The Samba Wiki entry

[Jerry3904]

<Beginning to think about MX-25 MXUM>

Having never used Samba in my life I'm unable to judge whether this entry is still valid and clear:

https://mxlinux.org/wiki/help-files/hel ... ba-config/

I'm asking b/c a couple of people in the FB Group have posted about having trouble.

TIA

[beardedragon]

I think it as easy to use as Calamares, no problems here.

[dolphin_oracle]

what usually trips people up is the following:

1. share browsing may not work
2. permissions on the underlying linux filesystem are still in play no matter what you do with samba, whether our share tool is used or not.

the tool has nothing to do with 1. it just makes share available. user's might need to direct address to access them. (smb://$SERVERNAME/$SHARENAME)

I know I gave up on share browsing long ago, even in pure windows environments.

The help file is still accurate for the mx-samba-config tool, but it is not a general samba document.

[Jerry3904]

Thanks to both.

[FullScale4Me]

See a How-to and fixes for common pitfalls in using Samba. Read level - beginner to Linux. I am the author. Last updated February 23, 2025.

Using Samba File Sharing in MX Linux
PDF, illustrated, 10 pages, 485 Kb.

[FullScale4Me]

<Beginning to think about MX-25 MXUM>

Having never used Samba in my life I'm unable to judge whether this entry is still valid and clear:

https://mxlinux.org/wiki/help-files/hel ... ba-config/

I'm asking b/c a couple of people in the FB Group have posted about having trouble.

TIA

Top 3 root casual actions/inactions
The highest likely root cause is the UFW aka firewall being enabled by default. Impacts highly both Linux and Windows.

Second, likely is they used they used File Manager (or /etc/samba/smb.conf via internet how-to) and NOT the MX Samba Config app. This also won't lead them to the Wiki, best in MX User Manual.

Thirdly, somewhat related to the above, is not setting a smb user password. If Samba Config refused to make a share until a password is set, this would reduce this a lot IMHO.

Linux
The assumption about Network Browsing Windows hosts in the Linuxes File Manager persists. FWIW, Windows shares haven't appeared in the Network --> Windows in ages. When they do appear (not consistent) it is in the Network (SMB on KDE) folder. The distro whose name sounds like a grandpa's hat removed the Windows folder entirely. Some Linuxes have gelded their File Managers by removing/not including the sharing helper bits (mostly MATE flavors). The helper app WSDD (and its variants) when added to Linuxes returns most to all of the browsing of Linux hosts in Windows.

Windows
On the Windows side, in a distant fourth place is NOT enabling a one click feature ('Network Discovery' and 'File Sharing') to help Samba. The very first time you click on ‘Network’ in ‘Windows File Manager’ you will be prompted to turn on both 'Network Discovery' and 'File Sharing'. Sadly, it is a one time prompt. If they dismiss it, we hear about it. Enabling it sets up Windows firewall rules, network routing and enables several services to allow other hosts (Windows & Linux) to 'discover' Windows shares/printers. For some reason Linuxes 'seeing' Windows in Network browsing isn't 100% for why I'm not entirely sure. Mostly firewalls IMHO.

WSDD
MX Linux 21 with the addition of WSDD (packaged by Tim) allowed MX 21 hosts to be seen on Windows PCs in Windows Explorer network browsing. Not sure when in 23 it stopped working. I think I/others mentioned it here 1–2 times. Ubuntu has split WSDD into a client and a server function (it can't do both simultaneously) as my guess is to supplant the File Browser share functionality. Client - 'wsdd' and server - 'wsdd-server'. @CharlesV has more 'time in' with configuring wsdd than me.

[Jerry3904]

Very helpful, will mine the post for Wiki nuggets.

Thanks.

[CharlesV]

@FullScale4Me to be honest, I found wsdd flaky as hell and gave up on it. ( It seems to be problem all over.)

I struggled as well with Avahi and finally gave up on it as well.

My fix was
a) promote a Windows Master Browser on a VM and have it talk directly to my router to create a WINS system, ( I can get this to work reliable, but the my router is the key with cached wins entries and that isnt a good fix for most people.)
__or__
b) Create a script using a custom search with nmap, and bounce me back a list of machines available on the network.
_1) Run the results of nmap through a script that pushes out a file with links to the machines, then
_2) push the file into Featherpad and use Ctrl+Click to open the shares on the machine.

I was working on getting it all smoother, and nicer, but I got sidetracked and still use this bare bones when I have too.

The only other thing that *really* works .. is to downgrade the SMB protocols so that the browsing can happen ;-/

[CharlesV]

I should note.. my script works and provides a method to connect up to any machine on my network.

I will work on the interface portion of it in the next few days and see if I can get it looking / working better

[Jerry3904]

That would be terrific, thanks.