Can't connect to a Samba Share

Jumped on the SO's Mac and tried to hook up to the Samba share. This time, if I entered the address wrong, it gave me a no-such-place type of error, whereas when I entered: smb://192.168.0.19/temp it gave me a bad user name or password response. In a way, that's a good thing, but in another, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to correct, since I've already updated password on the change password module in webmin.

Drew

Are there any other alternatives to Samba Server for Windows / Ubuntu networking?

Thanks,

Drew

I vaguely recall having some issues when initially getting it all going myself, but its the sort of thing that once it's sorted it works and I don't recall what I did (it's literally been years since I set up my TKL fileserver).

IIRC my issues came from Linux file permissions. Just like in Windows, you have share permissions and file permissions. The difference in Linux is that Samba takes care of the share permissions and the OS itself takes care of file permssions. That's why it won't work if you don't have the Linux users and Samba users synced. I don't use Webmin much, but Samba is one place I use it exclusively. So first up make sure that you have your Linux and Samba users synced (IIRC it's pretty self explanatory). I set up my Samba shares the same way I set up Windows ones - ie allow everyone read/write at the share level (for all shares you want access to) and control read/write permissions at the file level (ie Linux user file permissions).

In your set up it's probably even easier if you don't have local users that will mess with your stuff. Even if you do, it may be worth opening it all up to start with until you can get it working, then incrementally lock it down until it works how you want. Also somewhere buried here in the forums someone posted a working samba conf file after they had had similar issues. Not sure where that is though...

Hopefully that's the issue your having. For future reference (and just in case I haven't mentioned previously and/or you weren't aware) TKL v11.x is based on Ubuntu 10.04/Lucid so pretty much most stuff that applies to Lucid also applies to TKL. That makes all the Ubuntu Server guide and forum resources an invaluable source of additional support, documentation and general info.

Good luck.

And in answer to your most recent question, you could reconfigure vsftpd to connect to your server via FTP (vsftpd is already installed but is bound to localhost to provide the FTP backend for eXtplorer). AFAIK Win explorer can do FTP OOTB.

I really need a true shared networking resource. It was very fast and easy to set up the FTP, but that won't allow me to save files directly to my shared drive. It is interesting to see how many people have had problems configuring Samba. I did it once a couple years ago on a Drupal6 TKL, and I don't remember all the headaches I've had with this particular setup. Hmmm... gives me an idea -- maybe I should just look at my other smb.conf file and put it to good use...? Oh, yeah, it's on the back-up on a removable at an off-site location which is the reason I'm trying to set up a phpVirtualbox server, to no avail -- problems with the PHPvbox config, too, but that's another thread.

As always, thank you for your kind words and taking the time to reply.

Drew

/forum/support/20110317/tkl-fileserver-unable...

Hopefully that will some help? Also, like I said above, double check that Linux/Samba users are synced. And that the Linux user has at least read access to the folder.

I don't use Webmin much. When I first started with TKL I used Webmin a bit and there are still a few things I use it for (Samba being one of them) but TBH I find for most stuff commandline is more straightforward, quicker and easier.

When you think of the permissions, if you forget about the fact that Samba users and Linux users are different (because when the 2 user databases are synced the difference is irrelevant) then it's just like in Windows. Windows have share level permissions (which equate to Samba permissions) and user file permissions (which equate to Linux user file permissions). Personally I set up Samba shares the same as I do with Windows. Use the share level permissions to control read access, and the file permissions to control wire access.

I'm not sure thats the best way, but many years ago that's how I was taught to do it with a 2k3 server domain and I've just stuck with it.

As I said above I use Webmin to set up Samba permissions (full permissions to anyone who I'm happy to have any access at all). nd adjust read/write access as required using Linux users and groups (just like I would in Windows). Only difference is, rather than mucking around in a GUI, I can do it quick and easy at the commandline.

If you want me to try and explain how I'd do it a but better, try detailing your desired usage scenario and I'll tell you what I'd do.

I took your comments to heart and really focused on access and permissions:

Authentication (global access), File Share Defaults (global permissions)

Security and Access Control (share access), File Permissions (file permissions per share)

Basically, I have it working with just Guest permissions at the moment. There are probably more restrictions going on from a Linux user level, but I don't have a good feel for what that is, completely. The Systems Analyst in me will find out and report back, with screen shots of the Webmin interface settings for those of us who glaze over at command line instructions, but will endeavor to display the corresponding smb.conf settings, so as not to be a h8r.

But before the big summary of this issue, there's just one more thing, which I've started another thread about.

I don't use it much, just set it and forget it. And it works as expected. I haven't reconfigured my home fileserver since I set it and it all works as expected. I'm happy to post the samba.conf of my fileserver if you think it would be any use to you. Although I'm still using the legacy (v2009.x) version which is based on Ubuntu 8.04 so it may be a little different...

Period

But mate, geez you've been doing it tough! Hopefully once you get it all up and running it goes a little more smoothly for you!

After far too many hours. What's frustrating (beyond the lack of clear examples) is all the different components, even within the config file and outside. Finally got it going after installing ftp and realizing debian installer created a group owner for my fat32 partition. I'll try to get a config file up though like before, it's wide open as far as permissions go. Drew