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GUI File Management Tool
On our local Ubuntu installation there is a file manager called Midnight Commander.
It offers a two window file examination program much like the old Norton Commander. To those of us used to dealing with a GUI and lacking in-depth command line knowledge, it sure would be a useful tool.
Is there an equivalent in the Netgear environment?
If not, somebody could be a ‘hero’ by figuring out how to port it to the Netgear environment.
KUDOS to OOM-9
Thank you to others who pointed to a good terminal emulator.
This discussion is intended to be the analog of a Midnight Commander Installation cookbook.
The audience is Windows centric users.
Midnight Commander is the essential equivalent of the (now discontinued) Norton Commander which was a GUI based (sort of) file management program in the early DOS and Windows days. It is fairly intuitive and easy to use.
For those of us who are Windows centric, the term root as a user with administrative privileges and where the root of the data (system) is located is not necessarily intuitive. The concept of a root user versus the actual root of the entire disk/partition was confusing for me. The two are different. Others may laugh.
A short discussion along with a link to the graphic of a representative Lunix system helped
Here is a link to the actual graphic
http://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/ITKE/uploads/blogs.dir/77/files/2008/09/linux_file_structure.jpg
My suggestion is to download the graphic .jpg file and save it. Open with your favorite picture viewer and then you can expand it for easier viewing.
After about 2 minutes the basic file structure becomes obvious and differences between a ‘root’ user and the important file locations (and actual file system root) becomes apparent for those of us who are Lunix novices.
You will need a terminal emulator program running on your workstation. In my case I used PuTTY as the terminal emulator. There are others.
Next you need to establish a connection to the ReadyNAS with your terminal emulator.
System >> Settings >> Enable SSH and SSH password authentication
Under System > Settings > Services you would need to enable SSH.
The login is 'root' (no quotes) and the password is the same as your admin password. Depending on how you have set up your terminal emulator these login credentials may be remembered.
You have opened up your system to possible compromise so now proceed with caution.
After achieving ReadyNAS root access with a terminal emulator it is fairly easy to move around the file system even with a limited knowledge of CLI syntax.
Installation of Midnight Commander was different than I expected and caused some apprehension…
Here is the ‘blow by blow’
Establish a CLI at root with your terminal emulator
apt–get update This is the command to enter at the CLI
Lots of text displayed with no indication of how/who/what. You are now apprehensive.
apt install mc
Lots more text displayed with no indication of how/who/what along with some other information. Now you are really apprehensive.
Answer “Y” to the question regarding whether to proceed with the installation.
To launch Midnight Commander simply enter mc at the command line.
To exit Midnight Commander simply enter ‘exit’ and you will be brought immediately back to the command line.
At this point I would disable SSH for security and peace of mind until you need to access it next time with your terminal emulator.
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There is a GUI File Management Tool in the admin interface when you go to the Shares/Browse; but that is not quite the same file management tool that you are mentioning in your thread.
The ReadyNAS is similar to Ubuntu (debian based). You do have an option to apt-get update; apt-get install mc; for the Midnight Commander file manager tool. (If that is your preferred method.
(Not NETGEAR supported, but the option is available if you would like to give it a run.)
Hope this isn't too much CLI for you.
Thanks for taking the tinme to reply.
I am up for trying almost anything -- we have a spare RN31200 in a non-critical role.
As you may have guessed, my experience in the Ubuntu environment is low. You said I "have an option to apt-get update; apt-get install mc; for the Midnight Commander".
For me the question is how? The apt-get in Ubuntu is surrounded by a useable GUI that even I can understand. That is not true foe the Netgear environment.
Any pointers you could provide to get the app installed would be appreciated.
Thanks
You would use SSH. The login is 'root' (no quotes) and the password is the same as your admin password.
Under System > Settings > Services you would need to enable SSH.
On Linux (e.g. Ubuntu) or Mac, you could access SSH via the Terminal.
On Windows, you could use PuTTY (a free SSH/telnet client for Windows).
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