How to show NFS share icon on desktop?

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Level 1

59 points

How to show NFS share icon on desktop?

I have an NFS share from my NAS mounted via Directory Utility, but how can I have its icon appear on the desktop already when I log in? I have tried both /Volumes and /Network as the mount point, but neither places cause an icon to appear. The icon only appears if I open the /Volumes and /Network folders in the Finder, and the mount itself is fine in that I can read/write files to it without any problems.

I already have the "Connected servers" item enabled in Finder Preferences->General->Show these items on the desktop, but that doesn't seem to be doing what it's supposed to do in this case.

Is there any secret to having my NFS share to automatically appear on the desktop upon login?

TIA.

iMac Al 24" 2.8GHz | G4 QuickSilver PowerMac |, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 4, 2008 11:25 PM

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Answer 1

Tangu

Level 1

4 points

Sep 9, 2008 9:24 AM in response to stevebow

I am looking for the same answer, how to mount automaticly at boot

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Answer 2

Sep 18, 2008 1:55 PM in response to Tangu

I, too, am looking for a similar answer. I'm halfway there (i just need to find the .profile equivalent for the desktop).

First, create folder on your desktop called "Share".

Then, from a terminal window, if you execute the following, it will mount to your desktop.

command:
mount -t nfs <ipaddress>:/path/to/share /Users/<User>/Desktop/Share

ex:
mount -t nfs 192.168.1.3:/linux/share /Users/aparsons/Desktop/Share

-Allan

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Answer 3

Sep 21, 2008 3:52 PM in response to allan.parsons

Ok. I got it. Here is what you do:

On your *NIX box, setup your /etc/exports file with the following:

/data/music/albums 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(ro,insecure,root_squash,sync)

(the key here is to make sure "insecure" is there.

Then, on your Mac:

1. Modify /etc/hosts and add an alias to your NFS server.
ex:
192.168.1.3 aphbgfs01

2. Open Finder-->Applications-->Utilities-->Directory Utility.

3. In the bottom right corner, click "Show Advanced Options." Then, click on the MOUNTS icon at the top of the toolbar.

4. Click the Add ➕ button. Type the NFS address in the first textbox. In my case, it was nfs://aphbgfs01/data/music/albums

5. In the second box, type where you want to mount the drive on your local mac. Each user that logs onto my mac shares the same "music" export (they add it to their iTunes library). So, my second box contained the following:

/Users/Shared/Music (note, it will automatically create the folder for you.)

** Also, note that the first box - the NFS address - must be unique. So I can't map the same NFS folder to multiple directories (I wanted to have one nfs mount for music and have it show up as an icon on each user's desktop. Step 7 will cover this).

6. Choose "Mount As Read Only" (I didn't want users deleting my music files or writing new music and not keeping the share organized). Click Verify.

7. Now, if you want the Icon to show up on each user's desktop, open up a terminal and type the following:

sudo ln -s /Users/Shared/Music /Users/ <username>/Desktop/Music

Remember to replace <username> with the username of each user using the computer.

That should be it. The drive will automatically mount on startup.

-Allan Parsons

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