Ubuntu – How to access a Windows shared drive/folder from Ubuntu

sambawindows

Specifically, what are the login credentials I need to provide?

Details: The machine I want to access is running Windows 7, and I'm sure the folder sharing is working as other Windows machines can access it. In Ubuntu, I can go to Places -> Network and i see the machine there and open it, when I try to view the shared folder it will prompt me for Username/Domain/Password.

Are these credentials supposed to be my login details on the other machine? My account there does not have a password though, should I leave it blank? I'm also not clear what "Domain" needs to be.

Best Answer

Your login should indeed be your login on the remote machine.

There is no way to allow general access to your home folder over the network without a password. If you want full access to your home folder, you must give your account a password. You can leave automatic login turned on if you simply don't want to type a password at startup.

You can, however, allow access to the Public directory in your home directory without requiring login. To do that, go to Network and Sharing Center⟶Change advanced sharing settings, turn on Public folder sharing, and turn off Password protected sharing (located under the Advanced Sharing Options section near the bottom).

The domain, if this isn't on an ActiveDirectory domain (which seems likely, since your account has no password), should be either blank or the word WORKGROUP in all caps.

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Ubuntu – How to access shared files on Ubuntu from a windows machine

On way of doing it is to add the shares in /etc/samba/smb.conf with the following format.

[sharename]
         path = /media/yourshare

If you are having problems with login you can allways use this to test if the samba server works.

guest account = yourusername
guest ok = yes

But these should only be used for testing, because it disables your security, and tells samba that all the guest's are you.

Some other usefull parameters/settings are:

read only = yes
valid users = yourusername

When you have the configuration file as you like, restart the samba deamon.

sudo service smbd restart

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 12.04 network printing through Windows Samba server

I just tried setting up a printer in Ubuntu 12.04 in a similar situation. I want to access printers on a Windows server in a domain. Wasn't working - they were being held for authentication too. My local username on the Ubuntu box is not the same as my Active Directory domain username. (I may be Samba not perfectly set up.) Best solution so far for me:

Choose Add new printer in Printing, click open 'Network Printers', select 'Windows Printer via SAMBA'
Click 'Browse' to browse for printer (it prompts for authentication to access Windows server with printer)
Select the correct printer or enter URI.
URI for new printer in New Printer dialog is now 'smb://servername/printername'
Select 'Set authentication details now'
Enter details as 'domain\username' and password (if I click 'verify' now it says printer is not accessible, but I clicked Forward anyway.)
Select driver
Print test page

Success!

If I chose 'Prompt user if authentication is required' instead of 'Set authentication details now', then the "verify" button reports that the printer is accessible. (This is one of the first things I tried.) But the jobs get held for authentication. I deleted that printer and tried the steps above, ignoring the verify button, and things now seem to work. Perhaps the Verify button doesn't handle usernames of 'domain\username' format, or perhaps I need to have the correct domain name set in my Samba settings in smb.conf.

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – How to access shared files on Ubuntu from a windows machine

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