At 09:33 PM 2/4/2002 -0700, Bob wrote: >Glad to hear you're giving it all a shot, but bummed that it's not working >out for you. Let's fix that! > >So it sounds like you've got Samba set up correctly if the Windows systems >can see it, read/write files and print. Is that correct? Getting Linux (Unix >more correctly) to talk to Windows IS a tad different. Some variations may >exist depending on WHAT Windows you're running.
I think I have Samba set up correctly. My main windows system (Speedy) is running WIn95B and if I remember correctly, I just set the user name and password in Samba to the same as I use for this computer. It is the only system I can use to see my Mandrake computer, but I can read/write files to/from Speedy with no problem. I have not been brave enough to attempt sharing any printers yet. I know I had a problem at one time not using encrypted passwords but I think I have that working now. I guess my worst problem is how to set up/change the passwords for Samba. I don't have a lot of time to devote to it as it is now (working 6 days a week), so that is one of the reasons I can't recall how I actually got it to work! I do remember I had the least trouble setting up Corel Linux to work with my network, but I took off that distro to make room for RH. I think it was a big mistake! >Let me describe what I've got and how I use it. Maybe a working example will >help. (Names and passwords have been changed to protect the innocent and >hide my silly naming conventions): > >WINDOWS 2000: I've got a Windows 2000 Workstation system called win2k where >I put big-but-not-critical files like MP3s, downloads and such. I only use >local accounts (no Domain) on this machine. One account is "bobg" with >password "win2kpw". I do get lost when discussing domains vs. workgroups. I have not had time to play around much with NT based systems, but they seemed to be as complex as Linux to me! >WINDOWS 98: I also have a couple of Win98 machines, named unimaginatively >pc1, pc2 etc. I've enabled Windows file & print sharing on these. I've set >these up using share-level access control (Control Panel->Network->Access >Control), and have set a password "win98pw" for read-write access on each >share. Another sticking point with me is share-level vs. user-level access. Most of my limited knowledge comes from reading in Linux docs and I can't seem to comprehend them so well. >LINUX: I've got a Debian 2.2 Linux machine named Linux. I've put Samba on >Linux to hold various user files and such. I've got an account "bobg" with >password "linuxpw" (see previous note on security) on Linux, and have added >"bobg" to the smbpasswd file. I've always wanted to try Debian, but I always heard that Mandrake was the easiest to learn. >I want to be able to copy files to/from my Windows machines using native >Linux tools. The smbclient program can send/receive files from Windows >machines, but it's more like FTP. What I really want is to mount Windows >shares under Linux. First, I need to make sure I've got smbfs support. It's >typically installed in most kernels of most distributions by default these >days, but you may require a support package or two. (Varies by distribution. >In Debian, I had to do "apt-get install smbfs" and "apt-get install >smbclient" Search your distribution's package list for "windows network >client support" and similar keywords). See, most of my contact with all of this has been via X, I'm not so good using the CLI it seems. >ACCESSING WINDOWS 2000 FROM LINUX > From Linux, to access Win2K, I need to use an actual user account and >password that exist on Win2K. This would also apply if Win2K were part of a >Windows Domain. In this case, I can access a share called "win2kshare" using >(beware word-wrap): > > mount -t smbfs //win2k/win2kshare /mnt/smbmount -o >username=bobg,password=win2kpw >Assuming /mnt/smbmount (the "mount point") directory exists, and that I >don't mis-type anything, I can now access the files on the Win2K system by >doing "cd /mnt/smbmount". > >ACCESSING WINDOWS 98 FROM LINUX >Things are a bit different on the Windows 98 machines because I'm using >SHARE-LEVEL access. The important thing with share-level is that the >PASSWORD is what's important. The username is merely a formality. So to >access the "cdrive" share on a Win98 system from Linux, I can do: > > mount -t smbfs //pc1/cdrive /mnt/smbmount -o >username=bobg,password=win98pw > >Note that the username isn't that important. I just tested replacing "bobg" >with "frodo" in the example above, and it works fine. I just need to get the >password correct. ?????????????????? >A couple of notes worth remembering: > >1. The mount point must already exist. (/mnt/smbmount in my example) >2. You cannot mount a share on a mount point if ANOTHER is already using it. >I either need a separate mount point for each share I want to access, or I >need to un-mount it between accesses (umount /mnt/smbmount). >3. You need to be aware of how you set up things under Windows. If you're >using share-level, the password is what counts. Otherwise, you must use a >username/password combination that would work to log into the Windows >machine. While Windows server and share names are (usually) not case >sensitive, passwords ARE. Keep it simple to start with! > >It is also possible to access Windows printers similarly, although I can't >say that I've done this recently. It is on my list though. Notes here later >if anyone's interested. > >If you really want to get perverse, Samba can also be used to share files >between Linux systems. While this seems counter-intuitive, it DOES spare you >having to learn ANOTHER set of tools (NFS or similar), and arguably >simplifies -- thus strengthening -- security (NFS+Samba is more complex than >just Samba). So, if I've got TWO Linux systems (say another called Linux2) >and I've created a user "bobg" with a password "linux2pw" via smbpasswd on >it, I can mount a Samba share via: > > mount -t smbfs //linux2/linshare /mnt/smbmount -o >username=bobg,password=bobg > >Obviously, there's LOTS more to all this. Read the manpages (man smbmount, >man mount, man smbclient) for lots more info. There are a lot of layers to >Windows networking that are usually hidden that you need to understand for >good results with Samba. However, once you get the basics, it's a very >powerful toolset. A colleague just had the fun experience of convincing a >client to forgo the Windows experience altogether, and configured them a >much more capable Linux server for their small office for a fraction of the >price. He can do support work via slow dialup links, something handy when >he's in another town! Gonna have to do a lot more reading when I can find some time. I have a very large comprehension problem with man. The docs there are hard for me to understand. That is one of the reasons I bought the books, thought they might be easier to understand. My mistake! > > I can't get Red Hat > > to work either way. I have several books on Samba, but most of them speak > > some other language besides common sense! Can you recommend some good > > reading for a Linux newbie like me? > >They are NOT a lot of fun to read, but the collection of .txt files that >comes with Samba actually taught me a LOT about Windows networking, >including cross-Domain browsing, encryption and other topics that seem to >mystify a lot of Windows admins. I found they helped explain a lot of things >that the man pages only touch on. The manpage for smb.conf is pretty good. >Keep in mind the documentation (esp. encryption stuff) may lag behind the >latest, so don't change stuff that's working! That's the price we pay for >being on the edge, but it's also why Microsoft now see's Linux as THE >threat. :) > >I've looked for good Samba books, but I'm afraid I've figured out all the >stuff I need to do, so I can't see spending the $40. My usual criteria is to >think of a problem that I had to solve in the past, then see if the book >provides a good explanation. Then I look up something I DON'T know the >answer to and see if their explanation helps. Sorry that's not much help I >know. > >I'll browse my old bookmarks and see if I find anything good. Are there any >other specific topics that are slowing you down? > > > Perhaps something I can understand? I > > thought I had a pretty good general knowledge of computers before I >started > > messing around with Linux... TIA! > >Heh, well you're talking to the guy that found Beaker from the Muppet Show >inspirational. Just blow lots of stuff up! The only real advice I can offer >is go slowly, and restart the system (Samba, NOT the entire Linux system) >when you make changes. Not STRICTLY necessary, but sometimes changes take >effect slowly. > >Hope this helps, and good luck! > >- Bob That has been where most of my success has come from also. I read a little and then just play around with it until it works. Trouble is, by then I don't remember what I did to get it working! I think I really need to learn more basic Linux stuff before jumping in to networking. What I originally wanted to setup was an old 486 DX4-100 system I have to run Linux and act as my network fileserver. I had a couple of those rather large Seagate 9 Gb SCSI drives in an old tower case. I couldn't get Linux to recognize the drives using an ISA SCSI card. Ended up putting a small IDE drive in to run Win95B and it accesses the drives just fine. I have another PII with a PCI SCSI card and would like to see if I could get a Linux distro setup to use for the fileserver. I have a lot of reading to do between now and then. Thanks for the help Bob... Just a message from Doug... --------------------------------------------- http://www.gdouglasburton.com --------------------------------------------- Never forget 9-11-01 and may God Bless America! To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
