[MDV2010.0] Samba via MCC, can't connect
 

I would appreciate some input on getting Samba working in Mandriva 2010.0 Free, I have been trying for two hours now and can no longer see where it is going wrong.

I access the Mandriva Linux Control Center, make my way to Network Sharing, and pick 'Share drives and directories with Windows (SMB) systems'.

Since this was the first time I accessed this part of the system (clean, updated install) it prompted me to install the Samba packages. I agreed and the packages were installed without error.

Then proceeding to add a user; here I configured a name identical to my Linux user account, identical password.

Then proceeding to add a share; here I configured a short name in lowercase, configured the path to point to a folder residing on a currently mounted USB external hard disk, configured the share to be public, browseable and writable, added the user configured above to be admin and allowed user.

Also configured along the way through the wizard were the workgroup, netbios name and allowed hosts.

As a reward for what seemed a painless effort I get nothing - when attempting to access the Samba server from another (Windows XP) machine it sometimes can, and most of the time can't see the Samba server.
When it can, it displays the hostname correctly and also lists the available shared objects such as the default printers and the manually configured shared folder.
If you try accessing one of the items however it barfs, and from that point on refuses to list the shared objects entirely.

Both machines (Mandriva, Windows) can access and use shares on other machines in the network just fine. On the Windows machine, creating and hosting shares works just fine too. Only Mandriva appears to have issues acting as a host.
As a test, I have also tried the above with the firewall in Mandriva turned off completely, this did not change anything.

I'm stumped, this used to work in the previous Mandrivas but not this one. Is there a bug I should be aware of that I haven't found in my searches yet?

Thanks for any ideas.

Two things to try.

1. Add this line to your /etc/samba/smb.conf file. 2. Edit your /etc/hosts file and make sure you have all hosts listed there that will connect to the mandy server.

Here is a sample what the entries look like.

Just edit the IP addresses of each machine, followed by the hostname of the system.

If you are running DHCP on the network, you may want to consider changing to fixed IP addresses, or if you have a router, configure the router so the MAC address of a machine always gets the same IP address. Most home use routers can do this.

I have enabled this, restarted the smb process - no change unfortunately.

This I can't do. The network, although I am part of the team responsible for managing it, is a +700 machine 4-location spanning mesh with specific configuration for DHCP for all workstations. Routers are the only statically assigned machines, but not configured for messing with MAC and routes, and never will be because it's not necessary.
We're not touching these unless there is a very serious problem.
Mandriva 2010's MCC configurations misbehaving are not considered serious enough to alter the entire network to suit one program on one server. ;)

I have to wonder what changed between the 2009 and 2010 editions that broke Samba. I will have to keep looking and testing. Thanks for replying!

Hi Xolo,

I can suggest one of two tasks to check,

a) Have you ensured that the user you created belongs to the samba group.

b) Have you checked the security types you are using on the share.

c) Using the command line you could check the permissions on the directory:

$ ls -al samba_share

drwxrwxr-x owner group 512 Jun 14 2009 samba_share



I hope this is of help.


Jnike

In Mandriva 2008.x/2009.x this was not a question of whether it was set or not, and I have therefore not checked or changed this in 2010.x as I expected it to work like it has before. As it stands, there is no 'samba' group to be found on the system at all.. So there is nothing to configure.

The share was configured via MCC to be read/write for my own account, nothing special was added or removed. I expect folder permissions to be in effect.

I checked this, output:
Which was what I intended to have, as I would be the only user connecting. Being the owner, I expected this to work as it did in 2008.x/2009.x (it would prompt for login details, after which access was granted).
As it stands in a default install of 2010.x, this does not work.

Any input is appreciated, thank you.

To follow up;


I have spent some time to re-install from scratch and test on a default installation of Mandriva 2010.0.

What does not work:

• The 'Interactive Firewall' feature is broken, same symptoms as already described. Keeping it on results in an unresponsive network manager applet until you either log out or reboot.
• Cannot add IP addresses to whitelist because of Interactive Firewall. It is impossible to reach the GUI part where addresses are managed.
• Disabling Interactive Firewall still results in many notifications, daemon error messages and frozen network manager applet. You are forced to log out and back in to 'fix' this.
• Configuring Samba through the MCC does not start Samba anymore in 2010.0. You have to start it manually.
• Even when you start Samba, connections are still not possible.
• Configuring required ports specifically or shutting off the firewall completely has no effect, connections are still not possible.

What does work:

• The folder that is to be shared has a 'globe' icon painted on top, thanks to previous attempts in the MCC to enable sharing.
• Right-clicking the folder to be shared in Konqueror, and configuring sharing there after providing root password as prompted.
• Once sharing is configured via folder properties, connections magically work..
• To get read/write permissions, you are forced to set the folder 'Can view and Modify content' for 'Others'. You will not however be prompted for user details when accessing the share remotely.

Apparently configuring a share via KDE works and anything done via MCC is not properly saved. MCC will install Samba for you if it was not already, but you're on your own figuring out why it doesn't work in 2010.

To summarize:

• You have to install Samba via MCC and go through the first time wizard.
• You have to kill off your firewall and Interactive Firewall.
• You have to configure shares via folder properties in your filemanager and provide root password to do so as prompted.
• You have to change folder permissions to be 'Can view and modify content' for 'Others'.

I can't come to any other conclusion than that Mandriva has inadvertendly broken something that prevents normal configuration.
I will have to search their bugtracker to see if this is a known issue, if not I will add it.