Sharing External USB HDDs between Linux and macOS?
by varaonaid from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5CGN8)
Hello,
I use Linux to run our own little home media server and we're adding a Mac Mini for access to additional programs and such we (sadly) can't get on Linux. We have a few external HDDs that I'd like to be able to share and easily access from both computers. I don't think we'll need access from Windows.
Our router doesn't have a USB port.
I'm wondering what the best options are? Will I need something like Samba or is that primarily for Windows? Is there something similar or better that will work? I've not heard wonderful things about Samba mostly hearing it's slow and finicky.
Would there be a way to share via Ethernet? I've read a little about some ways to share a USB drive via Ethernet when USB isn't available but I'm not sure how realistic it is. Would something like a raspberry pi help somehow? I'm assuming there's no way to do some sort of "splitter" so that they both have direct access to the drives? I'm just not sure where to start. The times I tried to get Windows HDD access from my Linux Mint install (a year ago) was awful (LM stopped supporting any samba access). I'm hoping for fairly fast access speeds.
We now run OpenSUSE on our Linux NUC and obviously, will run Big Sur macOS on the Mac Mini. FWIW, we have simultaneous gigabit fiber internet, if that matters in terms of sharing via Ethernet. Also, we do have a few older routers laying around and at least one does have a USB port. I can't use it for our primary router (flaky WiFI) but would it still share the drives if plugged in via Ethernet (with a multipart USB hub plugged into it)? Or could it be used in a different mode? Is there some other affordable gadget that would do something similar?
Thanks so much for any help and advice. I really appreciate it.
I use Linux to run our own little home media server and we're adding a Mac Mini for access to additional programs and such we (sadly) can't get on Linux. We have a few external HDDs that I'd like to be able to share and easily access from both computers. I don't think we'll need access from Windows.
Our router doesn't have a USB port.
I'm wondering what the best options are? Will I need something like Samba or is that primarily for Windows? Is there something similar or better that will work? I've not heard wonderful things about Samba mostly hearing it's slow and finicky.
Would there be a way to share via Ethernet? I've read a little about some ways to share a USB drive via Ethernet when USB isn't available but I'm not sure how realistic it is. Would something like a raspberry pi help somehow? I'm assuming there's no way to do some sort of "splitter" so that they both have direct access to the drives? I'm just not sure where to start. The times I tried to get Windows HDD access from my Linux Mint install (a year ago) was awful (LM stopped supporting any samba access). I'm hoping for fairly fast access speeds.
We now run OpenSUSE on our Linux NUC and obviously, will run Big Sur macOS on the Mac Mini. FWIW, we have simultaneous gigabit fiber internet, if that matters in terms of sharing via Ethernet. Also, we do have a few older routers laying around and at least one does have a USB port. I can't use it for our primary router (flaky WiFI) but would it still share the drives if plugged in via Ethernet (with a multipart USB hub plugged into it)? Or could it be used in a different mode? Is there some other affordable gadget that would do something similar?
Thanks so much for any help and advice. I really appreciate it.