Does Red Hat 9 come with a gui for the client setup of samba? IF if doesn't then how do I set that up?
I noticed that it does have a prog to setup the samba server and I tried to do it as best as I could but it isn't working so hot. I made a user called linux and gave it a password. Then I made a share that is read and write and allowed the user that I just made to be able to access it. On the windowsXP machine I can see the computer called "Linux (Localhost)" and when I click on it a prompt to input the username/password comes up. So I type in the username and password and it doens't work, it just prompts for the username and password again.
To use Red Hat 9 as a client to access shares on Windows machines on your network, there really isn't any configuration you need to do. You don't need to have Samba running at all. If you don't, it's kind of like running a Windows machine without having File and Print Sharing turned on.
I'm using RH9 here and do not have Samba running and I can successfully access the Windows machines on my network.
In RH9, if you click on the start button on the bottom panel, then select Network Servers, you should be able to see and access the Windows machines on your network.
I have not found this to be all that reliable so I like to mount the Windows shares from the command line, then I can access them from the Nautilus GUI file manager.
Look in the Library on this site under File Systems/Mounting smbfs Share Permanently for help in doing this.
There is a GUI program called LinNeighborhood that can be used for mounting Windows shares. You can do a search on it on this forum or at www.google.com/linux for info on how to use it. Since it doesn't actually function as a file manager, I find it easier just to mount the shares from the command line. For a newbie that is intimidated by the command line, it can be quite helpful though.
As far as setting up a Samba server, SWAT can be a great tool. Not only can it make configuring a Samba server easier, it also includes all the Samba help files put out by Samba.org. It's an execllent reference tool. I recommend you get it up and going.
If you are seeing your Linux server as Linux(Localhost) from your Windows machine, you have a configuration problem with your Samba server. Post the contents of your /etc/samba/smb.conf file here.
If you haven't done so yet, I suggest you read through some of the Samba HOW-TOs available at www.samba.org and at the Linux Documentation Project at www.tldp.org
If God hadn't meant for us to use GUI tools, there wouldn't have been a Xerox PARC.
In konqueror I can type smb:/// and browse around. However when I go to the computer I want it has me enter a password then when I try to open a share konqueror just sits there for ever and spins that gear. I found a thread on this problem Here but I can't figure it out.
When I select Network Servers from the menu, it opens up the Nautilus file manager with the command smb:///. It's the same thing you are doing with konqueror. I'm pretty sure konqueror is the file manager for KDE, which I don't use. Nautilus is the file manager for Gnome.
From my experience, neither one does a good job of accessing SMB share on their own. In the thread you referred to some of the guys there have the same problem. There may be a way to make it work, I've just never tried. I prefer to use the method I mentioned in my previous post that is described in the library article.
As far as your problem seeing your Samba shares from Windows machines, you need to give your Samba server a name. Add the line:
netbios name = whatevernameyouchoose
to the global section of your smb.conf file. You can use any name you want as long as it's under 15 characters and doesn't contain a space, a / or \.
Once you add that line, restart Samba and you should eventually see your Samba server from Windows with that name. Be sure to allow enough time for the Windows browse list to update(up to 15 minutes on a large network)
To be able to access the Samba shares from your Windows machines, you need to create the proper user accounts on your Linux machines.
Lets say you use user account hpdeskjet697c on your Windows machines. If you haven't already created an identical account for Linux, execute these commands as root:
useradd hpdeskjet697c
to created the account, then
passwd hpdeskjet697c
to set the password. This password doesn't have to be the same password as for that user on the Windows machine.
Once the Linux user account is created, you then need to create the Samba user account. Execute as root:
smbpasswd -a hpdeskjet697c
It will prompt you for a password for the user. It doesn't have to be the same as on the Windows machine but it sure makes things lots easier if it is.
If it's the first time you have executed the smbpasswd command, you will get an error message about the database not existing but it will create the database and the user account anyhow.
Once you do that, user hpdeskjet697c should be able to access his home directory(because of the [homes] share) and the [drive2] share. If you want the user to have write access to [drive2], be sure to assign write permissions to that directory at the file system level.
If God hadn't meant for us to use GUI tools, there wouldn't have been a Xerox PARC.
all the information you require is in the hundreds of other JL threads on how to set up SAMBA. try using the search button as there are a ton of threads already about this.
"I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them." - Isaac Asimov