samba - Jul 2016 - new user introduction, and a few questions

hi all
My name is Kendell Clark, and I've just subscribed to this list. I
thought I'd write this email to introduce myself, and ask a couple of
questions about configuring samba. I'm a co developer of a linux
distribution for the visually impaired and disabled called Sonar GNU
linux, which you can learn more about at http://www.sonargnulinux.com.
I've been struggling to come up with a default samba configuration file
that will work for at least most windows and linux environments if not
all. The results have been mixed. I'm going to attach the samba config
file I install into the built sonar images, as well as my
/etc/nssswitch.conf file. I did have samba working for about two months,
between my desktop and my fiance's windows 7 computer but after a samba
update it stopped working. The config file was the same, but I started
getting errors. They're below. Whenever I try to access anything on
mellisa's computer now I get either "failed to retrieve share list from
server: no such file or directory" or "failed to retrieve share list
from server. Invalid argument. Please select another viewer and try
again. That last one stumps me because it makes no sense. I thought
there might have been something wrong with either samba or the gvfs or
filemanager samba plugin (I use the mate desktop) but reinstalling them
didn't help.
My next couple of questions have to do with the windows side of things.
I don't use it myself I'm  strictly a linux guy but I do set windows up
for my fiance a lot, and  I install it on my laptop periodically to test
samba on to make sure it works like I've set it up. One thing I've
noticed is that it seems somehow able to autoconfigure most of this
stuff. If I change the work group name on mellisa's computer, a windows
installation on my desktop or another computer finds it and connects
with no problems, prompting for a user name and password. Samba doesn't.
It simply won't connect. Is there an "automatic" or "figure
it out"
option in the config file I can use? The only reason I'm asking is
because a lot of my users are not very experienced they're mostly
windows users and they expect things to more or less configure
themselves. If they have to configure stuff their first option is
generally to complain and ask why I can't simply do it for them. My next
question has to do with this "homegroup" stuff. I don't know much
about
windows but this seems to be a different sharing system, not cifs, and
windows specific. Can samba take advantage of these or should I just
disable the home group stuff on all the windows computers I want to
connect with? My last question has to do with what samba shows when I do
manage to connect to my fiance's windows computer. A typical listing
looks like
$admin$
c$
f$
Users
The only one I can successfully connect to is the "users" folder. The
rest lock me out regardless of what user name and password I supply. If
I connect through a test windows installation windows doesn't display
anything but the "Users" item so I'm guessing those are system
shares
that aren't supposed to be used. In order to access flash drives,
external hard drives, etc across the network I have to set them up
explicitly to be shared. I'm wondering if samba can access these? And if
so, how to set it up? Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just trying to
come up with a default samba configuration that will work in most
situations without configuration needed, if that's possible. I'm a
fairly knowledgable linux user but i'm still learning how to develop a
linux distribution that's user friendly and does what most users want
out of the box. My files are attached, they're both very small.
Thanks for any help
Kendell Clark

-------------- next part --------------
 ##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 (perhaps too
 ##many!) most of which are not shown in this example
 ##
 ##For a step to step guide on installing, configuring and using samba,
 # read the Samba-HOWTO-Collection. This may be obtained from:
 #  http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf
 #
 # Many working examples of smb.conf files can be found in the
 # Samba-Guide which is generated daily and can be downloaded from:
 #  http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-Guide.pdf
 #
 # 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 commentry 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]
   workgroup = WORKGROUP
   security = user
   server string = Sonar Shares
   load printers = yes
   log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
   max log size = 50
   usershare path = /var/lib/samba/usershares
   usershare max shares = 100
   usershare allow guests = yes
   usershare owner only = yes


  #Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:

  #WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable it's WINS
Server
    wins support = yes

 # 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

 #WINS Proxy - Tells Samba to answer name resolution queries on
 # behalf of a non WINS capable client, for this to work there must be
 # at least one	WINS Server on the network. The default is NO.
    ;wins proxy = yes
name resolve order = wins dns bcast
   local master = yes

-------------- next part --------------
# Begin /etc/nsswitch.conf

passwd: files
group: files
shadow: files

publickey: files

hosts: files dns myhostname wins
networks: files dns myhostname wins

protocols: files
services: files
ethers: files
rpc: files

netgroup: files

# End /etc/nsswitch.conf

On 16/07/16 08:31, kendell clark wrote:
> hi all
> My name is Kendell Clark, and I've just subscribed to this list. I
> thought I'd write this email to introduce myself, and ask a couple of
> questions about configuring samba. I'm a co developer of a linux
> distribution for the visually impaired and disabled called Sonar GNU
> linux, which you can learn more about at http://www.sonargnulinux.com.
> I've been struggling to come up with a default samba configuration file
> that will work for at least most windows and linux environments if not
> all. The results have been mixed. I'm going to attach the samba config
> file I install into the built sonar images, as well as my
> /etc/nssswitch.conf file. I did have samba working for about two months,
> between my desktop and my fiance's windows 7 computer but after a samba
> update it stopped working. The config file was the same, but I started
> getting errors. They're below. Whenever I try to access anything on
> mellisa's computer now I get either "failed to retrieve share list
from
> server: no such file or directory" or "failed to retrieve share
list
> from server. Invalid argument. Please select another viewer and try
> again. That last one stumps me because it makes no sense. I thought
> there might have been something wrong with either samba or the gvfs or
> filemanager samba plugin (I use the mate desktop) but reinstalling them
> didn't help.
> My next couple of questions have to do with the windows side of things.
> I don't use it myself I'm  strictly a linux guy but I do set
windows up
> for my fiance a lot, and  I install it on my laptop periodically to test
> samba on to make sure it works like I've set it up. One thing I've
> noticed is that it seems somehow able to autoconfigure most of this
> stuff. If I change the work group name on mellisa's computer, a windows
> installation on my desktop or another computer finds it and connects
> with no problems, prompting for a user name and password. Samba
doesn't.
> It simply won't connect. Is there an "automatic" or
"figure it out"
> option in the config file I can use? The only reason I'm asking is
> because a lot of my users are not very experienced they're mostly
> windows users and they expect things to more or less configure
> themselves. If they have to configure stuff their first option is
> generally to complain and ask why I can't simply do it for them. My
next
> question has to do with this "homegroup" stuff. I don't know
much about
> windows but this seems to be a different sharing system, not cifs, and
> windows specific. Can samba take advantage of these or should I just
> disable the home group stuff on all the windows computers I want to
> connect with? My last question has to do with what samba shows when I do
> manage to connect to my fiance's windows computer. A typical listing
> looks like
> $admin$
> c$
> f$
> Users
> The only one I can successfully connect to is the "users" folder.
The
> rest lock me out regardless of what user name and password I supply. If
> I connect through a test windows installation windows doesn't display
> anything but the "Users" item so I'm guessing those are
system shares
> that aren't supposed to be used. In order to access flash drives,
> external hard drives, etc across the network I have to set them up
> explicitly to be shared. I'm wondering if samba can access these? And
if
> so, how to set it up? Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just trying
to
> come up with a default samba configuration that will work in most
> situations without configuration needed, if that's possible. I'm a
> fairly knowledgable linux user but i'm still learning how to develop a
> linux distribution that's user friendly and does what most users want
> out of the box. My files are attached, they're both very small.
> Thanks for any help
> Kendell Clark
>
>
>
Hi, you seem to running a workgroup, where each computer is a separate 
entity, or as Samba calls it, a standalone server.

Have a look here: https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Standalone_server

Your smb.conf looks ok, but I would remove these lines:

    wins support = yes
    name resolve order = wins dns bcast
    local master = yes

The wiki page will explain the rest.

Rowland

kendell clark schreef op 16-07-2016 9:31:
> hi all
> My name is Kendell Clark, and I've just subscribed to this list. I
> thought I'd write this email to introduce myself, and ask a couple of
> questions about configuring samba. I'm a co developer of a linux
> distribution for the visually impaired and disabled called Sonar GNU
> linux, which you can learn more about at http://www.sonargnulinux.com.
> I've been struggling to come up with a default samba configuration file
> that will work for at least most windows and linux environments if not
> all.
Basically you want a configuration for the local systems running your 
distribution that will share stuff in a certain default way?

Or are you also concerned with importing stuff from the other computers?

Importing stuff might be an issue as it depends on the GUI of your 
distribution? What I mean is that e.g. Linux Mint (Cinnamon) is rather 
user friendly but I would not suggest it is ready for everything such as 
mounting random shares from other servers? I haven't tried in full.

I do know Mint supports the USERSHARE thing and will allow people to 
share their own folders from the GUI as long as you don't mess with it 
behind the scenes (e.g. using a net command yourself) because it doesn't 
sync that.

So I do not know how good the mounting experience is from Linux.

Personally I am trying to fix it as much as possible from my own project 
in such a way that the names of the shares are almost incapable of being 
changed (by a regular user).

A convient mount dialog, that also reinstates a mount on login, to my 
knowledge and mind, doesn't really exist yet.

This is not Samba, this is mount.cifs, and the GUI configuration 
whatever Distro or DE uses.

> My next couple of questions have to do with the windows side of things.
> I don't use it myself I'm  strictly a linux guy but I do set
windows up
> for my fiance a lot, and  I install it on my laptop periodically to 
> test
> samba on to make sure it works like I've set it up. One thing I've
> noticed is that it seems somehow able to autoconfigure most of this
> stuff. If I change the work group name on mellisa's computer, a windows
> installation on my desktop or another computer finds it and connects
> with no problems, prompting for a user name and password.
You mean for shares that were already configured previously and are now 
slightly changed on the "server"?
> Samba doesn't.
> It simply won't connect. Is there an "automatic" or
"figure it out"
> option in the config file I can use? The only reason I'm asking is
> because a lot of my users are not very experienced they're mostly
> windows users and they expect things to more or less configure
> themselves. If they have to configure stuff their first option is
> generally to complain and ask why I can't simply do it for them.
This is not really Samba, again, I am not meaning to be rude.

But Samba has very little to do with actually /accessing/ files (or 
shares).

Most configuration is done by GUI environments that try to make some of 
it work.

Now I realize the "client" side of things is also important. I am just
wishing to elude that the user side of this with regards to this, is 
actually a componenent of your desktop environment (mate, as you call 
it).
> My next
> question has to do with this "homegroup" stuff. I don't know
much about
> windows but this seems to be a different sharing system, not cifs, and
> windows specific. Can samba take advantage of these or should I just
> disable the home group stuff on all the windows computers I want to
> connect with?
I personally consider the HomeGroup a very detrimental thing. They have 
broken network-browsing, apparently, for regular fileshares and won't 
even allow you to see the hosts on the network anymore, instead opening 
webpages to configure routers and such, if these can be found.

If anything, I would want to change Windows computers such that regular 
browsing works again; that will solve a lot of problems. Even among 
Windows computers themselves, HomeGroup is terribly annoying and 
inconvenient.

It appears the only way from e.g. a Windows 10 computer to access any 
shares on the network, is to use a direct access link like 
\\server\share. That is the most inconvenient thing there has ever been 
for a Windows user. I do not know how to turn HomeGroup (In Windows 10) 
off myself, but I would really stay away from it if I were you, rather 
than try to incorporate it in your system (although a best of both 
worlds may be possible if you do want to support it).

"Support" is not the same as "Wanting to use it".

I don't get the Windows filesharing thing anymore. I must be getting old 
(35 now ;-)).

> My last question has to do with what samba shows when I do
> manage to connect to my fiance's windows computer. A typical listing
> looks like
> $admin$
> c$
> f$
> Users
> The only one I can successfully connect to is the "users" folder.
The
> rest lock me out regardless of what user name and password I supply.
I take it your c$ and f$ are complete volume shares? I mean a complete 
"partition" with a drive letter is getting shared?

I have no clue why that wouldn't mount, I have not tried it myself, 
sorry. But in general it seems like the stuff you want to mount cannot 
end with a $ sign?
> If
> I connect through a test windows installation windows doesn't display
> anything but the "Users" item so I'm guessing those are
system shares
> that aren't supposed to be used.
Ah, yes.

> In order to access flash drives,
> external hard drives, etc across the network I have to set them up
> explicitly to be shared. I'm wondering if samba can access these?
Sure, why not. Do you mean shares from Windows computers, or shares from 
your own systems?

You ask about Samba access, not samba sharing.

There is no inhibition in Samba (mount.cifs) to mount shared directories 
from other hosts. The inhibition is in how convenient the user interface 
of the local system is going to be in configuring all of that (and not 
getting fixed with a solution that is unchangable by a regular user).

I am not knowledgeable enough yet about the GVFS system. I do know you 
can sufficiently configure stuff for display in fstab: there are options 
for choosing the name that something will have in your GUI, I take it 
this is the same for Mate as it is for Cinnamon.

x-gvfs-show and x-gvfs-name come to mind. Look it up, it will help, I 
guess.

But these are "root" access things that mess up fstab. I am sure it is
also possible to get stuff mounted in /media/user/, I just don't know 
how good that will be.

You will need to find a way to either integrate the "Gnome
Automounter"
(using /media/user) or by having a custom solution that adds and changes 
things in fstab to be able to pass those "pretty" parameters to 
Mate/Cinnamon.

However, I do not know if a solution exists that will be so convenient 
that it asks your for a password when you log in.

That also doesn't exist for mounting crypt shares.

Not really. Not very well. If I put something in crypttab, SystemD will 
bug me with its unlocking, even it is set to noauto and nofail. SystemD 
is not a very good beast.

So I cannot put those shares (or cryptdevices) in fstab or crypttab the 
way I want to.

And then the mounting feature from Cinnamon also won't work. Anyway.




> And if
> so, how to set it up? Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just trying 
> to
> come up with a default samba configuration that will work in most
> situations without configuration needed, if that's possible. I'm a
> fairly knowledgable linux user but i'm still learning how to develop a
> linux distribution that's user friendly and does what most users want
> out of the box. My files are attached, they're both very small.
> Thanks for any help
Like I said, I am a little angry with myself for not making it more 
clear in a nice way, that most of the user interface stuff doesn't 
really belong to Samba in that sense ;-).

Regards.

But you have my sympathy, I am trying to do much of the same thing 
currently with Cinnamon, but just dealing with a system of fixed mounts 
that I want to have the user to have no say about ;-).

Of course, having actual convenience would be much nicer.

Regards.

hi
Basically I'm trying to come up with a default config file that will
allow people to access their stuff that reside on windows computers,
macs or linux computers from across the network. I know windows uses the
"WORKGROUP" name by default unless you change it, but one thing
I've
noticed is that samba can't simply query windows for the info it needs,
it has to be set explicitly. Windows is somehow able to figure this
stuff out. I'm going to guess that the way windows does this is some
patented ultra secret method that samba can't use or it would. I don't
know if it's possible to come up with a one size fits all config file,
but is it possible to come up with one that will work with most
"default" windows installations where the user hasn't changed the
settings from the way they're initially set? I'm new to all of this, so
if there's good docs on all of this, just point me to them and I'll get
out of your hair.

Thanks
Kendell Clark


Xen wrote:
> kendell clark schreef op 16-07-2016 9:31:
>
>> hi all
>> My name is Kendell Clark, and I've just subscribed to this list. I
>> thought I'd write this email to introduce myself, and ask a couple
of
>> questions about configuring samba. I'm a co developer of a linux
>> distribution for the visually impaired and disabled called Sonar GNU
>> linux, which you can learn more about at http://www.sonargnulinux.com.
>> I've been struggling to come up with a default samba configuration
file
>> that will work for at least most windows and linux environments if not
>> all.
>
> Basically you want a configuration for the local systems running your
> distribution that will share stuff in a certain default way?
>
> Or are you also concerned with importing stuff from the other computers?
>
> Importing stuff might be an issue as it depends on the GUI of your
> distribution? What I mean is that e.g. Linux Mint (Cinnamon) is rather
> user friendly but I would not suggest it is ready for everything such
> as mounting random shares from other servers? I haven't tried in full.
>
> I do know Mint supports the USERSHARE thing and will allow people to
> share their own folders from the GUI as long as you don't mess with it
> behind the scenes (e.g. using a net command yourself) because it
> doesn't sync that.
>
> So I do not know how good the mounting experience is from Linux.
>
> Personally I am trying to fix it as much as possible from my own
> project in such a way that the names of the shares are almost
> incapable of being changed (by a regular user).
>
> A convient mount dialog, that also reinstates a mount on login, to my
> knowledge and mind, doesn't really exist yet.
>
> This is not Samba, this is mount.cifs, and the GUI configuration
> whatever Distro or DE uses.
>
>
>> My next couple of questions have to do with the windows side of things.
>> I don't use it myself I'm  strictly a linux guy but I do set
windows up
>> for my fiance a lot, and  I install it on my laptop periodically to
test
>> samba on to make sure it works like I've set it up. One thing
I've
>> noticed is that it seems somehow able to autoconfigure most of this
>> stuff. If I change the work group name on mellisa's computer, a
windows
>> installation on my desktop or another computer finds it and connects
>> with no problems, prompting for a user name and password.
>
> You mean for shares that were already configured previously and are
> now slightly changed on the "server"?
>
>> Samba doesn't.
>> It simply won't connect. Is there an "automatic" or
"figure it out"
>> option in the config file I can use? The only reason I'm asking is
>> because a lot of my users are not very experienced they're mostly
>> windows users and they expect things to more or less configure
>> themselves. If they have to configure stuff their first option is
>> generally to complain and ask why I can't simply do it for them.
>
> This is not really Samba, again, I am not meaning to be rude.
>
> But Samba has very little to do with actually /accessing/ files (or
> shares).
>
> Most configuration is done by GUI environments that try to make some
> of it work.
>
> Now I realize the "client" side of things is also important. I am
just
> wishing to elude that the user side of this with regards to this, is
> actually a componenent of your desktop environment (mate, as you call
> it).
>
>> My next
>> question has to do with this "homegroup" stuff. I don't
know much about
>> windows but this seems to be a different sharing system, not cifs, and
>> windows specific. Can samba take advantage of these or should I just
>> disable the home group stuff on all the windows computers I want to
>> connect with?
>
> I personally consider the HomeGroup a very detrimental thing. They
> have broken network-browsing, apparently, for regular fileshares and
> won't even allow you to see the hosts on the network anymore, instead
> opening webpages to configure routers and such, if these can be found.
>
> If anything, I would want to change Windows computers such that
> regular browsing works again; that will solve a lot of problems. Even
> among Windows computers themselves, HomeGroup is terribly annoying and
> inconvenient.
>
> It appears the only way from e.g. a Windows 10 computer to access any
> shares on the network, is to use a direct access link like
> \\server\share. That is the most inconvenient thing there has ever
> been for a Windows user. I do not know how to turn HomeGroup (In
> Windows 10) off myself, but I would really stay away from it if I were
> you, rather than try to incorporate it in your system (although a best
> of both worlds may be possible if you do want to support it).
>
> "Support" is not the same as "Wanting to use it".
>
> I don't get the Windows filesharing thing anymore. I must be getting
> old (35 now ;-)).
>
>
>> My last question has to do with what samba shows when I do
>> manage to connect to my fiance's windows computer. A typical
listing
>> looks like
>> $admin$
>> c$
>> f$
>> Users
>> The only one I can successfully connect to is the "users"
folder. The
>> rest lock me out regardless of what user name and password I supply.
>
> I take it your c$ and f$ are complete volume shares? I mean a complete
> "partition" with a drive letter is getting shared?
>
> I have no clue why that wouldn't mount, I have not tried it myself,
> sorry. But in general it seems like the stuff you want to mount cannot
> end with a $ sign?
>
>> If
>> I connect through a test windows installation windows doesn't
display
>> anything but the "Users" item so I'm guessing those are
system shares
>> that aren't supposed to be used.
>
> Ah, yes.
>
>
>> In order to access flash drives,
>> external hard drives, etc across the network I have to set them up
>> explicitly to be shared. I'm wondering if samba can access these?
>
> Sure, why not. Do you mean shares from Windows computers, or shares
> from your own systems?
>
> You ask about Samba access, not samba sharing.
>
> There is no inhibition in Samba (mount.cifs) to mount shared
> directories from other hosts. The inhibition is in how convenient the
> user interface of the local system is going to be in configuring all
> of that (and not getting fixed with a solution that is unchangable by
> a regular user).
>
> I am not knowledgeable enough yet about the GVFS system. I do know you
> can sufficiently configure stuff for display in fstab: there are
> options for choosing the name that something will have in your GUI, I
> take it this is the same for Mate as it is for Cinnamon.
>
> x-gvfs-show and x-gvfs-name come to mind. Look it up, it will help, I
> guess.
>
> But these are "root" access things that mess up fstab. I am sure
it is
> also possible to get stuff mounted in /media/user/, I just don't know
> how good that will be.
>
> You will need to find a way to either integrate the "Gnome
> Automounter" (using /media/user) or by having a custom solution that
> adds and changes things in fstab to be able to pass those
"pretty"
> parameters to Mate/Cinnamon.
>
> However, I do not know if a solution exists that will be so convenient
> that it asks your for a password when you log in.
>
> That also doesn't exist for mounting crypt shares.
>
> Not really. Not very well. If I put something in crypttab, SystemD
> will bug me with its unlocking, even it is set to noauto and nofail.
> SystemD is not a very good beast.
>
> So I cannot put those shares (or cryptdevices) in fstab or crypttab
> the way I want to.
>
> And then the mounting feature from Cinnamon also won't work. Anyway.
>
>
>
>
>
>> And if
>> so, how to set it up? Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just
trying to
>> come up with a default samba configuration that will work in most
>> situations without configuration needed, if that's possible.
I'm a
>> fairly knowledgable linux user but i'm still learning how to
develop a
>> linux distribution that's user friendly and does what most users
want
>> out of the box. My files are attached, they're both very small.
>> Thanks for any help
>
> Like I said, I am a little angry with myself for not making it more
> clear in a nice way, that most of the user interface stuff doesn't
> really belong to Samba in that sense ;-).
>
> Regards.
>
> But you have my sympathy, I am trying to do much of the same thing
> currently with Cinnamon, but just dealing with a system of fixed
> mounts that I want to have the user to have no say about ;-).
>
> Of course, having actual convenience would be much nicer.
>
> Regards.
>

hi

Not just yet. I've set up a windows 10 instance on my desktop to test 
with. It's not activated so I've got a month to test, will probably only
keep it around a couple of days. How is windows doing this? When I go to 
connect to mellisa's computer which is running windows 7, even with the 
workgroup name changed from the default windows finds it and connects. I 
try the same on linux and I get "cannot mount windows share. No such 
file or directory." It's maddening. I'm not complaining, I'm
just
curious. Why is windows able to autoconfigure itself, and samba isn't? 
Or is it, and I haven't set the right options?

Thanks

Kendell Clark



On 7/16/2016 9:01 PM, Methosomega wrote:
> Welcome kendell, i just signed up today my self... Have you gotten your
issue resolved? I see a lot of info but I cant tell who is who, it doesn't
say..
>
> Chad
>
>> On Jul 16, 2016, at 7:44 PM, kendell clark <coffeekingms at
gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> hi
>> Basically I'm trying to come up with a default config file that
will
>> allow people to access their stuff that reside on windows computers,
>> macs or linux computers from across the network. I know windows uses
the
>> "WORKGROUP" name by default unless you change it, but one
thing I've
>> noticed is that samba can't simply query windows for the info it
needs,
>> it has to be set explicitly. Windows is somehow able to figure this
>> stuff out. I'm going to guess that the way windows does this is
some
>> patented ultra secret method that samba can't use or it would. I
don't
>> know if it's possible to come up with a one size fits all config
file,
>> but is it possible to come up with one that will work with most
>> "default" windows installations where the user hasn't
changed the
>> settings from the way they're initially set? I'm new to all of
this, so
>> if there's good docs on all of this, just point me to them and
I'll get
>> out of your hair.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Kendell Clark
>>
>>
>> Xen wrote:
>>> kendell clark schreef op 16-07-2016 9:31:
>>>
>>>> hi all
>>>> My name is Kendell Clark, and I've just subscribed to this
list. I
>>>> thought I'd write this email to introduce myself, and ask a
couple of
>>>> questions about configuring samba. I'm a co developer of a
linux
>>>> distribution for the visually impaired and disabled called
Sonar GNU
>>>> linux, which you can learn more about at
http://www.sonargnulinux.com.
>>>> I've been struggling to come up with a default samba
configuration file
>>>> that will work for at least most windows and linux environments
if not
>>>> all.
>>> Basically you want a configuration for the local systems running
your
>>> distribution that will share stuff in a certain default way?
>>>
>>> Or are you also concerned with importing stuff from the other
computers?
>>>
>>> Importing stuff might be an issue as it depends on the GUI of your
>>> distribution? What I mean is that e.g. Linux Mint (Cinnamon) is
rather
>>> user friendly but I would not suggest it is ready for everything
such
>>> as mounting random shares from other servers? I haven't tried
in full.
>>>
>>> I do know Mint supports the USERSHARE thing and will allow people
to
>>> share their own folders from the GUI as long as you don't mess
with it
>>> behind the scenes (e.g. using a net command yourself) because it
>>> doesn't sync that.
>>>
>>> So I do not know how good the mounting experience is from Linux.
>>>
>>> Personally I am trying to fix it as much as possible from my own
>>> project in such a way that the names of the shares are almost
>>> incapable of being changed (by a regular user).
>>>
>>> A convient mount dialog, that also reinstates a mount on login, to
my
>>> knowledge and mind, doesn't really exist yet.
>>>
>>> This is not Samba, this is mount.cifs, and the GUI configuration
>>> whatever Distro or DE uses.
>>>
>>>
>>>> My next couple of questions have to do with the windows side of
things.
>>>> I don't use it myself I'm  strictly a linux guy but I
do set windows up
>>>> for my fiance a lot, and  I install it on my laptop
periodically to test
>>>> samba on to make sure it works like I've set it up. One
thing I've
>>>> noticed is that it seems somehow able to autoconfigure most of
this
>>>> stuff. If I change the work group name on mellisa's
computer, a windows
>>>> installation on my desktop or another computer finds it and
connects
>>>> with no problems, prompting for a user name and password.
>>> You mean for shares that were already configured previously and are
>>> now slightly changed on the "server"?
>>>
>>>> Samba doesn't.
>>>> It simply won't connect. Is there an "automatic"
or "figure it out"
>>>> option in the config file I can use? The only reason I'm
asking is
>>>> because a lot of my users are not very experienced they're
mostly
>>>> windows users and they expect things to more or less configure
>>>> themselves. If they have to configure stuff their first option
is
>>>> generally to complain and ask why I can't simply do it for
them.
>>> This is not really Samba, again, I am not meaning to be rude.
>>>
>>> But Samba has very little to do with actually /accessing/ files (or
>>> shares).
>>>
>>> Most configuration is done by GUI environments that try to make
some
>>> of it work.
>>>
>>> Now I realize the "client" side of things is also
important. I am just
>>> wishing to elude that the user side of this with regards to this,
is
>>> actually a componenent of your desktop environment (mate, as you
call
>>> it).
>>>
>>>> My next
>>>> question has to do with this "homegroup" stuff. I
don't know much about
>>>> windows but this seems to be a different sharing system, not
cifs, and
>>>> windows specific. Can samba take advantage of these or should I
just
>>>> disable the home group stuff on all the windows computers I
want to
>>>> connect with?
>>> I personally consider the HomeGroup a very detrimental thing. They
>>> have broken network-browsing, apparently, for regular fileshares
and
>>> won't even allow you to see the hosts on the network anymore,
instead
>>> opening webpages to configure routers and such, if these can be
found.
>>>
>>> If anything, I would want to change Windows computers such that
>>> regular browsing works again; that will solve a lot of problems.
Even
>>> among Windows computers themselves, HomeGroup is terribly annoying
and
>>> inconvenient.
>>>
>>> It appears the only way from e.g. a Windows 10 computer to access
any
>>> shares on the network, is to use a direct access link like
>>> \\server\share. That is the most inconvenient thing there has ever
>>> been for a Windows user. I do not know how to turn HomeGroup (In
>>> Windows 10) off myself, but I would really stay away from it if I
were
>>> you, rather than try to incorporate it in your system (although a
best
>>> of both worlds may be possible if you do want to support it).
>>>
>>> "Support" is not the same as "Wanting to use
it".
>>>
>>> I don't get the Windows filesharing thing anymore. I must be
getting
>>> old (35 now ;-)).
>>>
>>>
>>>> My last question has to do with what samba shows when I do
>>>> manage to connect to my fiance's windows computer. A
typical listing
>>>> looks like
>>>> $admin$
>>>> c$
>>>> f$
>>>> Users
>>>> The only one I can successfully connect to is the
"users" folder. The
>>>> rest lock me out regardless of what user name and password I
supply.
>>> I take it your c$ and f$ are complete volume shares? I mean a
complete
>>> "partition" with a drive letter is getting shared?
>>>
>>> I have no clue why that wouldn't mount, I have not tried it
myself,
>>> sorry. But in general it seems like the stuff you want to mount
cannot
>>> end with a $ sign?
>>>
>>>> If
>>>> I connect through a test windows installation windows
doesn't display
>>>> anything but the "Users" item so I'm guessing
those are system shares
>>>> that aren't supposed to be used.
>>> Ah, yes.
>>>
>>>
>>>> In order to access flash drives,
>>>> external hard drives, etc across the network I have to set them
up
>>>> explicitly to be shared. I'm wondering if samba can access
these?
>>> Sure, why not. Do you mean shares from Windows computers, or shares
>>> from your own systems?
>>>
>>> You ask about Samba access, not samba sharing.
>>>
>>> There is no inhibition in Samba (mount.cifs) to mount shared
>>> directories from other hosts. The inhibition is in how convenient
the
>>> user interface of the local system is going to be in configuring
all
>>> of that (and not getting fixed with a solution that is unchangable
by
>>> a regular user).
>>>
>>> I am not knowledgeable enough yet about the GVFS system. I do know
you
>>> can sufficiently configure stuff for display in fstab: there are
>>> options for choosing the name that something will have in your GUI,
I
>>> take it this is the same for Mate as it is for Cinnamon.
>>>
>>> x-gvfs-show and x-gvfs-name come to mind. Look it up, it will help,
I
>>> guess.
>>>
>>> But these are "root" access things that mess up fstab. I
am sure it is
>>> also possible to get stuff mounted in /media/user/, I just
don't know
>>> how good that will be.
>>>
>>> You will need to find a way to either integrate the "Gnome
>>> Automounter" (using /media/user) or by having a custom
solution that
>>> adds and changes things in fstab to be able to pass those
"pretty"
>>> parameters to Mate/Cinnamon.
>>>
>>> However, I do not know if a solution exists that will be so
convenient
>>> that it asks your for a password when you log in.
>>>
>>> That also doesn't exist for mounting crypt shares.
>>>
>>> Not really. Not very well. If I put something in crypttab, SystemD
>>> will bug me with its unlocking, even it is set to noauto and
nofail.
>>> SystemD is not a very good beast.
>>>
>>> So I cannot put those shares (or cryptdevices) in fstab or crypttab
>>> the way I want to.
>>>
>>> And then the mounting feature from Cinnamon also won't work.
Anyway.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> And if
>>>> so, how to set it up? Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm
just trying to
>>>> come up with a default samba configuration that will work in
most
>>>> situations without configuration needed, if that's
possible. I'm a
>>>> fairly knowledgable linux user but i'm still learning how
to develop a
>>>> linux distribution that's user friendly and does what most
users want
>>>> out of the box. My files are attached, they're both very
small.
>>>> Thanks for any help
>>> Like I said, I am a little angry with myself for not making it more
>>> clear in a nice way, that most of the user interface stuff
doesn't
>>> really belong to Samba in that sense ;-).
>>>
>>> Regards.
>>>
>>> But you have my sympathy, I am trying to do much of the same thing
>>> currently with Cinnamon, but just dealing with a system of fixed
>>> mounts that I want to have the user to have no say about ;-).
>>>
>>> Of course, having actual convenience would be much nicer.
>>>
>>> Regards.
>>
>> -- 
>> To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the
>> instructions:  https://lists.samba.org/mailman/options/samba

coffeeking schreef op 17-07-2016 4:06:
> hi
> 
> Not just yet. I've set up a windows 10 instance on my desktop to test
> with. It's not activated so I've got a month to test, will probably
> only keep it around a couple of days. How is windows doing this? When
> I go to connect to mellisa's computer which is running windows 7, even
> with the workgroup name changed from the default windows finds it and
> connects. I try the same on linux and I get "cannot mount windows
> share. No such file or directory." It's maddening. I'm not
> complaining, I'm just curious. Why is windows able to autoconfigure
> itself, and samba isn't? Or is it, and I haven't set the right
> options?
There is no one Linux. Cinnamon will do it differently than KDE. There 
aren't very many other options, but the one you use determines what you 
can do. It's not always everything.

Mounting shares from the command line, for instance, does not deal with 
workgroups at all!.

mount -t cifs //host/share /mnt -o username     <-- is completely 
uncaring about what workgroup there might be.

As far as I can tell at least.

hi

Completely agree about windows. From what I'm hearing on this list 
there's no "default" file that will do what I want? If I'm
understanding
this right it's not how samba is configured so much as it is what the 
gui tools will let me do? I use the mate desktop, with the caja file 
manager and it's caja share extension. I've tried a few things, 
connecting to smb:blackfang. This will think for a few seconds and then 
return with "no such file or directory". I'm sorry to keep going
back to
the same circles, I'm just trying to understand how these things work. 
I'd like to come up with a smb.conf file which will work for most users, 
since a lot of them connect to windows computers or linux boxes running 
a samba server. Is this possible? dolphin isn't an option for me because 
orca, the linux gtk screen reader, can't read it. I do know that trying 
to connect to windows computers over the network with nautilus or caja 
yields  the "no such file or directory" error or "connection
timed out".
I'm missing something, just not sure what. If I'm being annoying, please
don't hesitate to point me to docs. It also sounds like results may vary 
based on what linux distribution you use. Sonar is based on the manjaro 
linux distro which is in turn based on arch, if that helps.

Thanks

Kendell Clark



On 7/16/2016 9:54 PM, Methosomega wrote:
> Windows is built to be generically compatible and configurable for the
common person. This does not make well for stability, function, or security.
Linux is built for everything but ease... To this end there are gui apps that
allow you to easily configure samba. Nothing "just works" but when it
does, it will never fail under most circumstances. Windows it will work one day
and not the next with absolutely no reason... Now there were some changes to
windows security settings that make it less interoperable with samba (not
samba's fault) samba has also made security changes to make samba more
secure. One utility i have used for 10 years and has been wonderful is
"Webmin" its great for configuring most of the basic linux systems and
most all of the basic server software. I highly recommend it..
> So after setting a share checking passwords and rights i spent 20 hours
trying to figure out why i couldnt access share and found on centos(my distro)
in addition to the samba share you also have to do a "chcon -t
samba_share_t /path" to turn on the samba security flag or it wont allow
samba to access the directory.. Now in my browser i cannot see the samba system
but i have no problem accessing it. This may be a result of that IPC$ share that
you sometimes get i think its a pc share that windows does automatically that
you may have to share the "computer" in order for
> It to be viewable like windows does. This is a function i want on mine so
maybe we can work on it together... Im out and about right now but ill sent you
a couple things to try when I get home.
>
> Chad
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Jul 16, 2016, at 9:06 PM, coffeeking <coffeekingms at
gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> hi
>>
>> Not just yet. I've set up a windows 10 instance on my desktop to
test with. It's not activated so I've got a month to test, will probably
only keep it around a couple of days. How is windows doing this? When I go to
connect to mellisa's computer which is running windows 7, even with the
workgroup name changed from the default windows finds it and connects. I try the
same on linux and I get "cannot mount windows share. No such file or
directory." It's maddening. I'm not complaining, I'm just
curious. Why is windows able to autoconfigure itself, and samba isn't? Or is
it, and I haven't set the right options?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Kendell Clark
>>
>>
>>
>>> On 7/16/2016 9:01 PM, Methosomega wrote:
>>> Welcome kendell, i just signed up today my self... Have you gotten
your issue resolved? I see a lot of info but I cant tell who is who, it
doesn't say..
>>>
>>> Chad
>>>
>>>> On Jul 16, 2016, at 7:44 PM, kendell clark <coffeekingms at
gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> hi
>>>> Basically I'm trying to come up with a default config file
that will
>>>> allow people to access their stuff that reside on windows
computers,
>>>> macs or linux computers from across the network. I know windows
uses the
>>>> "WORKGROUP" name by default unless you change it, but
one thing I've
>>>> noticed is that samba can't simply query windows for the
info it needs,
>>>> it has to be set explicitly. Windows is somehow able to figure
this
>>>> stuff out. I'm going to guess that the way windows does
this is some
>>>> patented ultra secret method that samba can't use or it
would. I don't
>>>> know if it's possible to come up with a one size fits all
config file,
>>>> but is it possible to come up with one that will work with most
>>>> "default" windows installations where the user
hasn't changed the
>>>> settings from the way they're initially set? I'm new to
all of this, so
>>>> if there's good docs on all of this, just point me to them
and I'll get
>>>> out of your hair.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>> Kendell Clark
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Xen wrote:
>>>>> kendell clark schreef op 16-07-2016 9:31:
>>>>>
>>>>>> hi all
>>>>>> My name is Kendell Clark, and I've just subscribed
to this list. I
>>>>>> thought I'd write this email to introduce myself,
and ask a couple of
>>>>>> questions about configuring samba. I'm a co
developer of a linux
>>>>>> distribution for the visually impaired and disabled
called Sonar GNU
>>>>>> linux, which you can learn more about at
http://www.sonargnulinux.com.
>>>>>> I've been struggling to come up with a default
samba configuration file
>>>>>> that will work for at least most windows and linux
environments if not
>>>>>> all.
>>>>> Basically you want a configuration for the local systems
running your
>>>>> distribution that will share stuff in a certain default
way?
>>>>>
>>>>> Or are you also concerned with importing stuff from the
other computers?
>>>>>
>>>>> Importing stuff might be an issue as it depends on the GUI
of your
>>>>> distribution? What I mean is that e.g. Linux Mint
(Cinnamon) is rather
>>>>> user friendly but I would not suggest it is ready for
everything such
>>>>> as mounting random shares from other servers? I haven't
tried in full.
>>>>>
>>>>> I do know Mint supports the USERSHARE thing and will allow
people to
>>>>> share their own folders from the GUI as long as you
don't mess with it
>>>>> behind the scenes (e.g. using a net command yourself)
because it
>>>>> doesn't sync that.
>>>>>
>>>>> So I do not know how good the mounting experience is from
Linux.
>>>>>
>>>>> Personally I am trying to fix it as much as possible from
my own
>>>>> project in such a way that the names of the shares are
almost
>>>>> incapable of being changed (by a regular user).
>>>>>
>>>>> A convient mount dialog, that also reinstates a mount on
login, to my
>>>>> knowledge and mind, doesn't really exist yet.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is not Samba, this is mount.cifs, and the GUI
configuration
>>>>> whatever Distro or DE uses.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> My next couple of questions have to do with the windows
side of things.
>>>>>> I don't use it myself I'm  strictly a linux guy
but I do set windows up
>>>>>> for my fiance a lot, and  I install it on my laptop
periodically to test
>>>>>> samba on to make sure it works like I've set it up.
One thing I've
>>>>>> noticed is that it seems somehow able to autoconfigure
most of this
>>>>>> stuff. If I change the work group name on mellisa's
computer, a windows
>>>>>> installation on my desktop or another computer finds it
and connects
>>>>>> with no problems, prompting for a user name and
password.
>>>>> You mean for shares that were already configured previously
and are
>>>>> now slightly changed on the "server"?
>>>>>
>>>>>> Samba doesn't.
>>>>>> It simply won't connect. Is there an
"automatic" or "figure it out"
>>>>>> option in the config file I can use? The only reason
I'm asking is
>>>>>> because a lot of my users are not very experienced
they're mostly
>>>>>> windows users and they expect things to more or less
configure
>>>>>> themselves. If they have to configure stuff their first
option is
>>>>>> generally to complain and ask why I can't simply do
it for them.
>>>>> This is not really Samba, again, I am not meaning to be
rude.
>>>>>
>>>>> But Samba has very little to do with actually /accessing/
files (or
>>>>> shares).
>>>>>
>>>>> Most configuration is done by GUI environments that try to
make some
>>>>> of it work.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now I realize the "client" side of things is also
important. I am just
>>>>> wishing to elude that the user side of this with regards to
this, is
>>>>> actually a componenent of your desktop environment (mate,
as you call
>>>>> it).
>>>>>
>>>>>> My next
>>>>>> question has to do with this "homegroup"
stuff. I don't know much about
>>>>>> windows but this seems to be a different sharing
system, not cifs, and
>>>>>> windows specific. Can samba take advantage of these or
should I just
>>>>>> disable the home group stuff on all the windows
computers I want to
>>>>>> connect with?
>>>>> I personally consider the HomeGroup a very detrimental
thing. They
>>>>> have broken network-browsing, apparently, for regular
fileshares and
>>>>> won't even allow you to see the hosts on the network
anymore, instead
>>>>> opening webpages to configure routers and such, if these
can be found.
>>>>>
>>>>> If anything, I would want to change Windows computers such
that
>>>>> regular browsing works again; that will solve a lot of
problems. Even
>>>>> among Windows computers themselves, HomeGroup is terribly
annoying and
>>>>> inconvenient.
>>>>>
>>>>> It appears the only way from e.g. a Windows 10 computer to
access any
>>>>> shares on the network, is to use a direct access link like
>>>>> \\server\share. That is the most inconvenient thing there
has ever
>>>>> been for a Windows user. I do not know how to turn
HomeGroup (In
>>>>> Windows 10) off myself, but I would really stay away from
it if I were
>>>>> you, rather than try to incorporate it in your system
(although a best
>>>>> of both worlds may be possible if you do want to support
it).
>>>>>
>>>>> "Support" is not the same as "Wanting to use
it".
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't get the Windows filesharing thing anymore. I
must be getting
>>>>> old (35 now ;-)).
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> My last question has to do with what samba shows when I
do
>>>>>> manage to connect to my fiance's windows computer.
A typical listing
>>>>>> looks like
>>>>>> $admin$
>>>>>> c$
>>>>>> f$
>>>>>> Users
>>>>>> The only one I can successfully connect to is the
"users" folder. The
>>>>>> rest lock me out regardless of what user name and
password I supply.
>>>>> I take it your c$ and f$ are complete volume shares? I mean
a complete
>>>>> "partition" with a drive letter is getting
shared?
>>>>>
>>>>> I have no clue why that wouldn't mount, I have not
tried it myself,
>>>>> sorry. But in general it seems like the stuff you want to
mount cannot
>>>>> end with a $ sign?
>>>>>
>>>>>> If
>>>>>> I connect through a test windows installation windows
doesn't display
>>>>>> anything but the "Users" item so I'm
guessing those are system shares
>>>>>> that aren't supposed to be used.
>>>>> Ah, yes.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> In order to access flash drives,
>>>>>> external hard drives, etc across the network I have to
set them up
>>>>>> explicitly to be shared. I'm wondering if samba can
access these?
>>>>> Sure, why not. Do you mean shares from Windows computers,
or shares
>>>>> from your own systems?
>>>>>
>>>>> You ask about Samba access, not samba sharing.
>>>>>
>>>>> There is no inhibition in Samba (mount.cifs) to mount
shared
>>>>> directories from other hosts. The inhibition is in how
convenient the
>>>>> user interface of the local system is going to be in
configuring all
>>>>> of that (and not getting fixed with a solution that is
unchangable by
>>>>> a regular user).
>>>>>
>>>>> I am not knowledgeable enough yet about the GVFS system. I
do know you
>>>>> can sufficiently configure stuff for display in fstab:
there are
>>>>> options for choosing the name that something will have in
your GUI, I
>>>>> take it this is the same for Mate as it is for Cinnamon.
>>>>>
>>>>> x-gvfs-show and x-gvfs-name come to mind. Look it up, it
will help, I
>>>>> guess.
>>>>>
>>>>> But these are "root" access things that mess up
fstab. I am sure it is
>>>>> also possible to get stuff mounted in /media/user/, I just
don't know
>>>>> how good that will be.
>>>>>
>>>>> You will need to find a way to either integrate the
"Gnome
>>>>> Automounter" (using /media/user) or by having a custom
solution that
>>>>> adds and changes things in fstab to be able to pass those
"pretty"
>>>>> parameters to Mate/Cinnamon.
>>>>>
>>>>> However, I do not know if a solution exists that will be so
convenient
>>>>> that it asks your for a password when you log in.
>>>>>
>>>>> That also doesn't exist for mounting crypt shares.
>>>>>
>>>>> Not really. Not very well. If I put something in crypttab,
SystemD
>>>>> will bug me with its unlocking, even it is set to noauto
and nofail.
>>>>> SystemD is not a very good beast.
>>>>>
>>>>> So I cannot put those shares (or cryptdevices) in fstab or
crypttab
>>>>> the way I want to.
>>>>>
>>>>> And then the mounting feature from Cinnamon also won't
work. Anyway.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> And if
>>>>>> so, how to set it up? Sorry to ask so many questions,
I'm just trying to
>>>>>> come up with a default samba configuration that will
work in most
>>>>>> situations without configuration needed, if that's
possible. I'm a
>>>>>> fairly knowledgable linux user but i'm still
learning how to develop a
>>>>>> linux distribution that's user friendly and does
what most users want
>>>>>> out of the box. My files are attached, they're both
very small.
>>>>>> Thanks for any help
>>>>> Like I said, I am a little angry with myself for not making
it more
>>>>> clear in a nice way, that most of the user interface stuff
doesn't
>>>>> really belong to Samba in that sense ;-).
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards.
>>>>>
>>>>> But you have my sympathy, I am trying to do much of the
same thing
>>>>> currently with Cinnamon, but just dealing with a system of
fixed
>>>>> mounts that I want to have the user to have no say about
;-).
>>>>>
>>>>> Of course, having actual convenience would be much nicer.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards.
>>>> -- 
>>>> To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read
the
>>>> instructions:  https://lists.samba.org/mailman/options/samba
>>
>> -- 
>> To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the
>> instructions:  https://lists.samba.org/mailman/options/samba

hi
Ok, I've now got more info. Doing smbclient -L blackfang returns the
following error. unknown name switch type dns. session setup failed.
NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE. This is frustrating. Isn't this supposed to
work regardless of whether I have an account on the machine I'm trying
to connect to? Hear's what I'm trying to do. I'm basically trying to
configure samba, however I need to so that when I try to connect to a
windows computer or a linux computer running samba, it asks me for a
user account and password if needed, otherwise it connects without
error. Why is this proving so difficult? I'm really sorry if I sound
frustrated, it's not you guys at all. I've been banging my head against
the wall with this for about a week, trying to configure samba before
releasing  the new stable image of sonar to the public. It also doesn't
help that most of my users are not at all understanding when something
they expect to work doesn't. Windows just works, why can't linux work
like windows, so on and so forth. That's what I have to look forward to
if I get this wrong.

Thanks
Kendell Clark


coffeeking wrote:
> hi
>
> Completely agree about windows. From what I'm hearing on this list
> there's no "default" file that will do what I want? If
I'm
> understanding this right it's not how samba is configured so much as
> it is what the gui tools will let me do? I use the mate desktop, with
> the caja file manager and it's caja share extension. I've tried a
few
> things, connecting to smb:blackfang. This will think for a few seconds
> and then return with "no such file or directory". I'm sorry
to keep
> going back to the same circles, I'm just trying to understand how
> these things work. I'd like to come up with a smb.conf file which will
> work for most users, since a lot of them connect to windows computers
> or linux boxes running a samba server. Is this possible? dolphin isn't
> an option for me because orca, the linux gtk screen reader, can't read
> it. I do know that trying to connect to windows computers over the
> network with nautilus or caja yields  the "no such file or
directory"
> error or "connection timed out". I'm missing something, just
not sure
> what. If I'm being annoying, please don't hesitate to point me to
> docs. It also sounds like results may vary based on what linux
> distribution you use. Sonar is based on the manjaro linux distro which
> is in turn based on arch, if that helps.
>
> Thanks
>
> Kendell Clark
>
>
>
> On 7/16/2016 9:54 PM, Methosomega wrote:
>> Windows is built to be generically compatible and configurable for
>> the common person. This does not make well for stability, function,
>> or security. Linux is built for everything but ease... To this end
>> there are gui apps that allow you to easily configure samba. Nothing
>> "just works" but when it does, it will never fail under most
>> circumstances. Windows it will work one day and not the next with
>> absolutely no reason... Now there were some changes to windows
>> security settings that make it less interoperable with samba (not
>> samba's fault) samba has also made security changes to make samba
>> more secure. One utility i have used for 10 years and has been
>> wonderful is "Webmin" its great for configuring most of the
basic
>> linux systems and most all of the basic server software. I highly
>> recommend it..
>> So after setting a share checking passwords and rights i spent 20
>> hours trying to figure out why i couldnt access share and found on
>> centos(my distro) in addition to the samba share you also have to do
>> a "chcon -t samba_share_t /path" to turn on the samba
security flag
>> or it wont allow samba to access the directory.. Now in my browser i
>> cannot see the samba system but i have no problem accessing it. This
>> may be a result of that IPC$ share that you sometimes get i think its
>> a pc share that windows does automatically that you may have to share
>> the "computer" in order for
>> It to be viewable like windows does. This is a function i want on
>> mine so maybe we can work on it together... Im out and about right
>> now but ill sent you a couple things to try when I get home.
>>
>> Chad
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Jul 16, 2016, at 9:06 PM, coffeeking <coffeekingms at
gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> hi
>>>
>>> Not just yet. I've set up a windows 10 instance on my desktop
to
>>> test with. It's not activated so I've got a month to test,
will
>>> probably only keep it around a couple of days. How is windows doing
>>> this? When I go to connect to mellisa's computer which is
running
>>> windows 7, even with the workgroup name changed from the default
>>> windows finds it and connects. I try the same on linux and I get
>>> "cannot mount windows share. No such file or directory."
It's
>>> maddening. I'm not complaining, I'm just curious. Why is
windows
>>> able to autoconfigure itself, and samba isn't? Or is it, and I
>>> haven't set the right options?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Kendell Clark
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 7/16/2016 9:01 PM, Methosomega wrote:
>>>> Welcome kendell, i just signed up today my self... Have you
gotten
>>>> your issue resolved? I see a lot of info but I cant tell who is
>>>> who, it doesn't say..
>>>>
>>>> Chad
>>>>
>>>>> On Jul 16, 2016, at 7:44 PM, kendell clark
>>>>> <coffeekingms at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> hi
>>>>> Basically I'm trying to come up with a default config
file that will
>>>>> allow people to access their stuff that reside on windows
computers,
>>>>> macs or linux computers from across the network. I know
windows
>>>>> uses the
>>>>> "WORKGROUP" name by default unless you change it,
but one thing I've
>>>>> noticed is that samba can't simply query windows for
the info it
>>>>> needs,
>>>>> it has to be set explicitly. Windows is somehow able to
figure this
>>>>> stuff out. I'm going to guess that the way windows does
this is some
>>>>> patented ultra secret method that samba can't use or it
would. I
>>>>> don't
>>>>> know if it's possible to come up with a one size fits
all config
>>>>> file,
>>>>> but is it possible to come up with one that will work with
most
>>>>> "default" windows installations where the user
hasn't changed the
>>>>> settings from the way they're initially set? I'm
new to all of
>>>>> this, so
>>>>> if there's good docs on all of this, just point me to
them and
>>>>> I'll get
>>>>> out of your hair.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>> Kendell Clark
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Xen wrote:
>>>>>> kendell clark schreef op 16-07-2016 9:31:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> hi all
>>>>>>> My name is Kendell Clark, and I've just
subscribed to this list. I
>>>>>>> thought I'd write this email to introduce
myself, and ask a
>>>>>>> couple of
>>>>>>> questions about configuring samba. I'm a co
developer of a linux
>>>>>>> distribution for the visually impaired and disabled
called Sonar
>>>>>>> GNU
>>>>>>> linux, which you can learn more about at
>>>>>>> http://www.sonargnulinux.com.
>>>>>>> I've been struggling to come up with a default
samba
>>>>>>> configuration file
>>>>>>> that will work for at least most windows and linux
environments
>>>>>>> if not
>>>>>>> all.
>>>>>> Basically you want a configuration for the local
systems running
>>>>>> your
>>>>>> distribution that will share stuff in a certain default
way?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Or are you also concerned with importing stuff from the
other
>>>>>> computers?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Importing stuff might be an issue as it depends on the
GUI of your
>>>>>> distribution? What I mean is that e.g. Linux Mint
(Cinnamon) is
>>>>>> rather
>>>>>> user friendly but I would not suggest it is ready for
everything
>>>>>> such
>>>>>> as mounting random shares from other servers? I
haven't tried in
>>>>>> full.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I do know Mint supports the USERSHARE thing and will
allow people to
>>>>>> share their own folders from the GUI as long as you
don't mess
>>>>>> with it
>>>>>> behind the scenes (e.g. using a net command yourself)
because it
>>>>>> doesn't sync that.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So I do not know how good the mounting experience is
from Linux.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Personally I am trying to fix it as much as possible
from my own
>>>>>> project in such a way that the names of the shares are
almost
>>>>>> incapable of being changed (by a regular user).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A convient mount dialog, that also reinstates a mount
on login,
>>>>>> to my
>>>>>> knowledge and mind, doesn't really exist yet.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This is not Samba, this is mount.cifs, and the GUI
configuration
>>>>>> whatever Distro or DE uses.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My next couple of questions have to do with the
windows side of
>>>>>>> things.
>>>>>>> I don't use it myself I'm  strictly a linux
guy but I do set
>>>>>>> windows up
>>>>>>> for my fiance a lot, and  I install it on my laptop
periodically
>>>>>>> to test
>>>>>>> samba on to make sure it works like I've set it
up. One thing I've
>>>>>>> noticed is that it seems somehow able to
autoconfigure most of this
>>>>>>> stuff. If I change the work group name on
mellisa's computer, a
>>>>>>> windows
>>>>>>> installation on my desktop or another computer
finds it and
>>>>>>> connects
>>>>>>> with no problems, prompting for a user name and
password.
>>>>>> You mean for shares that were already configured
previously and are
>>>>>> now slightly changed on the "server"?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Samba doesn't.
>>>>>>> It simply won't connect. Is there an
"automatic" or "figure it out"
>>>>>>> option in the config file I can use? The only
reason I'm asking is
>>>>>>> because a lot of my users are not very experienced
they're mostly
>>>>>>> windows users and they expect things to more or
less configure
>>>>>>> themselves. If they have to configure stuff their
first option is
>>>>>>> generally to complain and ask why I can't
simply do it for them.
>>>>>> This is not really Samba, again, I am not meaning to be
rude.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But Samba has very little to do with actually
/accessing/ files (or
>>>>>> shares).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Most configuration is done by GUI environments that try
to make some
>>>>>> of it work.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now I realize the "client" side of things is
also important. I am
>>>>>> just
>>>>>> wishing to elude that the user side of this with
regards to this, is
>>>>>> actually a componenent of your desktop environment
(mate, as you
>>>>>> call
>>>>>> it).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My next
>>>>>>> question has to do with this "homegroup"
stuff. I don't know
>>>>>>> much about
>>>>>>> windows but this seems to be a different sharing
system, not
>>>>>>> cifs, and
>>>>>>> windows specific. Can samba take advantage of these
or should I
>>>>>>> just
>>>>>>> disable the home group stuff on all the windows
computers I want to
>>>>>>> connect with?
>>>>>> I personally consider the HomeGroup a very detrimental
thing. They
>>>>>> have broken network-browsing, apparently, for regular
fileshares and
>>>>>> won't even allow you to see the hosts on the
network anymore,
>>>>>> instead
>>>>>> opening webpages to configure routers and such, if
these can be
>>>>>> found.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If anything, I would want to change Windows computers
such that
>>>>>> regular browsing works again; that will solve a lot of
problems.
>>>>>> Even
>>>>>> among Windows computers themselves, HomeGroup is
terribly
>>>>>> annoying and
>>>>>> inconvenient.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It appears the only way from e.g. a Windows 10 computer
to access
>>>>>> any
>>>>>> shares on the network, is to use a direct access link
like
>>>>>> \\server\share. That is the most inconvenient thing
there has ever
>>>>>> been for a Windows user. I do not know how to turn
HomeGroup (In
>>>>>> Windows 10) off myself, but I would really stay away
from it if I
>>>>>> were
>>>>>> you, rather than try to incorporate it in your system
(although a
>>>>>> best
>>>>>> of both worlds may be possible if you do want to
support it).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Support" is not the same as "Wanting to
use it".
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't get the Windows filesharing thing anymore.
I must be getting
>>>>>> old (35 now ;-)).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My last question has to do with what samba shows
when I do
>>>>>>> manage to connect to my fiance's windows
computer. A typical
>>>>>>> listing
>>>>>>> looks like
>>>>>>> $admin$
>>>>>>> c$
>>>>>>> f$
>>>>>>> Users
>>>>>>> The only one I can successfully connect to is the
"users"
>>>>>>> folder. The
>>>>>>> rest lock me out regardless of what user name and
password I
>>>>>>> supply.
>>>>>> I take it your c$ and f$ are complete volume shares? I
mean a
>>>>>> complete
>>>>>> "partition" with a drive letter is getting
shared?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have no clue why that wouldn't mount, I have not
tried it myself,
>>>>>> sorry. But in general it seems like the stuff you want
to mount
>>>>>> cannot
>>>>>> end with a $ sign?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If
>>>>>>> I connect through a test windows installation
windows doesn't
>>>>>>> display
>>>>>>> anything but the "Users" item so I'm
guessing those are system
>>>>>>> shares
>>>>>>> that aren't supposed to be used.
>>>>>> Ah, yes.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In order to access flash drives,
>>>>>>> external hard drives, etc across the network I have
to set them up
>>>>>>> explicitly to be shared. I'm wondering if samba
can access these?
>>>>>> Sure, why not. Do you mean shares from Windows
computers, or shares
>>>>>> from your own systems?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You ask about Samba access, not samba sharing.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There is no inhibition in Samba (mount.cifs) to mount
shared
>>>>>> directories from other hosts. The inhibition is in how
convenient
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> user interface of the local system is going to be in
configuring all
>>>>>> of that (and not getting fixed with a solution that is
>>>>>> unchangable by
>>>>>> a regular user).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am not knowledgeable enough yet about the GVFS
system. I do
>>>>>> know you
>>>>>> can sufficiently configure stuff for display in fstab:
there are
>>>>>> options for choosing the name that something will have
in your
>>>>>> GUI, I
>>>>>> take it this is the same for Mate as it is for
Cinnamon.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> x-gvfs-show and x-gvfs-name come to mind. Look it up,
it will
>>>>>> help, I
>>>>>> guess.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But these are "root" access things that mess
up fstab. I am sure
>>>>>> it is
>>>>>> also possible to get stuff mounted in /media/user/, I
just don't
>>>>>> know
>>>>>> how good that will be.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You will need to find a way to either integrate the
"Gnome
>>>>>> Automounter" (using /media/user) or by having a
custom solution that
>>>>>> adds and changes things in fstab to be able to pass
those "pretty"
>>>>>> parameters to Mate/Cinnamon.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> However, I do not know if a solution exists that will
be so
>>>>>> convenient
>>>>>> that it asks your for a password when you log in.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That also doesn't exist for mounting crypt shares.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Not really. Not very well. If I put something in
crypttab, SystemD
>>>>>> will bug me with its unlocking, even it is set to
noauto and nofail.
>>>>>> SystemD is not a very good beast.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So I cannot put those shares (or cryptdevices) in fstab
or crypttab
>>>>>> the way I want to.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And then the mounting feature from Cinnamon also
won't work. Anyway.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And if
>>>>>>> so, how to set it up? Sorry to ask so many
questions, I'm just
>>>>>>> trying to
>>>>>>> come up with a default samba configuration that
will work in most
>>>>>>> situations without configuration needed, if
that's possible. I'm a
>>>>>>> fairly knowledgable linux user but i'm still
learning how to
>>>>>>> develop a
>>>>>>> linux distribution that's user friendly and
does what most users
>>>>>>> want
>>>>>>> out of the box. My files are attached, they're
both very small.
>>>>>>> Thanks for any help
>>>>>> Like I said, I am a little angry with myself for not
making it more
>>>>>> clear in a nice way, that most of the user interface
stuff doesn't
>>>>>> really belong to Samba in that sense ;-).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But you have my sympathy, I am trying to do much of the
same thing
>>>>>> currently with Cinnamon, but just dealing with a system
of fixed
>>>>>> mounts that I want to have the user to have no say
about ;-).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Of course, having actual convenience would be much
nicer.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards.
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and
read the
>>>>> instructions: 
https://lists.samba.org/mailman/options/samba
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the
>>> instructions:  https://lists.samba.org/mailman/options/samba
>