Been trying unsuccesfully to network two XP machines and a Linux one through a router using Samba. I tried initially using Mandrake 10.1 and after lots of fiddling managed to get the XP machien to see localhost and eventually the shared resource. Unfortunately, after a re-boot this was lost. Never to return!

I decided the best way forward was to get a decent Linux book and do it page by page. So, armed with nice 1000+ page book and a copy of Fedora 3 (came with the book) I started....

Before I describe the problem, here is my system:

I have a four-port router connected to the telephone line. Connected to this, I have two windows XP machines and the thrid being a Linux machine. I want to use the Linux machine as a server to store all downloads etc. Therefore, the Linux machine needs to be able to map as a drive on the XP machines. I have installed Fedora as a complete package. So it has all the packages. I installed it with the firewall turned on. Otherwise, it was pretty much vanilla.

As described in my book, I have ensured the NIC is operational and configured the machine to use DHCP (as do the Windows machines). The router gives out the ip addresses (it always has 10.0.0.2). Currently one windows machine has 10.0.0.3 and the Linux one 10.0.0.8. I can ping the Linux one from Windows, but not the other way around (not sure if this is a problem). At this point, I realised some commands at the terminal don't seem to work (evern after su). [ifconfig] and [chkconfig smb on] iare "command not found". How can that be the case?

Despite these problems I though I might as well continue with the tutorial: Setting up a Samba file server. I have started Samba, created a workgroup Mshome (a'la Windows). I have set up an account with the authentication mode as [User] using encrypted password using the guest account that is the same as the login. I have gone to Samba Users and created a Samba user with my Windows details including account name and the associated Windows password. I have finally added a share in my home folder and initially set it to be accessible only by the [user] I defined. I then created a share accesible to everyone. At this point, my Windows machine could see localhost but no shares. After a re-boot of the Windows machine, localhost also disapeared. Some fiddling later and it's back!

Other than the terminal commands not being recognised, everything went as described in the book, falling short of getting the shared resouce I want.

I'm sorry for the length of this question (the longest I've ever posted) but after four installs of Linux and heading for two weeks work I'm back were I was when I started. I'm sure I've missed something realy basic. I have enclosed a copy of my smb.conf below. I don't mind using the shell (subject to the problems above). Please help me to stop getting any greyer than I am!

# This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the
# smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed
# here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options (perhaps too
# many!) most of which are not shown in this example
#
# Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash)
# is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a #
# for commentry and a ; for parts of the config file that you
# may wish to enable
#
# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command "testparm"
# to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors.
#
#======================= Global Settings =====================================
[global]

# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name
workgroup = mshome

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = Samba Server

# This option is important for security. It allows you to restrict
# connections to machines which are on your local network. The
# following example restricts access to two C class networks and
# the "loopback" interface. For more examples of the syntax see
# the smb.conf man page
; hosts allow = 192.168.1. 192.168.2. 127.

# if you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
printcap name = /etc/printcap
load printers = yes

# It should not be necessary to spell out the print system type unless
# yours is non-standard. Currently supported print systems include:
# bsd, sysv, plp, lprng, aix, hpux, qnx
; printing = cups

# This option tells cups that the data has already been rasterized
cups options = raw

# Uncomment this if you want a guest account, you must add this to /etc/passwd
# otherwise the user "nobody" is used
; guest account = pcguest

# this tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
# all log information in one file
# log file = /var/log/samba/smbd.log

# Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb).
max log size = 50

# Security mode. Most people will want user level security. See
# security_level.txt for details.
# Use password server option only with security = server
; password server = <NT-Server-Name>

# Password Level allows matching of _n_ characters of the password for
# all combinations of upper and lower case.
; password level = 8
; username level = 8

# You may wish to use password encryption. Please read
# ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation.
# Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents
; encrypt passwords = yes
; smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

# The following are needed to allow password changing from Windows to
# update the Linux system password also.
# NOTE: Use these with 'encrypt passwords' and 'smb passwd file' above.
# NOTE2: You do NOT need these to allow workstations to change only
# the encrypted SMB passwords. They allow the Unix password
# to be kept in sync with the SMB password.
; unix password sync = Yes
; passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
; passwd chat = *New*UNIX*password* %n\n *ReType*new*UNIX*password* %n\n *passwd:*all*authentication*tokens*updated*successfully*

# Unix users can map to different SMB User names
; username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

# Using the following line enables you to customise your configuration
# on a per machine basis. The %m gets replaced with the netbios name
# of the machine that is connecting
; include = /etc/samba/smb.conf.%m

# Most people will find that this option gives better performance.
# See speed.txt and the manual pages for details
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

# Configure Samba to use multiple interfaces
# If you have multiple network interfaces then you must list them
# here. See the man page for details.
; interfaces = 192.168.12.2/24 192.168.13.2/24

# Configure remote browse list synchronisation here
# request announcement to, or browse list sync from:
# a specific host or from / to a whole subnet (see below)
; remote browse sync = 192.168.3.25 192.168.5.255
# Cause this host to announce itself to local subnets here
; remote announce = 192.168.1.255 192.168.2.44

# Browser Control Options:
# set local master to no if you don't want Samba to become a master
# browser on your network. Otherwise the normal election rules apply
; local master = no

# OS Level determines the precedence of this server in master browser
# elections. The default value should be reasonable
; os level = 33

# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. This
# allows Samba to collate browse lists between subnets. Don't use this
# if you already have a Windows NT domain controller doing this job
; domain master = yes

# Preferred Master causes Samba to force a local browser election on startup
# and gives it a slightly higher chance of winning the election
; preferred master = yes

# Enable this if you want Samba to be a domain logon server for
# Windows95 workstations.
; domain logons = yes

# if you enable domain logons then you may want a per-machine or
# per user logon script
# run a specific logon batch file per workstation (machine)
; logon script = %m.bat
# run a specific logon batch file per username
; logon script = %U.bat

# Where to store roving profiles (only for Win95 and WinNT)
# %L substitutes for this servers netbios name, %U is username
# You must uncomment the [Profiles] share below
; logon path = \\%L\Profiles\%U

# All NetBIOS names must be resolved to IP Addresses
# 'Name Resolve Order' allows the named resolution mechanism to be specified
# the default order is "host lmhosts wins bcast". "host" means use the unix
# system gethostbyname() function call that will use either /etc/hosts OR
# DNS or NIS depending on the settings of /etc/host.config, /etc/nsswitch.conf
# and the /etc/resolv.conf file. "host" therefore is system configuration
# dependant. This parameter is most often of use to prevent DNS lookups
# in order to resolve NetBIOS names to IP Addresses. Use with care!
# The example below excludes use of name resolution for machines that are NOT
# on the local network segment
# - OR - are not deliberately to be known via lmhosts or via WINS.
; name resolve order = wins lmhosts bcast

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable it's WINS Server
; wins support = yes

# WINS Server - Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client
# Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both
; wins server = w.x.y.z

# WINS Proxy - Tells Samba to answer name resolution queries on
# behalf of a non WINS capable client, for this to work there must be
# at least one WINS Server on the network. The default is NO.
; wins proxy = yes

# DNS Proxy - tells Samba whether or not to try to resolve NetBIOS names
# via DNS nslookups. The built-in default for versions 1.9.17 is yes,
# this has been changed in version 1.9.18 to no.
dns proxy = no

# Case Preservation can be handy - system default is _no_
# NOTE: These can be set on a per share basis
; preserve case = no
; short preserve case = no
# Default case is normally upper case for all DOS files
; default case = lower
# Be very careful with case sensitivity - it can break things!
; case sensitive = no

#============================ Share Definitions ==============================
idmap uid = 16777216-33554431
idmap gid = 16777216-33554431
template shell = /bin/false
password server = None
guest ok = yes
guest account = waldied
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
winbind use default domain = no
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
writeable = yes

# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons
; [netlogon]
; comment = Network Logon Service
; path = /home/netlogon
; guest ok = yes
; writable = no
; share modes = no


# Un-comment the following to provide a specific roving profile share
# the default is to use the user's home directory
;[Profiles]
; path = /home/profiles
; browseable = no
; guest ok = yes


# NOTE: If you have a BSD-style print system there is no need to
# specifically define each individual printer
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = no
# Set public = yes to allow user 'guest account' to print
printable = yes

# This one is useful for people to share files
;[tmp]
; comment = Temporary file space
; path = /tmp
; read only = no
; public = yes

# A publicly accessible directory, but read only, except for people in
# the "staff" group
;[public]
; comment = Public Stuff
; path = /home/samba
; public = yes
; read only = yes
; write list = @staff

# Other examples.
#
# A private printer, usable only by fred. Spool data will be placed in fred's
# home directory. Note that fred must have write access to the spool directory,
# wherever it is.
;[fredsprn]
; comment = Fred's Printer
; valid users = fred
; path = /homes/fred
; printer = freds_printer
; public = no
; writable = no
; printable = yes

# A private directory, usable only by fred. Note that fred requires write
# access to the directory.
;[fredsdir]
; comment = Fred's Service
; path = /usr/somewhere/private
; valid users = fred
; public = no
; writable = yes
; printable = no

# a service which has a different directory for each machine that connects
# this allows you to tailor configurations to incoming machines. You could
# also use the %u option to tailor it by user name.
# The %m gets replaced with the machine name that is connecting.
;[pchome]
; comment = PC Directories
; path = /usr/pc/%m
; public = no
; writable = yes

# A publicly accessible directory, read/write to all users. Note that all files
# created in the directory by users will be owned by the default user, so
# any user with access can delete any other user's files. Obviously this
# directory must be writable by the default user. Another user could of course
# be specified, in which case all files would be owned by that user instead.
;[public]
; path = /usr/somewhere/else/public
; public = yes
; only guest = yes
; writable = yes
; printable = no

# The following two entries demonstrate how to share a directory so that two
# users can place files there that will be owned by the specific users. In this
# setup, the directory should be writable by both users and should have the
# sticky bit set on it to prevent abuse. Obviously this could be extended to
# as many users as required.
;[myshare]
; comment = Mary's and Fred's stuff
; path = /usr/somewhere/shared
; valid users = mary fred
; public = no
; writable = yes
; printable = no
; create mask = 0765



[Server-1]
comment = Linux File Share
path = /home/waldied/Server
writeable = yes

Hi NomadABC, the first thing I see is try su - instead of su. Next try adding this option under global.

netbios name = whatever name you want

You will also need to uncomment this line.

encrypt passwords = yes

good luck.

Did as you suggest. Managed to change the name from localhost, but still no shared resource. Where should I look next?

Turned off the firewall. Made no difference. Made the folder available to all. Made no difference. HELP!

Have you restarted the daemons? You'll have to restart them for any changes to take effect?

nmbd stop
smbd stop

nmbd start
smbd start

good luck.

Tried that. Got no response from the shell when I typed the commands. Should I?

If you got no response from the shell it means the commands executed successfully. If it still isn't working properly, the next thing to try would be a windows reboot. If at this point it isn't working properly, we'll need to look more closely at the smb.conf, and your users.
good luck.

Tried the reboot and I rebooted the router, just in case. Still getting stuck in the same position!

Is this share the one you're trying to access?

[Server-1]
comment = Linux File Share
path = /home/waldied/Server
writeable = yes

If so try adding this under the share.

browsable = yes

Once again you'll need to restart the daemons. You may also need a reboot of the windows box. What users have you set up?

I'll give you the short version. You'll need three users/accounts. You'll need a valid linux user, a valid samba user, and a valid windows user/account all with the same username and password, for access both ways.
good luck.

It's gone midnight here in the UK. I'm going to have to hit the sack. Can you explain this a little more. I will give it a go tomorrow. Thanks for your help. I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow evening!!!

I'm getting a little closer but can't quite make the final link to sort the problem. I've narrowed it down to user accounts (on Linux and Windows). My main windows account is called "David Waldie" with password "password". Don't worry, that's not my real password! The Linux machine has an account of waldied. It will not accept capitals and spaces, otherwise it would have been set up with the same username. The password is the same as windows. On this account I can see localhost but no resources. If I try and set up a new Samba user I have a choice of "Unix Username" with a variety of choises, one of which is "waldied", which I select. I set the Windows username to David Waldie and the password to "password". To me this should link my Linux account (waldied) and allow my Windows account (David Waldie) to see each other. There can be no confusion with passwords as they are both the same. Despite this, still no joy.

The saga continues (my rantings must be of use to someone, if I get it solved ). I creat another user in Windows with the username of "waldied" and the password as "password". Miraculously, I can map the shared resource with no problem what-so-ever.

Now if one of you brain surgeons can explain the logic of that, I will have my problem solved

A quick update: I have created the same account on another PC on the network (waldied,password) that also connects fine. This is irrespective of firewall settings. No other account will connect, although they all see localhost. Changing my main Windows account to the name of waldied and password will still not let it connect! Weird.

Forgive me I've gotten confused reading this. Which way are you unable to see resources, e.g. linux to windows, or windows to linux? Could you post the current smb.conf file please?
good luck.

You need to map your Windows username to your UNIX account name, this is done through the "username map" feature.

Put this into your [global] section..Then edit the /etc/samba/smbusers file and insert the following entryThis will map your Windows account to your Unix account with a different name, the quotes are used because you have a space in your username.

See "man smb.conf" for more details.


Miles.

Thanks for you help guys. Managed to get some help from a guy in the States via IM yesterday. He told me about changing smbusers file. That sorted it out beautifully. Is it still worth changing the smb.conf file? What benefit will it achieve?

Thanks again,

I know I'm cheating here, but here's a copy of my newest post. Thought I might put it here as you helped last time.

Spent the last two weeks trying to network a Linux box (Fedora 3) to a Windows network. I could set it up so that Windows could see localhost but get no further. After some invaluable assistance from b12william it turned out that as my Windows logon was two words (David Waldie) I had to edit smbusers and place doouble quotes around my logon. Worked a treat. Anyway, finally got round to getting rid of Windows on the same drive and re-partitioned the disk and put Linux back on.

Now, I follow the same path as I did last time. Edited the smbusers file and lo and behold it connected. No surprise, until I restarted the machine and I'm back to square one. No connection. This time when I look in the Windows username in the Samba Server Configuration GUI it give my Windows username as "David Waldie" not as before David Waldie. I have tried editing this again in smbusers but still no joy.

I'm begining to take this personally. Here are copies of my smbusers ans smb.conf files:

SMBUSERS

# Unix_name = SMB_name1 SMB_name2 ...
root = administrator admin
nobody = guest pcguest smbguest
david = David Waldie

SMB.CONF

# This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the
# smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed
# here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options (perhaps too
# many!) most of which are not shown in this example
#
# Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash)
# is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a #
# for commentry and a ; for parts of the config file that you
# may wish to enable
#
# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command "testparm"
# to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors.
#
#======================= Global Settings =====================================
[global]

# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name
workgroup = mshome

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = Samba Server

# This option is important for security. It allows you to restrict
# connections to machines which are on your local network. The
# following example restricts access to two C class networks and
# the "loopback" interface. For more examples of the syntax see
# the smb.conf man page
; hosts allow = 192.168.1. 192.168.2. 127.

# if you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
printcap name = /etc/printcap
load printers = yes

# It should not be necessary to spell out the print system type unless
# yours is non-standard. Currently supported print systems include:
# bsd, sysv, plp, lprng, aix, hpux, qnx
; printing = cups

# This option tells cups that the data has already been rasterized
cups options = raw

# Uncomment this if you want a guest account, you must add this to /etc/passwd
# otherwise the user "nobody" is used


# this tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
# all log information in one file
# log file = /var/log/samba/smbd.log

# Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb).
max log size = 50

# Security mode. Most people will want user level security. See
# security_level.txt for details.
# Use password server option only with security = server
; password server = <NT-Server-Name>

# Password Level allows matching of _n_ characters of the password for
# all combinations of upper and lower case.
; password level = 8
; username level = 8

# You may wish to use password encryption. Please read
# ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation.
# Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

# The following are needed to allow password changing from Windows to
# update the Linux system password also.
# NOTE: Use these with 'encrypt passwords' and 'smb passwd file' above.
# NOTE2: You do NOT need these to allow workstations to change only
# the encrypted SMB passwords. They allow the Unix password
# to be kept in sync with the SMB password.
; unix password sync = Yes
; passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
; passwd chat = *New*UNIX*password* %n\n *ReType*new*UNIX*password* %n\n *passwd:*all*authentication*tokens*updated*successfully*

# Unix users can map to different SMB User names
; username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

# Using the following line enables you to customise your configuration
# on a per machine basis. The %m gets replaced with the netbios name
# of the machine that is connecting
; include = /etc/samba/smb.conf.%m

# Most people will find that this option gives better performance.
# See speed.txt and the manual pages for details
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

# Configure Samba to use multiple interfaces
# If you have multiple network interfaces then you must list them
# here. See the man page for details.
; interfaces = 192.168.12.2/24 192.168.13.2/24

# Configure remote browse list synchronisation here
# request announcement to, or browse list sync from:
# a specific host or from / to a whole subnet (see below)
; remote browse sync = 192.168.3.25 192.168.5.255
# Cause this host to announce itself to local subnets here
; remote announce = 192.168.1.255 192.168.2.44

# Browser Control Options:
# set local master to no if you don't want Samba to become a master
# browser on your network. Otherwise the normal election rules apply
; local master = no

# OS Level determines the precedence of this server in master browser
# elections. The default value should be reasonable
; os level = 33

# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. This
# allows Samba to collate browse lists between subnets. Don't use this
# if you already have a Windows NT domain controller doing this job
; domain master = yes

# Preferred Master causes Samba to force a local browser election on startup
# and gives it a slightly higher chance of winning the election
; preferred master = yes

# Enable this if you want Samba to be a domain logon server for
# Windows95 workstations.
; domain logons = yes

# if you enable domain logons then you may want a per-machine or
# per user logon script
# run a specific logon batch file per workstation (machine)
; logon script = %m.bat
# run a specific logon batch file per username
; logon script = %U.bat

# Where to store roving profiles (only for Win95 and WinNT)
# %L substitutes for this servers netbios name, %U is username
# You must uncomment the [Profiles] share below
; logon path = \\%L\Profiles\%U

# All NetBIOS names must be resolved to IP Addresses
# 'Name Resolve Order' allows the named resolution mechanism to be specified
# the default order is "host lmhosts wins bcast". "host" means use the unix
# system gethostbyname() function call that will use either /etc/hosts OR
# DNS or NIS depending on the settings of /etc/host.config, /etc/nsswitch.conf
# and the /etc/resolv.conf file. "host" therefore is system configuration
# dependant. This parameter is most often of use to prevent DNS lookups
# in order to resolve NetBIOS names to IP Addresses. Use with care!
# The example below excludes use of name resolution for machines that are NOT
# on the local network segment
# - OR - are not deliberately to be known via lmhosts or via WINS.
; name resolve order = wins lmhosts bcast

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable it's WINS Server
; wins support = yes

# WINS Server - Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client
# Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both
; wins server = w.x.y.z

# WINS Proxy - Tells Samba to answer name resolution queries on
# behalf of a non WINS capable client, for this to work there must be
# at least one WINS Server on the network. The default is NO.
; wins proxy = yes

# DNS Proxy - tells Samba whether or not to try to resolve NetBIOS names
# via DNS nslookups. The built-in default for versions 1.9.17 is yes,
# this has been changed in version 1.9.18 to no.
dns proxy = no

# Case Preservation can be handy - system default is _no_
# NOTE: These can be set on a per share basis
; preserve case = no
; short preserve case = no
# Default case is normally upper case for all DOS files
; default case = lower
# Be very careful with case sensitivity - it can break things!
; case sensitive = no

#============================ Share Definitions ==============================
idmap uid = 16777216-33554431
idmap gid = 16777216-33554431
template shell = /bin/false
password server = None
guest ok = yes
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
guest account = david
winbind use default domain = no
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = yes
writeable = yes

# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons
; [netlogon]
; comment = Network Logon Service
; path = /home/netlogon
; guest ok = yes
; writable = no
; share modes = no


# Un-comment the following to provide a specific roving profile share
# the default is to use the user's home directory
;[Profiles]
; path = /home/profiles
; browseable = no
; guest ok = yes


# NOTE: If you have a BSD-style print system there is no need to
# specifically define each individual printer
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = no
# Set public = yes to allow user 'guest account' to print
printable = yes

# This one is useful for people to share files

[david]
path = /home/david
writeable = yes


PLEASE, PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!