[SOLVED] Need help networking with Win 7

[mediclaser]

I would like to ask opinions or advise from those who have thorough experience with other Linux distros aside from Mint. I have a desktop PC at home that I use as file server for the rest of our gadgets (e.g. laptops, phones, tablets, bluray player). It runs under Win 7 and I have to keep it in Windows because I have several software that only run in Windows. All our gadgets can connect to the PC except for the laptops running Linux Mint.

I have tried all the tips I could find in this forum and tried from other sources as well, but I cannot make Linux Mint to connect to any other machine in the network (except for the wireless printer). Is there any other Linux distro that may work in a Windows home network?

TIA

Moderator: moved here from a different forums section. Scroll down a few posts for more information.

[jimallyn]

I looked through all your posts here, mediclaser, and I don't see any place that you have asked for help with this problem. Instead you ask for a different Linux distro. If you have a problem with that, will you ask for yet another distro that doesn't have whatever new problem you might have? I have never had the need to network Linux and Windows computers together, but I have seen a number of posts on the forums about that. You wouldn't be the first person to have problems with networking with Windows computers. You would, however, be the first person I have seen on the forums NOT ask about how to solve the problem, but ask instead for a different Linux distro. The others I have seen with that problem asked for help on the forums, and as far as I know, in every case they got the help they needed and were able to network their Linux and Windows computers together. Why not post the problem you are having in the Networking section of the forums? Almost certainly somebody will be able to help you sort out the problem.

So there's my advice: ask for help in the appropriate forums section.

[all41]

Jim's right.
We are fortunate to have a host of members that can help, even networking specialists.
Post your problem in the Networking section--that's where they will see it.
Also include as much information about your setup as possible.
Open your terminal on the laptops and enter:

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inxi -Fxz

Copy and paste those results into your request. That will reveal your Mint edition, desktop environment, etc. and speed things up.
Remember this is an international forum so be patient for a day or so, you will get the help you need--it may come from the other side of the globe.

[mediclaser]

I looked through all your posts here, mediclaser, and I don't see any place that you have asked for help with this problem. Instead you ask for a different Linux distro. If you have a problem with that, will you ask for yet another distro that doesn't have whatever new problem you might have? I have never had the need to network Linux and Windows computers together, but I have seen a number of posts on the forums about that. You wouldn't be the first person to have problems with networking with Windows computers. You would, however, be the first person I have seen on the forums NOT ask about how to solve the problem, but ask instead for a different Linux distro. The others I have seen with that problem asked for help on the forums, and as far as I know, in every case they got the help they needed and were able to network their Linux and Windows computers together. Why not post the problem you are having in the Networking section of the forums? Almost certainly somebody will be able to help you sort out the problem.

So there's my advice: ask for help in the appropriate forums section.

Having seen so many posts having the same issue is the reason I did not ask one myself. I have gotten used to forums where people mark questions as duplicate when it has been asked before. They even insult the OP by pointing to "google".

Anyways, I would like to request a moderator to move this thread to the appropriate forum section if necessary.

[mediclaser]

Jim's right.
We are fortunate to have a host of members that can help, even networking specialists.
Post your problem in the Networking section--that's where they will see it.
Also include as much information about your setup as possible.
Open your terminal on the laptops and enter:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

Copy and paste those results into your request. That will reveal your Mint edition, desktop environment, etc. and speed things up.
Remember this is an international forum so be patient for a day or so, you will get the help you need--it may come from the other side of the globe.

Here's what I get:

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System:    Host: medic-HP-EliteBook-8570p Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard (portable) product: HP EliteBook 8570p v: A1029D1103
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 17A7 v: KBC Version 42.35
           Bios: Hewlett-Packard v: 68ICF Ver. F.42 date: 05/20/2013
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i7-3520M (-HT-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 11573
           clock speeds: max: 3600 MHz 1: 1199 MHz 2: 1199 MHz 3: 1199 MHz
           4: 1199 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Thames [Radeon HD 7550M/7570M/7650M]
           bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1600x900@60.03hz
           GLX Renderer: AMD TURKS (DRM 2.49.0 / 4.10.0-38-generic, LLVM 5.0.0)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Turks/Whistler HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6000 Series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.0-38-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection
           driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 5020 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak]
           driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 25:00.0
           IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1500.3GB (1.7% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: HGST_HTS725050A7 size: 500.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD10JPVX size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 140G used: 16G (12%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.52GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 55.0C mobo: 51.0C gpu: 51.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 212 Uptime: 10 min Memory: 995.0/7913.1MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 

[jimallyn]

Having seen so many posts having the same issue is the reason I did not ask one myself. I have gotten used to forums where people mark questions as duplicate when it has been asked before. They even insult the OP by pointing to "google".

That's not the way we do things here. There are very few duplicates. Your hardware might be different. You might be connecting to a different Windows version. And so on.

[mediclaser]

I get a: Failed to retrieve share list from server: No such file or directory message when trying to go to "Windows Network".
I already disabled the firewall. I use the Windows WORKGROUP set in the smb.conf file. I have a samba user setup.

[altair4]

Start slow.

[1] Can you ping from Mint the Win7 machine by it's ip address:

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ping -c3 <win7-ip-address>

[2] If the ping is successful run the samba client command to get a list of your shares and post the output. This is going to get tricky depending on how things are set up:

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smbclient -L <win7-ip-address>

Should you get this error message: session setup failed: NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED pass it a Win7 user name:

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smbclient  -L <win7-ip-address> -U<win7-user-name>

Should you get this error message: protocol negotiation failed: NT_STATUS_CONNECTION_RESET run it this way:

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smbclient -mSMB2 -L <win7-ip-address>

Or

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smbclient -mSMB2 -L <win7-ip-address> -U<win7-user-name>

[mediclaser]

Start slow.

[1] Can you ping from Mint the Win7 machine by it's ip address:

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ping -c3 <win7-ip-address>

[2] If the ping is successful run the samba client command to get a list of your shares and post the output. This is going to get tricky depending on how things are set up:

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smbclient -L <win7-ip-address>

...

The ping is successful! Looks like it was able to detect my shared folders after the second command, but there's an error message:

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smbclient -L 192.168.1.64
WARNING: The "syslog" option is deprecated
Enter medic's password: 
Domain=[FAMILY-PC] OS=[Windows 7 Professional 7601 Service Pack 1] Server=[Windows 7 Professional 6.1]

	Sharename       Type      Comment
	---------       ----      -------
	ADMIN$          Disk      Remote Admin
	AllShare        Disk      
	C$              Disk      Default share
	E$              Disk      Default share
	IPC$            IPC       Remote IPC
	Users           Disk      
	Videos          Disk      
Connection to 192.168.1.64 failed (Error NT_STATUS_RESOURCE_NAME_NOT_FOUND)
NetBIOS over TCP disabled -- no workgroup available

[altair4]

Now open a terminal and run:

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nemo smb://192.168.1.64/Videos

Do you gain access to the share?

Just a note: Static ip addresses are your friend in Samba. If your Win7 server always had the 192.168.1.64 ip address you could create a bookmark to smb://192.168.1.64 and that would be the end of it.

[mediclaser]

Now open a terminal and run:

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nemo smb://192.168.1.64/Videos

Do you gain access to the share?

Just a note: Static ip addresses are your friend in Samba. If your Win7 server always had the 192.168.1.64 ip address you could create a bookmark to smb://192.168.1.64 and that would be the end of it.

Yes, I'm able to access the content of the shared folder! Thanks very much!
Now, I wonder what the "Windows Network" in the file explorer (nemo?) is for.
Anyways, would you mind showing me how to do it the other way also... like doing a direct access like that from the Win 7 machine to the Linux laptop shared folder? It's fine if you can't, but that would be a big bonus for me.

[altair4]

Anyways, would you mind showing me how to do it the other way also... like doing a direct access like that from the Win 7 machine to the Linux laptop shared folder? It's fine if you can't, but that would be a big bonus for me.

It's easier on Windows: Open Explorer ( file manager ) and type:\\192.168.1.xxx where 192.168.1.xxx is the ip address of the Linux box.

You can even do it from Run WinKey+r Windows is smart enough to launch explorer by itself and knows that the protocol is smb.

Now, I wonder what the "Windows Network" in the file explorer (nemo?) is for.

That's a long story. It involes the way Windows used to resolve host names and contains many rules and is a pain to set up correctly. In fact I wrote a whole HowTo on the subject. I'll give you an example:

Host: medic-HP-EliteBook-8570p

Windows in a normal home network ( at least prior to Windows 10 ) knows nothing about host names. All it knows is netbios names. Samba in Linux takes your host name and makes it a netbios name but your host name is 24 characters long. It can only be 15 characters long. There's a way in Samba to fix this but it just illustrates one of the things you have to live with in Linux.

Your host name looks how the installer would set it up not something you did explicitly. In a perfect world the installer should either prevent you from making a host name that long, truncate it, or samba itself would truncate it when it makes the conversion to netbios name. That would mean a coordinated effort by the installer development group, the OS group, and Samba. That doesn't happen in Linux. At Microsoft or Apple all of the components and their teams that make up the OS are owned and managed by one entity so the coordination is forced.

[mediclaser]

Thanks a lot, altair4! Those are very informative. Also, thanks to Jim and All41 for steering me in the right direction.

Now, my wife will be happy to know she won't need to use the USB flash drive to transfer stuffs from the Windows machine to her Linux laptop.

[Herr Kantarell]

Warning to any new users of Mint always be sure to make a Timeshift backup for all updates over level 1 or it could prevent samba from ever working again on your installation
I may have had the same issues but then it just started working, and then it stopped working after updating the next time.