Howto: Fix Windows share browsing issues

[lucamanu]

Hi all.
I tried to solve this problem for months now, without any success.
Here is the situation:

- I have a Ubuntu Machine, connected to internet via a wifi router (gigaset se551) which has a shared filespace storage.
- The filespace on the router is available as a win share.
- I can access and fully manipulate the share both with windows machines and with my android smartphone (used Astro file manager). I assume therefore that the filespace can be normally accessed.
- My ubuntu machine does not manage to access the winshare.
- I'm running 10.04.3, recently upgraded from 8.04.3 (Hardy Heron) because I thought this problem was a bug in Hardy Heron...

Symptoms:
- If I try to access with Nautilus (Places->Network->Windows Network) I get the classic "Unable to mount location - Failed to retrieve share list from server".
- If I type the IP address in nautilus/Location (smb://ipaddress/) I can see the two shares available on the filespace. If I double click to open any of them I get "Unable to mount location - Failed to retrieve share list from server"
- If I type in nautilus/Location: smb://ipaddress/sharename/ I get "Could not display "smb://ipaddress/sharename/ - Error: Failed to mount Windows share. Please select another viewer and try again".
- If I try Places->Connect to Server... and insert all data, a window pops up asking for the password, but I did not assign any password and the shares are unprotected (all users on the lan can access them). If I click enter without entering any password, I get "Cannot display location "smb://ipaddress/sharename/ - Error: Failed to mount Windows share"
- - If I type in firefox: smb://ipaddress/sharename/ I get a page showing the two partitions, but I cannot go any further.

I tried to follow all suggestions of the initial post of this thread. The ubuntu machine and the router share the same workgroup (it is called WORKGROUP - could this be a problem?).

I don't have a firewall active, this is my iptable:

luca@luca-desktop:/etc/samba$ sudo iptables -L
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base, it will be ignored in a future release.
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-modem, it will be ignored in a future release.
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

This is smbtree:

luca@luca-desktop:/etc/samba$ smbtree
Enter password:
WORKGROUP
\\SE551 Samba 3.4.7
\\SE551\IPC$ Remote Inter Process Communication
\\SE551\webserv Share Folder
\\SE551\partition1 partition1

Finally I attach the smb.conf. I tried two different ones: first I tried modifying the one which I inherited from the Hardy Heron (which was already creating problems). smb.conf.old.txt
Then I downloaded a simpler one from the net and tried to use it, to no avail. smb.conf.txt
I must highlight that the behaviour of the machine never changed.

[ripon.nh]

wins before dns makes Internet browsing slow.

Best not to edit /etc/nsswitch.conf, instead in the file /etc/samba/smb.conf find and edit the line

; name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast

to

name resolve order = lmhosts wins bcast host

which only effect SMB browsing

[lucamanu]

@ripon, if you were referring to me, I tried your suggestion, but it did not have the slightest impact on my problem.
Thanks however.
L.

[ripon.nh]

@ripon, if you were referring to me, I tried your suggestion, but it did not have the slightest impact on my problem.
Thanks however.
L.

Sorry, wasn't referring to you, commented on the original post. Regarding your issue, sounds like problem with nautilus file manager. Try installing Krusader (or Gnome Commander) file manager to see if you can mount with that. If not the problem could be the version of smbclient you are using. Hope that helps.

[lucamanu]

Thanks Ripon. I installed Krusader, and when I connect to the server it actually sees the share, but when I try to open it, it replies with an error:
The file or folder "smb://192.168.2.1/sharename/ does not exist"

[Paddy Landau]

@lucamanu:

First

Check that your Windows and Ubuntu computers do not have the same name.

Ubuntu: Look in /etc/hostname to see your computer name. (If you change it, you must also change it in /etc/hosts, and reboot your computer. There's probably a GUI way to change the name, but I don't know it.)

Windows: Look in Control Panel > System > Computer name. While you are there, double-check that the workgroup name is indeed WORKGROUP (or, if you change it, also change it in /etc/samba/smb.conf on your Ubuntu machine).

Second

Check that you have given permission to guests from your Windows share. I'm not entirely familiar with Windows any more, but here are the few bits I do know.

On your Windows computer:

• Control Panel > Network and Sharing Centre > Change advanced sharing settings:
  
  • Turn on network discovery
  • Turn on file and printer sharing
  • Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public folders
  • Use 128-bit encryption to help protect file sharing connections
  
  
• Right-click your Public folder > Properties > Sharing > Share > Everyone > Read/Write

You may have to reboot your Windows computer and reboot your Ubuntu computer (to ensure that caches are cleared).

Third

If that does not solve the problem, try the following. I cannot guarantee it will work, but it helped me.

On your Ubuntu computer:

• Back up your /etc/samba/smb.conf
• Take my version of smb.conf (attached).
  
  • If you have a shared folder on your Ubuntu machine (that Windows must be able to see):
    
    • Change YourUbuntuComputerName to your computer's name (i.e. /etc/hostname).
    • Change /YourUbuntuPublicPath to your computer's shared folder, e.g. /public
    
    
  • If you do not have a shared folder on your Ubuntu machine:
    
    • Remove (or comment out) the entire [public] section at the end of the file.
    
    
  
  
• Replace /etc/samba/smb.conf with this modified version.

Restart your Ubuntu computer to ensure Samba registers the new version. Let us know whether or not you can connect.

[yellerKat]

wins before dns makes Internet browsing slow.

Best not to edit /etc/nsswitch.conf, instead in the file /etc/samba/smb.conf find and edit the line

; name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast

to

name resolve order = lmhosts wins bcast host

which only effect SMB browsing

Hey Ripon thank you! I've been cursing my ISP for slow dns look up, then I implemented your advice and the difference in DNS lookup time is startling!

[emil_donca]

Hi!!

I really wanted to write about my experience.

I was getting "Unable to mount location: Failed to retrieve share list from server" when accessing XP box.

I followed all steps like 3 times, nothing worked. After reading 8 pages of replies I eventually stopped.



I took me a full day to try all sorts of things then I eventually gave up. In the evening I noticed also the XP box cannot be ping'ed and I came accross this thread: http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=920007 where everybody is perplexed for 3+ months that the ping wont work on a machine no matter what. Turns out the culprit was a CISCO VPN software that does some firewalling of its own. After removing it ping works fine AND ALL WINDOWS SHARES CAN BE BROWSED FROM NAUTILUS!! hooray

--hope this helps somebody,
Emil

[l07]

I've tried the things suggested, but still cannot access xp from ubuntu. Help: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...9#post11576519.

[juannm]

In respect to the PROBLEM 3 - PART 2, as said in the tutorial:

Problem 3 - Part 2
You'll also have to install the winbind daemon in order to resolve hostnames. This is easily done with the following command:

sudo apt-get install winbind

Then, either restart networking or reboot.

But here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1873912
bab1 points out that winbind is not needed if what we want is just netbios name resolution.

You DO NOT need a WINS server with this solution nor do you need winbind (a utility to map Windows user accounts to Linux user accounts

So, is it actually needed of not?