Hello. I am a programmer new to Linux operation, but I have been using PHP and MySQL. And I want to setup my testing host so that I can test my program with it, instead of hosts on the public web. So I installed Red Hat Linux 8.0 on a PC from scratch. It works just good as I was hoping, except file sharing.

I have been trying to map the drive to Linux host from my Windows XP PC. I made my user account with Linux which is same as Windows domain user name and password. Then, I opened "Samba Web Administration Tool" and I made a share for "/var/www/http" with shared name "www". I can map the drive successfully. But I can't modify files. I can't create new files either.

So I tried to put my user account with Linux to "root" group with "Red Hat User Manager". In that dialogue's "Group" tab, put a check next to "root" and set "Primary Group" as "root". And I still can't save files. When I logged on the Linux console with same user I have been trying from Windows, I cannot modify any files at "/var/www/http" directory either.

I can see all shared directories on the host from Windows XP PC. And I can see my "home" directory which I can modify and create files. I think I am missing very basic stuff. But if anyone can give me any hints, I would really appreciate.

But never mind. I formatted the hard disk and installed Fedora Core 4. And Samba administration is much easier, and I can modify files now.

It seems I need to follow steps to make Samba to work.

1. create a Linux user account
2. set workgroup name for Samba server
3. select Samba user from Linux users list and make Windows username/password
4. set shared folder
5. re-start "smb" service

I don't know which part I missed with Red Hat Linux 8. But I like Fedore Core 4 very much, because it's like Windows administration.

what permission u given to share document it shouldn't less than 0660

To sachinapatil,

I cannot go back to Red Hat Linux 8 now. But I did not know I need to set file/directory permission AND Samba permission separately. So I guess you are right, I probably forgot to set permissions. Thank you very much.

dear have u generated samba password against the shared user ?