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Experiments with SAMBA


raymac46

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Since I upgraded the SSD on my main desktop I have a spare 480GB solid state drive. So I put this spare SSD into an  external drive enclosure and connected it to the USB3 port on my Linksys router. Then I went into the router configuration and set it up as External Storage. Obviously the router runs on Linux as the drive shows up as sda1.

I was able to Map the drive from Windows 10 and then copy over my Pictures folder to it. That gives me another backup of my digital photos. I then went into the Thinkpad that runs Debian and was able to connect over the LAN to the external drive using SAMBA. I then copied a few folders from the external drive to the Thinkpad.

This is the first time I've done this sort of copying without a thumbdrive so it's pretty cool.

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I have a mix of Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home, and Linux. I figured I would use Samba because I knew it would work with Windows and Linux supports it too. NFS looks like the way to go for all-Linux machinery.

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I've connected up another couple of Linux machines to the router USB3 drive. With Linux Mint I used Thunar and just put the address of the drive into the address bar. With Linux Mint Nemo I didn't see this bar, but I found a neat little program called Gigolo which allowed me to mount the drive (which then shows up in Nemo.) I think there is a way to get the address bar showing up in Nemo but I haven't discovered it as yet.

Edited by raymac46
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I had fun getting SAMBA to work on my little Toshiba netbook that runs Arch Linux.

  1. Install samba package and dependencies.
  2. Create, configure and test /etc/samba/smb.conf
  3. Add myself to the samba user list. List the samba accounts to make sure it worked.
  4. Enable and test smb.service
  5. install gvfs-samba package to get Thunar to find the network drive.

All nicely explained in the Archwiki.

 

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/samba

Edited by raymac46
  • Agree 1
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  • 2 weeks later...

I've discovered that although it is easy enough to share samba files between my Linux computers it is a PITA to get Windows to share or login. I was able to get the Windows PCs to map to the attached drive on the router but not to any other Linux machine. I keep getting password incorrect errors. Nor can I log into a Windows machine from a Linux machine. Same issue.

It's nt a big deal because most of the fles I want to share are on the router attached drive but it is annoying.

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32 minutes ago, securitybreach said:

You did restart samba, right?

Yes. I can share Linux computer files among Linux machines, just cannot log into Windows or login from Windows. I asume I have to use my Microsoft account credentials on Windows but that doesn't work either.

 

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securitybreach
57 minutes ago, raymac46 said:

Yes. I can share Linux computer files among Linux machines, just cannot log into Windows or login from Windows. I asume I have to use my Microsoft account credentials on Windows but that doesn't work either.

 

 

Did you try this part?

 

The solution is to use the Microsoft Account Credentials when trying to log into the Samba share (I know, this still does not make sense to me but it worked). Type: User:MicrosoftAccount\me@email.com PW:

This is documented here How to login to network share when Microsoft Account is tied to windows login?

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Yes I tried that and it still doesn't work. I think the problem is with Windows 10.

Edited by raymac46
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Well this is interesting. I could map a drive easily between my two Windows machines - Boom! So the problem is with one of the Windows machines connecting to Linux. Thanks Josh for your suggestions. I have configured Samba properly.

  • Linux machines see each other and can connect.
  • Every machine connects to a networkdrive attached to the router.
  • Windows machines see each other and can connect.

Now I see what HJ meant about samba shares being a PITA with Windows.

Edited by raymac46
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Hedon James
38 minutes ago, raymac46 said:

Well this is interesting. I could map a drive easily between my two Windows machines - Boom! So the problem is with one of the Windows machines connecting to Linux. Thanks Josh for your suggestions. I have configured Samba properly.

  • Linux machines see each other and can connect.
  • Every machine vonnects to a networkdrive attached to the router.
  • Windows machines see each other and can connect.

Now I see what HJ meant about samba shares being a PITA with Windows.

 

'Twas a time when, despite being a PITA, networking actually worked on Windows XP and Win 7 machines.  I could surf the network locations, see the machines by name, and navigate to the directory for the file I wanted/needed.  Not with Windows 10....can't get it to work and frankly, have given up.  My wife has the only remaining Windows machine in the house, and the only reason to connect via network protocols would be to copy music or something.  None of the Linux machines can even SEE her Win10 on the network, and her Win10 can't see any of the other computers.  While it would be nice to restore that 2-way network functionality, for convenience's sake, it's needed so infrequently nowadays that the juice isn't worth the squeeze.  Flash drives work just fine, as long as they're FAT formatted, LOL!

  • Thanks 2
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