The Samba Wiki entry

[CharlesV]

@BitterTruth And some filtering should be done on the creation of the Network Selector up front.
1) You are never going to want to use your Loopback (lo)
2) You will never want to use a disconnected network interface
3) The selector should show the network notation next to the interface (ie 192.168.1.0/24 )

and in my opinion..
4) The FIRST selection listed should be your primary network route.

[BitterTruth]

Check this out guys: not one but 2 scripts generated by claude! and they work!

Python version:













I had to install python3.13-tk (tkinter) - *This was done on Devuan Excalibur (testing)

Gtk3 version







They both work great. The script even calls the default terminal app once I've selected the host/share and logged in. You can see the smb> prompt.

The only niggle I have is that the gtk window is too tall. I had to do a bit of tweaking to get it to show the bottom part. Also when I try to resize it vertically or maximise it nothing happens.

Notice that the loopback address doesn't show up.

I won't upload the scripts unless either of @CharlesV or @Jerry3904 say it's ok.

[BitterTruth]

OOPs! I forgot there was a cli version before the guis and it also worked flawlessly!

[CharlesV]

@BitterTruth Very cool. If you want to zip them up and send them to me in a PM I will check them out. Sometimes AI code can be problematic or have serious issues, so I would test them carefully and be very aware that things could go sideways. (i personally would test them in a VM before on my machine rig ;-/ )

[Jerry3904]

@BitterTruth

I won't upload the scripts unless either of @CharlesV or @Jerry3904 say it's ok.

I don't have any special authority in this case but posting a link to them with cautions, etc. seems OK to me.

I would rather see you do that in the tip post that @CharlesV just started, since this thread is supposed to be about the poor, suffering Wiki article.

[FullScale4Me]

This reminds me of long ago past times being frustrated with Winblows networking. The subtopic was called network interface binding order. Associated to it was the routing table that sent default traffic 0.0.0.0 to the interface listed on top in the binding order. However you change one it must also change the other or the 'got an ip but no internet' will be your bozo prize.

Programs that were not route/multi-interface aware always took the default (top in the binding order applet) network interface. As all good things in Windows get improved, they sometimes get taken away. Early on in Win 10 history this feature was present, then broken a year or two later (you could set it but reboot reverted it) and then gone another year.

[CharlesV]

I just got an eye twitch - thanks for that! ;-p

My FAVORITE "problem networking" of all time... Lantastic networks! When they worked - they were amazing. But too many things got in the way of their sharing and while I was able to get most "pretty stable" ... I cannot tell you how frustrating it was to walk away from am install that was working... and the next day it was down.

[FullScale4Me]

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.

Above is copied from "Using Samba File Sharing in MX Linux" linked in post 5 of this thread - viewtopic.php?p=830005#p830005

But wait, there's more! (Jawtooth, date unknown)

Less common share setup fail points

Below are some issues brought up on various Linux support forums.

1) Do NOT modify the file /etc/samba/smb.conf in any way. Use MX Samba Config. [2]

2) Do NOT use spaces in Samba share file paths or share names. Use – or _ instead.

3) All network devices should be on the same network IP subnet. Local IP addresses should be a 'Bridged' source not NAT.

4) The shared folder should be in the sharing user's users /home folder. [3]

5) If a shared folder is outside /home it MUST be 'owned' by the user and in the sambashare group.

6) Leave the Unix directory permissions alone. The +x IS needed from the root to share folders.

7) The share name can NOT be the same as any user name, group name or the workgroup name.

Workgroup name MUST be 15 characters or less.

9) Share names may not be longer than 12 characters; they may not be accessible on older clients ()95/98/XP).

NOTES
2. Yes, there are a lot of guides saying to do so. MX Linux made the MX Samba Config tool to make it easier.

3. For any user, accessing with the same UserID and (SMB) password.

Edit: expanded on issue #3 above.