Unable to access shared folder using winxp on ubuntu server 8.04 lts samba config

Did you configure the /etc/samba/smb.conf file directory manually or did you use a tool for it? Can you show us your current configuration?

nope i did not use any tool for it here is my smb.conf file

tanx
[global]

## Browsing/Identification ###

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
   workgroup = WORKGROUP

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
   server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server
; wins support = no

# 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

# This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS.
   dns proxy = no

# What naming service and in what order should we use to resolve host names
# to IP addresses
; name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast

#### Networking ####

# The specific set of interfaces / networks to bind to
# This can be either the interface name or an IP address/netmask;
# interface names are normally preferred
; interfaces = 127.0.0.0/8 eth0

# Only bind to the named interfaces and/or networks; you must use the
# 'interfaces' option above to use this.
# It is recommended that you enable this feature if your Samba machine is
# not protected by a firewall or is a firewall itself. However, this
# option cannot handle dynamic or non-broadcast interfaces correctly.
; bind interfaces only = true

#### Debugging/Accounting ####

# This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
   log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# Cap the size of the individual log files (in KiB).
   max log size = 1000

# If you want Samba to only log through syslog then set the following
# parameter to 'yes'.
; syslog only = no

# We want Samba to log a minimum amount of information to syslog. Everything
# should go to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd} instead. If you want to log
# through syslog you should set the following parameter to something higher.
   syslog = 0

# Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace
   panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d

####### Authentication #######

# "security = user" is always a good idea. This will require a Unix account
# in this server for every user accessing the server. See
# /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/ServerType.html
# in the samba-doc package for details.
; security = user

# You may wish to use password encryption. See the section on
# 'encrypt passwords' in the smb.conf(5) manpage before enabling.
   encrypt passwords = true

# If you are using encrypted passwords, Samba will need to know what
# password database type you are using.
   passdb backend = tdbsam

   obey pam restrictions = yes

; guest account = nobody
   invalid users = root

# This boolean parameter controls whether Samba attempts to sync the Unix
# password with the SMB password when the encrypted SMB password in the
# passdb is changed.
   unix password sync = yes

# For Unix password sync to work on a Debian GNU/Linux system, the following
# parameters must be set (thanks to Ian Kahan <<email address hidden> for
# sending the correct chat script for the passwd program in Debian Sarge).
   passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
   passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .

# This boolean controls whether PAM will be used for password changes
# when requested by an SMB client instead of the program listed in
# 'passwd program'. The default is 'no'.
   pam password change = yes

# This option controls how nsuccessful authentication attempts are mapped
# to anonymous connections
map to guest = bad user

########## Domains ###########

# Is this machine able to authenticate users. Both PDC and BDC
# must have this setting enabled. If you are the BDC you must
# change the 'domain master' setting to no
#
; domain logons = yes
#
# The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set
# It specifies the location of the user's profile directory
# from the client point of view)
# The following required a [profiles] share to be setup on the
# samba server (see below)
; logon path = \\%N\profiles\%U
# Another common choice is storing the profile in the user's home directory
; logon path = \\%N\%U\profile

# The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set
# It specifies the location of a user's home directory (from the client
# point of view)
; logon drive = H:
; logon home = \\%N\%U

# The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set
# It specifies the script to run during logon. The script must be stored
# in the [netlogon] share
# NOTE: Must be store in 'DOS' file format convention
; logon script = logon.cmd

# This allows Unix users to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR
# RPC pipe. The example command creates a user account with a disabled Unix
# password; please adapt to your needs
; add user script = /usr/sbin/adduser --quiet --disabled-password --gecos "" %u

########## Printing ##########

# If you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
; load printers = yes

# lpr(ng) printing. You may wish to override the location of the
# printcap file
; printing = bsd
; printcap name = /etc/printcap

# CUPS printing. See also the cupsaddsmb(8) manpage in the
# cupsys-client package.
; printing = cups
; printcap name = cups

############ Misc ############

# 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
; include = /home/samba/etc/smb.conf.%m

# Most people will find that this option gives better performance.
# See smb.conf(5) and /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/speed.html
# for details
# You may want to add the following on a Linux system:
# SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
   socket options = TCP_NODELAY

# The following parameter is useful only if you have the linpopup package
# installed. The samba maintainer and the linpopup maintainer are
# working to ease installation and configuration of linpopup and samba.
; message command = /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/linpopup "%f" "%m" %s; rm %s' &

# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. If this
# machine will be configured as a BDC (a secondary logon server), you
# must set this to 'no'; otherwise, the default behavior is recommended.
; domain master = auto

# Some defaults for winbind (make sure you're not using the ranges
# for something else.)
; idmap uid = 10000-20000
; idmap gid = 10000-20000
; template shell = /bin/bash

# The following was the default behaviour in sarge,
# but samba upstream reverted the default because it might induce
# performance issues in large organizations.
# See Debian bug #368251 for some of the consequences of *not*
# having this setting and smb.conf(5) for details.
; winbind enum groups = yes
; winbind enum users = yes

# Setup usershare options to enable non-root users to share folders
# with the net usershare command.

# Maximum number of usershare. 0 (default) means that usershare is disabled.
; usershare max shares = 100

# Allow users who've been granted usershare privileges to create
# public shares, not just authenticated ones
   usershare allow guests = yes

#======================= Share Definitions =======================

# Un-comment the following (and tweak the other settings below to suit)
# to enable the default home directory shares. This will share each
# user's home directory as \\server\username
;[homes]
; comment = Home Directories
; browseable = no

# By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change the
# next parameter to 'no' if you want to be able to write to them.
; read only = yes

# File creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create files with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
; create mask = 0700

# Directory creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create dirs. with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
; directory mask = 0700

# By default, \\server\username shares can be connected to by anyone
# with access to the samba server. Un-comment the following parameter
# to make sure that only "username" can connect to \\server\username
# This might need tweaking when using external authentication schemes
; valid users = %S

# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons
# (you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.)
;[netlogon]
; comment = Network Logon Service
; path = /home/samba/netlogon
; guest ok = yes
; read only = yes
; share modes = no

# Un-comment the following and create the profiles directory to store
# users profiles (see the "logon path" option above)
# (you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.)
# The path below should be writable by all users so that their
# profile directory may be created the first time they log on
;[profiles]
; comment = Users profiles
; path = /home/samba/profiles
; guest ok = no
; browseable = no
; create mask = 0600
; directory mask = 0700

;[printers]
; comment = All Printers
; browseable = no
; path = /var/spool/samba
; printable = yes
; guest ok = yes
; read only = yes
; create mask = 0700
#-----------------this is my shared folder-----------------#
[Test-Folder]
   comment = shared folder
   path = /home/Test-Folder
   browseable = yes
   writeable = yes
   guest ok = no
   create mask = 0700
#-------------------------------------------------------------#
# Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable
# printer drivers
;[print$]
; comment = Printer Drivers
; path = /var/lib/samba/printers
; browseable = yes
; read only = yes
; guest ok = no
# Uncomment to allow remote administration of Windows print drivers.
# Replace 'ntadmin' with the name of the group your admin users are
# members of.
; write list = root, @ntadmin

# A sample share for sharing your CD-ROM with others.
;[cdrom]
; comment = Samba server's CD-ROM
; read only = yes
; locking = no
; path = /cdrom
; guest ok = yes

# The next two parameters show how to auto-mount a CD-ROM when the
# cdrom share is accesed. For this to work /etc/fstab must contain
# an entry like this:
#
# /dev/scd0 /cdrom iso9660 defaults,noauto,ro,user 0 0
#
# The CD-ROM gets unmounted automatically after the connection to the
#
# If you don't want to use auto-mounting/unmounting make sure the CD
# is mounted on /cdrom
#
; preexec = /bin/mount /cdrom
; postexec = /bin/umount /cdrom

Try to add these options in your Test-Folder section:

public = yes
writeable = Yes

and restart samba:

invoke-rc.d samba restart

Also check the filesystem permissions on the test folder and its contents:
ls -lad /home/Test-Folder
ls -la /home/Test-Folder

Good day.

I've tried what you have told me to do however it display the same result before

public = yes
writeable = yes

and restarted samba

when I've tried invoke-rc.d samba restart

it does give me an error saying
start-stop-daemon : warning: failed to kill 6509: operation not permitted
start-stop-daemon : warning: failed to kill 6511: operation not permitted

what thus it means

thank you and more power

To restart samba please open a Terminal from the menu Applications->Accessories->Terminal and type:

sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter.

HTH

@ marcobra nope it didn't ask for a password when i try to type those in. it does only ask for a password only one when i am accessing sudo /etc/samba/smb.conf after that it doesn't ask for any passwords at all

ls -lad /home/Test-Folder
ls -la /home/Test-Folder
------------------------------------
and when i tried this commands i also received an error message saying
ls: cannot access /home/Test-Folder: no such directory

however the folder name "Test-Folder is located on home folder

Please copy and paste the result of:

ls -la /home/

Thank you

@marcobra
here is the result of ls -la/home/

total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-06-25 08:17 .
drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 4096 2008-06-25 11:15 ..
drwxr-xr-x 34 administrator administrator 4096 2008-06-26 13:18 administrator

It seems from the above that you do not have a Test-Folder under /home. Create it and try again.

Please create the directory it doesn't exist open a Terminal from the menu Applications->Accessories->Terminal and type:

mkdir /home/Test-Folder

and if above command fail

sudo mkdir /home/Test-Folder

then give all permission to this new directory (you may want to restrict this permission after your tests for security), type:

sudo chmod 777 /home/Test-Folder

give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter.

Hope this helps

@marcobra,
thanks for helping me out it really works like magic, however i do have a question? unlike windows server you can set and grant permission on folders to the selected users for example user1 can only access the test-folder and user2, user3 can not access the same folder user1 can. How can I be able to do the same with ubuntu server :D

You can use the "read-list" and "write-list" directives on a share. For example:

        write list = @group-of-users-with-wirite-access
        read list = user-with-read-access

So groups start with "@" and user with normal alphanumeric characters.

For more directives read the man page of smb.conf:

man smb.conf

thanks for helping me guys