Some of you may have noticed my repeated posts about the difficulty in networking my Windows XP boxes to my Linux one. Nothing seems to work.

Anyway, this is a (very) long-shot:

I have a ADSL router which uses DHCP and acts as the DNS server, giving out ip addresses to the three machines (2 Windows, 1 Linux). I am using Fedora 3, which comes with Samba 3. All machines are set to obtain ip addresses via DHCP. I have appropriate users and folder shares set up.

So, does anyone have the same set-up, including hardware/software that can connect Windows with Linux shares. If so, is there any chance of a copy of a working smb.conf. I think I know about the basics of smb editing to tailor it to suit my system.

Apparently, there is some problem with Samba 3 which causes these problems, but I'm keen to hear from those with the same system that CAN connect before I give up completely.

I have a broadband router... it never seemed to give out the same IP address twice, simply re-booting a computer gave it the next highest never used before IP. which caused problems !

so i set all the machines to NOT use DHCP, and i entered there IP address's gateways, and DNS addresses manually. since then, everythings worked great.

whats the error message when you try to "mount -t smbfs //windows_ip_address/WindowsShareName /mount/point -o user=WindowsUserName"

?

I type in:

mount -t smbfs //10.0.0.3/SharedDocs/mount/point -o user=test

and I get the mount usage screen. It doesn't understand something in there. Have I mistyped?

mount -t smbfs //10.0.0.3/SharedDocs/mount/point -o user=test

There needs to be a space between the s in Docs and the / before mount.

I get:

Could not resolve mount point /mount/point

Does that mean anything to you?

/mount/point needs to be a directory sturcture on your Linux machine. An example might be /windows/music to mount the music directory you are sharing out on a Windows machine. Once the mount is successful, you would access the files on the Windows machine at /windows/music on your Linux machine.

You can basically think of the mount point as you would a drive letter on a windows machine. To access a share on the network from a Windows machine, you can mape a drive letter to the share and access the share from say z: . Since Linux doesn't use drive letters, you have to use a mount point which is just a directory that exists on your Linux machine. The directory on your Linux machine is mapped to the shared directory on the Windows machine.

Just realised, I've not been very clear. I have only limited problems networking TO Windows, the problem is mapping Linux shares on my Windows box.

ooohhh right. so you are trying to write smb.conf yourself ?

is there any reason you are not using SWAT ? or do you just not know about it ?
run swat, then connect to http://127.0.0.1:901 with a web browser and you get a nice webpage that will write your smb.conf for you.

I don't think swat is installed on my system. Nor can I find it on the installation disks. Do you have a link somewhere?

NomanABC post your smb.conf so we can check it out. just in case i had a difficult time configuring my linux samba, and i realized the config was ok. i jus had my firewall enable. try disabling (uncheck) the eth0 check box in your firewall configuration.

SWAT is part of samba. if swat isnt instaled, then samba isnt installed.

read "man smb.conf" it tells you to use swat to configure samba.
ten read "man swat" for more instruction.

the man files are priceless

Will have a look at the man pages. When I try to run SWAT I get connection refused. Here's my smb.conf file. At the moment it is working but, from experience, one re-boot will stop it doing so. I have been using GNOME as my desktop for the past three weeks and recently changed to KDE. Other than being much prettier, it has allowed me to make more changes to the smb file from the desktop: the last four lines are all new compared to previous installs and when running GNOME to configure samba. Anyway, here's the config file:

# 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 (perhaps too
# many!) most of which are not shown in this example
#
# Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash)
# is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a #
# for commentry and a ; for parts of the config file that you
# may wish to enable
#
# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command "testparm"
# to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors.
#
#======================= Global Settings =====================================
[global]

# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name
workgroup = mshome

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = Samba Server

# This option is important for security. It allows you to restrict
# connections to machines which are on your local network. The
# following example restricts access to two C class networks and
# the "loopback" interface. For more examples of the syntax see
# the smb.conf man page
; hosts allow = 192.168.1. 192.168.2. 127.

# if you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
printcap name = /etc/printcap

# It should not be necessary to spell out the print system type unless
# yours is non-standard. Currently supported print systems include:
# bsd, sysv, plp, lprng, aix, hpux, qnx
; printing = cups

# This option tells cups that the data has already been rasterized
cups options = raw

# Uncomment this if you want a guest account, you must add this to /etc/passwd
# otherwise the user "nobody" is used
; guest account = pcguest

# this tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
# all log information in one file
# log file = /var/log/samba/smbd.log

# Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb).
max log size = 50

# Security mode. Most people will want user level security. See
# security_level.txt for details.
# Use password server option only with security = server
; password server = <NT-Server-Name>

# Password Level allows matching of _n_ characters of the password for
# all combinations of upper and lower case.
; password level = 8
; username level = 8

# You may wish to use password encryption. Please read
# ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation.
# Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents
; encrypt passwords = yes
; smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

# The following are needed to allow password changing from Windows to
# update the Linux system password also.
# NOTE: Use these with 'encrypt passwords' and 'smb passwd file' above.
# NOTE2: You do NOT need these to allow workstations to change only
# the encrypted SMB passwords. They allow the Unix password
# to be kept in sync with the SMB password.
; unix password sync = Yes
; passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
; passwd chat = *New*UNIX*password* %n\n *ReType*new*UNIX*password* %n\n *passwd:*all*authentication*tokens*updated*successfully*

# Unix users can map to different SMB User names
; username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

# 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 = /etc/samba/smb.conf.%m

# Most people will find that this option gives better performance.
# See speed.txt and the manual pages for details
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_SNDBUF=8192 SO_RCVBUF=8192

# Configure Samba to use multiple interfaces
# If you have multiple network interfaces then you must list them
# here. See the man page for details.
; interfaces = 192.168.12.2/24 192.168.13.2/24

# Configure remote browse list synchronisation here
# request announcement to, or browse list sync from:
# a specific host or from / to a whole subnet (see below)
; remote browse sync = 192.168.3.25 192.168.5.255
# Cause this host to announce itself to local subnets here
; remote announce = 192.168.1.255 192.168.2.44

# Browser Control Options:
# set local master to no if you don't want Samba to become a master
# browser on your network. Otherwise the normal election rules apply
; local master = no

# OS Level determines the precedence of this server in master browser
# elections. The default value should be reasonable
; os level = 33

# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. This
# allows Samba to collate browse lists between subnets. Don't use this
# if you already have a Windows NT domain controller doing this job
; domain master = yes

# Preferred Master causes Samba to force a local browser election on startup
# and gives it a slightly higher chance of winning the election
; preferred master = yes

# Enable this if you want Samba to be a domain logon server for
# Windows95 workstations.
; domain logons = yes

# if you enable domain logons then you may want a per-machine or
# per user logon script
# run a specific logon batch file per workstation (machine)
; logon script = %m.bat
# run a specific logon batch file per username
; logon script = %U.bat

# Where to store roving profiles (only for Win95 and WinNT)
# %L substitutes for this servers netbios name, %U is username
# You must uncomment the [Profiles] share below
; logon path = \\%L\Profiles\%U

# All NetBIOS names must be resolved to IP Addresses
# 'Name Resolve Order' allows the named resolution mechanism to be specified
# the default order is "host lmhosts wins bcast". "host" means use the unix
# system gethostbyname() function call that will use either /etc/hosts OR
# DNS or NIS depending on the settings of /etc/host.config, /etc/nsswitch.conf
# and the /etc/resolv.conf file. "host" therefore is system configuration
# dependant. This parameter is most often of use to prevent DNS lookups
# in order to resolve NetBIOS names to IP Addresses. Use with care!
# The example below excludes use of name resolution for machines that are NOT
# on the local network segment
# - OR - are not deliberately to be known via lmhosts or via WINS.
; name resolve order = wins lmhosts bcast

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable it's WINS Server
; wins support = yes

# 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

# WINS Proxy - Tells Samba to answer name resolution queries on
# behalf of a non WINS capable client, for this to work there must be
# at least one WINS Server on the network. The default is NO.
; wins proxy = yes

# DNS Proxy - tells Samba whether or not to try to resolve NetBIOS names
# via DNS nslookups. The built-in default for versions 1.9.17 is yes,
# this has been changed in version 1.9.18 to no.
dns proxy = no
winbind uid = 16777216-33554431
winbind gid = 16777216-33554431
password server = None
guest ok = yes
guest account = david
restrict anonymous = no
domain master = no
preferred master = no
max protocol = NT
ldap ssl = No
server signing = Auto
security = share
netbios name = Linux Server
lm announce = Yes

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

# This one is useful for people to share files
;[tmp]
; comment = Temporary file space
; path = /tmp
; read only = no
; public = yes

# A publicly accessible directory, but read only, except for people in
# the "staff" group
;[public]
; comment = Public Stuff
; path = /home/samba
; public = yes
; read only = yes
; write list = @staff

# Other examples.
#
# A private printer, usable only by fred. Spool data will be placed in fred's
# home directory. Note that fred must have write access to the spool directory,
# wherever it is.
;[fredsprn]
; comment = Fred's Printer
; valid users = fred
; path = /homes/fred
; printer = freds_printer
; public = no
; writable = no
; printable = yes

# A private directory, usable only by fred. Note that fred requires write
# access to the directory.
;[fredsdir]
; comment = Fred's Service
; path = /usr/somewhere/private
; valid users = fred
; public = no
; writable = yes
; printable = no

# a service which has a different directory for each machine that connects
# this allows you to tailor configurations to incoming machines. You could
# also use the %u option to tailor it by user name.
# The %m gets replaced with the machine name that is connecting.
;[pchome]
; comment = PC Directories
; path = /usr/pc/%m
; public = no
; writable = yes

# A publicly accessible directory, read/write to all users. Note that all files
# created in the directory by users will be owned by the default user, so
# any user with access can delete any other user's files. Obviously this
# directory must be writable by the default user. Another user could of course
# be specified, in which case all files would be owned by that user instead.
;[public]
; path = /usr/somewhere/else/public
; public = yes
; only guest = yes
; writable = yes
; printable = no

# The following two entries demonstrate how to share a directory so that two
# users can place files there that will be owned by the specific users. In this
# setup, the directory should be writable by both users and should have the
# sticky bit set on it to prevent abuse. Obviously this could be extended to
# as many users as required.
;[myshare]
; comment = Mary's and Fred's stuff
; path = /usr/somewhere/shared
; valid users = mary fred
; public = no
; writable = yes
; printable = no
; create mask = 0765


[david]
path = /home/david/
read only = no
force user = david
force group = david
case sensitive = no
msdfs proxy = no

We have a very similar setup at my house. It's a DSL modem attached to our wireless router, which acts as the DNS server. It has, at most, 5 machines (one Linux, two WinXP, two Pocket PC) connected, and Samba shares works fine. I'll post my smb.conf file to see if it'll help you any.
I can connect to //happy from Windows, and from my Linux box, I can connect to the other two desktop PCs through Konqueror (smb://diningroom, and smb://sally), without a problem. I've never bothered mounting any samba shares, since I can connect straight through Konqueror, though.