Nemo does not differentiate File Shares with same name but different protocols.

[NotOnBoard]

Nemo: 4.8.6 Distro: Mint64 20.1 Cinamon Issue: Nemo list view window does not differentiate File Shares with same name but different protocols.

Issue

I have a NAS in my LAN (Synology DiskStation), providing AFP and SMB Shares to Mac, Windows & Linux computers. This must be a very common setup.

When I browse to Network, Nemo shows two different entries with identical names "DiskStation (File Sharing)". One is the DiskStation SMB service and the other the DiskStation AFP service, but the Nemo entries do not differentiate which is which.

I can mount/login to either share and access my DiskStation. However, the AFP service between Mint & DiskStation is flakey and sometimes does not clear up tmp files properly. The SMB service on the other hand works very well. So I would prefer to use the SMB service, but the Nemo Network view does not tell me which of the two "DiskStation (File Sharing)" entries is which.

Nemo does know the service protocol used for each entry, but just does not present it. So to determine the SMB entry I must, right click Properties > Permissions on the "DiskStation (File Sharing)" entry and check its text. This is really clumsy and not befiting of a modern desktop.

I think it is a serious flaw to present two different services with the same name and no differentiating information. It makes mount/login operations cumbersome and ugly, and may open the door to deception and security risks.

Expected behaviour

The remedy is simple, Nemo just needs to present the File Shaing Protocol ID (SMB, AFP etc) with the "DiskStation (File Sharing)" entry, so the user can choose the correct entry. One way to address this issue would be to add a list column to the Nemo list view that shows the protocol ID for the "DiskStation (File Sharing)" entry. Alternatively, the protocol ID could be appended to the name "DiskStation (File Sharing)", for example "DiskStation (smb File Sharing)".

I hope you can fix this issue/feature. If there is any interim workaround that can be used (e.g. a Nemo Script) to present the protocol ID I'd be glad to hear it.

Thanks

[mtwebster]

If you create a bookmark of the preferred location does that remain consistent across reboots or re-connections? This would at least be a workaround for now. If you ctrl-L while in those locations do they display different uris (perhaps smb:///drive and afp:///drive)?

Do you have apple devices that need to access this drive - perhaps you could disable that service on the device if not.

I'm pretty sure the drive is probably 'advertising' both protocols, and the library nemo uses is seeing them as separate locations. I'm not sure if there's a remedy whereby we could detect that they're actually the same physical device displaying the same location. I'll have to acquire one of these to test it.

Distinguishing them in their display name as you mentioned is also a possibility (particularly if they have different uris as I mentioned above).

[NotOnBoard]

Thanks for the response.

I'm not sure if there's a remedy whereby we could detect that they're actually the same physical device displaying the same location. I'll have to acquire one of these to test it.

Nemo can and does detect the protocol. In the Nemo Network view, before mounting any network shares, I can right click Properties > Permissions on the "DiskStation (File Sharing)" entry and it shows the protocol ID in text. For example ' The permissions of "smb" could not be determined '. So I would think it's just a case of using what is already available.

I'll have to acquire one of these to test it.

If you have simple tests to try I'd be glad to run them and report back.

Distinguishing them in their display name as you mentioned is also a possibility (particularly if they have different uris as I mentioned above).

If you ctrl-L while in those locations do they display different uris (perhaps smb:///drive and afp:///drive)?

Ctrl-L just causes the location bar to show network:/// No protocol ID. There is no change to the DiskStation entries in the list view. The display names are both identical.

If you create a bookmark of the preferred location does that remain consistent across reboots or re-connections? This would at least be a workaround for now. I was just hoping for a work around within Nemo (e.g. Nemo script or config file change), and a Fix/New feature of course.

Yes I have a desktop launcher with Command: "nemo smb://diskstation.local". That works well and is a useful work around.

Do you have apple devices that need to access this drive - perhaps you could disable that service on the device if not.

Yes I have an Apple Mac, plus an iPad and iPhone that use the NAS so need AFP on. Plus Linux and Windows devices on SMB. So that's not a work around for me.

I'm pretty sure the drive is probably 'advertising' both protocols, and the library nemo uses is seeing them as separate locations.

The NAS is configured to provide AFP and SMB shares. There is no way on the NAS of altering the share name each service provides.

Thanks.