Samba used to allow me to share the root (/) directory of a given machine so I could alter (and share across the network) system configuration and /usr/share etc. files (Audacious skins, for instance) remotely without having to ssh in and do annoying extra steps.

Then, suddenly after a yum update, I can see the / directory when I connect to the host machine's share, but I cannot see anything below that, like /usr, etc (much less usr share): I get permission denied.

In investigating I changed my share from / to /home/username and when I created a directory there via the remote machine it was set to owner 'root' as it should be. So my remote machine is accessing the system as root, but even so it is being locked out of root's subdirectories... even though it is viewing the system with the id of root.

When I set up an entirely brand new computer, the problem persisted as soon as I did 'yum update'. Its smb.conf file, which used to work flawlessly for me, is this: http://pastebin.com/fRvTnfpP

This exact issue also now happens when I set up NFS. I suspect this was a 'nanny' change by the authors who felt that we admins, even at home, cannot be trusted to know how to manage our systems.

This is all on a home network. 'Remote machine' refers to a peer on the same LAN. If anyone actually got into this network they would be inside my house and probably stealing my PCs - ergo, "good game". I don't need to be nanny'd by Samba security. Is there a way to circumvent this?

Not there watching over your shoulder, but I suspect it is not Samba or NFS restriction. The culprit is probably the application you are using to browse directories. Can you access shared / using CLI?

I discovered the problem via CLI. I can access / but I cannot access anything below that. This problem only came up right after the update. And I can reproduce this on a fresh install of C7. Freshly installed, not a problem, as soon as the update happens, the problem comes up. Nothing shows up in the host's dmesg or anything.

Well, must be a RH thing then. I personally use SSH exclusively for remote configuration, but I do some compilation in chroot which requires sharing / over NFS, works in Gentoo and I'm sure it will stay this way.

I bet even RH wouldn't know what went wrong. All I know is, given my smb.conf and a C7 install so fresh it's still got the new BMW smell to it, it ain't me that went wrong.

If you can figure out what update did it then you can check out the RH changelog for this package.

My guess is selinux is/was blocking your share.

Selinux is permissive now. Same issue persists. Is there another Selinux setting I should look at?

Have you verified your windows user account is properly set in smbpasswd? Did permissions on / change on your system?

And if you don't have to worry about security on your network you could add "force user = root" to your / share definition.

I never had any Windows system on this network at all when I first set this up. It worked fine until the update. Permissions on / never changed. As I said the only variable in all of this is the changes from the yum update, no settings ever changed. "Force user = root" was always in my / share definition - see the pastebin link in the OP, that's my smb.conf.

I don't have any windows systems on this network, my Selinux has always been permissive, the problem shows up in NFS and Samba, via CLI... is there anything I can do here?

I know someone else besides me has had to have run into this. It happened as soon as I updated a brand new install with no changes except my smb.conf...

Please, can someone help me here?

Update: the latest patch of Samba magically fixed the problem with no further work on my part. For anyone else who was stricken with this, it really was official patch updates that broke Samba, not anything you did.

Thanks for posting your solution.