"Shared via CIFS samba" directories only work
 

I recently took over for a sys admin that quit whose samba share works but any new shares I add won't allow me access via windows once I click on the folder. The new samba shares are wide open but not one can access them, just view the top layer directory. The only directory persons can access is the orginal samba share, which if I look at the folder permissions at the bottom it reads "Shared via CIFS samba". I presume I need to make the other shares the same way, can anyone tell me a simply way to make the other directories a "Shared via CIFS samba"? I'm not a linux expert so the more simple the better. Note: RHEL 5:doh: A million thanks Johnny Mac

Well, they are all "Shared via CIFS Samba" (that's what Samba is, a CIFS/SMB server), so that isn't a whole lot of help.

How are you adding shares to the server? Via smb.conf? Are all the configuration options the same between the new shares and the originals? It sounds like you are looking at a permissions problem; perhaps the permissions you are creating the directories with on the local machine don't match what Samba expects. I would compare local ownership and permissions of the known good share with the new one.

Also check out the Samba error log on the server, that usually gives some information about why operations have failed.

Better understanding of CIFS
 

Lastnight I read what exactly is CIFS. With some hesitation this morning, I entered on my Linux Command line mount -t cifs //IP address of the Linux system I was on/directory /mnt/ -o user=root and entered my password when prompted. The return was Mount error 13 = Permission Denied. Refer to mount.cfis manpage. As I understand it to be CIFS file systems allow for me to share my Linux folders to Windows Clients in addition to setting up the Samba Share using the Samba GUI Manager. Do I have it backwards and CIFS is for Windows Clients to share there data with Linux Systems. If CIFS is for Linux Files to share there files with windows, how do I setup or format the folder for CIFS?

In very general terms, CIFS is the protocol (originally from MS) used to share MS filesystems across a LAN.
A bunch of FOSS people reverse-engineered it and called the resulting toolset Samba. This toolset also includes some Active Directory/Domain Ctrl tools as well.
Generally we use Linux as the server and MS as the client.
You should bookmark & read some of the docs here http://www.samba.org/

Got ti working, whew!
 

First CIFS is a protocol that utlizes samba. Ensure usernames, passwords and windows (Windows and Samba) permissions all match up. On the Linux Box type the below:

mount -t cifs -o username=testuser,gid=501,file_mode=0775,dir_mode=0775,forceuid,forcegid //192.168.10.5/Data /mnt

Above I'm saying mount the windows drive Data in the linux volume /mnt. Authenticate with the linux testuser account, assign group and owner permissions of the directory and all files of 7 and all others of 5. Force the uid and gid for those permissions which maybe previously applied.

References:

samba.org/samba/docs/man/manpages-3/mount.cifs.8.html
samba.org/samba/docs/man/manpages-3/umount.cifs.8.html

linux.die.net/man/8/mount.cifs

linux.die.net/man/8/umount.cifs

research.kek.jp/people/yashiro/guide/linux/manage/setup/samba.html

Book: Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook Fourth Edition