Ubuntu – How to make the Ubuntu show on a Windows Workgroup

networkingsambashared-folderssharing

I have an Ubuntu (10.10) laptop. In our office everyone is using Windows, and our workgroup is simply WORKGROUP. I've installed samba, and its conf is:

   workgroup = WORKGROUP
   #   security = user

   [share]
   path = /media/Repo/share  // this is another partition
   browsable = yes
   guest ok = yes
   read only = no
   create mask = 0755

but still nobody can access my share folder and the machine cannot even be seen on the network. But I can access others shared folders.

Is there anything I needed to do that I left out?

Best Answer

Did you add yourself to samba users?

You can try this GUI to configure it: system-config-samba Install Samba

I did this to configure mine:

Preferences > Server settings > Basic: input your Workgroup

Preferences > Server settings > Security: Authentication Mode=User, Guest Account=No Guest Account

Preferences > Samba Users > Add user:

  1. Choose a Linux account (the one Samba will use when accessing the shared files. Usually, you want to choose yourself.)

  2. Type in a user name and a password (does not have to be a real windows account or password, its just the input that Ubuntu will ask when someone tries to access the share. It can be "aaa" / "bbb")

So, basically, sharing folders involves two different authentications: first, the one that SAMBA, via SMB protocol, asks for from anyone that tries to access a share. That's step 2 above. Then, after Samba grants that person rights to access the share, Samba itself will need OS authorization to access to the filesystem and its files (the Linux owner-group-world security model). For that, Samba uses the user selected in step 1 above. So any folder (and files) you share must be accessible, inside Linux, by the user selected.

In the Windows world it works the same: there's the share authentication and the NTFS one.

Last but not least: whatever user you select (usually yourself), make sure that it has the Share Files with the Network privilege in Administration > Users and Groups > Advanced Settings button > Privileges tab. I think Ubuntu already grants this privilege to the first user it creates, but it doesn't hurt to check it out.

Also, to share folders, I don't use this GUI, I use Nautilus:

  • Right-click the folder you want to share
  • Select "Sharing Options"
  • Give the share a name, and select read/write or anonymous access

Hope that works for you too!

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