HOWTO: Setup Samba peer-to-peer with Windows

[Stormbringer]

Stormbringer I linked to this HOWTO on :

READ THIS FIRST prior to posting - IMPORTANT links
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=232059

A suggestion : link to further documentation in your first post for example :
-official samba documentation
-wiki.ubuntu.com samba documentation

Thanks for linking the guide into the "Important links" sticky.

Will update the first post as suggested; guess it a real good idea to link to the official samba documentation so that people are able take a look into it.

Thanks,
-Storm

[Stormbringer]

It worked great!... @ first

I added an additional user and something broke. Now the drive\share I had mapped wouldn't connect. So I deleted it (windows) and tried to remap it. Now I cannot login/authenticate remap.

As part of the initial setup that I followed I set up this. Mapped and logged in from my XP Mach.

[MyFiles]
path = /home/tonydm/
browseable = yes
read only = no
guest ok = no
create mask = 0644
directory mask = 0755
force user = tonydm
force group = tonydm
available = no
public = no
writable = no

Then added the following to the smb.conf and issued sudo smbpasswd -L -a megan and sudo smbpasswd -L -e megan. Restarted samba. And it broke. Help Please.

[MegansFiles]
path = /home/megan/
browseable = yes
read only = no
guest ok = no
create mask = 0644
directory mask = 0755
force user = megan
force group = megan
available = no
public = no
writable = no

[Common]
path = /home/common
available = yes
browseable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

Adding an user shouldn't affect samba ... two possibilities ...

1. Samba dislikes you for the typo: "writable" is spelled WRONG ... "writeable" is much more accurate. Please take a look into it and correct the parameter if you really happend to commit that typo in your smb.conf. Afterwards restart samba (sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart).

2. Shouldn't be required as we're using TDBSAM as user/password backend, but try to add the user to the system (in Gnome: "System" -> "Administration" -> "Users and Groups").

I would dare to bet the first one should fix your problem in case it is a typo.

-Storm

[Stormbringer]

I have gone through the HOWTO step by step.
Here is my problem:
I can see my ubuntu pc in winxp but when i try and access it it says that i might not have the right permissions.
Any ideas appreciated as this and network printing are the last hurdles before i totally switch over.
Cheers,
Dave.

A little more information would be great ...

I assume you followed the guide, so the authentication error could only be related to the useraccount or samba's setup.

- Did you add your useraccount to samba and enable it (the part that deals with smbpasswd -L -a <username> and smbpasswd -L -e <username>)?

If you only added the account you still need to enable it for access.


Also, check your smb.conf for possible typos in case you didn't copy/paste ... or in case you did some modifications yourself.

-Storm

[Stormbringer]

I read all your document and it is really very usefull. I have one additional question. My principal interest is to be able, on my Linux machine to use windows workstation names instead of their IP , when trying to connect to any windows share folder.

1) Is this samba setup enabling this ?

If you enabled WINS ("wins support = yes" in smb.conf) it's samba doing the job (Name to address, and vice versa, translation).

2) If I have more thna one Linux machine on the network what WINS ip should I enter on the Windows machine ?

Tricky question ... this depends on the setup of your network ...

If you run Ubuntu- and Windows as Workstations you can safely enable WINS on all boxes and provide all IPs to Windows - the WINS browsers will sync each other when all are up.

If you run Ubuntu as a server you're better off enabling WINS on the server only.

However, in Linux you may want to edit /etc/nsswitch.conf to enable WINS resolution between Linux boxes.

Find the line reading:

hosts: files dns mdns

and add "wins" at the end of the line to make it read:

hosts: files dns mdns wins

Now, if you connect from a Linux box to another Linux box by smb you may use the name instead of the IP as WINS will try to resolve the name-to-address (will only work if there's a WINS server up and available).

-Storm

[Stormbringer]

All well and great. With the exception that on a standard 6.06 install there is NO SAMBA. And installing it (apt-get install samba) does not work as he complains that it is not available.

Samba is available for installation online...

stormbringer@nebuchadnezzar:~$ sudo apt-cache policy samba
samba:
  Installed: 3.0.22-1ubuntu3.1
  Candidate: 3.0.22-1ubuntu3.1
  Version table:
 *** 3.0.22-1ubuntu3.1 0
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com dapper-security/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.0.22-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper/main Packages

As you can see ... the package is called "samba", and it's located in the networking section of the main repository (you need internet access!).

"sudo apt-get install samba" will therefore only work if you're connected to the internet.

ubuntu however reports that smbclient and samba-common can replace the package.

Do they replace samba? If so then how can i apply the same steps to them?
If no, then can one get to install samba from the CD? or does one need internet access? (which i dont have on the ubuntubox...)

"samba-client" and "samba-common" are just the CLIENT packages of samba (Gnome and some other programs need these packages in order to gain access TO Windows) ... samba is the SERVER part that makes it possible to gain access TO Linux FROM i.e. Windows. So - no - these packages DO NOT replace samba or stuff as they are not related to the server part ... although it would be funny if Ubuntu really wrote stuff like that somewhere hidden in the depths of the site and/or Wiki.

Oh, and as I don't have the CD at hand I'm unable to tell you if samba is available for installation from CD ... will take a look into it on Monday and edit this post.

-Storm

[ubuntu_demon]

Thanks for linking the guide into the "Important links" sticky.

Will update the first post as suggested; guess it a real good idea to link to the official samba documentation so that people are able take a look into it.

Thanks,
-Storm

Great! Thanks for adding the stuff. I already put some other Samba links in the sticky. Please PM me if you have added some links so I might add them there too.

[jpordonez]

I have setup according to your directions and it all works fine. One additional question:

I have a website running on the Windows machine. I can access it from the linux machine using the IP, but I would like to browse it using the windows machine name instead of the IP. Is this possible ? How do I set this up ?

[Stormbringer]

I have a website running on the Windows machine. I can access it from the linux machine using the IP, but I would like to browse it using the windows machine name instead of the IP. Is this possible ? How do I set this up ?

A WEBSITE? This has nothing to do with samba ... X_X ... I hope you're aware of that fact.

Accessing the website you're running on your Windows box by name requires the installation of a DNS-server for your intranet on a server that's inside your internal network as well.

Please take a look at this HOWTO: Howto: Setup a DNS server with bind
It's more related to your question.

[rc-edens]

Nice HOWTO - very comprehensive.

I neglected to check the Ubuntu forums when I was looking for Samba setup info two days ago but instead used a small Samba HOWTO contained within an article I ran across at TomsHardware.com. The Samba info there starts on page 8 of the article: http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/0...nas_smackdown/.

Although it's a small set of instructions, it was just what I needed for setting up an Ubuntu photo file server for my Windows XP Photoshop machines.

--- "RC" Edens

[WzrdOfOost]

Too bad I did not see these forum when I wsa struggeling with samba. I just cleaned the whole smb.conf and started from scratch. I blogd my struggle here http://my-linux-server.blogspot.com