Samba and Mint 20.1 with Windows 7

[Newmint17]

Hello,

I have read the Tutorials about Samba with Mint 20 and Windows 10 but I was unable to find anything on the above.

I have a Windows 7 desktop and have just purchased a laptop upon which I have installed Mint MATE 20.1. Could someone please give me detailed guidance on how to fileshare between my computers?t

[Note to Moderators - please remove my post from the Samba/Mint 20 Tutorial]

[Newmint17]

I have made some progress but I am now stuck.

I edited my smb.conf file along the lines of a much earlier one on a Netbook. I included two lines referring to SMB 2 - an earlier attempt to use NT2 was rejected by testparm. The result is that my Mint MATE 20.1 laptop now has full access to my Windows 7 desktop.

That is the end of the good news. I am unable to access my laptop from my Windows machine.

I would be grateful for any help, please.

[altair4]

I've become reluctant to get involved with WinXP and Win7 questions because it's been too long since I've had to deal with them, I no longer have any here at the asylum, so there is no way I can try to reproduce a users errors.

Anyhoo ... When you say the Win7 machine cannot access the Mint server do you mean you actually cannot access the share on that machine? Or do you mean Win7 cannot see the machine in the first place?

Win7 uses SMB1 all the way up to SMB2.1 The Mint20 server uses by default SMB2.02 all the way up to SMB3.11. But for discovery to occur all machines have to have SMB1 ( NT1 ) enabled which Mint20 does not by default.

You might want to post the output of the following commands so we can all see how your Mint server is set up:

Code: Select all

testparm -s

Code: Select all

net usershare info --long

[Newmint17]

Thank YOU! Yes, I appreciate that Windows 7 is now an old OS...

I am unable to see the Linux machine from my W7 one.

Code: Select all

	workgroup = MANFIELD
	idmap config * : backend = tdb


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


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


[Guest Share]
	comment = Accessible over network
	guest ok = Yes
	guest only = Yes
	path = /home/gam/Documents
	read only = No
gam@PCS:~$ 

The second request:
gam@PCS:~$ net usershare info --long
net usershare: cannot open usershare directory /var/lib/samba/usershares. Error No such file or directory
Please ask your system administrator to enable user sharing.

Looking as though I have made a large mistake somewhere...

[altair4]

You have removed a lot of stuff from the default [global] section of smb.conf.

I'm wondering if the best thing to do is start over with a fresh smb.conf ...... um ...........

At a minimum I would do this:

Edit smb.conf and add in the [global] section the following:

Code: Select all

map to guest = Bad User
server min protocol = NT1
name resolve order = bcast host lmhosts wins

Then restart samba:

Code: Select all

sudo service smbd restart
sudo service nmbd restart

The old NetBIOS mechanism is a temperamental thing so you may even need to reboot the Mint box.

If you are at all interested in an smb.conf reset ( removing samba and reinstalling it will not fix things ):

(1) Make sure the following file exists:

/usr/share/samba/smb.conf

(2) Make a backup of your current smb.conf

Code: Select all

sudo mv /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.bak

(3) Copy the default:

Code: Select all

sudo cp -a /usr/share/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/

(4) Add the following to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file - [global] section:

Code: Select all

server min protocol = NT1
name resolve order = bcast host lmhosts wins

(5) Add your share definition to it.
(6) Then restart samba again.

[Newmint17]

Thank you. I will work through your suggestions and report back.

[Newmint17]

Interim report.

Method 1 appears not to work, have yet to try method 2.

Having a look at /usr/share/samba/smb.conf, it is an original, unedited file unlike the one in /etc/s

[Newmint17]

Sorry, reply incomplete.
The smb.conf file in /etc/samba is an edited version.

Is this to be expected?

[altair4]

We want to replace /etc/samba/smb.conf with the one in /usr/share/samba/smb.conf.

Once the cp is done we then make only adds to the new /etc/samba/smb.conf.

[Newmint17]

I hope I have followed your instructions but when I retried net usershare info --long I received the same error message "cannot open usershare directory /var/lib/samba/usershares. Error No such file or directory
Please ask your system administrator to enable user sharing."

Any further suggestions very welcome. I do appreciate your kindness.

[altair4]

Don't worry about the net usershare info --long error message. That only applies to shares created from your file manager which caja doesn't do by default. I never know how users create their shares so I always ask for the output.

Your share was created in smb.conf. That is the only one that counts here.