samba - Mar 2007 - Problems with Samba between Linux host and VMWare Windows guest

I've asked this almost everywhere else, so obviously I only find out about
this list now (my doing, too).

I am running VMWare Workstation on top of host CentOS 4.4 Plus on a Dell
Precision 390 with 2G of main memory.  Under VMWare, I am running a Windows
XP guest OS.  I have a similar setup at home except that the hardware is a
little different but the memory and the setup are the same, and at home I'm
running VMWare Server.

One difference is that VMWare Workstation has a feature called "shared
drives" where I can configure the Windows guest to be able to access the
CentOS host directories via the VMWare shared drive setup.  The VMWare
Server does not have this feature.  So I want to connect my CentOS host at
home so that its guest Windows on VMWare Server can access the host
files/directories via Samba.  To make sure that this works, I have been
trying to make a parallel setup at work, but this is not working.  At all.

I have configured samba on my host to allow user and /tmp access, but the
Windows guest can't see it.  I can ping the host from Windows, I can telnet
to the host from Windows, but I can't map any network drives to the host
file shares.  I get this error (in Windows):

The mapped network drive could not be created because the following error
has occurred:

The specified network name is no longer available.

I have the Windows guest configured to use NAT, and it has the IP address
192.168.118.128.  (The 172.* info is in case I try the Windows configured
for a "host-only" network, which I have yet to try).

Here is my smb.conf file on the Linux host:

# Global parameters
[global]
workgroup = MARKGROUP
server string = CentOS Samba Server
hosts allow = 172.16.59. 192.168.118. 127.
printcap name = /etc/printcap
cups options = raw
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
max log size = 50
security = user
password server = none
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
interfaces = 192.168.118.1/24 172.16.59.1/24
remote announce = 192.168.118.255 172.16.59.255
wins support = yes
dns proxy = no
idmap uid = 16777216-33554431
idmap gid = 16777216-33554431
template shell = /bin/false
winbind use default domain = no

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
path = /home/%u
valid users = %S
read only = no
browseable = no

[tmp]
comment = Temporary file space
path = /tmp
read only = no
public = yes

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = yes
browseable = no

I don't really care about the printers, just the homes and tmp sections, but
there must be something missing here or I would be able to connect the
drives.

There are no samba errors in the logs on the host side.

Thanks.

Mark Hull-Richter, Linux Kernel Engineer
DATAllegro (www.datallegro.com)
85 Enterprise, Second Floor, Aliso Viejo, CA  92656
949-680-3082 - Office     949-330-7691 - fax

[Second try]

I've asked this almost everywhere else, so obviously I only find out about
this list now (my doing, too).

I am running VMWare Workstation on top of host CentOS 4.4 Plus on a Dell
Precision 390 with 2G of main memory.  Under VMWare, I am running a Windows
XP guest OS.  I have a similar setup at home except that the hardware is a
little different but the memory and the setup are the same, and at home I'm
running VMWare Server.

One difference is that VMWare Workstation has a feature called "shared
drives" where I can configure the Windows guest to be able to access the
CentOS host directories via the VMWare shared drive setup.  The VMWare
Server does not have this feature.  So I want to connect my CentOS host at
home so that its guest Windows on VMWare Server can access the host
files/directories via Samba.  To make sure that this works, I have been
trying to make a parallel setup at work, but this is not working.  At all.

I have configured samba on my host to allow user and /tmp access, but the
Windows guest can't see it.  I can ping the host from Windows, I can telnet
to the host from Windows, but I can't map any network drives to the host
file shares.  I get this error (in Windows):

The mapped network drive could not be created because the following error
has occurred:

The specified network name is no longer available.

I have the Windows guest configured to use NAT, and it has the IP address
192.168.118.128.  (The 172.* info is in case I try the Windows configured
for a "host-only" network, which I have yet to try).

Here is my smb.conf file on the Linux host:

# Global parameters
[global]
workgroup = MARKGROUP
server string = CentOS Samba Server
hosts allow = 172.16.59. 192.168.118. 127.
printcap name = /etc/printcap
cups options = raw
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
max log size = 50
security = user
password server = none
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
interfaces = 192.168.118.1/24 172.16.59.1/24
remote announce = 192.168.118.255 172.16.59.255
wins support = yes
dns proxy = no
idmap uid = 16777216-33554431
idmap gid = 16777216-33554431
template shell = /bin/false
winbind use default domain = no

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
path = /home/%u
valid users = %S
read only = no
browseable = no

[tmp]
comment = Temporary file space
path = /tmp
read only = no
public = yes

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = yes
browseable = no

I don't really care about the printers, just the homes and tmp sections, but
there must be something missing here or I would be able to connect the
drives.

There are no samba errors in the logs on the host side.

Thanks.

Mark Hull-Richter, Linux Kernel Engineer
DATAllegro (www.datallegro.com)
85 Enterprise, Second Floor, Aliso Viejo, CA  92656
949-680-3082 - Office     949-330-7691 - fax