How to make my Ubuntu show on a Windows Workgroup

Question

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?

Solution 1

Did you add yourself to samba users?

You can try this GUI to configure it: system-config-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!

Solution 2

You can simply run a simpleHTTP server in the Linux machine and access the same on the other machine.
Steps :

1. first start the terminal from the folder to be shared.
2. run in terminal python -m SimpleHTTPServer
3. check your IP using ifconfig
4. enter into the browser of the other machine the ip address:8000 eg: if your IP is 127.3.4.123 Then in browser you type 127.3.4.123:8000 you get the required files in the folder to download.

Comments

[black sensei]

what do you have as Unix Username?

[MestreLion]

@black sensei: The unix account that Samba will use to access the shared files. Usually, that will be your unix login. It means that, after SMB authentication (using the login and password you configured in Samba), it will have the same privileges as you inside that share.

[MestreLion]

Ill edit the answer to make it more clear.