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**Telengard** · Nov 03, 2009, 01:59 PM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working

Originally posted by handyman

When I right click on the drive or folder and select properties then choose Share then click on "Configure File Sharing" the button grays out for a few seconds but nothing else happens.

It doesn't work on my Jaunty install either. I have a feeling that this part of KDE4 is not ready for use.

Can I set up file sharing from the command line?

Yes, and without much trouble. I already did it on my own Jaunty install and it works well enough.

If so can someone tell me how to do it?

Maybe, but it depends on your determination to do the research necessary to configure sharing according to your own needs. There is plenty to learn, and you will be much better off reading about it for yourself.

Start with the Ubuntu Community article Setting Up Samba. You'll probably want to skim down to section 7. Samba Server Manual Configuration. For further reading, check the links at the bottom of that page, and don't forget that you can install the Samba documentation locally from the packages samba-doc and samba-doc-pdf.

Note: There are other protocols for file sharing, and if you only have Linux computers on your LAN (i.e. no Windows or Mac) then you may want to consider your alternatives before choosing Samba. I don't talk about those alternatives because I know very little about them, and I only use Samba because there are Windows and Mac computers on my LAN.

Quick Bonus Tutorial

This quickie should be enough to get Samba manually configured and working on Jaunty. Customizing the server for your particular needs is beyond the scope of this quickie. Because any kind of networking can become very complex, there is no way I can guarantee your success by following this quickie.

First we'll loosely define our terms for purposes of this quickie:

Network: Any means of connecting computers together for the purpose of sharing resources. Such resources can be almost anything related to computing such as (but not limited to) files, databases, authentication services, or web pages.

Server: A computer with some kind of resources to share with other computers on a network. Sometimes used interchangeably with service.

Service: A program which makes resources on a server accessible to other computers on a network. In Unix terms, such a program is often called a daemon.

Client: A computer which accesses the resources of a server on a network. Can also refer to the specific program on the client computer which makes such access possible.

To use Samba, the client computer must have the Samba client software installed. Kubuntu Jaunty already has the Samba client preinstalled, so that part is done. It may also be necessary to configure the client for your specific needs, but the default configuration seems to work well enough most of the time. Everything that follows will be done on the server computer (Jaunty).

To use Samba services, a computer on the network must have the Samba server installed. On the server (Jaunty) you can install the samba meta-package from the package manager or from the Konsole window:

Code:

sudo aptitude install samba

Now you need to configure the Samba server to share resources on the network. In my case, I only had to configure the workgroup. First change to the samba global configuration file directory and make a backup copy of the original default configuration file:

Code:

cd /etc/samba/
sudo cp smb.conf smb.conf.default.backup

Now open the smb.conf file for editing as root. You can use any text editor you like to edit the file, such as kate, but you must start the editor as root. I will use nano in the example:

Code:

sudo nano smb.conf

In the Global section of the smb.conf file, look for the line with the workgroup variable. Change it to match the name of the workgroup on your LAN which you want the Samba server to join. When you are done editing the line it should look similar to the one below:

Code:

[global]

## Browsing/Identification ###

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
  workgroup = MYWORKGROUP

Note: Some lines of smb.conf file begin with semicolons. The semicolon means the line should be treated as a comment. If you customize these lines, you must remove the beginning semicolon for that line to take effect.

Now we have to define some shares. The easiest way is to use Samba server's built-in Homes share. In the smb.conf file, find the Share Definitions section and make the edits shown below. (Remember to remove the semicolon from the beginning of any line you edit.)

Here we remove the semicolons from the beginning of each line and change the browseable variable from no to yes:

Code:

[homes]
  comment = Home Directories
  browseable = yes

Here we change the readonly variable from yes to no:

Code:

  read only = no

Save the newly edited smb.conf file and close the editor. Now we should define a user and password to access the Homes share:

Code:

sudo smbpasswd -a username

New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:
Added user username.

I entered the same username and password I logon to the Jaunty computer with.

To check if your new Samba server has joined the workgroup:

Code:

smbtree

To list the shares available on the new Samba server:

Code:

smbclient -L //SERVERNAME

You should see the Homes share listed. Homes is a special share that actually refers to your home directory on the Samba server computer. In Konqueror, you can access the home directory with the smb protocol.

From the client computer, open Konqueror and enter the location shown below into the location bar, but change the server name and sharename to match the Samba server's name and the name of the user you configured above with the smbpasswd command.

Code:

smb://SERVERNAME/USERNAME

Now you are prompted for a user name and password. Enter the same user name and password you configured above with the smbpasswd command.

It all worked fine for me, but your computer and network may be vastly different than my own. It is up to you to read up and learn how to further customize the server to your own needs.

**handyman** · Nov 03, 2009, 03:12 PM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working

Thanks for your reply Telengard, I already have samba installed and it seems to be working. I can access my network from my laptop running Kubuntu Jaunty and access shared files/directories on my desktop running Ubuntu Jaunty and on my wifes computer running windows vista. What I cannot do is access files/directories on the Kubuntu laptop from any other machine because I can't set file shares. I tried duplicating the settings in "smb.conf" from the desktop computer on the laptop, changing only the file descriptors to match the laptop setup. Still does not work. I'm sure the solution is something simple I just don't know what it is.

**Telengard** · Nov 03, 2009, 03:21 PM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working

Post your smb.conf and review the documentation mentioned in my post above.

**handyman** · Nov 04, 2009, 09:43 AM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working

OK Telengard, here is my smb.conf file:

#
# Sample configuration file for the Samba suite for Debian GNU/Linux.
#
#
# This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the
# smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed
# here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options most of which
# are not shown in this example
#
# Some options that are often worth tuning have been included as
# commented-out examples in this file.
# - When such options are commented with ";", the proposed setting
# differs from the default Samba behaviour
# - When commented with "#", the proposed setting is the default
# behaviour of Samba but the option is considered important
# enough to be mentioned here
#
# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command
# "testparm" to check that you have not made any basic syntactic
# errors.
# A well-established practice is to name the original file
# "smb.conf.master" and create the "real" config file with
# testparm -s smb.conf.master >smb.conf
# This minimizes the size of the really used smb.conf file
# which, according to the Samba Team, impacts performance
# However, use this with caution if your smb.conf file contains nested
# "include" statements. See Debian bug #483187 for a case
# where using a master file is not a good idea.
#

#======================= Global Settings =======================

[global]

## Browsing/Identification ###

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
workgroup = harmil

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server
# wins support = no

# WINS Server - Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client
# Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both
; wins server = w.x.y.z

# This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS.
dns proxy = no

# What naming service and in what order should we use to resolve host names
# to IP addresses
; name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast

#### Networking ####

# The specific set of interfaces / networks to bind to
# This can be either the interface name or an IP address/netmask;
# interface names are normally preferred
; interfaces = 127.0.0.0/8 eth0

# Only bind to the named interfaces and/or networks; you must use the
# 'interfaces' option above to use this.
# It is recommended that you enable this feature if your Samba machine is
# not protected by a firewall or is a firewall itself. However, this
# option cannot handle dynamic or non-broadcast interfaces correctly.
; bind interfaces only = yes

#### Debugging/Accounting ####

# This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# Cap the size of the individual log files (in KiB).
max log size = 1000

# If you want Samba to only log through syslog then set the following
# parameter to 'yes'.
# syslog only = no

# We want Samba to log a minimum amount of information to syslog. Everything
# should go to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd} instead. If you want to log
# through syslog you should set the following parameter to something higher.
syslog = 0

# Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d

####### Authentication #######

# "security = user" is always a good idea. This will require a Unix account
# in this server for every user accessing the server. See
# /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/ServerType.html
# in the samba-doc package for details.
# security = user

# You may wish to use password encryption. See the section on
# 'encrypt passwords' in the smb.conf(5) manpage before enabling.
encrypt passwords = true

# If you are using encrypted passwords, Samba will need to know what
# password database type you are using.
passdb backend = tdbsam

obey pam restrictions = yes

# This boolean parameter controls whether Samba attempts to sync the Unix
# password with the SMB password when the encrypted SMB password in the
# passdb is changed.
unix password sync = yes

# For Unix password sync to work on a Debian GNU/Linux system, the following
# parameters must be set (thanks to Ian Kahan <<kahan@informatik.tu-muenchen.de> for
# sending the correct chat script for the passwd program in Debian Sarge).
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .

# This boolean controls whether PAM will be used for password changes
# when requested by an SMB client instead of the program listed in
# 'passwd program'. The default is 'no'.
pam password change = yes

# This option controls how unsuccessful authentication attempts are mapped
# to anonymous connections
map to guest = bad user

########## Domains ###########

# Is this machine able to authenticate users. Both PDC and BDC
# must have this setting enabled. If you are the BDC you must
# change the 'domain master' setting to no
#
; domain logons = yes
#
# The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set
# It specifies the location of the user's profile directory
# from the client point of view)
# The following required a [profiles] share to be setup on the
# samba server (see below)
; logon path = \\%N\profiles\%U
# Another common choice is storing the profile in the user's home directory
# (this is Samba's default)
# logon path = \\%N\%U\profile

# The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set
# It specifies the location of a user's home directory (from the client
# point of view)
; logon drive = H:
# logon home = \\%N\%U

# The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set
# It specifies the script to run during logon. The script must be stored
# in the [netlogon] share
# NOTE: Must be store in 'DOS' file format convention
; logon script = logon.cmd

# This allows Unix users to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR
# RPC pipe. The example command creates a user account with a disabled Unix
# password; please adapt to your needs
; add user script = /usr/sbin/adduser --quiet --disabled-password --gecos "" %u

# This allows machine accounts to be created on the domain controller via the
# SAMR RPC pipe.
# The following assumes a "machines" group exists on the system
; add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -g machines -c "%u machine account" -d /var/lib/samba -s /bin/false %u

# This allows Unix groups to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR
# RPC pipe.
; add group script = /usr/sbin/addgroup --force-badname %g

########## Printing ##########

# If you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
# load printers = yes

# lpr(ng) printing. You may wish to override the location of the
# printcap file
; printing = bsd
; printcap name = /etc/printcap

# CUPS printing. See also the cupsaddsmb(8) manpage in the
# cupsys-client package.
; printing = cups
; printcap name = cups

############ Misc ############

# Using the following line enables you to customise your configuration
# on a per machine basis. The %m gets replaced with the netbios name
# of the machine that is connecting
; include = /home/samba/etc/smb.conf.%m

# Most people will find that this option gives better performance.
# See smb.conf(5) and /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/speed.html
# for details
# You may want to add the following on a Linux system:
# SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
# socket options = TCP_NODELAY

# The following parameter is useful only if you have the linpopup package
# installed. The samba maintainer and the linpopup maintainer are
# working to ease installation and configuration of linpopup and samba.
; message command = /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/linpopup "%f" "%m" %s; rm %s' &

# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. If this
# machine will be configured as a BDC (a secondary logon server), you
# must set this to 'no'; otherwise, the default behavior is recommended.
# domain master = auto

# Some defaults for winbind (make sure you're not using the ranges
# for something else.)
; idmap uid = 10000-20000
; idmap gid = 10000-20000
; template shell = /bin/bash

# The following was the default behaviour in sarge,
# but samba upstream reverted the default because it might induce
# performance issues in large organizations.
# See Debian bug #368251 for some of the consequences of *not*
# having this setting and smb.conf(5) for details.
; winbind enum groups = yes
; winbind enum users = yes

# 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
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
security = user
guest ok = no
guest account = nobody

#======================= Share Definitions =======================

# Un-comment the following (and tweak the other settings below to suit)
# to enable the default home directory shares. This will share each
# user's home directory as \\server\username
;[homes]
; comment = Home Directories
; browseable = no

# By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change the
# next parameter to 'no' if you want to be able to write to them.
; read only = yes

# File creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create files with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
; create mask = 0700

# Directory creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create dirs. with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
; directory mask = 0700

# By default, \\server\username shares can be connected to by anyone
# with access to the samba server. Un-comment the following parameter
# to make sure that only "username" can connect to \\server\username
# This might need tweaking when using external authentication schemes
; valid users = %S

# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons
# (you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.)
;[netlogon]
; comment = Network Logon Service
; path = /home/samba/netlogon
; guest ok = yes
; read only = yes
; share modes = no

# Un-comment the following and create the profiles directory to store
# users profiles (see the "logon path" option above)
# (you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.)
# The path below should be writable by all users so that their
# profile directory may be created the first time they log on
;[profiles]
; comment = Users profiles
; path = /home/samba/profiles
; guest ok = no
; browseable = no
; create mask = 0600
; directory mask = 0700

[printers]
comment = All Printers
browseable = no
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = yes
guest ok = no
read only = yes
create mask = 0700

# Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable
# printer drivers
[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = no
# Uncomment to allow remote administration of Windows print drivers.
# You may need to replace 'lpadmin' with the name of the group your
# admin users are members of.
# Please note that you also need to set appropriate Unix permissions
# to the drivers directory for these users to have write rights in it
; write list = root, @lpadmin

# A sample share for sharing your CD-ROM with others.
;[cdrom]
; comment = Samba server's CD-ROM
; read only = yes
; locking = no
; path = /cdrom
; guest ok = yes

# The next two parameters show how to auto-mount a CD-ROM when the
# cdrom share is accesed. For this to work /etc/fstab must contain
# an entry like this:
#
# /dev/scd0 /cdrom iso9660 defaults,noauto,ro,user 0 0
#
# The CD-ROM gets unmounted automatically after the connection to the
#
# If you don't want to use auto-mounting/unmounting make sure the CD
# is mounted on /cdrom
#
; preexec = /bin/mount /cdrom
; postexec = /bin/umount /cdrom

[bill]
path = /home/bill
writeable = yes
browseable = yes
guest ok = yes

[sda8]
comment = DATA
path = /media/DATA
writeable = yes
browseable = yes
guest ok = yes

Hope this helps. Meanwhile I'll download the docs you mentioned and see if that gets me anywhere although I have been working with some older versions of similar documentation and some online articles about samba .

**Telengard** · Nov 04, 2009, 10:54 AM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working

I don't see anything obviously wrong, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is all right. Try running the testparm command to see if it can find any errors in smb.conf. Here is an example of the kind of output you might see if smb.conf is syntactically correct:

Code:

$ testparm -s
Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
Processing section "[homes]"
Processing section "[printers]"
Processing section "[print$]"
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE
[global]
    workgroup = MYWORKGROUP
    server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
    map to guest = Bad User
    obey pam restrictions = Yes
    passdb backend = tdbsam
    pam password change = Yes
    passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
    passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully*.
    unix password sync = Yes
    syslog = 0
    log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
    max log size = 1000
    dns proxy = No
    usershare allow guests = Yes
    panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d

[homes]
    comment = Home Directories
    read only = No

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

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

**handyman** · Nov 04, 2009, 04:53 PM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working

OK now I am really confused. Here is what happened. While reading over the documentation you suggested I got the idea to check whether or not I actually had samba server installed. After checking the installed components I still was not 100% sure so I ran the command "aptitude install samba" , it reported no files downloaded, no files installed BUT after I did that I found a samba icon in System Settings>Advanced. This showed all my shares as they should be. In Dolphin Right click on file to share, choose Properties>Share I get the message "only files in your home folder can be shared" If I do this on a file in my home folder it works as it should instead of graying out then doing nothing like it did before running "aptitude install samba". I still cannot access the shares from my desktop computer running Ubuntu Jaunty but I can access them from the windows computer, so I must have problems on the desktop machine. The laptop has one strange quirk I cannot understand. The sda8 partition I have set for sharing does not mount at bootup, I have to enter my password to mount it but if I have mounted sda8 I cannot access the network! If I access the network 1st I can then mount sda8 and everything works. After all this fooling around I have lost network access completely from the desktop computer, it now give the error message "Unable to mount location" "Failed to retrieve share list from server" when I click on the network icon. I have run testparm on both computers and it does not return any errors. I am baffled.

**Telengard** · Nov 04, 2009, 08:30 PM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working

Originally posted by handyman

OK now I am really confused. Here is what happened. While reading over the documentation you suggested I got the idea to check whether or not I actually had samba server installed. After checking the installed components I still was not 100% sure so I ran the command "aptitude install samba" , it reported no files downloaded, no files installed BUT after I did that I found a samba icon in System Settings>Advanced. This showed all my shares as they should be.

No such icon exists on my Jaunty computer, and Samba worked for me ever since I installed it. Sorry, but I don't know what to make of this anymore.

**handyman** · Nov 05, 2009, 09:24 AM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working

Well Telengard it is WAY beyond my ability to figure out. Thank you for your efforts to help me. Just one other really strange note; this morning I booted both computers, no change on the desktop unit, still no network access, but the laptop now gives the error message that it can't find any workgroups on the network and this might be due to a firewall issue. Tried 3 times ... same result. Tried again 5 minutes later and it works fine.

This has got me pulling my hair out. Nothing makes any sense to me.

**handyman** · Nov 05, 2009, 02:13 PM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working

I finally found the answer!!! Although I can't explain the quirky behaviour on the laptop it does work and the problem of not being able to access the network from the desktop computer turned out to be an error in the hosts file, incorrect IP addresses. My network is now working!

and I'm feeling a little embaressed that it took me so long to figure this out.

**Telengard** · Nov 05, 2009, 02:41 PM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working SOLVED

Congrats for solving it yourself

Do you manually edit /etc/hosts with the names and IP addresses of all the computers on your LAN? Curious because I've never needed to.

**handyman** · Nov 06, 2009, 11:09 AM

Re: "Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working SOLVED

The IP addresses were entered manually several generations of Kubuntu ago when I apparently needed to do so and I can't recall whether I did this manually at the last update or whether it was just automatically copied over. In any case what apparently happened is that my router for some reason reassigned IP address of the laptop and of course it then did not agree with what was in the /etc/hosts file on the desktop. Again thanks for your help.

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"Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working SOLVED

"Configure File Sharing" in Dolphin not working SOLVED

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