Display MoreI think you need to understand the difference between a server and a client. A server like OMV does not have a Win11 like desktop environment when you access the server itself. You interact with the server via the command line interface (CLI), e.g. Putty. That is text only (or some very rudimentary graphical symbols).
Additionally you can interact with the server via a browser on a client using applications like the GUI of OMV or Plex.
You can also use Windows explorer on a client to get access to data stored on a server.
Another concept that you need to understand is how drives are accessed in Linux. If you use OMV only in its very basic functionality (NAS = network attached storage) you don't have to care about it, but if you want to use Docker, it is important to know.
Linux does not know drive letters like C:, D:, E: etc. Instead everything starts with the so called root. The symbol for root is "/". Yes, a simple slash.
"/" is where everything starts when it comes to files and directories.
"/" is the basis of the drive where your operating system is located. You can think of it like C:
Additional drives are mounted on so called mount points. Mount points are directories that are used to access the drives.
In OMV additional drives are mounted in /srv. That means you find additional drives on "/" in a directory called "srv".
The exact mount point is something like
"/srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-xxx"
where xxx is a long sequence of numbers and letters. It is made like this to make sure that each drive has a defined and unambiguous name.
uuid is short for universally unique identifier.
Does this make sense so far?
So far it only makes partial sense.
I'm struggling because of a number of factors, primarily only being able to interact with the system via a browser at the system admin level is both confusing and, I suspect, a sledge hammer to crack a walnut.
All I'm trying to do is make my music, photo, and some document directories, accessible via the existing LAN and internet. Having to setup and operate other than at the OS level is confusing me. I'm not a novice when it comes to creating and using directories but the user interface from OMV (and probably by extension, Linux) is beyond my willingness and ability to grasp.
Again, all I'm trying to do is access the files mentioned above, which were previously setup in a Windows format, in a no-cost (possibly Linux), powerful environment.
Not being able to get to those files as easily as can be done in Windows is causing, what I perceive as, unecessary hurdles in both learning and execution. As previously mentioned, I tried using FreeNAS but it was too complicated and the difficulties I'm confronting with OMV are similarly complex. I had hoped this would be a simple exercise, but not being able or willing to absorb the complexity is unnecessarily daunting.
I'm going tp give it another shot using something like havetheknowhow.com, Zorin OS, or Linux Lite. I believe one of these versions relies on Putty to interface with the Linux OS and that might suit my lack of Linux familiarity.
All I'm trying to do is setup a platform that can house and manage my media files for network access. So far I've only struck brick walls with OMV, mainly due to my unfamiliarity with it and its perceived unnecessary complexity.
On another note, how do I get past this:
