutorial regarding having full administrative privileges in the Windows 10 Home Edition, and/or in the click and run Windows 10 Edition. Also, if you have done the anniversary update, your user, homegroup, file sharing, and rdpwrap will all have to be reset/done again in Windows according to the setup we went through previously. Assuming you have successfully done that, it is easy to get to complete administrative file sharing from Windows again, but do not attempt to open the >Windows Network folder in Thunar, as this will attempt to load the wrong directory. We want the file access to the whole windows drive, not just WORKSPACE shares. Because we have set up administrative privileges (see my previous remarks on Samba setup) highlight the >Browse Network bar in Thunar, and then backspace out the command line and enter> i/e smb://192.168.0.3. , (which must be) the correct IP address of your Windows 10 computer and hit >Enter. When prompted for user name and password, enter the user with administrator privileges you selected the first time we set this up, leave the group as homegroup, enter the password, and navigate from the files that appear to >users, and select that same user, entering the same name and password again when prompted, leaving group as homegroup, and you will have full administrative file access to the whole Windows drive via that user. (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, and now including any file you move from the Linux Lite partition on your Windows box onto the C: drive.
With this powerful set up, and a little creativity, you will discover that you can solve many many many common device configuration and conflict problems right from your Linux Lite 3.0 laptop without resorting to a terminal. You now have Windows and Linux at your clicker’s beck and call, at the same time.
Good Luck
TC
