# Win XP Home, Linux, and SAMBA: how should it work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041 "2002-10-13T03:11:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/1 "2002-10-13T03:11:56Z")
I’m trying to network my Win XP Home machine and my Linux 8.0 box together. My goal is to access a shared directory on the LINUX machine from the Win XP box. I have SAMBA running on the Linux machine, and the XP machine sees it in its workgroup. When I double-click the entry for the Linux machine in the list of machines in the workgroup, I get the message “\Linuxpc is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The network path was not found.” My question is, when this is working properly, what exactly should happen here? Should it prompt me for a Linux username/password? Should it go automatically to the home dir of a user with the same username and password as my Win XP user name? I know that XP Home has less network capabilites than XP Pro, but upgrading is not an option. It’s my understanding that XP Home should work, and others have reported success with it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/2 "2002-10-13T07:54:32Z")
I don’t know what type of Linux you have there (SUSE?), but the first thing you need to do is to set a USER account in both XP and Linux with the same username and password. On Linux you need also to use the smbpasswd command to add the new user to the smbpasswd file; this depends on the kind of Linux you have, but this file is usually located in the /etc folder. The command: smbpasswd -a Revtim Will add your name to the file and the password, after you answer the prompt in Linux. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/3 "2002-10-13T08:06:02Z")
You need to create a domain, set up samba as the PDC, and proceed from there. ---
**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/4 "2002-10-13T09:23:31Z")
You **don’t** need to create a domain. Do what **GIGObuster** suggested, but also check the encryption settings in the config file. There are certain considerations when using samba with XP (or any NT-based system), and I always have to read the documentation very carefully in order to get it set up right. I can tell you that my samba setup is working with XP Pro right now, and this part of the config was critical: # You may wish to use password encryption. Please read # ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation. # Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents encrypt passwords = yes Find and read ENCRYPTION.txt and WinNT.txt. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/5 "2002-10-13T13:16:52Z")
I’m using Red Hat Linux 8.0. I did in fact already make make both a Linux user/password and a SAMBA user/password (with smbpasswd) that matched my XP username/password. I had to add a password to the XP user, since it didn’t have one before. XP home does not support logging into a domain, so that’s not an option. Shouldn’t be necessary though, as **galt** suggests. **galt** , I thought I had read about the password encryption issue, but probably not as carefully as I need to. The problem I had there was that the registry keys referenced in the file for NT didn’t exist on XP, so I turned off the password encryption on SAMBA. Shouldn’t it work this way, albeit in a less in a less secure manner? I will read those documents again more carefully, this is probably the key to my problems. Thanks for the help, guys. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/6 "2002-10-13T14:19:38Z")
The ENCRYPTION.txt simply doesn’t exist on the LINUX machine, the find command didn’t find it (or encryption.txt either). I did find the WinNT.txt file describing the registry path to the enablePlainTextPassword value, but that path simply does not exist in the XP registry. I did find a web page that showed where it was on XP though, and I changed it from 0 to 1. I rebooted everything, and the problem is still there. I also tried it where encrypt passwords = no (rebooted), and it still failed. **galt** , on your setup, what happend when you double-clink the Linux entry on your XP machine? Certainly it doesn’t give you the error like I have, but what does it do? Does it just start browsing shared directories? Browsing the home directory of your Linux account that matches your XP account? Does it prompt you for username/password? ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/7 "2002-10-13T15:03:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Revtim \* > XP home does not support logging into a domain, so that’s not an option. What?! That’s such a piece of crap. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/8 "2002-10-13T15:26:57Z")
FYI, I found the ENCRYPTION.txt file on the web([http://us1.samba.org/samba/ftp/docs/textdocs/ENCRYPTION.txt](http://us1.samba.org/samba/ftp/docs/textdocs/ENCRYPTION.txt)), haven’t gone through it yet. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/9 "2002-10-13T17:45:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Urban Ranger \* > \*\* > > What?! > > That’s such a piece of crap. \*\* Yeah, it is…especially when all other versions of Windows have the ability to log into a domain. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2002, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/10 "2002-10-14T13:25:41Z")
Since it’s not necessary for my SAMBA project, it’s not a big deal that there’s no domain support. I wonder if it would be easier, though. ---
**Author:** ![dylan\_73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/11 "2002-10-15T12:57:59Z")
Have you tried using SWAT to make your smb.conf? Anyway, a simple one I have set up reads: ```auto [global] encrypt passwords = Yes [MyShare] path=/home/myshare read only = No hosts allow = 178.78.178. ``` (not my real ip; just an example) This prompts me for a username/password on Win2K. I got the “Not accessible” error when I originally set it up, because I forgot to turn the encrypt passwords on. This works without changing anything on the Win2K machine. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/12 "2002-10-15T13:28:28Z")
Haven’t tried SWAT yet, that might be my next step. I might need that “hosts allow” statement, I’ll give that a try. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/13 "2002-10-15T16:04:31Z")
Still getting the same error described on the OP. Here’s my smb.conf file, maybe something will look obvious to somebody. My Win XP box has IP 192.168.1.100, the LINUX is 192.168.1.101, both getting IPs via the DHCP function of my LINKSYS Cable/DSL router. The XP box has registry value HK\_LOCAL\_Machine/system/CurrentControlSet/Services/Lanmanworkstation/ Parameters \> EnablePlainTextPassword --\> set to 1 # 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 # # 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 workgroup = REVTIM # server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field server string = REVTIM\_RHLINUX # 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 printcap name = /etc/printcap load printers = yes # It should not be necessary to spell out the print system type unless # yours is non-standard. Currently supported print systems include: # bsd, sysv, plp, lprng, aix, hpux, qnx printing = lprng # 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 = 0 # Security mode. Most people will want user level security. See # security\_level.txt for details. ; security = user # 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 = \ # Password Level allows matching of _n_ characters of the password for # all combinations of upper and lower case. ; password level = 8 ; username level = 8 # You may wish to use password encryption. Please read # ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation. # Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents encrypt passwords = yes smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd # The following is needed to keep smbclient from spouting spurious errors # when Samba is built with support for SSL. ; ssl CA certFile = /usr/share/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt # The following are needed to allow password changing from Windows to # update the Linux system password also. # NOTE: Use these with ‘encrypt passwords’ and ‘smb passwd file’ above. # NOTE2: You do NOT need these to allow workstations to change only # the encrypted SMB passwords. They allow the Unix password # to be kept in sync with the SMB password. ; unix password sync = Yes ; passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u ; passwd chat = _New_password\* %n _Retype_new_password_ %n _passwd:allauthentication_tokens_updated_successfully\* # You can use PAM’s password change control flag for Samba. If # enabled, then PAM will be used for password changes when requested # by an SMB client instead of the program listed in passwd program. # It should be possible to enable this without changing your passwd # chat parameter for most setups. pam password change = yes # Unix users can map to different SMB User names ; username map = /etc/samba/smbusers # 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 = /etc/samba/smb.conf.%m # This parameter will control whether or not Samba should obey PAM’s # account and session management directives. The default behavior is # to use PAM for clear text authentication only and to ignore any # account or session management. Note that Samba always ignores PAM # for authentication in the case of encrypt passwords = yes ; obey pam restrictions = yes # Most people will find that this option gives better performance. # See speed.txt and the manual pages for details socket options = TCP\_NODELAY SO\_RCVBUF=8192 SO\_SNDBUF=8192 # 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 # Configure remote browse list synchronisation here # request announcement to, or browse list sync from: # a specific host or from / to a whole subnet (see below) ; remote browse sync = 192.168.3.25 192.168.5.255 # Cause this host to announce itself to local subnets here ``` remote announce = 192.168.1.255 192.168.2.44 ``` # 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 built-in default for versions 1.9.17 is yes, # this has been changed in version 1.9.18 to no. ; dns proxy = no # Case Preservation can be handy - system default is _no_ # NOTE: These can be set on a per share basis ; preserve case = no ; short preserve case = no # Default case is normally upper case for all DOS files ; default case = lower # Be very careful with case sensitivity - it can break things! ; case sensitive = no #============================ Share Definitions ============================== [homes] comment = Home Directories browseable = no writable = yes valid users = %S create mode = 0664 directory mode = 0775 # If you want users samba doesn’t recognize to be mapped to a guest user ; map to guest = bad user # 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 = no # Set public = yes to allow user ‘guest account’ to print guest ok = no 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](https://boards.straightdope.com/groups/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 = /home/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/local/pc/%m public = no writable = yes read only = No hosts allow = 192.168.1.100 # 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 = /pub public = yes only guest = yes writable = yes printable = no read only = No hosts allow = 192.168.1.100 # 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 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/14 "2002-10-15T18:10:40Z")
I was going to try SWAT, but when I attempted to install the latest RPM (samba-swat-2.2.3a-6.i386.rpm) it said error: Failed dependencies: samba = 2.2.3a is needed by samba-swat-2.2.3a-6 I am using samba-2.2.5-1.i386.rpm. I suppose I could uninstall 2.2.5 and install 2.2.3a, but perhaps someone will be able to see a problem with my smb.cnf file above first. ---
**Author:** ![tourbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@tourbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tourbot)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/15 "2002-10-15T20:18:00Z")
I have found [webmin](http://www.webmin.com/)to be the easiest way to configure SAMBA, or just about anything else you have running on your linux box. Best of all, it is distro independent. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/16 "2002-10-15T23:48:44Z")
I don’t personally have much experience with configuring SAMBA, but I have friends who do. Their opinion is a simple one: don’t use Red Hat. Try using Mandrake or SuSE instead. While Red Hat is generally an excellent version of Linux, my friends have had poor to no luck with SAMBA and Red Hat. After switching to another Linux, the setup (so they say) was much, much easier. Just wanted to point out another option. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/17 "2002-10-16T01:38:27Z")
**tourbot** , thanks for the link to webmin, I might give that a try. I’m going out of town for a week or so, so it’ll be a while before I try it. **Pleonast** , thanks for the info. I might very well try another LINUX system, if I don’t have any better luck soon with RH. My frustation level is rapidly approaching my interest level on this project. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/18 "2002-10-16T06:08:56Z")
Revtim, I don’t know anybody who uses XP with linux, so I’m just taking some guesses. First, change the line in smb.conf that says ; security = user to say security = share Next, comment out all the pam, password chat, and smbpasswd lines. If XP Home doesn’t support domain logons, these will cripple you, since they only work with validated logons (I think). You said you already created a pcguest account on both machines and assigned permissions accordingly, right? Finally, if that doesn’t work, go to my #1 resource for linux troubleshooting information: [http://groups.google.com/](http://groups.google.com/) Use search terms: samba linux XP and your error message. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/19 "2002-10-16T14:17:10Z")
Thanks **Joe\_Cool** , I’ll give that a try when I get back home in a week or so. I did do several Google groups searches already, but I didn’t see anything that helped. ---
**Author:** ![dylan\_73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041/20 "2002-10-16T17:01:01Z")
I thought that if you compiled Samba from the tarball it included SWAT? I’m not sure though; I use Gentoo and just did “emerge samba”. re smb.conf: the one I quoted above is the _entirety_ of my smb.conf, whereas I see you’ve edited the example one. Maybe just try something simple like mine? You should also check that you can connect to the redhat box from XP in the first place. Try telnetting in, or something, so that you know you can. Oh, and I’m assuming you have actually checked that smbd is running OK, yes? 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-home-linux-and-samba-how-should-it-work/132041.md?page=2)