My efforts so far to connect to Windows home network:
In reading how others have set up samba, etc, the main thing I'm learning is just how much I do NOT understand. I have a good Windows background, but I'm getting lost very quickly in Zorin-Land.
I have installed Zorin 17.2 Core to parallel boot on an old Win10 pc. I hope to make Zorin my main OS on half my pcs (Win 11 installed on the other 2) but I must be able to access my home network. I have not been successful.
Here's what I tried so far:
I tried to join the Windows workgroup (named KUCHSPOT).
sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
"First, edit the workgroup parameter in the [global] section of /etc/samba/smb.conf and change it to better match your environment:"
workgroup = KUCHSPOT
"...add"
[share]
comment = Zorin File Server Share
path = /srv/samba/share
browsable = yes
guest ok = yes
read only = no
create mask = 0755
restart Samba service to take effect
sudo systemctl restart smbd.service nmbd.service
I am still not able to access any Windows pcs or the Zorin pc from either direction. I don't even see Zorin on my home network, although it does have an IP address.
I went to Home-Public folder; Right click to share this folder; Allow others to create...; Guest access
...but I cannot access it...
Someone's suggestion I followed:
sudo apt install cifs-utils
...don't know why or what it does... didn't see that it did anything.
I go to Other Locations in the File Manager. I click on Windows Network--after thinking for a minute, it finally returns "Folder is Empty."
Is it really this hard to connect Windows pcs with Zorin? I find I am lost when I read links to Ubuntu articles. Can someone lay it out clearly the necessary steps for me to take?
I'm not at home right now to test, so I can't test specifically, but do you have your firewall on and blocking things? This could be an issue that could be blocking you from seeing anything.
I did find the firewall settings. Incoming & Outgoing are both "Allow."
Does the firewall need to be told to give Samba access per the article you referenced?
ufw allow samba
I did discover that I did something right and can access one of my Win 11 pcs from Zorin, but not the other way round. Zorin cannot see the other computers on my network, but could connect with smb://ip address
I did a little digging and it appears there's a pretty well investigated post about this exact sort of issue in regards to TrueNAS (although it applies to other OSs as well):
It might be worth a read through that, it's quite well done. There's also another Ubuntu post that references it, and the script that corresponds with it:
This sounds exactly like what you're talking about, how you can't see them in network discovery but CAN see them if you manually connect.
I'm making progress. Today for the first time I saw my Zorin box on Network Neighborhood on Win11. BUT even though I set the workgroup in the smb.conf, it still shows as WORKGROUP on Win11, which is not the name of my workgroup. Therefore, I cannot access the Z-box.
Any suggestions besides the smb.conf that I might need to change the workgroup?
From recollection it should just be the smb.conf (/etc/samba/smb.conf) and then as you said, change workgroup = to yours (KUCHSPOT). Then save the file, and reboot the samba service :
sudo systemctl restart smbd
If you look in your smb.conf file, did it save the contents correctly after restarting the service? Sometimes something as simple as it not saving could possibly cause that. Could also post a shot of the config just to make sure of that as well.
I have set up a Mint VM on Hyper-v on Win11. I have the same issue there: smb.conf workgroup = KUCHSPOT.
Zorin machine sees and transfers with Mint, but neither with Win11. This is a major sticking point to being able to use Zorin (or Mint) on my home network. Linux is beating me up... or, perhaps it's really Windows and I just don't know it yet...
From the brief googling I had done, this seemed like it may actually be a windows issue more than a Linux one. Unfortunately I don't really have any windows shares or even VMs setup at the moment, so I can't even test.
I know my shares between multiple Linux machines works fine without much hastle, so my hunch is on the windows side. But I could be wrong on that front.
EDIT: If I get some time I'll take a look at spinning up a windows instance and see about it connecting to my existing stuff.
I'm thinking more and more it's on the Windows side. I just opened my Win10Pro pc. On it's network, it can both see and access my Zorin box, no trouble at all.
(but it doesn't see the VM Mint; though Mint sees and accesses Win10)
Win10 also shows it is on a different workgroup than Zorin, which I'm beginning to think the workgroup is NOT the issue.
That is still my thought process, as well, that windows is doing some funny business and is making this harder than it needs to be (definitely not a recurring theme in life lol).
I've begun my research with Windows. Seems Win11 Pro (which I have) has been having problems since some of the latest updates. I'll post here if/when I figure it out.
Because I have used Windows for so long, and Linux is strange to me, I initially assumed it must be the fault of the "Unknown." But then, Win11 is pretty unknown, too, and so much is hidden out of sight from users. Crazy stuff.
Glad you've got a solution figured out, I marked your post as the solution for now. Feel free to let us know if it needs changing if something else happens in the future.
Hopefully this helps someone else with the same problem in the future
