Create a little home network between XP, Ubuntu and a mac

aloha14 · 01-28-2009, 09:18 AM

It all started yesterday when I decided to move the printer from my xp computer to the ubuntu one... and then to connect my gf mac to it all. send prints through the ubuntu and have the external HD conected to it as well.
I didn't use the ubuntu computer for a little while (2-3 weeks) and I used to see shared folders from ubuntu at my XP (never tried the other way).
So now, I just couldn't see anything on my XP anymore. I tried to find article on the internet and in the different forums in order to solve this problem, and because I just want a clean computer with the ubuntu, I even reinstalled ubuntu 8.10.
I tried to follow the SAMBA guides and so on but with no success. the XP is still invisible to ubuntu.
It used to be visible...
Anyway, my network knowledge is a bit limited, and I suspect that I need to modify something in the XP side as well in order for things to work. I know, some might say it is a windows problem, and not linux, but hey, I see it as MY problem

and I want to centralize my computers at home around the linux one, so forgive me for bringing it to here...
Any suggestions of why the xp is gone? I believe that once this is solved, I will be able to connect the printer and all the rest to ubuntu computer and access it from any other resource at home...
Cheers

camorri · 01-28-2009, 09:56 AM

How have you set up the home lan? Fixed IP addresses, or do you have a DHCP server? For good results, you need to make sure all systems have a known IP address, and you have up to date 'host' files. Host files contain a list of machine names, and their IP addresses.

The first thing to do, is get pinging working between all three systems. If I have lost you, post what you know.

Also post your /etc/samba/smb.conf file. That way we'll have an idea where you are, and what you are trying to share.

aloha14 · 01-28-2009, 10:54 AM

I didn't set up anything but rather used the defaults. The ip addresses are dynamic at the moment...
I can ping the xp machine from ubuntu and don't know where can i find the ip address in ubuntu to ping it.
But as I said, it used to work and i don't know what went wrong

here is the file as it looks in my system.
Thanks for your help
A

Quote:

#
# 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
#

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

[global]

## Browsing/Identification ###

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

# 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

########## 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

#======================= 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.
# Replace 'ntadmin' with the name of the group your admin users are
# members of.
; write list = root, @ntadmin

# 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

[Documents]
path = /home/anna/Documents
writeable = yes
; browseable = yes
guest ok = yes

camorri · 01-28-2009, 12:54 PM

If you want this to work, you need to set up static IP addresses, and not use DHCP. Much of the problem is resolving the names of shares to an IP address. DHCP allows the addresses to change, so how can it work all the time?

Pick out a subnet, it should be set up to match your router. Most of them come set for 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x with a mask of 255.255.255.0. It doesn't matter, which one, I would suggest you use the one that now matches your router, then you don't have to re-configure the router.

In XP, you can set a static IP address, you also need to find out the DNS addresses, although most routers will pass that to the using systems. Your router becomes the gateway. If the lan address is 192.168.0.x then the gateway will most likely be 192.168.0.1. That needs to be set in each system.

This is Fedora, I don't know the gui tools to set IP addresses, so maybe you do? If not, we can find out. There will also be files that we could directly edit. That is the fastest way, if you know what files. Each distro seems to do their own thing when it comes to the names of the files to edit. Once again, we can find out.

Now, for your smb.conf file. I copied the file, removed most of the comments. What you posted is very difficult to follow, with the ton of comments. So, I'm posting the short version, that has the lines that do something.

Here is the 'short version'.

[QUOTE]
#======================= Global Settings =======================

[global]

workgroup = WORKGROUP

server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
dns proxy = no

log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
syslog = 0
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
encrypt passwords = true
passdb backend = tdbsam
obey pam restrictions = yes
unix password sync = yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
pam password change = yes
map to guest = bad user

########## 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 ############

#nothing

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

;[homes]
; comment = Home Directories
; browseable = no

[printers]
comment = All Printers
browseable = no
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = 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.
# Replace 'ntadmin' with the name of the group your admin users are
# members of.
; write list = root, @ntadmin

# 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

[Documents]
path = /home/anna/Documents
writeable = yes
; browseable = yes
guest ok = yes[QUOTE]

Note, I did not remove all the comments, since they are there to help you set up some things you want to share.

There isn't much in the Global section. Not sure about the password DB backend.

There is no printer share, I left a few of the comments so you know where to put them. FOr now, leave the printer alone.

You have no home shares, this is usually each linux users home directroy. Set up the right way it allows a user to share all files from their own home, to themselves on another system. Other users can not connect to them.

This is the only share I could find.

Quote:

[Documents]
path = /home/anna/Documents
writeable = yes

I'm going to make another post, I'll post my setup. You can have a look, and possibly see what to copy and modify to your own needs. This may help you out, I hope...

camorri · 01-28-2009, 12:56 PM

O.K. here is mine...

Quote:

# Samba config file created using SWAT
# from 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0)
# Date: 2008/05/26 13:08:17

[global]
workgroup = CLIFFSHOME
server string = Samba Server %v
map to guest = Bad User
guest account = guest
log level = 3
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
max log size = 50
printcap cache time = 60
printcap name = cups
os level = 255
preferred master = Yes
dns proxy = No
wins support = Yes

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
read only = No
browseable = No

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
create mask = 0700
guest ok = Yes
printable = Yes
print command = lpr-cups -P %p -o raw %s -r # using client side printer drivers.
use client driver = Yes
browseable = No

[print$]
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
write list = @adm, root
inherit permissions = Yes
guest ok = Yes

[pdf-gen]
comment = PDF Generator (only valid users)
path = /var/tmp
printable = Yes
print command = /usr/share/samba/scripts/print-pdf "%s" "%H" "//%L/%u" "%m" "%I" "%J" &
lpq command = /bin/true

[Music]
comment = For any user to browse and listen
path = /home/cliff/Music

[pictures]
comment = Cliffs digcam pics
path = /home/cliff/Pictures
valid users = cliff, corinne, sheena, @cliff
read list = corinne, sheena, peigi
write list = cliff
read only = No

aloha14 · 01-31-2009, 02:52 PM

Thanks Cliff
Ok, after working half of the weekend on this thing I discovered that the problem is in my router. Apparently I had an old version of firmware which had a bug with XP SP3 and that is why I couldn't see this computer on the little home network.
Now problem is solved, but the next step was to connect the printer and an external hard drive to ubuntu and print / store files from the network.
The printer works smooth and nice, but I cannot access the HD (FAT32) from any of the other computers. I tried to share the HD, share a specific folder in the HD but nothing

Is it the FAT32 file system? or I just doing something wrong with the sharing definitions? any idea?
Cheers
Alon

camorri · 02-01-2009, 05:57 AM

Well, I'm happy to hear you have made a lot of progress. It is not easy to define a problem like router firmware.

Fat32 file system will give you some problems, like permissions, it does not support linux file permissions. However, I think you should be able to set up a fat32 file or directory share. You would need the drive partition added to /etc/fstab. As long as that is there, then you should be able to share directories and files on the drive.

Post your entry in fstab for the drive, and post your /etc/samba/smb.conf file and we'll see if we can find the problem.