Hello. I've been continuously using samba for personal computing for >10 years, starting way back with version 2.2.5 installed on 23 Jan 02003. Thank you so much to the samba team for making such stable and reliable software that I was able to configure it and then leave it almost completely untouched for 12 years and it worked like a charm for all that time. Fabulous software. But now it's time for me to set up a new samba server with the latest version. Because I really don't remember everything I read in order to get v2.2.5 running 12 years ago, I'd like to start from a simple HOWTO or recipe for just getting the simplest functionality (no security, strictly guest access for a public read/write share on my LAN) working in 4.2.0. I bought and used Using Samba, 2ed, O'Reilly & Associates (Feb. 2003) to help me with this 12 years ago, but I think there may be interoperability problems between 4.2.0 and 2.2.5 because smbclientv4.2.0 -L hostname2.2.5 -N errors out with: "Conversion error: Incomplete multibyte sequence() protocol negotiation failed: NT_STATUS_INVALID_PARAMETER" So I think it would not be a good idea to use that book now. I see at samba.org that "(Jan 2007: The 3rd edition has been released and will be available online soon)." but that book is apparently for samba v3.0 (which seems not much newer than my 2.2.5). And the official howto is for version 3.5. Other than the man pages (great for reference, but a lot to wade through for just a simple recipe to get it running), what's the best resource for a simple recipe to setup 4.2.0? Is this (below) still current? <https://www.oregontechsupport.com/samba/> I didn't find a date on that page, but I do know that the "security share" (an early example from that document) setting is no longer supported because I tried it and it wasn't recognized. So I guess that documentation is not current. Any suggestions for recipe-like documentation on 4.2.0? Thanks very much samba team for making samba. -Kevin
On 03/30/2015 06:33 PM, 02019 wrote:> ... > I'd like to start from a simple HOWTO > or recipe for just getting the simplest functionality (no security, > strictly guest access for a public read/write share on my LAN) working > in 4.2.0.So, to reiterate, this is just to get me *started*. Once I have a *simple* samba server running that I can put and get to using smbclient and that I can do the same from a win2kp client, then I can make little changes to smb.conf, one at a time, and slowly give myself with v4.2.0 the functionality that I now have with v2.2.5.> ... > And the official howto is for version 3.5. >So this is a problem for me. For example, this very simple config file from the official howto: Example 1.2. Another simple smb.conf File [global] workgroup = MIDEARTH [homes] guest ok = no read only = no does not give me this behavior: "This will allow connections by anyone with an account on the server, using either their login name or homes as the service name. (Note: The workgroup that Samba should appear in must also be set..." I can login to the server from a getty login prompt and from the lightdm display manager, but I cannot login using smbclient with this config file. All I really want right now is make a read/writable share for anyone on my LAN to use anonymously, that is, without supplying username or password. That would seem to be the simplest use case to me. and the official how-to reads in part, "There are sample configuration files in the examples subdirectory in the source code distribution tarball package." but for me, in my arch linux system in which I've used pacman to install samba 4.2.0-1, the only files matching "example" when I submit the command "pacman -Ql samba|grep example" are these: /usr/share/doc/samba/examples /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP /usr/share/doc/samba/examples/LDAP/samba.schema So these kinds of inconsistencies are at the root of my question here about current documentation for v4.2.0. I looked at the wiki and it seems like the article that is most relevant to my immediate goal is this one: "Samba as a File Server" but that is not detailed enough for my needs right now. The level of detail in the official howto is great, but it seems to be out-dated. Thanks for any suggestions on this dilemma, and thanks especially for making samba. -Kevin
Adam Tauno Williams
2015-Mar-31 01:45 UTC
[Samba] Simple recipe for getting started with 4.2.0
On Mon, 2015-03-30 at 18:33 -0400, 02019 wrote:> I bought and used Using Samba, 2ed, O'Reilly & Associates (Feb. 2003) to > help me with this 12 years ago, but I think there may be > interoperability problems between 4.2.0 and 2.2.5 because > smbclientv4.2.0 -L hostname2.2.5 -N errors out with:For Samba4 the best - the very best - source of information is the Samba project's wiki page. Ignore all the other stuff, the wiki is the place to go for Samba4 documentation. Google is NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT your friend. Don't search, go to the wiki. As for interoperability between 2.2.5 and 4.2.0 - it is not likely to work. I doubt it would work well between 2.2.x and even 3.6.x; to get it to work you'd have to back off a bunch of the security related defaults, I doubt it would be worth the trouble.
On 03/30/2015 09:45 PM, Adam Tauno Williams wrote:> On Mon, 2015-03-30 at 18:33 -0400, 02019 wrote: >> I bought and used Using Samba, 2ed, O'Reilly & Associates (Feb. 2003) to >> help me with this 12 years ago, but I think there may be >> interoperability problems between 4.2.0 and 2.2.5 because >> smbclientv4.2.0 -L hostname2.2.5 -N errors out with: > > For Samba4 the best - the very best - source of information is the Samba > project's wiki page. Ignore all the other stuff, the wiki is the place > to go for Samba4 documentation.Thank you for you reply, but I'd like to configure my new samba4 server with the very simplest configuration for anonymous login with read/write access to everyone on my LAN initially. Could someone perhaps post an incredibly simple smb.conf file that would offer that kind of functionality? I did look at the wiki, but all of the articles under <https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba_as_a_File_Server> (which seems like the article that is closest to my needs initially) assume that this kind of functionality already exists; whereas I don't have (even) that yet.> ... > As for interoperability between 2.2.5 and 4.2.0 - it is not likely to > work. I doubt it would work well between 2.2.x and even 3.6.x; to get > it to work you'd have to back off a bunch of the security related > defaults, I doubt it would be worth the trouble.I totally agree. I'm not trying to interoperate between v2 and v4. I was just making an observation before in my original post. Thanks. -Kevin