Cannot get FC4 samba to work

[pfung]

I am new to Linux. Just downloaded FC4.

I went through the Samba Server Configuration program and followed the help instructions to setup a share folder, but could not get a Windows XP machine to recognize the Samba share. I restarted smbd a few times using Service Configuration program but still does not work.

Can anyone help?

Many thanks!

[03giant]

its either your permissions or a firewall
if you have a firewall set up, try disabling it for a moment and see if it works then.
if you don't have a firewall, or it still doesn't work after disableing, it would most likely be your permissions.
also check your smb.conf file and make sure samba itself isn't blocking the share from your network.

[hackerotaku]

do you have Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional?
If memory serves me well {given I do not use microsoft products} you need to have Windows XP Professional for network file sharing ... i.e. to connect to a Samba Server.

[03giant]

no, any windows can connect.

[rmcscout]

XP Home should have no problem just reading from a share. Home is just unable to join a "NT domain". One thing to test would be to try and manually load the share from windows. Go to Start>Run and type the share address following the form below:

\\<Server ip>\<share name>

However I think it most likely that the default firewall settings that come with Fedora are blocking the samba share. To modify the firewall settings use the configuration tool found in the gnome panel (Desktop>System Settings>Security Level and Firewall).

[bkosick]

Also the SElinux settings, if your using the desktop the graphical Security config tool Desktop->System Settings->Security Level

Go to the SELinux Tab then select Samba

If you only want to share user home dirs....
check Allow Samba to share User home directories

If you want to share other folders,
check disable SE protection for smbd/nmbd daemons

As for the Firewall, I really like firestarter for the config, As I find that the default config tool is "lacking" yum -y install firestarter, and disable the firewall in the Security Level tool.

[bkosick]

Err if your NOT using the GUI, you can use the following commands to disable the SELinux stuff
setsebool -P samba_enable_home_dirs=1
setsebool -P smbd_disable_trans=1
setsebool -P nmbd_disable_trans=1

The "-P" will write the changes to the selinux configs, otherwise, it only sets it until the next reboot.

[pfung]

Many thanks for the help. I got Samba working.

I have to check the box for both "Allow Samba to share users home directories" and Trusted Device: eth0.

[pfung]

Here are the steps that I took to setup Samba on FC4. I do not have the Linux machine in front of me, so I can only give you my rough recollection. Hope this help!

1. Open Desktop|Server Settings|Samba
2. Open Server Settings dialog and setup workgroup and other stuffs.
3. Setup uses if you want to. Click on the Help button if needed. The help pages are quite detailed.
4. Click on "Add Share" to add a share. You may want to start with sharing your home directory.
5. Open Desktop|Server Settings|Services
6. Scroll down to "smb" and click restart. If you want Samba to start automatically on startup, just check the box next to "smb" and save the settings.
7. Open Desktop|Security Settings.
8. Under "Firewall" tab. Either turnoff firewall or check the box "eth0" under "Truested Device" entry.
9. Under "SELinix" tab, find "Samba" and check the entry "Allow Samba to share users home directories".
10. You should be able to connect to your Samba share from a Windows machine now. If you have problem with DNS, try something like \\192.168.1.101\mysambashare. If you have setup a user in Samba, you should also click on "Connect using a different user name" on Windows Explorer's "Map Network Drive" dialog.