Windows to Linux LAN filesharing (SOLVED)

[TuftyDave]

Ahhh... the 'other' problem has disappeared!
Now, when I click on NETWORK on my linux box, I get three little PC icons of my windows boxes and my Linux box and a 'Windows Network'
When I click on 'Windows Network' I get 'MSHOME' and when I click 'MSHOME I get the three PC Icons again, and I can click on any of them and log on to them, the XP one goes straight on, the Vista one asks for my Vista logon and password.

I have done a few Linux OS updates over the past few days, maybe someone somewhere is working on this problem???

Weird though that it's suddenly working perfectly from Linux to Windows and not the other way...

My female to female RJ45 couplers will probably arrive tomorrow or Tuesday, so when they do I'll be able to put the Linux box straight into a port on the same router as the two windows ones.
I'll let you know if it makes any difference.

[TuftyDave]

Well the plot well & truly thickens!
I now have the Linux box and the Vista box on the same router.

So far from what I can see, it's actually made things WORSE!

The old original problem (WHICH MIRACULOUSLY CURED ITSELF) of 'Unable to Mount' which I got when I clicked on 'Windows Network' on the Linux box has RETURNED!
And this thread (attempting to connect to Linux from Windows) Remains the same!

[TuftyDave]

This is really very bizarre!
Now I've put the second router (SWITCH) back in the equation, and the problems are just the same exactly as they were a week ago...

It's almost like Linux somehow learned something over a day or two which allowed it to see the windows boxes, and it 'fixed itself' but now it's forgotten that and back to square one.

Wit or without the second router(switch) in the equation, the results are now the same and the same as they were when i first reported the problem(s)

[altair4]

And what happens when you try to connect by ip address and everyone on the same router.

Do an ipconfig ( on Windows ) and ifconfig ( on Linux ) to verify the correct ip address on all your machines.

If that does not work and while the Mint and Windows machines are still connected to the same router I want you to reboot the Mint machine with the Mint Install DVD in place. After booting - do not install - just find it's ip address and see if the Windows machine can connect to the Mint machine by ip address. You should see a useless share called "print$".

EDIT: That last sentence was incorrect - print$ is hidden to windows. Open Nemo while in the LiveCD state, right click the Public folder, select "Sharing Options", and mark all the boxes. Now connect to the Mint machine by ip address and see if you can see the "public" share.

[TuftyDave]

OK, now we are definitely getting somewhere altair4.

So, tests done while computers on SAME ROUTER.
All original problems exactly as they were...

On Linux Box.
----------------
'Unable to mount' when clicking 'Windows Network' (this WAS solved, but has returned now I've put all on same router, but still doesn't work now when I go back! so weird!)
nemo smb://192.168.0.100
and
nemo smb://TOSH

Both work fine and connect to the Vista Machine at 192.168.0.100 no problem.

ifconfig Output:-
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet addr:192.168.0.102 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::222:15ff:fe68:2560/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:29530 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:18832 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:8
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:34260728 (34.2 MB) TX bytes:1996648 (1.9 MB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:916 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:916 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:109177 (109.1 KB) TX bytes:109177 (109.1 KB)

On Windows Box.
--------------------
Clicking on DAVE-P5Q in the explorer network window gives 'Cannot Access, check spelling' Error... (As it always has)
issuing 'explorer \\192.168.0.102' causes a delay (can hear linux box disc activity) but results in windows box opening (defaulting to) it's own 'documents folder. (As it always has)

Ipconfig Output:-

Windows IP Configuration


Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::74c1:350e:c9e9:6a4d%12
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 7:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:9d38:953c:24b1:302b:3f57:ff9b
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::24b1:302b:3f57:ff9b%11
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 11:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HERE'S THE GOOD BIT!!!
When I boot from the MINT DVD (again with everything in the same router):-

Linux to windows:-
in Nemo clicking on 'network' gives 'Windows Network' folder and the 'MINT' linux box icon.
In 'Windows Network' are MSHOME and WORKGROUP
in MSHOME is TOSH and I can Log onto it and access files.
in WORKGROUP is MINT

Windows to Linux:-
Explorer shows TOSH and MINT in the networks folder.
If I click on MINT I go to a folder "Printers."
Interestingly if I click on it I get an 'Add Printer' Icon which gives me a permissions error if I click it.
Likewise the direct command line "explorer \\192.168.0.102" Happily takes me to the "Printers" folder.

So I guess we need to go back to some of the 'master' config files then?

[altair4]

The Mint install DVD will boot to a fully functional samba server and client. At this stage it's not corrupted by anything the user has done with firewalls, edits to anything, or any odd packages that may have been added or enabled.

I'd be willing to bet that if you did a "testparm -s" with the Mint DVD booted and compared it to the installed Mint there wouldn't be a whole lot different - at least in the [global] section of smb.conf. This isn't a Samba issue it's something else.

Something happened on the installed Mint - what that was I do not know.

Completely irrelevant side note: To all those who think that all workgroups have to be the same. Read the previous post - your're wrong This user has 2 and it works - I have 4 and it works.

[TuftyDave]

OK, I just put my network back together....

So I have the Main wifi router, a cable to the second router acting as a switch, a cable from that to another wifi router (fair way away)
I put computers on all three and the network behaves perfectly both ways from any windows box to the Linux and from Linux to any windows box as long as I boot from the DVD!

Does this mean I have to re-install from scratch? (I hope not!)


EDIT Just want to confirm what altair4 said...
I see TWO windows network groups...
One is MSHOME with all my windows boxes in, the other is WORKGROUP with the linux box in.
Both windows and linux happily see and navigate round them.

[TuftyDave]

I can now also confirm that it's nothing in the samba configuration file causing the problems.
I've just replaced the smb.conf in /etc/samba with the one from the same place but when booted from the DVD.
It solves nothing.

There is a difference which I expected. From windows I can see that there is a machine called 'MINT' in a workgroup called 'WORKGROUP' but I can't connect to it.

On the Linux box, in 'Files' then 'Network' I no longer see the 'MINT' machine. I do see 'Windows Network' but when I click it, as before, I get the 'unable to mount' and 'Failed to retrieve share list' Error.

So as altair4 suggests something else is causing the problems....

So does anyone know any experts who would be aware of what has overriding control of networking and can bypass samba settings?
Do I wait? Or should I bite the bullet & start from Scratch & re-build the system, bit by bit all the while checking the network until something I install suddenly screws it all up?
I'd much rather wait for a little while in case there is someone out there who knows what's going on here and could maybe save me days of re-building.

[TuftyDave]

'No Answer'... came the reply...

[TuftyDave]

Well I'm part way through re-building Mint.
I've done the main installation from DVD and the major updates to the OS.
So far all networking/file sharing is fine. Windows can see Linux. Linux can see Windows.
NO NEED TO CHANGE ANY SAMBA CONFIG SETTINGS AT ALL.
Each new thing I add or change I'm checking again. So far so good!

Thanks for all the help guys especially altair4

[kwisher]

Not sure if you stated this or not but you mentioned you are using a second router as a switch. Are you positive that the DHCP server is not enabled on this second router? I would imagine you would have more issues other than what you originally posted about if that was the case, but I just wanted to verify.

[TuftyDave]

Hi kwisher
Yup, sure, not touched the routers at all since they were set up couple of years ago.
The only problems have been with the Linux system.
Like I say it was working perfectly when I booted from the DVD, so I'm re-building the OS on the hard drive again and this time (so far) all is perfect with the networking & file sharing.
So no, nothing at all to do with the routers.
There are actually three routers in the equation, I just kept quiet about the third one I was so absolutely certain it wasn't playing any part in the problems.