LM file sharing problem

[strikey]

Hi.
I have three computers on a network.
I have just installed Linux Mint7 as a Dual boot on one of my XP Computers (DEll).
Everything is fine except one small hitch with the network on the LM machine.

This is the situation:

A= Gateway Ethernet called QUAD
B= Wireless called SUNROOM
C= Linux Mint Ethernet called DELL

All are desktops
All have WinXP Pro including the Dell/Linux Mint dual boot.
All use the Windows standard firewall which is turned on.
All computers see each other both ways, including the Linux.
All machines can access each others files both ways EXCEPT the Linux.

Note: With the windows firewall turned off on the Gateway, I can then access it with the
LM, but the Gateway is still not able to alter the LM files even though it can access the LM Home folder.

The main problem is with the (A) gateway computer. Although LM can see the gateway...it
cannot access the shared folder files at all

Please see screen shot below:

NetworkPlacesOnGateway.jpg (182.66 KiB) Viewed 129 times

And also...

Mint_To_Gateway.png (80.08 KiB) Viewed 129 times

The second problem is that although the other two computers can see the LM, and even get
into the Home shared folder, but they CANNOT work in it... i.e. swap files or make files etc.
Please see screen shot below:

motorfalk is just the name of the file I tried to copy from Gateway to LM

Gateway_To_Mint.jpg (123.3 KiB) Viewed 129 times

Now the LM CAN see and interact with the Sunroom Wireless (B) computer perfectly, even
though it's configuration is identical to the Gateway except that it is wireless and not
Ethernet. So this is the only work around I have to share folders between LM and gateway at the moment. This means I can send files from LM (C) to SUNROOM (B) and vise versa, and then they therefore become accessible to the Gateway (A).

I could be excused for saying that all the trouble must be in the Gateway box because when
the firewall is off, the Linux box can access it no problems, BUT, why is it then, that all
other computers and operating systems, including the dual boot XP on the same machine as
the Linux...can all access the gateway fully? Also whether the gateway firewall is on or off makes no difference to accessing the LM... still cant manipulate the files within. This tells me that yeah sure, the gateway
firewall is part of the problem (ONLY with LM), but the Linux obviously must share some of
the blame also.

Hope this is not as confusing for you as it is for me. Please help as I am running out of
hair and finger nails. And sorry for the long post but its the only way I can explain perfectly.

[mstng_67]

In regard to problem number 1:

Ensure that you have name resolution between all machines. To accomplish this task at each machine ping each adjacent machine by hostname. You should receive responses across the board. If not, you need to look into name resolution as at least a portion of your problem.

Ensure that the following ports are open all all personal firewalls.
Port 135/TCP - used by smbd
Port 137/UDP - used by nmbd
Port 138/UDP - used by nmbd
Port 139/TCP - used by smbd
Port 445/TCP - used by smbd

In regard to your second problem:

This is likely a permissions-related issue. Ensure that you are allowing everyone write access to your share.

Best,

Micheal

[strikey]

In regard to your second problem:

This is likely a permissions-related issue. Ensure that you are allowing everyone write access to your share.

Thanks Michael for the interest.

Now I can probably do that in windows, but how do I do it within Mint7? I looked in the firewall config and see nothing ... do you mean ip addresses?

Thanks
Mike

BTW, I opened TCP port 135 to my Gateway Firewall, but have to wait untill tomorrow to test it. Late now and need some shut-eye

[altair4]

You never stated how you are sharing the files on the Mint machine - Simple or Classic. I'm going to assume you are using the Simple Method which means you created a share through Nautilus ( i.e., Right Click "Documents" > Sharing Options. )

If so then post the output of the following command:

Open Terminal
Type net usershare info

You should get an output that looks something like this:

[documents]
path=/home/altair4/Documents
comment=
usershare_acl=Everyone:F,
guest_ok=y

The "F" in usershare_acl=Everyone:F indicates that the share allows for Full Read/Write permission.
Simple Sharing should have automatically changed the permissions on that "Documents" directory without you having to intercede manually.

The only thing that would mess up the scenario that I just described is if "Documents" was a mount point to an Windows filesystem ( FAT32 or NTFS ). Linux cannot change the ownership / permissions on a Windows filesystem outside of /etc/fstab. If it is a mountpoint then you will have to change permissions by altering the entry for that partition in fstab.

If you used "Classic Samba" you might want to post your /etc/samba/smb.conf file so that we can see it's contents by doing this:

Open Terminal
Type testparm -s

[strikey]

Ok mates, we are half way there. Thanks to Michael, I opened port 135 on the gateway box and can now browse and work in it as normal...albeit a bit slow. I do wonder how one is expected to know this though, when there is no info on port 135 (that I know of) from the help files. And one point to add here is the fact that the Sunroom WIRELESS box can also be accessed by Mint WITHOUT opening port 135...go figure that if you can hehe. Anyway, thanks heaps Michael.

Now the other problem of others accessing the mint box is still a no go.
Firsly, thanks altair4 for the easy to follow instuctions... as a newbie I really appreciate it. Some jargon here I have no clue what they are saying (yet hehe).

Here is the info from usershare:
strikey@dell ~ $ net usershare info
[documents]
path=/home/strikey/Documents
comment=
usershare_acl=Everyone:F,
guest_ok=y
And here is a SS of the folder permissions window. I made no comment because I have no clue what that means in this particular case...

FolderPermissions.png (24.62 KiB) Viewed 94 times

You never stated how you are sharing the files on the Mint machine - Simple or Classic

Yes, simple I suppose, but I don't ever remember doing either.lol.

The only thing that would mess up the scenario that I just described is if "Documents" was a mount point to an Windows filesystem ( FAT32 or NTFS ). Linux cannot change the ownership / permissions on a Windows filesystem outside of /etc/fstab. If it is a mountpoint then you will have to change permissions by altering the entry for that partition in fstab.

Sorry, but I don't understand all this, except to say that LM is dual boot on this Dell box, and to my knowledge I did nothing during the installation to "mount" anything. I did however later, as Mint gave me a message saying disk space was low, mess with the partition to make it bigger at the expense of the windows XP partition.

Here is the other terminal info you asked for...

strikey@dell ~ $ testparm -s
Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
Processing section "[printers]"
Processing section "[print$]"
Processing section "[strikey]"
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE
[global]
workgroup = MIKES
server string = %h server (Samba, LinuxMint)
map to guest = Bad User
obey pam restrictions = Yes
passdb backend = tdbsam
pam password change = Yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
unix password sync = Yes
syslog = 0
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
dns proxy = No
usershare allow guests = Yes
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
create mask = 0700
printable = Yes
browseable = No

[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers

[strikey]
path = /home/strikey
guest ok = Yes


I reckon that if the network sharing can be made simpler and more solid in Mint, it would be near perfect. For me at least that is...I love it to pieces. Eat your heart out Bill Gates.

Hope all this can help you help me.
Thanks
Mike.

[strikey]

Dont know if this helps also, but I notice the ip address for the Dell (this box) is shown here as ....192.168.1.100...when in fact it should be...192.168.1.109.

strikey@dell ~ $ findsmb

*=DMB
+=LMB
IP ADDR NETBIOS NAME WORKGROUP/OS/VERSION
---------------------------------------------------------------------
192.168.1.100 DELL +[MIKES] [Unix] [Samba 3.3.2]

And also this, which shows only 2 ports open on this LM box.

strikey@dell ~ $ nmap -sT 192.168.0.100/22

Starting Nmap 4.76 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2009-11-05 07:28 EST
Interesting ports on 192.168.1.1:
Not shown: 996 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
21/tcp open ftp
22/tcp open ssh
23/tcp open telnet
80/tcp open http

Interesting ports on 192.168.1.100:
Not shown: 998 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
139/tcp open netbios-ssn
445/tcp open microsoft-ds

Nmap done: 1024 IP addresses (2 hosts up) scanned in 38.36 seconds

[altair4]

Well, I'm not sure how you did this but you're using both Simple and Classic sharing:
This is Simple Sharing:

[documents]
path=/home/strikey/Documents
comment=
usershare_acl=Everyone:F,
guest_ok=y

This is Classic Sharing ( from testparm ):

[strikey]
path = /home/strikey
guest ok = Yes

SInce /home/strikey/Documents is a subdirectory of /home/strikey I'm not sure which method takes priority. I've never seen both methods used simultaneously. There's a couple of different ways around this but you need to decide whether you really want to share your entire home directory. Assuming you want to use Simple Sharing and only want to share the "Documents" folder try this:

Press Alt+F2
Type shares-admin
Click Unlock
Under the "Shared Folders" Tab should be a reference to /home/strikey. Highlight that entry and click on the "Delete" button. Note: this will delete the sharing of that folder not the folder itself.

Now to reset samba you have to restart the service by doing this:

Open Terminal
Type sudo service samba restart

This should put Simple Sharing back in charge. See if you can connect to the "Documents" share.

[altair4]

Hopefully mstng_67 has some insight into the ip address / ports question but where is everybody?

The nmap command should show you all the machines and their ports on your entire LAN. All I see is what I think is the router ( 192.168.1.1 ) and the Mint box ( 192.168.1.100 ). If you have any other machines on your lan and nmap isn't showing them then I suspect that a firewall is in the way. And why do you think the Mint machines ip address is in error? Did you set a static ip address for that box?

[strikey]

Well, I'm not sure how you did this but you're using both Simple and Classic sharing:
Me either mate

Assuming you want to use Simple Sharing and only want to share the "Documents" folder ....YES I DO

I did reset SS in control as you said.

This should put Simple Sharing back in charge. See if you can connect to the "Documents" share.
Well kinda. I can get to the LM docs ok and create edit etc....but when I get into the gateway, it's different now. Let me show you.

This is what I get when I first access the gateway shares.

mounted.png (69.61 KiB) Viewed 77 times

You can see all folders are present in the "SHAERED_DOCS" but when I right click to add a folder etc, the 'create' is blanked out and there is a choice to 'un-mount'. So remembering what you said earlier about mounted folders, I then chose 'unmount' from the right click drop box, and this is what happened....

Un_mounted.png (91.34 KiB) Viewed 77 times

As you can see, the SHARED folder on the QUAD (gateway) box has been replaced with Strikey shared on the LM box. I just don't know enough about all this mounting stuff to really know what I am doing lol.

altair4 said: And why do you think the Mint machines ip address is in error? Did you set a static ip address for that box?
Yes, I did that ages ago hoping it would help fix the problems I was having. I saw from different posts that it was better that way. I gave my LM address... 192.168.1.109...but it shows as you seen b4 as ...192.168.1.100

You know mate, I think I have messed up so much that maybe I need to do a fresh install and try again from the beginning. If it was in windows I would not hesitate cause I know how to do that, but to do a fresh install with LM over the old LM...I am not familiar and am thinking the partitioning might be a problem...not sure.

Think I better take the advice of the admins here and take a break. The dogs need walking and so do I hehe.
BBL

[strikey]

Oh, I forgot to mention...still cannot access the LM network folders from the other boxes. I will take a screen shot of my attempt and post it later from the gateway box.

cya soon

[strikey]

Back again.
No need for the screen shots because I found out why the other boxes could not access the LM. Its because SINCE I did the fixes from altair4, the other boxes were still trying to access the Strikey "Home" folder, but now since the fix, only the Documents folder is shareable. So, I deleted those old entries and added new 'Network Places' to the LM 'Documents' on both outside boxes and can now use them to have FULL access and editing rights to the LM. Yehhhaaa...this is the first time I can do this. (Mike cracks a can of beer hehe)

Special thanks to altair4 for the fix.

But, before I get too drunk, I still gotta fix the access the other way now. i.e LM > Other boxes. As I said earlier, I can access all folders in the other boxes now, but cant create anything. It's so weird, before the fix, I had full rights to both the other boxes since I did Michaels fix of opening port 135, but now we struck another hurdle... a new one in fact.

Common mates...we nearly there!!!!

PS: I only joking bout the beer.

[strikey]

I found a dumb workaround that I can use to create files in my shared folders in windows boxes... from the LM box. From my windows box I made a folder inside my shared folder and called it "Everything", and then cut and pasterd all folders and files into that folder, so all I see when I initially open that same shared folder from my LM box is one folder called Everything. Strange as it may seem, when I then go into that Everything folder I can do as I like...the way it should be. Man...I'm getting wacked out on this...nothing makes sence to me. I know it's because I probably done some stupid things while installing all this LM stuff in the first place, but at least I am learning ...albeit the hard way.... to work with LM.

I will be away now for quite a while, so if you post and I don't reply, I am sorry but will as soon as I can.

I will leave you with this from my Samba configuration file. Its probably a waste of time but you never know.

#
# Sample configuration file for the Samba suite for Debian GNU/Linux.
#
#
# 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 most of which
# are not shown in this example
#
# Some options that are often worth tuning have been included as
# commented-out examples in this file.
# - When such options are commented with ";", the proposed setting
# differs from the default Samba behaviour
# - When commented with "#", the proposed setting is the default
# behaviour of Samba but the option is considered important
# enough to be mentioned here
#
# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command
# "testparm" to check that you have not made any basic syntactic
# errors.
# A well-established practice is to name the original file
# "smb.conf.master" and create the "real" config file with
# testparm -s smb.conf.master >smb.conf
# This minimizes the size of the really used smb.conf file
# which, according to the Samba Team, impacts performance
# However, use this with caution if your smb.conf file contains nested
# "include" statements. See Debian bug #483187 for a case
# where using a master file is not a good idea.
#

#======================= Global Settings =======================

[global]

## Browsing/Identification ###

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
workgroup = mikes

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = %h server (Samba, LinuxMint)

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server
# wins support = no

# 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

# This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS.
dns proxy = no

# What naming service and in what order should we use to resolve host names
# to IP addresses
; name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast

#### Networking ####

# The specific set of interfaces / networks to bind to
# This can be either the interface name or an IP address/netmask;
# interface names are normally preferred
; interfaces = 127.0.0.0/8 eth0

# Only bind to the named interfaces and/or networks; you must use the
# 'interfaces' option above to use this.
# It is recommended that you enable this feature if your Samba machine is
# not protected by a firewall or is a firewall itself. However, this
# option cannot handle dynamic or non-broadcast interfaces correctly.
; bind interfaces only = yes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[altair4]

I still gotta fix the access the other way now. i.e LM > Other boxes. As I said earlier, I can access all folders in the other boxes now, but cant create anything.

From my windows box I made a folder inside my shared folder and called it "Everything", and then cut and pasterd all folders and files into that folder, so all I see when I initially open that same shared folder from my LM box is one folder called Everything. Strange as it may seem, when I then go into that Everything folder I can do as I like...the way it should be

It seems to me that if you're having permissions problems on the Windows box then it's a Windows issue not a Linux issue. It could be that the "everything" folder allows for read/write but it's parent folder does not.

BTW, your posting of the smb.conf file is incomplete and mostly shows comments ( lines starting with "#' and ";" ). Any time you need to post a concise and compact form of your smb.conf file use the testparm -s command. This command will print to the Terminal everything that is not a comment in your samba config file.

There's one more thing that I feel compeled for some reason to mention. It's my own stubborn bigotry and bias so this will come across as more of a rant but..... The worst thing Microsoft ever did was introduce things like "My Document" and "My Pictures". It's not the "My" part, it's the space between the "My" and what follows it. Linux hates spaces so I try not to use them in Linux. There are workarounds for this so it's not that it wont work but I personally prefer MyDocuments and MyPictures without the spaces when I create folders in Linux. It's called "CamelBack" or "CamelCase" notation because the capitalized letters suggest the humps of a camel. You might actually be able to impress someone with that bit of trivia. Sorry for the rant.

[strikey]

It could be that the "everything" folder allows for read/write but it's parent folder does not.

The parent folder is the windows standard "Shared Folder" which I checked via properties and found it allows all interaction.

The worst thing Microsoft ever did was introduce things like "My Document" and "My Pictures". It's not the "My" part, it's the space between the "My" and what follows it. Linux hates spaces so I try not to use them in Linux. There are workarounds for this so it's not that it wont work but I personally prefer MyDocuments and MyPictures without the spaces when I create folders in Linux. It's called "CamelBack" or "CamelCase" notation because the capitalized letters suggest the humps of a camel. You might actually be able to impress someone with that bit of trivia. Sorry for the rant.

Spot on mate. When I browsed these folders (the ones you mentioned) from the LM box, I could never seem to access some, but could access others. Now you mention it...it was the My Pictures etc folders causing the trouble. So I did as you said....

MyDocs.jpg (99.65 KiB) Viewed 47 times

And wammo...I can now do what I like with them almost. All I did was rename them all and remove the space.

Sorry for the rant.

The funny thing about all this is that where both "fixes" manifested from altair4 and Michael...both of them were "sorry" lol. What humble guys we have here at Mint

Thanks guys.

At this stage I am 99% happy with the way things are now, but will leave this open for another day or two just to be sure.

I think I will start a new thread later itemizing all the things I (or should I say you guys) did to get me going.

Later guys
Mike

[altair4]

I'm glad it's working for you but you misunderstood me. My rant was about using spaces in Linux not Windows. I didn't expect you to change the Windows file names. In fact I didn't know you could change the "My Pictures" "My Music", etc folders since these were set by the system not by you.

If I remember correctly if you rename or just move "My Documents" , Windows will just create a new one in exactly the same place and this time it will be blank. So you'll end up with "My Documents" and "MyDocuments". Sorry for the confusion