Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

[BaldricksTrousers]

Hi All,

I have looked through everything I can find regarding sharing a directory between my notebook running Kubuntu and my desktop running XP connected through a hub. This has left me incredibly confused and frustrated.

Is there any simple way to do share a directory - any directory - on either the notebook or the desktop. At this stage I don't even much care whether it is secure or not. I have tried setting up Samba but my notebook is not displayed in My Network Places and, frankly, I don't know where to begin troubleshooting. I've come to believe that setting up samba is beyond my basic knowledge of networking. So is there any super simple solution to my problem?

Sorry for the exasperated tone but I have spent many hours and feel much more confused than when I began.

Cheers,
Adam

[Fintan]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Here is pretty good place to start:
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/

[BaldricksTrousers]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Here is pretty good place to start:
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/

Thanks for the link. I've come across that site in my travels - I'll have another look at it and see if I can find any tweaks I missed, but I'd really prefer a simpler alternative to samba, if one exists.

[Fintan]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Samba was made especially for Lin / Win networks. Couls you post your smb.config file?
It resides under: /etc/samba/smb.config.

[BaldricksTrousers]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Samba was made especially for Lin / Win networks. Couls you post your smb.config file?
It resides under: /etc/samba/smb.config.

Here's my smb.config file.

[global]
; General server settings
netbios name = marmaduke
server string =
workgroup = MSHOME
announce version = 5.0
socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_KEEPALIVE SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

passdb backend = tdbsam
security = user
null passwords = true
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
name resolve order = hosts wins bcast

wins support = no

printing = CUPS
printcap name = CUPS

syslog = 1
syslog only = yes

; NOTE: If you need access to the user home directories uncomment the
; lines below and adjust the settings to your hearts content.
;[homes]
;valid users = %S
;create mode = 0600
;directory mode = 0755
;browseable = no
;read only = no
;veto files = /*.{*}/.*/mail/bin/

; NOTE: Only needed if you run samba as a primary domain controller.
; Not needed as this config doesn't cover that matter.
;[netlogon]
;path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon
;admin users = Administrator
;valid users = %U
;read only = no

; NOTE: Again - only needed if you're running a primary domain controller.
;[Profiles]
;path = /var/lib/samba/profiles
;valid users = %U
;create mode = 0600
;directory mode = 0700
;writeable = yes
;browseable = no

; NOTE: Inside this place you may build a printer driver repository for
; Windows - I'll cover this topic in another HOWTO.
[print$]
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
guest ok = yes
read only = yes
write list = root
create mask = 0664
directory mask = 0775

[printers]
path = /tmp
printable = yes
guest ok = yes
browseable = no

; Uncomment if you need to share your CD-/DVD-ROM Drive
;[DVD-ROM Drive]
;path = /media/cdrom
;browseable = yes
;read only = yes
;guest ok = yes

[MyFiles]
path = /home/samba/
browseable = yes
read only = no
guest ok = no
create mask = 0644
directory mask = 0755
force user = adam
force group = adam

[Fintan]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Well I am not a samba guru but I can't see anything drastic.

I have my samba connecting with my vmare xp without password verification.

Here is my samba.config as a reference:

[global]

workgroup = FINTANHOME
interfaces = eth0
map to guest = bad user

[Data]

path = /Data
read only = no
guest ok = yes
case sensitive = no
strict locking = no
force user = fintan



[HP4200]

printing = cups
path = /var/tmp
printable = yes
guest ok = yes
guest only = yes

Just one thought:

I have tried setting up Samba but my notebook is not displayed in My Network Places

Your shares won't automatically show up. You have to tell your windows network that it is there. Make sure samba is running, in doubt do:

/etc/init.d/samba restart

in a terminal. Samba takes a while to start up (5-10min)
In windows you'll have to go into start->system settings->network settings-> configure small hoe or office network (or something like that, mine is in german) and setup a network with the same workgroup and it should find it after a reboot (windows loves reboots).

You could tweak my smb.config (workgroup, share name and address, etc) to fit your needs and see if it works. As I pointed out I don't need password protection on this machine.

I hope this gets us further

Edit: As an afterthought your shares must be either fat32 or ntfs formated for windows to be able to read them. There is a program for reading ext3 files in windows but I have never used it.

[Pillage Idiot]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Edit: As an afterthought your shares must be either fat32 or ntfs formated for windows to be able to read them. There is a program for reading ext3 files in windows but I have never used it.

Actually, I am not a Guru either, far from it, but as the share is hosted by the server the file system does not matter.
I have a samba server running on my Ubuntu machine that my one remaining Windows XP PC accesses.
I have no problems reading and writing to the ext3 file system on the host from Windows.
It actually works a lot better from the Windows machine than it does from my other Linux ones.
Samba plays well with Windows, but not quite so well with Linux.
It seems to be aimed mostly at Linux servers working with Windows clients.

I can certainly understand the frustration getting samba working, been there done that.
My config is not particularly pretty, but has windows user authentication (directory access control) and works ok.

Look out Samba 3 by example on the samba website.
It has a few config file examples for different scenarios that you can just copy paste and tweak.
It also explains what is going on very well, straight from the horses mouth so to speak.
This has been the most invaluable resource that I have found to get it working.
Read the guide, and have a little patience. Block out some time to play with it, without other pressures (kids, wives etc).
It should only take about an hour or so once you have got a grasp of what the guide is giving you.

Here is the relevant part of my smb.config file:

[Media]
path = /media/UbuntuShare/Media
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
guest ok = yes
writable = no

[WorkingDirectory]
path = /media/Working/WorkingDirectory
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
guest ok = yes
writable = yes

Note that the media folder is read only, and the other is read/write.
Make sure that you set up your users in samba so that it can authenticate against what windows is passing to it.

Also, make sure that there are no spaces in the directory path. That caused me a lot of grief and wasted time trying to map to them.

If you want to share a folder residing on your windows box you will only need smbfs on your laptop.
Create the share on your windows box, with no spaces in the share name, and don't hide it. Allow guests to modify contents.
Create a folder to mount it to on your lap top.
Add the shared folder path (I have found that using the ip address works better than the host name) and the mount point to your /etc/fstab file as an smbfs file system, eg: //192.168.1.3/WorkingDirectory /media/Working smbfs rw,users 0 0
Once you have these steps in place, open a terminal and type: sudo mount "mountpoint"

That should hopefully put a smile on your face.

[Fintan]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Actually, I am not a Guru either, far from it, but as the share is hosted by the server the file system does not matter.
I have a samba server running on my Ubuntu machine that my one remaining Windows XP PC accesses.
I have no problems reading and writing to the ext3 file system on the host from Windows.
It actually works a lot better from the Windows machine than it does from my other Linux ones.

I stand corrected

And you are right this is a good guide:
http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba3-ByExample.pdf

[Pillage Idiot]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Thanks Fintan, you have posted a lot of stuff that has helped me come to grips with *buntu.
Must say though, one of the things that has slowed my learning down is that once set, nothing breaks!
I have to keep trying new stuff to get the challenges going again.

[Fintan]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Your welcome. I am just glad to ive some of the stuff back to the community that has helped me along.

Must say though, one of the things that has slowed my learning down is that once set, nothing breaks!
I have to keep trying new stuff to get the challenges going again.

Well, to keep you busy and provided you have the space, you could always install a second version of gutsy to play around with

[Pillage Idiot]

Re: Sharing between Kubuntu/XP

Well, to keep you busy and provided you have the space, you could always install a second version of gutsy to play around with

Yup, I have gutsy on board as well, I overwrote my windows installation with this a little while back.
And space? Is 2x320gb + 1x200gb on my main pc and 2x320gb on my server enough?
Must be a sicko to have more storage at home than some enterprises have.
Moving to Australia soon too, so looking at buying a couple of 1tb drives to take my stuff over on.
I will be separated from my babies for some time, family is coming over later, and I will need to build another box for me once there.