WAN/NAS Shared folder access issue

[computertard]

I run mint on my laptops, Zorin on my main desktop for media and gaming, and Windows on my work laptop and secondary desktop that i use to control my NAS services and for my kids school. accessing shared network folders is not an issue at all.
Where i have an issue and dont even know where to look to resolve the issue is... I need to be able to access, load, edit, and save files located on my nas directly though applications like VLC, Steam, and Bittorrent. but my network shared folders dont show up when i look for the locations though these applications. only when in file explorer.

[computertard]

Sorry for the accidental double post. my browser froze when i submitted this one, and i didnt know if it sent.

[SMG]

Sorry for the accidental double post. my browser froze when i submitted this one, and i didnt know if it sent.

It happens a lot, so do not worry about it. However, I wanted to let you know that a lot of people look for topics with no answers to see if they can help. Because you posted a response, this topic does not show up in that list. (I actually thought you found your own answer when I originally saw you had posted a second time.)

So to get your post some more visibility, please give us some information about your Mint install. Enter this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.

Also, let us know what versions of the software you are using for which you are having issues being able to access files on the network.

[AndyMH]

I need to be able to access, load, edit, and save files located on my nas directly though applications like VLC, Steam, and Bittorrent. but my network shared folders dont show up when i look for the locations though these applications. only when in file explorer.

Where are you mounting your network shares and were those applications installed as flatpaks/snaps?

[computertard]

I need to be able to access, load, edit, and save files located on my nas directly though applications like VLC, Steam, and Bittorrent. but my network shared folders dont show up when i look for the locations though these applications. only when in file explorer.

Where are you mounting your network shares and were those applications installed as flatpaks/snaps?

yes it is a flatpak, and the nas is mounted at smb://cloud.local/steam

[computertard]

So to get your post some more visibility, please give us some information about your Mint install. Enter this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.

Also, let us know what versions of the software you are using for which you are having issues being able to access files on the network.

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System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-90-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7 
           wm: muffin 5.0.2 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 5570 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 
           serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0RW61C v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI [Legacy]: Dell v: 1.5.0 date: 06/09/2021 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 27.3 Wh condition: 27.3/42.0 Wh (65%) volts: 12.9/11.4 
           model: Samsung SDI DELL CYMGM82 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-8130U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake rev: A 
           L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 17599 
           Speed: 2278 MHz min/max: 400/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1479 2: 1346 3: 1484 4: 1515 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           chip ID: 8086:5917 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
           chip ID: 8086:9d71 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-90-generic 


Drives:    Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 18.26 GiB (3.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> rev: 1B6Q scheme: MBR 
RAID:      Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 port: f*** 
           bus ID: 00:17.0 chip ID: ****** rev: 21 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 455.29 GiB used: 17.96 GiB (3.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1 
           ID-2: /boot size: 703.5 MiB used: 309.5 MiB (44.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 980.0 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 57.0 C mobo: 44.0 C sodimm: 41.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn-stable.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/protonvpn-stable-archive-keyring.gpg] https://repo.protonvpn.com/debian stable main
Info:      Processes: 278 Uptime: 2d 1h 02m Memory: 11.37 GiB used: 2.79 GiB (24.5%) Init: systemd v: 245 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: guake inxi: 3.0.38 

[AndyMH]

Apart from your file manager nothing will see smb://cloud.local/steam, you need to mount your NAS somewhere in the filesystem by editing a file called fstab, it lives in /etc (and you have to edit it as root).

This is what the entry looks like for my NAS:

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#diskstation mounting under cifs
//diskstation.local/home/	/media/synology	cifs	credentials=/etc/samba/credentials,uid=1000,gid=1000,nofail	0	0

• replace //diskstation.local/home/ with //cloud.local/steam.

• /media/synology is where I mount it, you can mount it anywhere you want, but common places are in /mnt and /media or somewhere in /home/you. The folder must exist and you must own it. If you create the folder anywhere other than in home, then sudo chown $USER:$USER /path_to_the_folder to change ownership to you.

• credentials=/etc/samba/credentials this is a simple text file with two lines username=xxx and password=yyy. The username and pwd are for the user on the NAS, not the local user on your PC. You can put the file wherever you want, just specify the full pathname to it. Or, instead of credentials=/etc/samba/credentials you can replace it with username=xxx,password=yyy (no spaces). A credentials file is marginally more secure (but not a lot, you still have the pwd in plain text in a file).

• uid=1000,gid=1000 because cifs is a windows protocol permissiions are different, this tells linux who owns it (so you can read/write). uid=1000 is the first user created in mint. If your username is fred you could replace it with uid=fred,gid=fred.

• nofail tells linux to ignore it if not present, so you don't get a 90 second delay on boot while linux searches for and cannot find the nas.

When you have made the changes to fstab, test with sudo mount -a, your nas should appear in the file manager under network. Next time you boot it will mount automatically. If it won't connect, most likely a protocol issue, in LM20 smb ver1.0 is disabled, you will need to check on your nas what protocol it is using (my synology is setup to accept anything between ver1.0 and ver3.0). Any errors, post exactly what you did and the error messages.

flatpaks - don't use them, but I believe permissions can be restricted when it is built, so a flatpak application may not be able to see any files outside home, or write any files outside home.