[SOLVED] Share Multiple Directories With Samba On Arch Linux and XP

Question

Hello,
I have had the worst luck so far with Samba, which is far more likely because of an error on my part than on Samba's.
I can only seem to share one directory regardless of how I setup my smb.conf. And worse yet, if I mess with Samba, smb.conf, after the first time I set it up it doesn't work again until I reinstall my OS. Now I'm sure that reinstalling isn't the only option, but I haven't figured out how to make it work again any other way. I've tried uninstalling it, deleting it from the cache, deleting /etc/samba and so on, still can't connect to it from XP when I reinstall it.
I'm running Arch64 and I want to share some directories with a laptop running Windows XP.
I want to share my home folder, but have it accessible from XP only by me, share my mother's home folder, and have it accessible on XP only by her (well actually I guess it needs to be accessible by both, since i'm the admin), share my media-server (a collection of five hard drives where I store movies and such), and have it read/write by both of us. And finally share /srv so I can work on that from the XP computer as well. I think that's all. And I would like to share printers between the two computers. I would also like to access XP files from here.
I've always been able to get the media-server to share, but that's it, nothing else. And it doesn't always work right. It doesn't seem to want to follow sym links, but like I say if I mess with it it will stop working all together. So I'm not sure what to do.
A thought was to instead make a /media/samba-share directory and share that, and inside it have symlinks to my home, media-server, etc. However, that will only work if samba will follow symlinks for me.
Here is the smb.conf I am planning to use at the moment:
# This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the
# smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed
# here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options (perhaps too
# many!) most of which are not shown in this example
# For a step to step guide on installing, configuring and using samba,
# read the Samba-HOWTO-Collection. This may be obtained from:
# http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf
# Many working examples of smb.conf files can be found in the
# Samba-Guide which is generated daily and can be downloaded from:
# http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-Guide.pdf
# Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash)
# is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a #
# for commentry and a ; for parts of the config file that you
# may wish to enable
# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command "testparm"
# to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors.
#======================= Global Settings =====================================
[global]
# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name, eg: MIDEARTH
workgroup = MEDIA-SERVER
netbios name = Avalon
encrypt passwords = true
# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = Samba Server
# Symlinks
follow symlinks = yes
wide symlinks = yes
unix extensions = no
# Security mode. Defines in which mode Samba will operate. Possible
# values are share, user, server, domain and ads. Most people will want
# user level security. See the Samba-HOWTO-Collection for details.
security = user
# This option is important for security. It allows you to restrict
# connections to machines which are on your local network. The
# following example restricts access to two C class networks and
# the "loopback" interface. For more examples of the syntax see
# the smb.conf man page
; hosts allow = 192.168.1. 192.168.2. 127.
# If you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
load printers = yes
# you may wish to override the location of the printcap file
; printcap name = /etc/printcap
# on SystemV system setting printcap name to lpstat should allow
# you to automatically obtain a printer list from the SystemV spool
# system
; printcap name = lpstat
# It should not be necessary to specify the print system type unless
# it is non-standard. Currently supported print systems include:
# bsd, cups, sysv, plp, lprng, aix, hpux, qnx
; printing = cups
# Uncomment this if you want a guest account, you must add this to /etc/passwd
# otherwise the user "nobody" is used
; guest account = pcguest
# this tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
# Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb).
max log size = 50
# Use password server option only with security = server
# The argument list may include:
# password server = My_PDC_Name [My_BDC_Name] [My_Next_BDC_Name]
# or to auto-locate the domain controller/s
# password server = *
; password server = <NT-Server-Name>
# Use the realm option only with security = ads
# Specifies the Active Directory realm the host is part of
; realm = MY_REALM
# Backend to store user information in. New installations should
# use either tdbsam or ldapsam. smbpasswd is available for backwards
# compatibility. tdbsam requires no further configuration.
; passdb backend = tdbsam
# Using the following line enables you to customise your configuration
# on a per machine basis. The %m gets replaced with the netbios name
# of the machine that is connecting.
# Note: Consider carefully the location in the configuration file of
# this line. The included file is read at that point.
; include = /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf.%m
# Configure Samba to use multiple interfaces
# If you have multiple network interfaces then you must list them
# here. See the man page for details.
; interfaces = 192.168.12.2/24 192.168.13.2/24
# Browser Control Options:
# set local master to no if you don't want Samba to become a master
# browser on your network. Otherwise the normal election rules apply
; local master = no
# OS Level determines the precedence of this server in master browser
# elections. The default value should be reasonable
; os level = 33
# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. This
# allows Samba to collate browse lists between subnets. Don't use this
# if you already have a Windows NT domain controller doing this job
; domain master = yes
# Preferred Master causes Samba to force a local browser election on startup
# and gives it a slightly higher chance of winning the election
; preferred master = yes
# Enable this if you want Samba to be a domain logon server for
# Windows95 workstations.
; domain logons = yes
# if you enable domain logons then you may want a per-machine or
# per user logon script
# run a specific logon batch file per workstation (machine)
; logon script = %m.bat
# run a specific logon batch file per username
; logon script = %U.bat
# Where to store roving profiles (only for Win95 and WinNT)
# %L substitutes for this servers netbios name, %U is username
# You must uncomment the [Profiles] share below
; logon path = \\%L\Profiles\%U
# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable it's WINS Server
; wins support = yes
# WINS Server - Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client
# Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both
; wins server = w.x.y.z
# WINS Proxy - Tells Samba to answer name resolution queries on
# behalf of a non WINS capable client, for this to work there must be
# at least one WINS Server on the network. The default is NO.
; wins proxy = yes
# DNS Proxy - tells Samba whether or not to try to resolve NetBIOS names
# via DNS nslookups. The default is NO.
dns proxy = no
# These scripts are used on a domain controller or stand-alone
# machine to add or delete corresponding unix accounts
; add user script = /usr/sbin/useradd %u
; add group script = /usr/sbin/groupadd %g
; add machine script = /usr/sbin/adduser -n -g machines -c Machine -d /dev/null -s /bin/false %u
; delete user script = /usr/sbin/userdel %u
; delete user from group script = /usr/sbin/deluser %u %g
; delete group script = /usr/sbin/groupdel %g
include = /etc/samba/usershare.conf
#============================ Share Definitions ==============================
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = yes
writable = yes
[media-server]
comment = Media Server
path = /media/media-server
browseable = yes
writable = yes
printable = yes
valid users = theavataroftime, christina
follow symlinks = yes
[theavataroftime]
comment = The Avatar of Time's Home Directory
path = /home/theavataroftime
browseable = yes
writable = yes
printable = yes
valid users = theavataroftime
follow symlinks = yes
[christina]
comment = Christina's Home Directory
path = /home/christina
browseable = yes
writable = yes
printable = yes
valid users = christina
follow symlinks = yes
[server]
comment = Server
path = /srv
browseable = yes
writable = yes
printable = yes
valid users = theavataroftime, christina
follow symlinks = yes
# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons
; [netlogon]
; comment = Network Logon Service
; path = /usr/local/samba/lib/netlogon
; guest ok = yes
; writable = no
; share modes = no
# Un-comment the following to provide a specific roving profile share
# the default is to use the user's home directory
;[Profiles]
; path = /usr/local/samba/profiles
; browseable = no
; guest ok = yes
# NOTE: If you have a BSD-style print system there is no need to
# specifically define each individual printer
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = yes
Set public = yes to allow user 'guest account' to print
guest ok = yes
writable = no
printable = yes
# This one is useful for people to share files
;[tmp]
; comment = Temporary file space
; path = /tmp
; read only = no
; public = yes
# A publicly accessible directory, but read only, except for people in
# the "staff" group
;[public]
; comment = Public Stuff
; path = /home/samba
; public = yes
; writable = yes
; printable = no
; write list = @staff
# Other examples.
# A private printer, usable only by fred. Spool data will be placed in fred's
# home directory. Note that fred must have write access to the spool directory,
# wherever it is.
;[fredsprn]
; comment = Fred's Printer
; valid users = fred
; path = /homes/fred
; printer = freds_printer
; public = no
; writable = no
; printable = yes
# A private directory, usable only by fred. Note that fred requires write
# access to the directory.
;[fredsdir]
; comment = Fred's Service
; path = /usr/somewhere/private
; valid users = fred
; public = no
; writable = yes
; printable = no
# a service which has a different directory for each machine that connects
# this allows you to tailor configurations to incoming machines. You could
# also use the %U option to tailor it by user name.
# The %m gets replaced with the machine name that is connecting.
;[pchome]
; comment = PC Directories
; path = /usr/pc/%m
; public = no
; writable = yes
# A publicly accessible directory, read/write to all users. Note that all files
# created in the directory by users will be owned by the default user, so
# any user with access can delete any other user's files. Obviously this
# directory must be writable by the default user. Another user could of course
# be specified, in which case all files would be owned by that user instead.
;[public]
; path = /usr/somewhere/else/public
; public = yes
; only guest = yes
; writable = yes
; printable = no
# The following two entries demonstrate how to share a directory so that two
# users can place files there that will be owned by the specific users. In this
# setup, the directory should be writable by both users and should have the
# sticky bit set on it to prevent abuse. Obviously this could be extended to
# as many users as required.
;[myshare]
; comment = Mary's and Fred's stuff
; path = /usr/somewhere/shared
; valid users = mary fred
; public = no
; writable = yes
; printable = no
; create mask = 0765
Now I wouldn't think I would need to list my home and mom's home seperately, but since [homes] has never worked for me in the past i thought i would give it a try. Does this look like something that would do what I am wanting?
Otherwise I would delete [homes], [media-server], [theavataroftime], [christina], and [server] and replace them with just [samba-share] with all those as symlinks inside that directory as before mentioned.
Anyway, thanks for the help. Any good guide on this matter would be appreciated, I have looked at several, but more can't hurt . Networking isn't my thing so to speak, so please be specific in any explanations. Thanks again.
Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-03-02 03:38:12)

Answer 1

Well it seems that my trouble all started when I began using the 'printable = yes' option for shares. Since I removed that the troubles seem to have left me.
Does anyone know why that is listed as on option in smb.conf here:
# A publicly accessible directory, but read only, except for people in
# the "staff" group
;[public]
; comment = Public Stuff
; path = /home/samba
; public = yes
; writable = yes
; printable = no
; write list = @staff
As well as in a few other examples if it doesn't work? I seen the example and assumed that option was needed to print from those shared directories.
Also, it seems that the comma is not needed between the 'valid users' names.
Also, I guess it wasn't Windows XP's fault either but rather my own ignorance. I like the idea of blaming Windows better though.....
I hope this servers to help others to aviod my mistakes.