Howto Easy FuseSMB - access Samba shares from ALL programs. - automatic access to win

*** Based on howto by Tazix, modified for Gnome by BuffaloX ***

Tested for Ubuntu x86 6.06 and 7.04 (Gnome)

Purpose:
To easily access Samba and Windows shares from all X-programs. (Especially mediaplayers.)

1: Install samba and fusesmb from repositories:
Open Synaptic Package Manager
Install libsmbclient, samba-common, smbclient and fusesmb

2: Give root and user access to fusesmb:
Select from menu: "System->Administration->users and groups".
Now select "root" then click "properties" and tag "allow use of fusesmb"
Do the same for your user account.

3: Create a mountpoint:
In terminal write: sudo nautilus
navigate to the /media folder
create a new folder and rename it to "network" (you can call it something else if you like)
Right click the folder, and select "properties" then select "permissions", for section "group" select the group "users", for section "folder acces" select "read and write".

4: Make fusesmb start at boot.
Select from menu: "system->preferences->sessions"
Select new
Name: fusesmbnet (can be whatever)
command: fusesmb /media/network

5: Try it out.
Reboot to make changes take effect...
Now you (should) have automatic access to windows networks from all programs.
There may be a delay before fusesmb sees your network. So you may have to give it a couple of minutes....
Much better than Gnome way of doing it IMO.

Rollback:
If you don't want it anyway, its easily reversible just following the guide again, but replace install/new/create/make with delete/remove/uninstall. Except you may want to keep the samba stuff.

I just have an empty folder with no network access. Any Ideas??

Are you using Ubuntu with Gnome?
Did you remember point 2?
For me I had to give these rights to both root and user, otherwise it doesn't work.

Does your Windows/Samba shares work normally in Nautilus?
(Meaning are you sure you have a woking share to see.

You should see your workgroups, and be able to navigate them as easy as local drives...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BuffaloX

Are you using Ubuntu with Gnome?
Did you remember point 2?
For me I had to give these rights to both root and user, otherwise it doesn't work.

Does your Windows/Samba shares work normally in Nautilus?
(Meaning are you sure you have a woking share to see.

You should see your workgroups, and be able to navigate them as easy as local drives...

---

Network browsing in Nautilus works fine, and I have all permissions set correctly. Here are screenshots...

OK that looks fine.

I suppose you have a working mountpoint, and read/write permission for user.
Forgetting that gives the "empty folder" symptom.

If that is OK, you could try to check if your Samba share works with xSMBrowser.
Its available in Synaptic. :)
(Just to check if Samba shares work independent of Gnome specific features)
In xSMBrowser click on "Samba Config" to see accessible samba shares.

If both of the above are true, See if all 4 mentioned packages required are installed.

I can't think of anything else right now, so anybody please feel free to chip in. :popcorn:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BuffaloX

OK that looks fine.

I suppose you have a working mountpoint, and read/write permission for user.
Forgetting that gives the "empty folder" symptom.

If that is OK, you could try to check if your Samba share works with xSMBrowser.
Its available in Synaptic. :)
(Just to check if Samba shares work independent of Gnome specific features)
In xSMBrowser click on "Samba Config" to see accessible samba shares.

If both of the above are true, See if all 4 mentioned packages required are installed.

I can't think of anything else right now, so anybody please feel free to chip in. :popcorn:

---

I have checked all of the above to no avail, but i did see something interesting while browsing. I created a text document in /media/network to test my write privs, and when I went to delete it I was told that I could not move it to the trash, but had to delete it straightforward. That seems very similar to how you delete something on a networked computer. How can I tell which workgroup I am a part of??

Did xSMBrowser show any samba shares?

To see your own workgroup select from menu:
System -> administration -> shared folders.
The name of your workgrup is in: "General properties".

Note:
This does not affect your ability to browse samba shares with fusesmb.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BuffaloX

Did xSMBrowser show any samba shares?

To see your own workgroup select from menu:
System -> administration -> shared folders.
The name of your workgrup is in: "General properties".

Note:
This does not affect your ability to browse samba shares with fusesmb.

---

Here is what I get in xsmbrowser:

Have I screwed up somewhere??

No I don't think you screwed up.
It looks perfectly alright,
I don't know why fusesmb doesn't work for you.
I'll have to look into it more closely.

The only possible problem I can think of now, is if something in Ubuntu desktop makes fuseSMB not work correctly.

I'll try to double-check the guide on a newly installed system ASAP, but it may be a couple of days because I don't have a test system available ATM.

PS
You could try to start fusesmb in a terminal. To see if it returns anything usable.
Note that you cannot use already mounted mount-points.
So either make a new one, or disable autostart of fusesmb and reboot.

ok, so here is the command that helped get it straightened out:

Code:

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fusesmb /media/network/ -o nonempty

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I don't know why, but it works now. Thanks!