Windows file server on Linux
 

Heres what I want to do:
Have a directory on my Linux box that all the Windows computers on my network will see as a drive (eg L:/)
to use to share files on the network.
I have some experience with Samba but don't know what to do for this. Can anyone help me?

This request is kind of vague..

But.. If you want the servers to automatically mouth the share, then you would need to set each one up independently or through your Domain Server.

Depending on how you have them mapped.. what windows clients you are using.. Win 9x or WinNT+ would depend on the type of security you would use...

Since you have done some work with samba.. post what your using so far.. and someone might be able to give you a more specific answer.

Scott

What I'm currently doing with Samba is having a directory on a Windows box mounted to a directoy on my Linux box, I want to do something like this only have all the computers on my network mounted to this directory, and have every computer on the network see everyones shared files when they go to this directory on their computer.

Hmmm,

Here is what I think you are asking.

You want to use Samba as a file server.

You want to create a Samba share that all the Windows machines can access.

You want all the users of these Windows machines to see the share as the drive letter L:

To achive this you can do the following:

Set up Samba as a file server. I am assuming that you have another machine acting as a domain controller.

Create the Samba share.

Set the security to domain. i.e. "security = domain" This tells Samba to accept any user authenticated by the domain controller.
You still need to add the users to the passwd file either manually or by a script.

Create a Windows login script for the users mapping the Samba share to the drive letter L:

If you don't want to go the security = domain route, you can make the Samba share public. Public shares don't need passwords for access to be granted. The command is:

public = yes

Place this under the section for the share.

I don't think you will need to add the users to the passwd file, but I don't remember clearly how that part of it works.

Hello Jammrock,

I have been having a similiar issue with my Linux box. I'm new to Linux and I'm trying to set up the same thing on my Linux machine. Can you help me in more of a step by step process? I have SMB setup on my Linux box but I don't know how to setup the file sharing process so that my Windows machines can see the share as a Windows file share on the Linux machine. Can you help. Thanks a lot. Send a reply to my email at scottpioso@hotmail.com Thanks.

Hi scottpioso,

I am more than willing to help. My only request is that we do it on the forum. There are lots and lots of new people here who would really benefit from your experiences.

I have learnt quite a bit from reading about the issues that other people have had.

Tell me what you have done so far and we can go step by step. Everyone is learning here.

I think the problem is with the Windows machine. Basically, the Windows machine will not grant me access to it when I try to connect to it. I'm trying to work on it right now. Oh, and by the way, no, I do not have a domain controller.

Could you give me some more details?

Are you trying to connect to the Windows share from the Linux machine?

What error messages are you getting?

Honestly, at this point, I have a larger issue. My windows box crashed and right now I'm trying to recover any critical data before reinstalling Windows. I'll get back to you about this. Thanks.

Hello again,

Well, I've got my windows box up and running again. Here's the problem, when I try to connect to the Windows box from a shell prompt, I read that I had to enter a string of text:

smbclient //computername/user -U user

When I do that, I do connect to the windows machine. I then get the following string of text displayed:

"added interface ip=10.0.0.3 bcast=10.0.0.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
Got a positive name query response from 10.0.0.2 ( 10.0.0.2 )
Password:

Domain=[PIOSOHP] OS=[Windows 5.0] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]
tree connect failed: NT_STATUS_BAD_NETWORK_NAME"

The last string of text happens when I enter my password to the windows machine. I don't know what the problem is, but I need help!!!

Which Windows product are you running on the Windows box?

It sounds as if you are running Windows 2000 server.

No, it's only 2000 Professional. Got any ideas?

Windows file server on Linux
 

Something that has worked for me in the past is to make your windows box talk to your Linux box using plain text passwords. To do this you need to go into the registry on your Windows machine and "enable plain text passwords". On XP the path is something like below:

Hkey_Local_Machine ->
System ->
Currentcontrolset ->
Services ->
Lanmanworkstation ->

Hope this helps,

Flaxius :newbie:

Flaxius,

The only concern I would have with doing that is security.

Anyone with a sniffer can read your user names and passwords as they travel over the network. They can then log in as you and do all kinds of stuff.

Scottpioso,

Please post your smb.conf file. I am confused by the reference to the domain. Where is the name "PIOSOHP" coming from?

I would expect the message "NT_STATUS_BAD_NETWORK_NAME" to appear when you haven't added the Samba machine's account to a NT server. When you try to log in to the domain from the Samba machine, the server says "I don't know of any machine by that name".