How to access Linux Shares from WINXP Pro?
 

Hey Guys..

Im having this problem regarding accessing shares and drives on my Linux Box form Windows Xp Pro ( obviously networked).

I manage to browse my files and shares on my WinXP machine from Linux, but not visa versa!

in WINXP PRO, I go to 'My Network Places' -> 'View Workgroup Computers' . I only see the winodows machine, not my linux box. Having said all that, i look at my 'Network Servers' on Linux RH9, and opens 'smb:///' and there i see the windows machine and the linux machine.

Ive networked the two machines, windows being the host 'internet conncection' sharing the connection with the linux machine. And it works good. So obviously it's got nothing to do with computers not communicating or whateva, but could any body give us a hand with this!.. that would be mostly apprciataed.

Thanx again... Murbz

Linux shares
 

Hello murbz

I will bet the problem is in your/etc/samba/smb.conf file.

To eliminate a whole lot of quesing, why dont you post your smb.conf file for us to see.

If you would prefer, I will post mine which may be adaptable for your use.

i had exact the same problem on my SuSE box...and the solution was to actually enable the samba server. i had the client enabled, thus i was able to browse the windows share, but since i did not have a server enabled...windows could not connect to the linux box.

i dunno how you start and set up the server on RH, but try to use webmin, webmin.org or something :)

/etc/init.d/smb start

On SUSE 9.1 these need to run as daemons so from a root console run KILLALL -TERM NMBD SMBD

then NMBD -D and SMBD -D -- that will at least ensure the SAMBA server and client daemons are running

Then from your Windows box browse your network places again -- you should then see your Linux Shares. ( I assume you've set up your configuration files OK).

If you still can't see any Linux shares on your Windows box or want to go through the process step by step here's what to do.

Note give the network time to connect -- might be a minute or two. You'll have to refresh the MIcrosoft Windows Network folder by double clicking on it in Windows again.

1) On your Linux box ensure the SAMBA system is working properly for example

jim@blackdog:~> findsmb

*=DMB
+=LMB
IP ADDR NETBIOS NAME WORKGROUP/OS/VERSION
---------------------------------------------------------------------
192.168.7.2 JIMS-DESKTOP +[JIMS-DESKTOP] [Windows 5.1] [Windows 2000 LAN Manager]
192.168.7.3 BLACKDOG [MSHOME] [Unix] [Samba 3.0.4-SUSE]
10.10.0.10 unknown nis name
jim@blackdog:~>



Here we have 1 Linux box and 1 Windows box connected OK

2) Look at your Windows Shares from Linux --you can skip this if you don't have any.

SUSE has a nice LAN browser on your desktop but if you can't use this or don't have this tool or Linneighborhood (doesn't work properly in SUSE 9.1 -- mount error address problem --but it's not needed anymore in that distro).


jim@blackdog:~> smbclient -L jims-desktop
Password:
Domain=[JIMS-DESKTOP] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
E$ Disk Default share
K Disk
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
D$ Disk Default share
print$ Disk Printer Drivers
SharedDocs Disk
I$ Disk Default share
K$ Disk Default share
C Disk
D Disk
G$ Disk Default share
RAMDEVICE Disk
floppy Disk
F$ Disk Default share
G Disk
F Disk
E Disk
Ep1290 Printer EPSON Stylus Photo 1290
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
Y Disk
C$ Disk Default share
H Disk
Domain=[JIMS-DESKTOP] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Server Comment
--------- -------

Workgroup Master


Everything seems OK THIS way round -- we can get at the Windows Shares from Linux ( This is usually the EASIEST bit BTW).

Don't forget that Linux will only have READ / WRITE to FAT32 file systems / or FAT16 if you want to share a Card reader for reading digital camera photos etc from a Compact Flash / other type of digital camera card. I'd suggest you have one partition as FAT32 for sharing data with Linux. NTFS file systems are READ ONLY.


3) Now let's see what we've made available to Windows from your Linux box. I've made a home directory and 1 file I've called WINSHARE

jim@blackdog:~> smbclient -L blackdog
Password:
Domain=[BLACKDOG] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.0.4-SUSE]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
profiles Disk Network Profiles Service
users Disk All users
groups Disk All groups
jim Disk Home Directories
print$ Disk Printer Drivers
winshare Disk share with windows
IPC$ IPC IPC Service (File server)
ADMIN$ IPC IPC Service (File server)
Domain=[BLACKDOG] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.0.4-SUSE]

Server Comment
--------- -------

Workgroup Master
--------- -------
MSHOME JIMS-DESKTOP
jim@blackdog:~>

If you can't see what you've defined for your Windows Box to be allowed to access then your config is incorrect.

Use the SAMBA config tool (in SUSE it's done easily under YAST) but other distros have easy config tools as well.


You should see all these on your Windows box -- except IPC$, PRINT$ and ADMIN$. You'll see the user jim under Users. You will have to enter userid and password to connect then it should be fine.