Long Time Samba No Work-Need Expert Help On SAmba/Networking-Ahhh, Some Success

[jurgen.romer at jippii.fi]

> Well, after many painful trials involving many posts,
> googles, suggestions and reading manuals and
> official/unofficial user guides, this issue is solved.
> I'm now able to "map network drives" from my WinXP. 
> The solution was to add a line,"netbios name =
> name_of_your_server (no spaces)", from 
> http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Share_files_using_Samba
> found googling for "ubuntu samba smb.conf" and by
> uncommenting the line "directory mask = 0775" in the
> homes section(this line was uncommented in earlier
> trials but still couldn't map drives).
> I did not see the "netbios name" entry in the default
> smb.conf file or in the Off/Unoff user guides or the
> manuals that I recall. This made a solutions very
> difficult. I desperately wanted an example of a
> working smb.conf but couldn't find one googling or get
> one from the user group.  That would have been
> helpful. I would think the the user group would feel
> that way, too, but no.  Resolving this issue took way
> too much time, effort and patience than is warranted
> and many less determined people would have abandoned
> the effort if they had the problems I did.
> I have some further comments that please consider as a
> critique not criticism:
> 
> 1. Both the official and unofficial user guides were
> virtually useless in solving my problems.  Most
> everything listed I had already done manually and
> those new items that appeared were not plain, clear
> instructions easily followed.  My earlier posts on the
> subject exemplifies that point.
> 2. An example of a working smb.conf would be most
> helpful for a noobie, or someone just not having the
> knowledge of what goes in it as I am. 
> 3.Someone should edit the user guides to provide
> explanations on those items that are unusual, cryptic
> or easily misinterpreted.  No,not me as I don't have
> the knowledge or experience.  The job wouldn't be hard
> for a person with the knowledge.
> 4. I hate reading manuals(and guides) as they try to
> cover too much and make clear nothing.  I wonder why
> any body bothers.  They would be more useful if they
> had two sections, one detailing setup and another
> detailing how to use the program. If it's going to
> clutter up my HDD space it should be useful to one
> just starting Linux. Examples should be mandatory.
> 5. All default setups/conf files should just work out
> of the box(windows does, bite my tongue as I like
> Linux and Ubuntu). I don't see that this should be so
> hard. I came to Ubuntu from Debian just because
> someone told me how easy it is to install and use.  I
> could fill in a whole month's of user list posts with
> my trouble with Debian setup issues. Not user
> friendly. Ubuntu does this better than any other linux
> distro but it's a long way from perfect and you can't
> always get a quick, down and dirty, fix from the list.
>  This case is an example.
> If I were a young person, I'd chalk it up to learning
> and education.  But I don't have that time or luxury.
> 6.If Linux and Ubuntu are going to continue to make
> inroads against windows it has to become even more
> user friendly and just work out of the box as windows
> usually does.  Wont argue about windows vs. Linux;
> just my opinion and an expression of my dislikes and
> issues with Linux in general.
> 
> Well enough of this. Please take my comments as
> constructive even if nothing is done about it as I
> expect it wont.
> Thanks to everyone offering help on this issue,
> especially Karl who was most constructive and pointed
> out things I wasn't aware of.  Many thanks.
> 
> Leonard Chatagnier
> lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net
> 
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I totally agree with Leonard, that the user guides are rather useless 
and the help from user groups isn't that good either. I also agree with 
Leonard that this is constructive criticism and I'm happy that Leonard 
spoke about this.

Having said this, I want to make it clear that I really like Ubuntu and 
I won't go back to Windows even if I think that it was at some points 
easier to use for an average computer user (setting up network etc.).

I have also googled and sent messages to both Finnish and English user 
groups. Nothing has helped.

I think that Ubuntu 7.04 is really user friendly. That's hy I like it. 
Solving problems with it is, however, not. There is still a lot to do in 
providing easy and thorough help. And yes, I have googled tens of help 
pages for over a week now.

I still can't find my Win XP machines from Ubuntu, and I still cannot 
find my Ubuntu from Win XP with netbios name, only with IP-number (which 
changes daily due to DHCPand automatic IP from ADSL provider).

I have tried Places - Network - etc and found Windows-network, workgroup 
and Ubuntu machine but nothing else. I have tried Places - Connect to 
Server. I have configured smb.conf in I don't know how many ways 
according to advice that I have found in HowTo's, user guides and user 
groups. Other people seem to have succeeded with similar problems. I 
don't seem to succeed.

Help, anyone?

Jürgen Römer

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