MEPIS Community Forum

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According to your smbclient readout:

192.168.1.3 is in a workgroup called MEPIS1 (the smbclient terminology is "Domain" which seems to be interchangable with "workgroup")

192.168.1.5 is in a workgroup called HOWARDXP

That might have something to do with them not seeing each other. MEPIS1 is the default "workgroup" name when you install MEPIS.

Also, the Workgroup Master is listed by 192.168.1.3 as being WOOTONRISE...is that in Workgroup MEPIS1?

But the Workgroup Master listed by 192.168.1.5 is blank which is strange...but it maybe not seeing the Workgroup Master because it is not in Workgroup MEPIS1.

Last question first - yes the XP browses the internet fine, no problems there.
Pinging the ip of the mepis machine shows the correct expected returns.

The net view command told me the syntax was wrong. Following up the info provided and using a number of commands (still on the Xp machine) gave various responses indicating that it could see everything it should *except* for the mepis machine. One output shows the xp machine as a workstation, which surprised me.
I'm now wondering if all this might have started since i installed vmware on the xp machine, although as far as I am aware that is not currently running.

Just shut down some vm stuff i found in background, and now xp net view sees mepis samba, but I still cannot see into mepis files. From the mepis box I can now see the workgroup name come up, but from there it says it cannot resolve a unique server name.

So it looks like this is something to do with the xp's vmware, maybe somethingvelse in the background?

ok. then vmware is doing some weirdness to your network config.

double check that all the workgroup names are the same for all the machines... if not already done, make the changes i suggested about making the samba server THE domain browse master.

also, add the following to the samba config



restart samba. if you're on 8.5, then i believe you have to restart smbd and nmbd each. so, e.g. /etc/init.d/smbd stop will stop smbd, then start it

this last change, in addition to the first group of config changes will make samba THE domain browser AND it will make samba a WINS server enabling netbios name resolution.

caveat emptor... samba NEEDS to be running first before the XP machines to ensure that it is the domain browse master. if not, the higher priority assigned to the samba system in theory should get XP to relinguish its status as browse master, but i've seen this create problems - windows is greedy when it comes to becoming and staying the netbios domain browse master.

XP now back seeing the network IP. DCHP address had become corrupted somehow.

Checked the workgroup name is the same everywhere. It is.

Added the lines to smb.conf. The first and third lines were there, but set to no instead of yes. Now corrected. Copy of smb.conf appended at the end.

It did not recognise the synbtax of the stop and start commands you offered, o I shut down mepis and rebooted. Thn I shut down and rebooted the XP system. Result - back to the original problem still unchanged.

In dolphin, network>samba finds the workgroup name woottonrise ok now. Clicking there produces the message "unable to resolve to a unique server ........"

Here is smb.conf, in case it helps:-

[global]

# Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
workgroup = woottonrise
server string = %h server (Samba %v)
hosts allow = 192.168.0. 192.168.1. 192.168.2. 192.168.79. 127. 10.0.0. 10.1.1.
socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY
log level = 1
dead time = 15
wins support = yes
hide unreadable = yes
passdb backend = tdbsam
dns proxy = yes
host msdfs = no
max log size = 1000
map to guest = Bad Password
restrict anonymous = no
max protocol = NT
ldap ssl = No
server signing = Auto
oplocks = No
level2 oplocks = No
domain master = yes
local master = yes
os level = 65
name resolve order = wins hosts lmhosts bcast
preferred master = yes
;*******************section horby30*****************
[Shared]
path = /home/horby30/Shared
guest ok = yes
read only = no

[Music]
path = /home/horby30/Music
guest ok = yes
read only = no
;*******************section homes*****************
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
read only = no
create mask = 0775
directory mask = 0775
;*******************section printers*****************
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = no
printable = yes
guest ok = yes
create mask = 0700

[HORBY30]
path = /home/horby30
guest ok = yes

[print$]
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browsable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = no

I guess there's stuff n there that's not needed too!

PS Printing:

mepis now seems to print to the XP printer OK.
XP does not seem to print top the mepis printer, although the screenshots all operate and no error message appears.

XP not printing is likely now a permission issue OR a firewall problem.

samba user accounts are different from your linux logins - unless, of course you've set samba to sync your linux accounts.

it could be that your printer isn't shared or not set for guest privileges. i don't have m8.5, so i don't know if printer config stuff is contained in the system settings tool... however, you can access the mepis printer via http://<mepis_ip_addr>:631

cups has been updated on m11, so i don't know if it matches m8.5. on m11's cups, under Administration there is a "Share Printers Connected To This System" option - enable it. Then administer the printer you want shared, and make sure that there isn't a user account restriction

Further looking suggests the mepis server is not running. The router sees the ip address ok, but attempts to read it fail.

Also, commands in konsole such as /etc/init.d/smbd stop produce the message "no such file or directory". Network Assistant>interfaces shows "not started" despite "start at boot" being checked. "Start on Apply" does not start either.

samba is installed by default, but startup synaptic and search for samba to see if it's installed.

ls -d /etc/init.d/s* will show you all commands in that directory that start with s... look for smbd, smb or samba to determine which is the correct...

synaptic showed samba and other stuff had upgrades available, so I let it all upgrade. no apparent problem. But behaviour is exactly the same.

Then used your command suggested, and was surprised to get:-

ls -d /etc.init.d/s*
ls: cannot access /etc.init.d/s*: No such file or directory
[horby30@mepis1 ~]$

Any ideas?

There could be an issue with the Mepis and Windows share. You should look at your shared folders to see what kind of permissions you have.

Michel