Why does netwroming in Mint have to do so difficult? Solved*

[Matt832]

Been using Mint for about 10 years now, and networking has never been easy or intuitive. I have 3 laptops and 2 desktop computers that at times will interconnect but often not - even when nothing has changed.
Today I was planning on updating my kitchen computer to Mint 20.2 from 20.1, no problem right? Not so much. The only item of any importance on this unit would be my bookmarks, so I simply wanted to back them up to my back up drive connected to the main computer, but no, the Kitchen computer cannot connect to the main unit and vice versa, they always have been able to share. Nothing has changed in my setup.

This is the one thing I HATE about Mint, I fail to understand why it has to be so hard and complicated. I have to go in and edit my Smb files, load drive UUIDS ect to share anything. My main system also acts as a server with Plex and Channels DVR both feeding from it. With Plex I have to jump through hoops to get it to see certain drives, simply due to network sharing. Same thing if I want my other computers to see certain hard drives on my main system. Many times I get some obscure error message that only relates to Mint, not Ubuntu.

A home based system should be simple and intuitive.

[motoryzen]

Been using Mint for about 10 years now, and networking has never been easy or intuitive. I have 3 laptops and 2 desktop computers that at times will interconnect but often not - even when nothing has changed.
Today I was planning on updating my kitchen computer to Mint 20.2 from 20.1, no problem right? Not so much. The only item of any importance on this unit would be my bookmarks, so I simply wanted to back them up to my back up drive connected to the main computer, but no, the Kitchen computer cannot connect to the main unit and vice versa, they always have been able to share. Nothing has changed in my setup.

This is the one thing I HATE about Mint, I fail to understand why it has to be so hard and complicated. I have to go in and edit my Smb files, load drive UUIDS ect to share anything. My main system also acts as a server with Plex and Channels DVR both feeding from it. With Plex I have to jump through hoops to get it to see certain drives, simply due to network sharing. Same thing if I want my other computers to see certain hard drives on my main system. Many times I get some obscure error message that only relates to Mint, not Ubuntu.

A home based system should be simple and intuitive.

Allegedly Warpinator has been improved to the point of being easy to deal with and just works ( I say allegedly as no insult meant to whoever involved who are the devs..but I've never used it yet). Have you tried Warpinator yet?

**** Now I'm asking more experiences peeps on here such as SMG, KadaitchaMan, AndyMH, etc...would Warpinator be applicable here, or is it a case that there is deeper troubleshooting that Matt832 must delve into to fix a deeper underlining problem? ***

[Matt832]

The error I'm getting is:
Unable to retrieve share list from server:Invalid argument.
The computers all see each other I'm just unable to open the various directories.

[rene]

The error I'm getting is: Unable to retrieve share list from server:Invalid argument.

I.e., Samba. So yes, try if Warpinator works for you if both/all systems run Mint; it's Mint's answer to easy file transfer between local systems.

[rickNS]

This is the one thing I HATE about Mint, I fail to understand why it has to be so hard and complicated.

It doesn't have to be. first I've never used Samba, as I don't have any windows running to share with...so no need.

a couple of Linux options I use are;

1) for sending file(s) from one computer to another, or getting files from another computer, I use a simple one line rsync command.
But first it is nice to make a folder to use just for this purpose, a top level folder in /home. Call it "shipnrecv". or "send", whatever, put what ever file(s) you want to send in that folder /home/$USER/send, and in this case the file is your backed up bookmarks "bookmarks210802.html"
The command; rsync -avh ~/send/ 192.168.0.10:~/send
where ~/send/ is "source" and 192.168.0.10:~/send is the IP address, and folder name of your "destination" computer. The destination folder need not exist, rsync will create it. If the destination computer has a different user than the source you'll need to add user-name in front of the ip address EXAMPLE; rick@192.168.0.10~/send (you'll also need you own actual IP)

2) Even easier, Use SimpleHTTPServer on your main computer, or the kitchen pc. don't matter which, just depends on who you want to download from.
You can launch it from terminal (should already be installed) with this command;
python -m SimpleHTTPServer
( NOTE the capitol letters. To stop the server Ctrl + C)

Then on a client machine open a web browser and enter the ip address of the server like so;
EXAMPLE, again you'll need your own ip
http://192.168.0.10:8000
(8000 is the default port)
From the client you can navigate every file on the server, and download via. right click, and "save link as".
You can also play music files on the client without downloading them.

File sharing don't get any simpler than that.

[altair4]

Samba and Mint20

Between a bug in gvfs and Sambas decision to disable SMB1 on both server and client the following problems occur:

[1] Connecting to a server that has disabled SMB1 ( Windows 10, Ubuntu 20, Mint 20, ...etc )

You will get a Failed to retrieve share list from server: error followed by one of the following:

Network dropped connection on reset. If the server is running Win10.
Invalid argument. If the server is running Linux.

There are three ways around this issue:

[1a] You could override the default setting of Samba and reinstate SMB1 ( Samba calls it NT1 ) on all your Linux machines.

Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf and right under the workgroup = WORKGROUP line add these:

Code: Select all

client min protocol = NT1
server min protocol = NT1

Then reboot your box.

You will have to do the equivalent to your Win10 box.

Or you can keep smb.conf as it is without SMB1 and do one of the following:

[1b] You can bypass the gvfs bug and connect to the server directly by name and share.

So in Connect to Server for example:

Code: Select all

smb://hostname.local/share-name
smb://host-ip-address/share-name

[1c] Bypass gvfs entirely and do a CIFS mount which is controlled by the Linux kernel and is above all this nonsense.

For example:

Code: Select all

sudo mount -t cifs -o guest,uid=1000 //hostname.local/share-name /mount-point

For more on a CIFS mount please see: Automount Samba Shares with CIFS:

mount.cifs mount will also negotiate the best smb dialect ( between SMB2.1 and SMB3 ) but it is free of the gvfs bug.
This can be set up in fstab ( with a syntax change ) so you don't have to mount it manually.

[Matt832]

Thanks - I used altair4's s 1a suggestion and networking is now connecting.

I will mark this post as "Solved" but until Mint does networking much better it isn't solved in any way. Having to go in and edit conf. files is not a user friendly way of doing things.

[Pierre]

it's not just the LinuxMint system, nor is it an "Linux Issue" as such,
as I've even had some odd issues, when using those other operating systems.


thus, anything to to with PCs in general, can of cause you some Unnecessary grief.

[t42]

2) Even easier, Use SimpleHTTPServer on your main computer, or the kitchen pc. don't matter which, just depends on who you want to download from.
You can launch it from terminal (should already be installed) with this command;
python -m SimpleHTTPServer
( NOTE the capitol letters. To stop the server Ctrl + C)

Then on a client machine open a web browser and enter the ip address of the server like so;
EXAMPLE, again you'll need your own ip
http://192.168.0.10:8000
(8000 is the default port)
From the client you can navigate every file on the server, and download via. right click, and "save link as".

On LM 20.x python is linked to python3. So the command is

Code: Select all

python2 -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000

Also firewall rules to be applied if ufw is on.

[rickNS]

On LM 20.x python is linked to python3. So the command is

Code: Select all

python2 -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000

Also firewall rules to be applied if ufw is on.

Yes, I "planned" to edit that post...

I still use Mint 19 on my main machine, but did check (afterwards) on Mint 20.0, and Mint 20.1

So for completeness your command will work on Mint 20, but NOT on Mint 20.1. It seems among other things the SimpleHTTPServer module has been completely removed in 20.1, it has been (apparently) replaced with http.server. (Both modules exist on Mint 20.0)

Screenshot from a Mint 20.1 MATE.

@Hoser Rob always said Linux has very little backwards (or forward) compatibility.

[t42]

command will work on Mint 20, but NOT on Mint 20.1. It seems among other things the SimpleHTTPServer module has been completely removed in 20.1, it has been (apparently) replaced with http.server. (Both modules exist on Mint 20.0)

Not in my experience. I just checked today Mint 20.1 Cinnamon and 20.2 XFCE.
It is a new (not upgraded) LM 20.2 installation:

Code: Select all

$ python2 -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ...
^Z
[1]+  Stopped                 python2 -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000
#
$ python3 -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000
/usr/bin/python3: No module named SimpleHTTPServer
#
$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Linux Mint"
VERSION="20.2 (Uma)"
ID=linuxmint
ID_LIKE=ubuntu
PRETTY_NAME="Linux Mint 20.2"
VERSION_ID="20.2"

[altair4]

Thanks - I used altair4's s 1a suggestion and networking is now connecting.

I will mark this post as "Solved" but until Mint does networking much better it isn't solved in any way. Having to go in and edit conf. files is not a user friendly way of doing things.

Aside from Mint specific components like the the Cinnamon Desktop Environment itself Mint like all Linux desktop distros is an aggregator of packages created by someone else. Unlike the Linux kernel which has a level of control over everything it contains Mint has little. It's the Achilies Heel of the Linux Desktop.

In this particular case the problem is with the gnome gvfs backend. It's not with samba since samba will work without altering protocol levels. I don;t think gnome will figure this out since I don't think they understand why it's a bug.

MacOS doesn't have a problem discovering then connecting to the samba server and does so without adjusting anything on either end. iOS on my iPhone and WIn10 have no problems either as long as I specify the host name up front. Both possible because they don't have gvfs.

[t42]

Screenshot from a Mint 20.1 MATE.

It puzzled me at first but the reason seems to be you are testing a live ISO.
Live ISO LM 20.2:

Code: Select all

ll /usr/bin/python*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       9 Jan  7  2021 /usr/bin/python3 -> python3.8*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5490352 Jun  2 13:49 /usr/bin/python3.8*

Istalled OS LM20.2:

Code: Select all

ll /usr/bin/python*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      16 Jan 10  2021 /usr/bin/python -> /usr/bin/python3*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       9 Mar 13  2020 /usr/bin/python2 -> python2.7*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3869112 Mar  8 15:02 /usr/bin/python2.7*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       9 Jan  7  2021 /usr/bin/python3 -> python3.8*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5490352 Jun  2 13:49 /usr/bin/python3.8*

[rickNS]

It puzzled me at first but the reason seems to be you are testing a live ISO.

Yes I was. Glad you got that sorted. Because I tried all three versions of Mint 20.1 with same result.
So it seems that not all packages are present while Mint is running live (from iso) ? Regardless, I find that strange. As I often do installs without internet connected, where do the extra packages come from ?
I guess I learned something.

[woverst53]

This post describes how I do file sharing with Samba between two Linux Mint v20.2 laptops using the Nemo file manager.

1. On each laptop, share the Documents folder and install Samba. Then on each laptop, in a terminal, enter the command "sudo smbpasswd -a <username>". (It will prompt you for the administrators password; then it will prompt you for that user's Samba password.)

2. On each laptop, use "sudo xed /etc/samba/smb.conf" to edit the smb.conf file so the global settings read like this.

Code: Select all

 workgroup = WORKGROUP
   name resolve order = bcast host lmhosts wins
   usershare owner only = false
   client min protocol = SMB2

3. Then, reboot each machine. On one laptop, open Nemo. In the Location Entry field at the top, enter "smb://<IP Address>/documents". After a short delay, Nemo will display the contents of the Documents folder on the other laptop. You can now cut, copy, paste, open, or delete files as required. When finished, be sure to unmount the connection to the remote laptop (shown in the Nemo panel on the left).

This scheme works for me every time...although it seems slow opening the shared folder on the remote laptop.

If I decide to re-establish the connection to the remote laptop, it will only work if I first close the Nemo file manager and reopen it. And then re-establish the connection as described above.