Ubuntu

Help with accessing shared Windows Vista computer with Ubuntu TT (14 LTS).

Asked by RobMunda

I am attempting to setup up my Ubuntu TT (14 LTS) to access my shared files on my Vista computer on my home network. I've been able to access that computer from other Windoze computers for years, so I'm certain that I have that end of it set up properly and need a well-written tutorial for this version of Ubuntu.

I've gone through about 6 tutorials online and they were all written for previous versions of Ubuntu. Samba has apparently changed since these as well as the file browsers. The images shown in these tutorials show options not available on my system, I'm never prompted for my password as shown in them, etc.

I changed my workgroup in Ubuntu to reflect the name on the Vista machine.

I also went about editing smbcredentials to add the username/password for the Vista machine and /etc/fstab and when I run sudo mount -a I get an error saying that the line that I added is incorrect, even though I've followed the instructions to the best of my ability.

Can anyone point me to a new tutorial or give me some advice on what I should or shouldn't be doing?

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
RobMunda
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
RobMunda (robmunda) said : 		#1

Additional info:

This is the error that I'm getting in the file broswer when attempting to access Windowsshare. The name of my machine shows up in the list, but I cannot log onto it.:

[mntent]: line 14 in /etc/fstab is bad
mount: can't find /media/windowsshare in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

Line 14 from fstab (replaced personal info with descriptive names in brackets, the brackets are not typed into fstab)

//[name of Vista machine]/Public /media/windowsshare cifs credentials=/home/[Ubuntu username]/ .smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,sec=ntlm 0 0

I have also tried variations, such as replacing the name of the Vista machine with its IP address, changing the Public (mount point) to the name of the drive on the Vista machine, its drive letter, and to various shared folders. All give me the same error.

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

Are you wanting to mount the Windows share, or are you wamting Windows to mount a share in Ubuntu?

Revision history for this message
RobMunda (robmunda) said : 		#3

I want to mount the windowsshare from Ubuntu. I'm pretty sure that I'm missing something simple, or that I've somehow got the syntax wrong, but I'm not sure what the procedure is and couldn't find the info with Google searches. I won't need to mount the Ubuntu machine from the Vista one, so even if it's a one way link, that's fine.

Revision history for this message
Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty (hamishmb) said : 		#4

Yes, the syntax is wrong, you don't use // to mount windows network shares in Linux. You should remove that entry from /etc/fstab, because it won't work. To access the share, boot ubuntu and windows Vista, check the network sharing preferences in Windows, as they seem to randomly reset, and access the share through "network" in the file browser after waiting a few minutes from connecting the machines together. Also, make sure the IPs are on the same network (I.E 192.168.0 with subnet 255.255.255.0, which you can check with the ipconfig command with Windows, and with ifconfig in Linux. For Linux, your ethernet card is probably "eth0", so look for inetaddr under eth0, and it'll hopefully be similar to Windows's one.

Hope this helps,
Hamish

Revision history for this message
Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty (hamishmb) said : 		#5

** Sorry: typo

I meant the network 192.168.0.x above.

Hamish

Revision history for this message
RobMunda (robmunda) said : 		#6

I removed the faulty line from /etc/fstab.

I checked on both the Vista machine and my Ubuntu machine and both are at 192.168.1.x and the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, so that seems good, well, they match up, anyway.

However, I found the info for the Ubuntu machine in the wlan0 section and not in the eth0 section. The eth0 section only gives a HWaddr and not an IP address. I'm unsure if this is normal or not.

I'm not seeing my workgroup name in my file browser. I did restart both machines. File browser > Browse Network shows a folder (with an ethernet jack icon) named Windows Network. Clicking on it gives the following error:

Unable to access location. Failed to retrieve share list from server: No such file or directory.

At one point, since I first attempted to access the Vista machine from this Ubuntu machine, my workgroup name did show up in the file browser, but no longer. I did install a program that was supposed to help, called pyneighborhood, but that did not work and I have since removed it from my system. I have tried many things that were supposed to help, but nothing has fixed things.

I realize since I've been trying various things that I may have made matters worse, and admittedly, I can't say for certain what all I've done. What would you suggest that I do for the next step? I'm willing to sort out the mess I've made. I'm willing to try other steps. I'm also willing to reinstall Ubuntu from scratch since it's only been a short while since I installed it to this machine.

Revision history for this message
RobMunda (robmunda) said : 		#7

I reinstalled from scratch and found an accurate tutorial to set Samba up correctly. Apparently there are 1000's of incorrect tutorials with bad information (like above). Since I didn't know everything I had done, I figured the fresh start was a better choice, rather than try to undo the 20 things I had tried.

All of the computers in my house (each with a different OS) can now communicate with each other.