LinuxQuestions.org - samba is a MESS

(preface: 3.6.9 worked great... test machine, thus 4.0.0 was merged, and back to 3.6.9 resulted in major problems out of the blue... now moving on to testing 3.6.10 as a last resort with a few thoughts about the whole situation)

i have not come to ask for help on samba, as i have found that samba is a internal mess. instead of being a cute unixy type program that you can say "hey i got a share here" and have it share it instead has an ABSURD extensively long configuration script. im not writing this absurd flame because it doesnt work, this is because i had a good config script going, had it work, then installed samba 4, had problems with it asking for passwords *when i didnt want it to ask for passwords* and then being un able to revert back using the same exact script.

samba should have several scripts to configure its behaviors....

1 to deal with the server&shares names / netbios naming...
1 to deal with passwords (or the lack there of)
1 to deal with directory shares...
1 to deal with insecure drop box directory shares...
1 to deal with active directory
1 to deal with wins....
1 to deal with printers.....

and to top it off an ultra sexy gui to make samba easy as removing windows from a hard drive for good.

so if i the uninformed user roll up and want to share a file, i simply edit a comment to point where my share directory is.

or if i as a net admin need to shuffle files back and forth... and have the company advertisements locked down to a directory that cannot be deleted i can do so....

my samba config

Code:

[global]



# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name, eg: LINUX2

  workgroup = WORKGROUP

  netbios name = ME



# Security mode. Defines in which mode Samba will operate. Possible

# values are share, user, server, domain and ads. Most people will want

# user level security. See the HOWTO Collection for details.

  security = share



# Unix users can map to different SMB User names

  username map = /etc/samba/smbusers



force user = samba

force group = samba



[Broadcast]

        comment = Guest access share

        public = yes

        path = /home/samba/broadcast

        browseable = yes

        read only = yes

        guest ok = yes



[Dropbox]

        path = /home/samba/dropbox

        public = yes

        browseable = yes

        read only = no

        guest ok = yes

i understand my samba config is an absurd mess.... i asked for no help and took WEEKS to construct it down to the point of an old quick and dirty windows 2k/xp unlocked share, and a locked down (your getting my media and your not going to delete it either) share.... as for printers we have 3 802.11 wifi printers and smb printing is a touch 1982....

please someone read this and re-order samba to make it so my configs turn out immaculate and make me master of the known universe as i am in 99% of my other linux dealings.