About 2 months ago, I deleted windows 10 from one of my computers and I installed linux for the first time. So I am a newbie. But I had a long experience with dos, deskview and then windows. Except that regarding networks, I have always been slow. And now, I am stuck. So I came here.

I have 2 computers at home:
-an htpc, named zotac, with mint installed ; has an ssd and an external named mybook ;
-another computer, named lianli, with windows 7 ; it has an ssd and a hard drive.
In lianli, mint is installed in a virtual box, called vmint.

So that there are 3 computers (there's a second virtual box in lianli, but let's forget it). The user name is the same for all. Zotac and vmint have log-in passwords (it's not my choice), but lianli is password-free. Of course, this is the big problem in my setup : problem #1.

Lianli and zotac are connected to the router by cable. The 3 computers can ping the other 2. All the shares are visible in the 3 computers.

zotac can read and write in vmint,
zotac can't open lianli,
vmint can read and write in zotac, except for mybook,
vmint can't open lianli,
lianli can read and write in vmint,
lianli can read and write in zotac, except for mybook.

I don't understand why mybook can't be opened by vmint and lianli. Also, "Apply permissions to enclosed files" doesn't work. So I also shared one of the subfolders of mybook, but it can't be opened either. The cause of this particular problem is not passwords. This is problem #2. My last backup is 2 months old because lianli uses mybook for its backups, and it can't get there.

Now about problem #1, there should be a way to bypass the password constraint. I read somewhere that you can do everything in linux. I don't want to use a log-in password in windows, I never have, and I have a good reason for that.

Can someone help, please ?

I'm asking this because you did not specifically mention it: Did you update the /etc/samba/smbpasswd file for the persons who will be using the shares and configure your /etc/samba/smb.conf files, then stop and restart samba?

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Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

Basically in a peer to peer network permissions are granted on a username password basis by each server.

On the Windows box make sure you are not using a homegroup and that you have turned off password protected sharing. Now the shares are accessible by anyone on the LAN without a password.

Not an answer to your problem but it is also possible to share files between the host and guest without using the Network by installing guest additions on vmint and enabling shared folders.

I assume the MyBook driver is still formatted as NTFS and automatically mounted. It should have read/write permissions only for your user which then prohibits guest access. In many ways it is easier to deal with a linux filesystem instead of NTFS when it comes to permissions but if you have lots of existing files then it is difficult since you have to copy them somewhere for backup prior to reformatting. You should be able to remount the NTFS drive as read write for everyone which is necessary to be accessible over the network as a guest.

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Samba is installed. I know how to edit smbpasswd and smb.conf, but I didn't update them or configure them. What should I do exactly ? I am the sole user of my computers.

Mybook is formatted NTFS. How can I remount it as read write ? If necessary, I am willing to reformat it. In that case, which file system should I use ? And how do subfolders inherit permissions from the root of the disc ?

I never used a homegroup, and password protected sharing is off. Also, guest additions are installed in vmint, and the shared folders of vmint now include the hard drive of the host (meanwhile, I learned a couple of things about them).

Maybe I should mention that vmint is running in software rendering mode.

Thank you both for your help.

If you shutdown vmint and select 3D acceleration in the VirtualBox display settings then once it restarted it should not use software rendering anymore.

If you do not need to connect the drive to a windows box then I would reformat it as ext4 otherwise keep it as NTFS. If you format it as ext4 you can mount it with any desired permissions and share it like you already have done.

3d acceleration is checked in vmint from the beginning, but thanks anyway. I don't need to connect mybook to a windows virtual box, so I'll keep it as ntfs. Nothing is changed. I am trying to read about smb.conf, but it's very complex and I don't dare edit it.

Mybook is already mounted and shared (I used the graphic interface), the folder and file permissions are read/write/execute, I have checked "Apply permissions to enclosed files". I haven't checked the special flags Set user id, Set group id and Sticky, but I am going to do it after I post this.

One thing I didn't mention before. Mybook used to contain the windows image backup. I have deleted it, but maybe traces persist somewhere and mint doesn't like it ?

There are new developments. I defined a password for windows. The results :
zotac and vmint can now open lianli and its hard drives,
lianli and vmint still can't open mybook or its subs, but they still can open the other shares in zotac.

I can't leave it at that, access to mybook is essential. Before formatting mybook, which is a 3tb disc almost full, I am hoping for opinions.

PS: There are 2 more points : 1) In zotac, I can open mybook directly, but I can't open it when I transit through the network IN ZOTAC ITSELF. 2) In lianli, the clipboard isn't shared with vmint (I didn't forget to share it as bidirectional in the settings).