Problems with SMB and file sharing in Lion

What settings are required? Samba starts, but I can not connect via smb :/ / 192.168.1.2/Share.

I was able to get the "scan to network folder" option working on my HP OfficeJet Pro 8500A plus using SBMUp with OSX 10.7.3. Thanks for the tip!

Just installed Samba 3 with MacPorts. I can connect to the share from Windows XP (VMWare), Opensuse 11.2 (VMWare) and from my printer (HP 8500) but not from the Finder. Apple, how long must we wait? Very poor. 😟

Hello, everyone.

I am the developer for SMBUp. I see some comments that it doesn't work in this specific scenario and want to help make it at least able to mimic the current set-up.

Some background:

SMBUp exists because a lot of my friends were affected Lion retiring Samba for their own solution. The reasons behind this change are varied and justifiable on Apple's part, but the effect on users are undeniable. Old devices are incapable to connect to SMB shared from Lion. These old devices use an obsolete and old version of Samba (since it's the only free and available implementation, just as Apple did in OS X until 10.7) and the client in this version is incapable of connecting to SMB folder shared in modern versions of the protocol (Lion supports SMB2, non GNU/GPL V3 Samba versions only support the old, 1997, slow and obsolete version of SMB implemented in Windows 3.1 for Workgroups).

For these devices there's usually no way to use different versions of the SMB protocol, so even though Apple's actions may be justified the problem exists and needs fixing.

Enter Samba through MacPorts. From the very first day Lion was launched tutorials were made to install Samba through MacPorts. These meant a lot of steps and a certain degree of expertise and time, as Xcode had to be downloaded and packages installed (several hours in total).

I created SMBUp because I'd been arguing someone would come up with a front-end for Samba from the day Lion was released and after almost a full year couldn't believe nothing had come up. This also meant creating a Samba installer to free users of the need to do Xcode and Macports if all they wanted was samba.

So, to be clear: SMBUp is a front-end for Samba 3.2.15 and is fully compatible with MacPorts' installation (if you allow SMBUp to install itself you'll end up with the exact same set-up ad MacPorts).

This means there's no difference in running Samba from a macports installation and using SMBup for it. There might be differences in the configuration of Samba itself, though.

SMBUp provides a front-end for most functionality in SMB.CONF but doesn't preclude knowing about it for more advanced uses. It doesn't include either HOMES or PRINTERS shares yet, so these are ignored.

When loading shares in SMBUp is uses default values for them (namely: guest access enabled, read-only shared folders). These can be overriden and advances settings accessed. For example, if your shared folder requires "create mask" to be "0765" and "printable" to be set to "no" this can be done through the advanced settings.

Currently SMBUp doesn't store paths with spaces enclosed in double quotes. This shouldn't be a problem since Samba doesn't require it. You may see this difference if you compare both.

Also, if you install SMBUp and had Macports installed before, you can allow the program to read your existing config file or to create one from scratch. In either case we recommend keeping a copy of the one you know already works (normal location for smb.conf is "/opt/local/etc/samba/smb.conf". If you close SMBUp once installed and copy the old file in the new location, upon start SMBUp should parse it properly.

Let me know if you want specific help with SMBUp.

To all thoses newbies having problems.

Have your Enabled File Sharing in System Preferences ?

My Setup:

1) Enter System Preferences -> Sharing, tick File Sharing. Add the required folder you want to share.

2) Now click options, tick the correct User and also tick "Share files and folders using SMB (Windows)"

3) Now enter Network in System Preferences, select either WIFI or Ethernet depending on what your running.

Click Advanced.

Click WINS.

Now the "NetBIOS Name" is the local SMB address you will references when accessing OSX shares from an external source. ie. <username> dash <Lion computer name>.

Mine is "MONKEYS-IMAC"

"Workgroup" on mine is "WORKGROUP" by default.

4) I would recommend you address your SMB shard folder via the NetBIOS name only.

If you use an IP address, problems can be encountered when you turn your machine off and your router Dynamically issues a different IP address than the one previous.

My local address "smb://MONKEYS-IMAC_SMB/BBO_Movies/"

*****

Note when using SMBUp and Samba 3 server you have to add "_SMB" to the end of the NetBIOS name.

*****

5) On my shared XBMC setup, I just select smb: and then WORKGROUP and then MONKEYS-IMAC_SMB then BBO_Movies, and it all just works.

Thanks Eduardo !!!

I hope that helps.

Thank you! This worked...

SMBUp worked for me as well. This with following wrxtasy's instructions. I let SMBUp automatically download and install what it needed and it worked fine. I can now scan to my Network Folder something I havn't been able to do since I upgraded to Lion.

hello,

I tried SMBup. I was etremly happy to find it but it doesn't work for me.

I have too messages :

Error getting online data1

Error getting online data2

the crash

Could you help me. I'd like to access my smb disc with my files...

Thank in Admance

Micael (France... sorry for my poor english)

Hello, Micael.

This error shows up when SMBUp is not able to load the information from the remote server when trying to install. Are you sure you have connectivity to the internet when trying to install? SMBUp needs to connect to the internet to get the Samba installer.

If you want to install manually I can give you the steps here.

Thanks for the extra information.

Just a note: The "_SMB" should not be mandatory, but it must be aligned across different systems. If you change the name in SMBUP (it puts _SMB by default, but it's not required to keep it that way) you should also change it in the NETBIOS name, as you rightly mention, so both check out.

Hello,

It was a proxy problem. It is fixed. Samba isi installed (i think) but the button is still in red, turning. So Samba is not activated.

Hello wrxtasy

I have a Ricoh SP C222SF desktop MFD and when I add the _SMB bit at the end of the net bios name, it immediatey comes up with 'destination failed'. When I take it off, it comes up with 'connecting to server' and then to connection failes after about 20 seconds. So for me the _SMB at the end of the netbios name doesn't work. I'm on 10.7.3 and I've installed SMBup as per instructions, but still no joy. Tried various options, but no luck. Any ideas?

follow up: I have no problem dropping files into a share on 10.7.3 from a Windows XP machine. And that was after I un-installed SMBup, so what's going on? Why won't my Ricoh machine scan to the same folder that my XP machine can drop files into. (XP Pro SP3 on VMware Fusion 4.1 on iMac running 10.6.8) On XP I've used the local Host name as found in the network set up on the Mac, but the scanner doesn't recognise it, so I have to use the netbios name. The machine works fine on Leopard or Snow Leopard, but no joy with Lion, so I'm confused since XP can drop files into it. Using the netbios name in XP doesn't work, but using the IP address and then browsing to folder and files does. Please clarify or give me some hints please?

Thanks

G'day bj110,

Windows XP can access OS X SMB fileshares because it recognises the SMB v2 protocol that Apple has implemented in Lion (and which is the default in Windows Vista / 7).

However the Ricoh has only implemented SMB v1 (via the Samba software). Thus it can't access SMB v2 fileshares.

The current situation is the reverse of that which existed in Snow Leopard (where OS X could only access and create SMB v1 file shares). It is a better position for the future, because (ultimately) Microsoft will abandon SMB v1 when it drops support for Windows XP. When that happens, all of the peripheral manufacturers will be forced to upgrade their file sharing software!

In the meantime, the only way to get "both worlds" is to implement Samba on OS X yourself.

Cheers,

Rodney

Hi Rodney,

Thanks very much for your explanation, it's clarified a great deal and will save me a great deal of frustration. As far as implementing Samba myself, do you recommend using SMBUP as in previous posts (I couldn't get that to work for whatever reason) or is it better to go through the manual option in terminal and see if that works (even though I'm not very comfortable with that)?

Once again, thanks for your clarification.

Cheers,

John