New Pi4 Install of Armhf - SAMBA server complete weirdness, and can't share folders

[whonose]

I have fired up a P4 with the armhf version of Ubuntu Mate ( becasue I need stuff that needs 32bit) to replace an old PC that has been running as a sort of file server - Ultimately I need to share a USB drive from it on my local network, but first steps first! - Please can anyone help before I rip my hair out ( more ) - I don't normally aske for help, so if I am doing this wrong, sorry LOL!

The Issue:
No matter what I do/try/read/ throw at it I can't get it to share a folder sanely - I have spent many days on this a,d i have started from imaging an SD card using various ways of running mate on the Pi many times now, and End up in a similar "hole. Shares don't work, and I cannot get the CAJA extension to work either. - Where I am now id the first time I have actually managed to see the shares on another computer...

I have installed all the packages I can see in tutorials etc.

The symptoms:
I can see these shares from a windoze machine with the config below

ONLY the one called smbadmin will allow me to look into it after giving the smbadmin credentals. I can't map or do anything with the others except "Docs" when shows me the smbadmin and the sambauser directories which error if I try to enter them.
I CANNOT find the samba shares on another linux box, even when using the IP address.

My /etc/samba/smb.conf looks like this :

Sample configuration file for the Samba suite for Debian GNU/Linux.

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 most of which

are not shown in this example

Some options that are often worth tuning have been included as

commented-out examples in this file.

- When such options are commented with ";", the proposed setting

differs from the default Samba behaviour

- When commented with "#", the proposed setting is the default

behaviour of Samba but the option is considered important

enough to be mentioned here

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]

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)

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 = yes

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

We want Samba to only log to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd}.

Append syslog X1 if you want important messages to be sent to syslog too.

logging = file

Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace

panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d

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

Server role. Defines in which mode Samba will operate. Possible

values are "standalone server", "member server", "classic primary

domain controller", "classic backup domain controller", "active

directory domain controller".

Most people will want "standalone server" or "member server".

Running as "active directory domain controller" will require first

running "samba-tool domain provision" to wipe databases and create a

new domain.

server role = standalone server

obey pam restrictions = yes

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 <<kahanXinformatik.tu-muenchen.de> 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 unsuccessful authentication attempts are mapped

to anonymous connections

map to guest = bad user

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

The following settings only takes effect if 'server role = classic

primary domain controller', 'server role = classic backup domain controller'

or '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

(this is Samba's default)

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

This allows machine accounts to be created on the domain controller via the

SAMR RPC pipe.

The following assumes a "machines" group exists on the system

; add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -g machines -c "%u machine account" -d /var/lib/samba -s /bin/false %u

This allows Unix groups to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR

RPC pipe.

; add group script = /usr/sbin/addgroup --force-badname %g

############ 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

Some defaults for winbind (make sure you're not using the ranges

for something else.)

; idmap config * : backend = tdb
; idmap config * : range = 3000-7999
; idmap config YOURDOMAINHERE : backend = tdb
; idmap config YOURDOMAINHERE : range = 100000-999999
; template shell = /bin/bash

Setup usershare options to enable non-root users to share folders

with the net usershare command.

Maximum number of usershare. 0 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

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 = no
read only = yes
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.

You may need to replace 'lpadmin' with the name of the group your

admin users are members of.

Please note that you also need to set appropriate Unix permissions

to the drivers directory for these users to have write rights in it

; write list = root, Xlpadmin

[Docs]
path = /home/share
writable = yes
guest ok = yes
guest only = yes
create mode = 0777
directory mode = 0777

[sambauser]
path = /home/share/sambauser
read only = no
browseable = no
force create mode = 0660
force directory mode = 2770
valid users = Xsambauser Xsambashare

[smbadmin]
path = /home/share/smbadmin
read only = no
browseable = yes
force create mode = 0660
force directory mode = 2770
valid users = Xsambashare Xsmbadmin Xpb-desktop3

[testing]
path = /home/pb-desktop3/Public
read only = no
browseable = yes
force create mode = 0660
force directory mode = 2770
valid users = Xsambashare Xsmbadmin

[pb-desktop3]
path = /media/pb-desktop3/VMs/pi_images
read only = yes
browseable = yes
force create mode = 0660
force directory mode = 2770
valid users = Xsambashare Xsmbadmin Xpb-desktop3

(NOTE I had to remove all the "@" from the code & replace the with "X" becasue the forum thought I was referring to users and stopped me!!)

The /var/lib/samba/usershares exists but is empty
The /var/log/samba just has " smbd version 4.15.9-Ubuntu started.
Copyright Andrew Tridgell and the Samba Team 1992-2021"
In it a few times..

Any advise will be well received.. i don't know what other logs I can send - the daemons are running OK

[arQon]

The short answer is, "You're holding it wrong".

If all you want is something to serve files on the LAN, whatever customization you've done to the config has probably only made it worse.

Save your modified config file somewhere (if you want, though I wouldn't bother), then delete it and reinstall the default one.

$ service smbd stop

Edit the config file and add this at the end of it:

   [public]
      path = /mnt/wherever-you-put-the-usb-drive (See #1)
      public = yes
      writable = yes
      browsable = yes

$ service smbd start

That's literally all there is to it.

#1: Mount the drive properly: that is, under /mnt/ and defined in fstab. Do not use /media/, and do not rely on the desktop to mount it for you.

Mount it from a MATE client first to make sure you got it right:
$ sudo mount -v -t cifs //pi/public /mnt/pi/ -o vers=3.0,guest,noperm

Once you've made it that far, do the same thing via net use on the Windows box, or browse for it, or whatever makes you happy.