LMDE 3 Nemo file/folder sharing in any home network

[Vilis]

Problem description: After installing LMDE 3 "Cindy", I discovered that Nemo Folder Sharing would not operate in my Samba based home network which includes a mix of (mostly) various Linux Mint and (a few) Microsoft Windows computers. Any mix of these computers automatically join or leave my network for files and folders sharing as they are turned on or off.

Problem symptom: When you attempt to mark a folder in Nemo for file sharing, normally by clicking on the folder, and then choosing "Sharing Options", the Folder Sharing window which pops up for setting up your sharing options comes up in an unexpected blue and white colour warning that the folder sharing function is not working, with hints as to what may be wrong.

Clem Lefebre expertly described this problem in hison Aug 14, 2018 GitHub article "Samba sharing very broken #59" which gave me enough clues to solve this problem by a few simple steps which Clem did not explicitly offer. Clem explained that the package "sessioninstaller" automatically solves this problem for Ubuntu-based Mint installations, but it is not offered by Debian, and therefore is not available to LMDE 3. My solution does not need "sessioninstaller", and should apply to this same problem popping up in the Ubuntu-based Mint Cinnamon version 19 which does have "sessioninstaller".

Here is a really simple "newbie-ready" solution (apparently there is no other solution) I failed to find elsewhere for including my new LMDE 3 system into my network for the purpose of Nemo Folder Sharing, with the bonus option of using the nearly indespensible FreeFileSync folders and files coordination program across my home network with or without FreeFileSync, which is a challenge (for a different topic) to install on LMDE 3.

Step 1: Give yourself "permission" to access the "Sharing Options" in Nemo, normally automatically provided by "sessioninstaller" which is unavailable in Debian.

in the Terminal, run

id -Gn "user name"

This returned in my illustrative example case:

"user name" cdrom floppy sudo audio dip video plugdev netdev bluetooth lpadmin scanner

Crucially missing in this response is "sambashare", which enables the Nemo "Sharing Options".

So continue in the Terminal with the command:

sudo usermod -a -G sambashare "user name"

Next run

id -Gn "user name"

This return confirms your "user name" as included the "sambashare" catalog along with miscellanous other permissions:

"user name" cdrom floppy sudo audio dip video plugdev netdev bluetooth lpadmin scanner sambashare

Next in the Terminal, edit the Samba protocols to add permission to use the Nemo "Sharing Options" as follows:

sudo gksu gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

(To do this, you must first install the special text editor "gedit", available in the LMDE 3 Software Manager)

With the page "smb.conf" now automatically open in "gedit", make the following changes at the top of the first section, "Global Settings":

# workgroup = WORKGROUP
workgroup = "your chosen workgroup name which is shared in common with that of your Microsoft Windows computers, if any"

Immediately under this, paste the following:

#-----------------------------------------------

# "USER NAME" MOVED & ENABLED THE BELOW DISABLED SEGMENT UP TO THIS GLOBAL SECTION

# Setup usershare options to enable non-root users to share folders
# with the net usershare command.

# Maximum number of usershare. 0 (default) means that usershare is disabled.
; usershare max shares = 100

# Allow users who've been granted usershare privileges to create
# public shares, not just authenticated ones
usershare allow guests = yes

#----------------------------------------------

That's it. But no job is finished until the paperwork is done, so document what you did:

Notice that by transferring this above command from below into the "smb.conf" Global Section, you automatically enable support for the Nemo "Sharing Options".
Be sure to disable these commands in the section below by putting disabling (deactivating) # "comments" symbols at the beginning of their respective lines with a note showing that you, "user name", did it. Be sure to make and save appropriately renamed before and after copies of "smb.conf" in a folder (eg. "Samba") in your system, in addition to making your changes to "smb.conf" transparent (showing that you did it) to spare yourself future headaches.

Regards,
Vilis Lietuvietis
www.chronobiblica.org
https://independent.academia.edu/VilisLietuvietis
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vilis_Lietuvietis

PS, to see the results of using my home computer network, please find my above-linked astronomy-based (using astronomy software) recovery of the chronology of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible lost for 2,500 years since the last biblical chronologist, the 5th century BC biblical priest Ezra knew it in full. As a virtual "watermark" embedded and undeciphered until Prof. Edwin Thiele did it in his 1943 PhD dissertation in the Masoretic Text, being astronomically precise to the equinoctical semester, it scientifically validates its historical authenticity. Proof that this chronology was lost since the 5th century BC Ezra is found in the Greek translation of the Masoretic Text commissioned by the Ptolemaic Greek Pharaoh of Egypt in the 3rd century BC Ptolemy II, for whom the 70 Jewish experts (LXX) added commentary in their Greek Text attempting to explain the biblical chronology to Ptolemy II, making a mess of it revealing that they did not understand what they were doing (trying to fix what was not broken). I was successful because between 1943 and 1983, Prof. Edwin Thiele (PhD University of Chicago) essentially solved this problem, but finally ruined it at the end by anchoring his flawless internal (relative, not absolute) biblical chronology to an astronomically synchronized Assyrian date of 701 BC described simultanously in biblical and Assyrian texts, but dated a year late from its true date of 702 BC. This 1 year offset wrought havoc for Thiele, which he "fixed" by biblical emendation - distorting his originally flawless internal biblical chronology (if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!). This was confirmed to me by the world's leading assyriologist Simo Parpola, emeritus prof. of Assyriology at the University of Helsinki by email, giving me permission to quote him, as invaluable evidence besides my 25 extrabiblical synchronisms precise to at least the equinoctical semester spanning 1000 years from the biblically dated 1443 BC Exodus to Ezra's 457 BC Jerusalem mission, confirming that my repair of Thiele's chronology was correct.