What's the easiest way to transfer files between two mint 18 xfce boxes connected by ethernet?

[pepperminty]

Dear fellow Mint Xfce users,

Do you know how, when you connect a USB drive or insert an SD card, most computers will automatically get everything ready, and even open up the right program (file manager) with a view of the home folder of the USB drive or SD card? Or, you know how, when you turn on wifi on your computer or device, you get a list of wifi networks, and it's as easy as selecting the wifi network, and entering the wifi password? I wish it were that easy when I connect two computers with an ethernet cable.

I don't want to mess with setting up IP addresses or DNS servers or do anything in terminal. I'd like a plug-and-play solution.

I have two Mint 18 Xfce laptops. One is Mint 18.1; the other is Mint 18.0. I connected the two with an Ethernet cable and I would like to transfer files between the two.

As I understand it, the other main Mint flavors (KDE, Cinnamon, Mate) have a GUI, out-of-the-box solution.

Please give me advice as though I'm your great-grandmother.

[Citizen229]

" I connected the two with an Ethernet cable and I would like to transfer files between the two. "
please define this.
a)Do you mean one computer is plugged directly to the other with a cable?
b) the 2 computers are each plugged into a 3rd device such as a router?

[pepperminty]

" I connected the two with an Ethernet cable and I would like to transfer files between the two. "
please define this.
a)Do you mean one computer is plugged directly to the other with a cable?
b) the 2 computers are each plugged into a 3rd device such as a router?

Yes, it's (a).
No, it's not (b).
[Mint 18.1 computer's ethernet port]<--ethernetcable--->[Mint 18.0 computer's ethernet port]

[Citizen229]

A) is possible in KDE,, cin,, and mate? please link, this is new to me.

[pepperminty]

A) is possible in KDE,cin, and mate? please link, this is new to me.

I communicated with people in IRC who said that these flavors' file manager has a way to share easily.

[shengchieh]

Will booting liveCD LM KDE on both computer work? Leave LM XFCE alone. Just use the liveCD LM KDE to transfer files between the two computers.

Sheng-Chieh

[CaptainKirksChair]

[Mint 18.1 computer's ethernet port]<--ethernetcable--->[Mint 18.0 computer's ethernet port]

You need one of these.

[pepperminty]

[Mint 18.1 computer's ethernet port]<--ethernetcable--->[Mint 18.0 computer's ethernet port]

You need one of these.

thanks, Cpt K's chair.

But is a crossover cable really necessary? Aren't some ethernet ports capable of doing crossover internally (i.e. without a crossover cable)?

[richyrich]

No crossover needed, as long as your network cards are newer than about 2005, I think it is called Auto-MDI or some such, gigabit network cards have autox, which is even better.

They each need a different IP address, then I would suggest you install Gigolo (in synaptic package manager) on each machine, and use the Gigolo program, which helps you set up shares on each pc. Then the shares should automagically show up in Thunar File Manager.

PS: when installing Gigolo, right-click on it again in Synaptic, and also install any recommended packages. You can check the suggested list too.

[Pierre]

you used to have to have a cross-over cable to direct connects two PCs,
but most modern Ethernet cards will auto-detect the type of connection.

simply connect an Ethernet to both PCs Ethernet port,
but you may still have to perform a little configuration,
& that's true even on a pair of Windows systems.

so, for a pair of Linux systems:
https://www.softprayog.in/troubleshooti ... -lan-cable
should give an idea of what is needed to be done.

but, there are simpler guides, on how to do this.

[pepperminty]

you used to have to have a cross-over cable to direct connects two PCs,
but most modern Ethernet cards will auto-detect the type of connection.

simply connect an Ethernet to both PCs Ethernet port,
but you may still have to perform a little configuration,
& that's true even on a pair of Windows systems.

so, for a pair of Linux systems:
https://www.softprayog.in/troubleshooti ... -lan-cable
should give an idea of what is needed to be done.

but, there are simpler guides, on how to do this.

Dear Pierre,
Thanks for writing, and for confirming that a crossover cable may be unnecessary.
The linked instructions is the opposite of what I was seeking. Lol.

[pepperminty]

No crossover needed, as long as your network cards are newer than about 2005, I think it is called Auto-MDI or some such, gigabit network cards have autox, which is even better.

They each need a different IP address, then I would suggest you install Gigolo (in synaptic package manager) on each machine, and use the Gigolo program, which helps you set up shares on each pc. Then the shares should automagically show up in Thunar File Manager.

PS: when installing Gigolo, right-click on it again in Synaptic, and also install any recommended packages. You can check the suggested list too.

Thank you, richyrich! I'm installing gigolo now. One one package is recommended: gvfs-bin (which is installed.) There's no suggested packages.

[CaptainKirksChair]

I always used a cross-over cable (or two cables with a cross-over connector) because I knew it would work. Never knew that newer ethernet adapters compensated for this. Learn something new every day.

[richyrich]

Should add; most likely a reboot will be needed on each machine once the network IP addresses are configured, and Gigolo is installed. Then set up the Gigolo shared folder(s) on each machine. If not seen by Thunar, try a logout/login or even reboots again . .Then . . Bob's your uncle !

[Citizen229]

just want you guys to know this has blown my mind. I had no idea this was possible. Does the link also handle internet pass through? or just protocols for lan?

[richyrich]

Back when I did this sort of thing for a living, configuring multiple network cards (NICs) on Linux servers was commonplace (through console, remote terminals). I have no experience with configuring multiple NICs on modern Linux desktops with the current GUI network managers.

But I am sure this can be done as you describe.