samba shares dont work in windows and halfway work in VLC android

[sdowney717]

Basically setup a shared folder in ubuntu.
Only allow read access

On the windows PC, the ubuntu computer does not appear in the network.
On the android phone the Ubuntu smb share names appear, but when you click on the folder name, it says the folder is empty.

Any thoughts on where to start? Before I was running 16.04, and it did work.

Modifying a little, on a windows 10 PC, the shares work fine.

For the win7 PC, I get nothing. Does the smb config file need tweaking?

Some more info, when I changed from only guest access to create and delete files, VLC on android says needs user and password. Win10 says I dont have permission to view, win7 still nada.

I ran some commands


scott@scott-MS-7596:~$ smbclient -L localhost
WARNING: The "syslog" option is deprecated
Enter WORKGROUP\scott's password:
OS=[Windows 6.1] Server=[Samba 4.6.7-Ubuntu]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
print$ Disk Printer Drivers
IPC$ IPC IPC Service (scott-MS-7596 server (Samba, Ubuntu))
Pictures Disk
kaffeineTV Disk
OS=[Windows 6.1] Server=[Samba 4.6.7-Ubuntu]

Server Comment
--------- -------

Workgroup Master
--------- -------
WORKGROUP BOAT2PC
scott@scott-MS-7596:~$ sudo smbstatus --shares

Service pid Machine Connected at Encryption Signing
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kaffeineTV 8589 192.168.1.247 Mon Oct 16 12:48:07 PM 2017 EDT - -
IPC$ 4868 scott-ms-7596 Mon Oct 16 11:27:01 AM 2017 EDT - -
Pictures 8589 192.168.1.247 Mon Oct 16 12:43:45 PM 2017 EDT - -

scott@scott-MS-7596:~$


win10 can see the pictures shares, but the video files it says no permission, ask admin to grant access. Even though the ubuntu setting is to allow guest access, it can not grant access.

[sdowney717]

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1514386
Following Morbius advice, it is now working.
The key was to change the permissions on the second drive which was mounted without the correct permissions.
I had gotten things sharing with files on the main boot drive, but the drive I wanted to share from was another drive in the system that I have set to mount at boot time.

For their need it was sudo chmod 0777 /media/Share/data

For my needs it is sudo chmod 0777 /media/scott

Which is where the second drive is mounted!
Then the nautilus share menu worked with the other drive.

I also was able to modify the smb.conf to make the entire drive share as guest. I have a lot of #commented out stuff as I was playing around with seeing what happens.

#
# Sample configuration file for the Samba suite for Debian GNU/Linux.
#
#
# 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 most of which
# are not shown in this example
#
# Some options that are often worth tuning have been included as
# commented-out examples in this file.
# - When such options are commented with ";", the proposed setting
# differs from the default Samba behaviour
# - When commented with "#", the proposed setting is the default
# behaviour of Samba but the option is considered important
# enough to be mentioned here
#
# 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]

## Browsing/Identification ###

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
workgroup = WORKGROUP

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server
# wins support = no

# 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

# This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS.
dns proxy = no


map to guest = Bad User

log file = /var/log/samba/%m
log level = 1

#### Networking ####

# The specific set of interfaces / networks to bind to
# This can be either the interface name or an IP address/netmask;
# interface names are normally preferred
; interfaces = 127.0.0.0/8 eth0

# Only bind to the named interfaces and/or networks; you must use the
# 'interfaces' option above to use this.
# It is recommended that you enable this feature if your Samba machine is
# not protected by a firewall or is a firewall itself. However, this
# option cannot handle dynamic or non-broadcast interfaces correctly.
; bind interfaces only = yes



#### Debugging/Accounting ####

# This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# Cap the size of the individual log files (in KiB).
max log size = 1000

# If you want Samba to only log through syslog then set the following
# parameter to 'yes'.
# syslog only = no

# We want Samba to log a minimum amount of information to syslog. Everything
# should go to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd} instead. If you want to log
# through syslog you should set the following parameter to something higher.
syslog = 0

# Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d


####### Authentication #######

# Server role. Defines in which mode Samba will operate. Possible
# values are "standalone server", "member server", "classic primary
# domain controller", "classic backup domain controller", "active
# directory domain controller".
#
# Most people will want "standalone sever" or "member server".
# Running as "active directory domain controller" will require first
# running "samba-tool domain provision" to wipe databases and create a
# new domain.
server role = standalone server

# If you are using encrypted passwords, Samba will need to know what
# password database type you are using.
passdb backend = tdbsam

obey pam restrictions = yes

# This boolean parameter controls whether Samba attempts to sync the Unix
# password with the SMB password when the encrypted SMB password in the
# passdb is changed.
unix password sync = yes

# For Unix password sync to work on a Debian GNU/Linux system, the following
# parameters must be set (thanks to Ian Kahan <<kahan@informatik.tu-muenchen.de> for
# sending the correct chat script for the passwd program in Debian Sarge).
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .

# This boolean controls whether PAM will be used for password changes
# when requested by an SMB client instead of the program listed in
# 'passwd program'. The default is 'no'.
pam password change = yes

# This option controls how unsuccessful authentication attempts are mapped
# to anonymous connections
map to guest = bad user

########## Domains ###########

#
# The following settings only takes effect if 'server role = primary
# classic domain controller', 'server role = backup domain controller'
# or 'domain logons' is set
#

# It specifies the location of the user's
# profile directory from the client point of view) The following
# required a [profiles] share to be setup on the samba server (see
# below)
; logon path = \\%N\profiles\%U
# Another common choice is storing the profile in the user's home directory
# (this is Samba's default)
# logon path = \\%N\%U\profile

# The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set
# It specifies the location of a user's home directory (from the client
# point of view)
; logon drive = H:
# logon home = \\%N\%U

# The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set
# It specifies the script to run during logon. The script must be stored
# in the [netlogon] share
# NOTE: Must be store in 'DOS' file format convention
; logon script = logon.cmd

# This allows Unix users to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR
# RPC pipe. The example command creates a user account with a disabled Unix
# password; please adapt to your needs
; add user script = /usr/sbin/adduser --quiet --disabled-password --gecos "" %u

# This allows machine accounts to be created on the domain controller via the
# SAMR RPC pipe.
# The following assumes a "machines" group exists on the system
; add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -g machines -c "%u machine account" -d /var/lib/samba -s /bin/false %u

# This allows Unix groups to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR
# RPC pipe.
; add group script = /usr/sbin/addgroup --force-badname %g

############ Misc ############

# 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 = /home/samba/etc/smb.conf.%m

# Some defaults for winbind (make sure you're not using the ranges
# for something else.)
; idmap uid = 10000-20000
; idmap gid = 10000-20000
; template shell = /bin/bash

# Setup usershare options to enable non-root users to share folders
# with the net usershare command.

# Maximum number of usershare. 0 (default) means that usershare is disabled.
; usershare max shares = 100

# Allow users who've been granted usershare privileges to create
# public shares, not just authenticated ones
usershare allow guests = yes

#======================= Share Definitions =======================

# Un-comment the following (and tweak the other settings below to suit)
# to enable the default home directory shares. This will share each
# user's home directory as \\server\username
;[homes]
; comment = Home Directories
; browseable = yes

# By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change the
# next parameter to 'no' if you want to be able to write to them.
; read only = no

# File creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create files with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
; create mask = 0775

# Directory creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create dirs. with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
; directory mask = 0775

# By default, \\server\username shares can be connected to by anyone
# with access to the samba server.
# Un-comment the following parameter to make sure that only "username"
# can connect to \\server\username
# This might need tweaking when using external authentication schemes
; valid users = %S

# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons
# (you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.)
;[netlogon]
; comment = Network Logon Service
; path = /home/samba/netlogon
; guest ok = yes
; read only = yes

# Un-comment the following and create the profiles directory to store
# users profiles (see the "logon path" option above)
# (you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.)
# The path below should be writable by all users so that their
# profile directory may be created the first time they log on
;[profiles]
; comment = Users profiles
; path = /home/samba/profiles
; guest ok = no
; browseable = no
; create mask = 0600
; directory mask = 0700

[printers]
comment = All Printers
browseable = no
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = yes
guest ok = no
read only = yes
create mask = 0700

# Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable
# printer drivers
[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = no
# Uncomment to allow remote administration of Windows print drivers.
# You may need to replace 'lpadmin' with the name of the group your
# admin users are members of.
# Please note that you also need to set appropriate Unix permissions
# to the drivers directory for these users to have write rights in it
; write list = root, @lpadmin

[decaff]
# This share allows anonymous (guest) access
# without authentication!

#force user = scott
#path = /media/scott/1ca42e1a-c943-4755-b8e5-a9a6e91f4ed6/kaffeine-TV-recordings
#path = /home/scott/Pictures/
#path = /
#path = /home/scott/Pictures/
#path = /home/scott/Pictures/test
#path = /media/scott/1ca42e1a-c943-4755-b8e5-a9a6e91f4ed6/kaffeine-TV-recordings$
#path = /media/scott/kaffeine-TV-recordings


[guest]
# This share allows anonymous (guest) access
# without authentication!
#create mask = 0664
#directory mask = 0755
#force user = scott
#path = /media/scott/1ca42e1a-c943-4755-b8e5-a9a6e91f4ed6/kaffeine-TV-recordings
#path = /home/scott/Pictures/
#path = /
#path = /home/scott/Pictures/
#path = /home/scott/Pictures/test
#path = /media/scott/1ca42e1a-c943-4755-b8e5-a9a6e91f4ed6/kaffeine-TV-recordings$
#path = /media/scott/kaffeine-TV-recordings
#read only = no
#guest ok = yes

#from here! https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1514386
#sudo chmod 0777 /media/Share/data
comment = MyShare
path = /media/scott
writeable = yes
guest ok = yes
; browseable = yes

[sdowney717]

Anyway, I doubt this fixed the win7 problem as win7 could never see the ubuntu pc on the network. Which may mean the win7 PC has a problem. I did all my network testing with android running VLC.
That will be something that needs fixing as I wanted to watch video on the win7 pc stored on the ubuntu pc.

Just checked, win10 pc on the network works fine, can play the files. Win7 on the network does not see the ubuntu PC. It used to see it, so it can see it. For some dumb reason it is not seeing it.