Share folders between 2 Kubuntus on a home network. Asks for password. Fails

[ianp5a]

Hello i didnt find the solution for this here:
I wish to copy files from one Kubuntu 12.10 PC to another.
They are both connected wirelessly to my home network with a Wireless DSL router.
Both have Samba installed.
On PC 1 in Dolphin I right click on Folder1 chose Properties - Share, and activate "Share with Samba" and Allow Guests.
On PC 2 I navigate to Network - Samba shares - Workgroup - PC1 successfully. I can see the share folder. Inside I can see all it's sub folders.

The problem is when I wish to Copy or Open one of the subfolders it asks for a user name and password to access "Server = PC1, Share = Folder1"
It does not accept my user/password. Also I don't want to have to enter this each time.

Does anybody know how to get round this problem? Am I doing this completely wrong?

Thanks

[oshunluvr]

Could be several reasons why this is happening - how samba is configured, how the share is mounting, etc.

I only use samba for windows users so I've not tried it in the way you are.

My first guess is you don't have a samba password entered on one or both machines. Samba uses it's own password list.

Try (on both computers):

sudo smbpasswd -a <USERNAME>


Obviously, use your username instead of <USERNAME>.

If you're only going to be sharing files occasionally, this method is fine.

If you want more regular access, look into using NFS instead of samba.

[ianp5a]

I dont need to use Samba. Neither PC is windows.

I installed it because PC2 did not display any other computers under Networks in Dolphin. So I installed Samba.

Is it normal that it cannot connect to other PCs without installing something?
Edit: I just found Zero Conf

This type of setup allows users without the knowledge of networking to easily configure a simple network.

Sounds like my sort of thing! I'm looking into it, but not yet found out how to set it up.

[oshunluvr]

There are many ways to transfer files between two computers - this is linux after all .

Besides samba there's NFS, FTP, SSH and others.

The "best" way depends on how often you want to do this or how you're using the files and also how much time you want to spend setting it up.

For example; there's no need to have two copies of any file - simply access each file over the network. Music and videos are best used this way.

If you'd like advice on which is best for you - give more detail about your setup (how your computers are connected) and why you're transferring these files around. Also, say if you're the only user or if there are others regularly using your PCs.

In my house, I have a media server that everyone accesses via NFS. The occasional house guest usually uses windows so I have samba configured for them. I use SSH to access all our computers for servicing and FTP to copy files off of and on to my DVR.

[ianp5a]

Thanks
I need to copy the files to a laptop which will be taken away from any form of network. Also the 2 computers will be used as a temporary backup location for those files. Each PC has a single user setup. The 3 home computers are connected to the LAN by Wifi. The LAN being a Wireless DSL Router (Fritz Box) at home.

I don't mind which method is used. But it must be as simple as going to Networks and seeing the other PC for anyone in the family. I know this is possible as I've just found another folder that was shared previously somehow and it works OK without any password.
Only the new folders have this problem. So I suspect it was the way the folder is shared on PC1 that makes the difference.

[benny_fletch]

@oshunluvr

I don't want to hijack this thread, so if you need me to repost my following question else where please let me know.

I have used NFS for a while now, but recently it started using rpcbind instead of portmap, is there a good tutorial on how to set it up correctly now? In the past I have used this: http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php?title=NFS Which was based of an old Ubuntu tutorial on how to setup NFS. My old link to that article goes to this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SettingUpNFSHowTo

I was just wondering if there was a better walkthrough or if you would recommend the current Ubuntu article. Thanks.

[oshunluvr]

@benny_fletch

Unless I'm forgetting something (likely) the switch to rpcbind has caused no changes to how you set up NFS.

Basically: Install, lockdown, export, mount, done.

The bigger change was moving to NFSv4 from NFSv3. When I upgraded my server to 12.04 from 10.04, I had to redo my client mounts. NFSv4 exports a little differently, but unless you're doing something nutty like me (multiple bind mounts) you won't notice it.

I reviewed both tutorials and the Mepis one is fine for NFSv3 type exporting (v4 supports v3 exports and mounts). Use the Ubuntu one if you're interested in NFSv4 style exporting.



@ianp5a

I see no reason for you to stop using samba if it's working for you. IME samba is more forgiving than NFS is to network disconnects using a laptop.

You'll need to examine your shared folders to see what's different. I assume all your UID/GIDs match (should all be 1000 in a default install).

Try this:

Reboot all machines so we're at a clean start.
Examine and compare each shared folder's permissions.
Enter a samba password in every machine and restart samba (or reboot).
Examine and compare the mounts in each machine to verify nothing is mounted yet.

Then try and access each shared folder from each machine and note the differences in accessability and report back what you find.



If you wanted to get a bit fancier: I would create a shared folder on a desktop PC. Mount it via NFS on any other desktop PC's you have and use it as your data folder for (I assume) your work documents. Then have an automated backup created of that folder on another machine and set your laptop to sync that folder to itself whenever it's connected to the home network.

We'd have to write a couple scripts to get it all done, but it's doable.

[ianp5a]

Thanks but that description of NFS seems way too complex for us if we just want to copy between 2 computers.

Anyway, Permissions was the solution. I had Shared the folder but not changed any permissions. The top level permissions were OK but nothing had been applied to "Subfolders and their content" I had previously done this with Nautilus which may have a different default behaviour to Dolphin.
The procedure that works is as follows:
1) Right Click the Folder in Dolphin on PC1
2) Choose Properties
3) Choose the Share Tab
4) Activate Share with Samba
5) Choose The Permissions tab
6) Set Others "can view content"
7) Activate Apply Changes to all subfolders and their content
8) Click Apply. You might notice a delay if there are a lot of files/folders
9) On PC2 in Dolphin, navigate to Networks->Samba Shares->WorkGroups->PC1->Shared Folder

Thanks for all your help.

[oshunluvr]

NFS takes about 5-10 minutes to set up if you're using a simple (single folder, single network) configuration.

Have you considered a Cloud option like dropbox or ubuntu-one? If you're not exceeding 2GB-5GB in total files, either of those would sync to all three computers anytime you have an internet connection.

[ianp5a]

I'm sure NFS is not too bad, however it would take much longer to sort through those instructions.

I use Dropbox and Ubuntu One. So yes, good idea, that would have been an effective workaround to my problem. However, I am very interested in the usability of KDE and desktop environments and needed to know if the solution was in the "user" realm or in the "techy" realm. In this case it was in the "informed user" realm which is good.

Thanks again

[oshunluvr]

Yeah - I don't know why NFS is so unsupported for the "user" realm - like having a simple GUI tool to set it up. It works really well and is more stable and faster than samba. I suspect the user realm development is focused more on users that are transitioning from the windows world. NFS is more a server (i.e. techy) realm item in the real world I suppose. However, IME it's less troublesome than samba.

[vinnywright]

Yeah - I don't know why NFS is so unsupported for the "user" realm - like having a simple GUI tool to set it up. It works really well and is more stable and faster than samba. I suspect the user realm development is focused more on users that are transitioning from the windows world. NFS is more a server (i.e. techy) realm item in the real world I suppose. However, IME it's less troublesome than samba.

+1 on that

VINNY

[benny_fletch]

Yeah - I don't know why NFS is so unsupported for the "user" realm - like having a simple GUI tool to set it up. It works really well and is more stable and faster than samba. I suspect the user realm development is focused more on users that are transitioning from the windows world. NFS is more a server (i.e. techy) realm item in the real world I suppose. However, IME it's less troublesome than samba.

I agree on all those points as well.

One, NFS definitely would benefit from a GUI front or a simple setup wizard of some fashion.

Two, I also find it very reliable and extremely quick. I have run into some minor issues with NFS shares when accessing them from Windows XP, but I don't do that often so it is not a deal breaker. Also, it could be Microsoft's utility to allow NFS shares in Windows that could be causing the problems anyways, as I have never had issues in linux.

Three, I too find setting up NFS to be easier and more straight forward than Samba.

I have used NFS for my file sharing for over six years and would recommend it to anyone who needs such a service.

[dibl]

An excellent NFS guide for the first-time user is here.

[ianp5a]

That step by step guide is great for non techies.

But I see what you mean by NFS "could benefit" from a GUI. The guide shows what a disaster setting NFS up is, compared to out of the box K/Ubuntu, Win7 and OSX. Where you just click on Network and see anything that is attached. Proving that for home users, the complexity of setting NFS up is totally unnecessary. A mistake. As all the information it requires is already available to it. Such as IP addresses. The user should just choose which folder to share. I'm glad I didn't go that route.

So many steps where the user can make a mistake. Is anyone working on streamlining it? Or is it consided "just for IT pros".