Why is samba denying me access to my share?

Question

On my CentOS 5.2 box running Samba (3.0.33-3.29) I created a folder called /upload.

In samba I configured a share like this:

[upload]
        comment = upload folder
        path = /upload
        valid users = kevin root
        public = yes
        writable = yes
        browsable = yes
        create mask = 0777
        directory mask = 0777
        guest ok = yes

I chown'd the /upload folder to my account 'kevin' and checked that I could create files and folders via the shell.

I can browse to the machine from Windows 7, authenticate as 'kevin' and see my home directory share and the upload share but I can't access them.

Windows reports:

Network Error

Windows cannot access \\cos-01\upload

Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click Diagnose.

Error code: 0x80070035
The network path was not found.

This is a check list of what I've done:

• the account kevin was added to samba using smbpasswd -a kevin and setting my password at the same time. The samba and centos passwords are both the same.
• the server name cos-01 is in the /etc/hosts file i.e.

172.0.0.1  localhost localhost.localdomain
172.17.3.90  cos-01

• I've also set the netbios name in /etc/samba/smb.conf
• I configured Windows 7's LAN Manager authentication level to "Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated"

Update:

I tried accessing the share by both IP address and server name i.e. \cos-01\upload or \172.16.3.90\upload. In both cases I get the same error as detailed above.

I checked the /var/log/samba/smbd.log logfile and see lots of:

[2010/07/02 16:56:10, 0] smbd/service.c:make_connection_snum(1013)
  '/upload' does not exist or permission denied when connecting to [upload] Error was Permission denied

Answer 1

There's some additional information you will need to provide to answer this question.

I chown'd the /upload folder to my account 'kevin' and checked that I could create files and folders via the shell.

• Did you do this chown as root, or as kevin, or as some other account?
• What is the group currently assigned to the directory?
• What is the directory's mode? Is the execute bit set for the user and group?

I can browse to the machine from Windows 7, authenticate as 'kevin' and see my home directory share and the upload share but I can't access them.

• Is your Windows 7 machine a member of the same workgroup as the Samba server?
• Is the server a member of a domain, is it a domain controller, or is it a stand-alone server? If your Windows 7 machine is in a domain you'll want to consider joining the server to the domain as well. While not necessary, it will help with authentication.
• What is the security = setting currently at in /etc/samba/smb.conf? If your Samba server is a member of a domain it should probably be security = ads; if your Samba server is stand-alone it should probably be either security = user or security = share.
• Do you have an entry for client signing = no? (You may need yes instead when connecting with newer Windows clients)
• Do you have an entry for client use spnego = no? (You may need yes instead when connecting with newer Windows clients)
• Is winbind running? If your server is not a domain member or a domain controller this may cause a bit of confusion while running; stand-alone servers do not need this service.

Answer 2

Is SELinux active? If it is, then you can make it accessible by setting the type to public_content_t. If samba should be able to write to it, then set the type to public_content_rw_t. Note that if you do the latter, you will also need to tell SELinux about this; my system-config-selinux has a boolean for this: Allow Samba to write files in directories labeled public_content_rw_t

Answer 3

Hmm, this would normally mean that the local path /upload (so, upload in the root of your servr) does not exist on you server.

Answer 4

Try to access the samba server with ip address instead: \_ip_address_of_samba_server_\upload

Also check samba logs in /var/log/samba/log.smbd and see, if the windows client really tries to log in. Otherwise, there is problem with network. And the error seems like it..

Best regards,

Martin

Answer 5

What does smbclient say, if you try to connect via localhost? Same errors, or just SNAFU? And what lines do smbclient and windows share browsing create? Have you tried to login as a nobody, to see that your directory is reachable.

And last but least.... http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/75-63-windows-samba-issue

In which it is recomended that securitylevel is downgraded from (new) 128-bit, allowing connections to older and more compatible versions of windows sharing.

-- Here goes nothing.

Answer 6

Try this, it helpedme

http://winplat.net/post/2012/04/04/Unable-to-access-Samba-shares-from-Windows-7-with-error.aspx