8.04 Desktop as a server..

[Cyric78]

I'm fairly new to linux (used it many years ago, but have forgotten commands, and lots has changed..) and would like to setup 8.04 Desktop as a file, media, and print server on my Windows network...

I've done lots of researching, bought some new hardware, and tried setting up the server, but now, only my XP laptop can see the Ubuntu box, but cannot access the folders, while my Vista box can't even see the Ubuntu box.. I don't know what went wrong, I've installed Samba, tried to setup users and groups, but to no avail... I'm willing to format and reinstall, since I'm not too far into this, but would like to get this up and running quickly.

I'm not interested in a store bought NAS, as I have a horror story with a Linksys NAS, which I'd rather not get into right now, but needless to say, if you want to get something done, do it yourself... ;)

I've looked into FreeNAS, OpenFiler, and ClarkConnect, but I don't feel that they can give me what I want, since I want this machine to be a 'do it all' server.. File, media, print, and possibly an FTP server.. which I know linux can do, and can be done a little at a time...

Any help, or how-to's would be greatly appreciated..

[tonyh6243]

Can you post the your smb.conf file here?

[ikt]

If you type the IP address of the ubuntu computer into your windows explorer, what happens?

[Cyric78]

Well, here it is.. hope this helps... ;)


#
# 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
#
# 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 commentary 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]

## Browsing/Identification ###

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

# 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

# What naming service and in what order should we use to resolve host names
# to IP addresses
; name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast

#### 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 = true



#### 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 #######

# "security = user" is always a good idea. This will require a Unix account
# in this server for every user accessing the server. See
# /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/ServerType.html
# in the samba-doc package for details.
security = share

# You may wish to use password encryption. See the section on
# 'encrypt passwords' in the smb.conf(5) manpage before enabling.
encrypt passwords = true

# 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

; guest account = nobody
invalid users = root

# 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 nsuccessful authentication attempts are mapped
# to anonymous connections
map to guest = bad user

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

# Is this machine able to authenticate users. Both PDC and BDC
# must have this setting enabled. If you are the BDC you must
# change the 'domain master' setting to no
#
; domain logons = yes
#
# The following setting only takes effect if '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
; 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

########## Printing ##########

# If you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
; load printers = yes

# lpr(ng) printing. You may wish to override the location of the
# printcap file
; printing = bsd
; printcap name = /etc/printcap

# CUPS printing. See also the cupsaddsmb(8) manpage in the
# cupsys-client package.
; printing = cups
; printcap name = cups

############ 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

# Most people will find that this option gives better performance.
# See smb.conf(5) and /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/speed.html
# for details
# You may want to add the following on a Linux system:
# SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
socket options = TCP_NODELAY

# The following parameter is useful only if you have the linpopup package
# installed. The samba maintainer and the linpopup maintainer are
# working to ease installation and configuration of linpopup and samba.
; message command = /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/linpopup "%f" "%m" %s; rm %s' &

# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. If this
# machine will be configured as a BDC (a secondary logon server), you
# must set this to 'no'; otherwise, the default behavior is recommended.
; domain master = auto

# 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

# The following was the default behaviour in sarge,
# but samba upstream reverted the default because it might induce
# performance issues in large organizations.
# See Debian bug #368251 for some of the consequences of *not*
# having this setting and smb.conf(5) for details.
; winbind enum groups = yes
; winbind enum users = yes

# 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 = no

# 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 = yes

# 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 = 0700

# 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 = 0700

# 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
; share modes = no

# 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

wins support = no
[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.
# Replace 'ntadmin' with the name of the group your admin users are
# members of.
; write list = root, @ntadmin

# A sample share for sharing your CD-ROM with others.
;[cdrom]
; comment = Samba server's CD-ROM
; read only = yes
; locking = no
; path = /cdrom
; guest ok = yes

# The next two parameters show how to auto-mount a CD-ROM when the
# cdrom share is accesed. For this to work /etc/fstab must contain
# an entry like this:
#
# /dev/scd0 /cdrom iso9660 defaults,noauto,ro,user 0 0
#
# The CD-ROM gets unmounted automatically after the connection to the
#
# If you don't want to use auto-mounting/unmounting make sure the CD
# is mounted on /cdrom
#
; preexec = /bin/mount /cdrom
; postexec = /bin/umount /cdrom



[public]
path = /media/disk/public
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes
createmask = 0777
directorymask = 0777
forceuser = nobody
forcegroup = nogroup

[Backup]
path = /media/disk/Backup
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes
createmask = 0777
directorymask = 0777
forceuser = nobody
forcegroup = nogroup

[Disk 2]
path = /media/disk-1/Disk 2
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes
createmask = 0777
directorymask = 0777
forceuser = nobody
forcegroup = nogroup

[Cyric78]

If you type the IP address of the ubuntu computer into your windows explorer, what happens?

It loads Opera, and give an unavailable error

[ikt]

It loads Opera, and give an unavailable error

my bad, throw a \\ in front of the ip in explorer, for example

\\192.168.0.20

for me this loads a directory with my shared folders in it

[tonyh6243]

Have you added users to the smbpasswd file?

sudo smbpassword -a username

[Cyric78]

my bad, throw a \\ in front of the ip in explorer, for example

\\192.168.0.20

for me this loads a directory with my shared folders in it

Ok, on the XP laptop, it brought up a new place in my my workgroup, 'unas server (Samba, Ubuntu) (192.168.2.104)

The Vista box now could see it after a restart (I hate restarting Vista, or any Windows machine for that matter..), and it came up in there..

Problem is though, it doesn't ask me for a uname/pword, just gives and access denied error, on both machines...

(For the record, I've got 3 xp boxes, and a vista box, I'm only testing sofar on my 2 main systems, the laptop and the vista box..)

[ikt]

Problem is though, it doesn't ask me for a uname/pword, just gives and access denied error, on both machines...


for the sake of it I had done:


sudo smbpassword -a username

so if you do get a un/pw prompt it's important that is done so you can login.

However this is access denied before even being able to login so that suggests possible problem with folder permissions.

It's not good to use this often, but if you do


sudo chmod 777 /path/to/shared/directory


in terminal, and then try accessing the shared folders again


also could cut down on the bottom samba smb.conf file a bit,

mine looks like this:

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/158/sambart2.png

[Cyric78]

When I try the 'sudo smbpassword -a username' command, I get:

sudo: unable to resolve host unas
[sudo] password for mike:
sudo: smbpassword: command not found

[tonyh6243]

You were replacing username with your username correct?

[Cyric78]

You were replacing username with your username correct?

Yep... and the chmod command didn't work either.. got the unable to resolve hose unas error, then:

chmod: cannot access '/media/disk/public': No such file or directory

[Cyric78]

Does anyone have any ideas why Windows can't get access to the folders? they are seen, just not acessable...

[VictorR]

I think what you have to do is:
1. Create a special group, name it "sandbox" (just an example) and add yourself, I mean you main account to its members. (System -> Administration -> Users and Groups, Unlock, Manage Groups, Add Group ...)
2. create a special user for Samba access, call it, say "sambaguest", and make it the member of the above group.
3. Select the folder you would like to share (or create it, if necessary), set its permissions to Read-write for "sandbox" group, and also tick "Share this folder"

Restart samba:


sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

The folder should now be accessible through samba.
What was also not good in your samples, is that you are going to share the external disk, which could be now "/media/disk" and next time, say "/media/disk1", if something else was also attached, a USB drive for example.

[Cyric78]

Thanks.. that is what my problem was... and now all my shares that I had setup are accessable, without a password, which is good for now.. now I need to get this back down to 2 or 3 shares, instead of 6... ;)

Do you know of a good how-to that I could reference on how to setup shares properly, and mount drives properly?

[mgmiller]

Now that you have the shares set up, a really nice gui to administer them is:

sudo apt-get install system-config-samba

Once it's installed, look in System > Administration > Samba

This will let you easily add or remove any shares you want.

[Cyric78]

Ok, well, I can now access my shares, but I can't write to them... I used the Samba System Config program to remove the bad shares, and created a new set of shares, and as I said, I can read them all, but, I can't write to them... any ideas?

[mgmiller]

Using the samba gui, have you checked the properties of each share (click the share to high lite it and then click the properties button) and made sure the writable and visible checkmarks are both ticked? Also, if you look on the Access tab from the properties button, is "Allow access to everyone" ticked?

[Cyric78]

Yes, they are all marked readable, writable, and are accessible to everyone, but still no writing is allowed for some reason..

[Cyric78]

Well, hopfully tommorow will bring someone with an idea on how to fix my no writes on my shares...

[mgmiller]

The only other thing I can think to do would be to navigate to each shared folder on the machine that hosts them and right click the folder and select properties and go to the permissions tab of that folder to allow everyone to read and write to it. Don't forget to click the "Apply permissions to enclosed files button at the bottom".

Also, you could try right clicking the shared folder and selecting "Sharing Options" and setting those as you want them, but I think those options are for ssh shares.

I have an Ubuntu machine that I use as a house file server and my 1 remaining XP pro machine has no trouble reading and writing to it using samba, so I know it can be done. The rest of my machines are all Ubuntu and I use ssh to browse with them.

[ikt]

I think what you have to do is:
1. Create a special group, name it "sandbox" (just an example) and add yourself, I mean you main account to its members. (System -> Administration -> Users and Groups, Unlock, Manage Groups, Add Group ...)
2. create a special user for Samba access, call it, say "sambaguest", and make it the member of the above group.
3. Select the folder you would like to share (or create it, if necessary), set its permissions to Read-write for "sandbox" group, and also tick "Share this folder"

Restart samba:


sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

The folder should now be accessible through samba.
What was also not good in your samples, is that you are going to share the external disk, which could be now "/media/disk" and next time, say "/media/disk1", if something else was also attached, a USB drive for example.

why did he have to do all that? I just plain went to a folder, right clicked, "sharing options", and it generally takes you through the rest, it installs samba, adds the user to the groups, etc etc all went well :?

[Cyric78]

Well, I don't mind doing that, because it gives me the Samba GUI, which is nice, but it won't allow writing to the shares...

As for mounting, how do I auto-mount drives, so the names stay the same if the box needs to be restarted?

I'm seriously thinking about reinstalling with the server version, and installing a gui for me to use...

[VictorR]

I'm seriously thinking about reinstalling with the server version, and installing a gui for me to use...
The server version is generally same as desktop one, just without X server and desktop application installed.

With auto-mounting I also experience problems now. It was nicely configured in Feisty, but after upgrade to Gutsy "hda" became "sdb", and later it is either sda or sdb. After the system was restarted auto-mounting fails quite often, so does backup, which should put all stuff to what was my windows disk once.

[VictorR]

I still believe, that you can't write to your shared folders, because they don't have permissions for folders to be writable by non-owners. That is why I told about special users and groups. Everybody should not browse across your system. You should allow the only user to get through Samba, and set up the appropriate permissions for selected folders only. The rest of your file-system must be invisible and inaccessible from outside.

[Cyric78]

Well, right now I can't even mount my 2 hdd's for some reason, tommorow morning I'm going to try what was suggested to me in this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=956194 and see if that works... the permissions worked well for me to get the write access, and I did manage to make it user specific, which was my initial goal of all this, that the Windows login name would be what allowed access, instead of having a login screen come up, but, now I can't even access my drives, never mind mount them...