Unable to connect to shared folder on ZorinOS from Windows

General Help
1

I had this working but it's stopped working and I don't know why.

I created a folder on my Zorin desktop and shared it. Set permissions to everyone "Create and Delete".

After researching this problem I have done the following with no results.

  • Installed SMB 1.0/CIFS Client & server onto the Windows system and restarted
  • Ran various commands to check Samba status, restart samba, etc.

Samba appears to be installed, up to date, and running. I've changed the workgroup in the smb.conf file to match the windows network and restarted.

whereis samba
samba: /usr/sbin/samba /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/samba /etc/samba /usr/share/samba /usr/share/man/man7/samba.7.gz /usr/share/man/man8/samba.8.gz

Both windows and linux systems are on a wired Ethernet network on the same network switch.

When I attempt to add a network location in Windows to the shared folder - \192.168.1.x\share I get:

The folder you entered does not appear to be valid. Please choose another

When I attempt to map a drive to it:

Using cached credentials
"Windows can not access \192.168.1.xxx\share. Check the spelling of the name...

Choosing "Connect Using Different Credentials"
The prompt to connect has my username in it and a blank password field. I enter the password, hit enter and wait, then get another prompt for the password. I enter it and wait then it returns the same error as above.

The username and password are the same on both Windows and Zorin systems.

I have a DLNA server running (JRiver MediaCenter) on the Zorin system and the windows computer can see and connect to that without problems.

I have another ZorinOS computer running on the same network and it can not see this Zorin system or connect to the shared folder. The problem seems to be on this Zorin system.

It seems I take one step forward then two steps backwards.

Any ideas what could be happening?
Thanks

2

I'm not sure. If you use a firewall "sudo ufw allow samba" and then restart samba with

sudo service smbd restart

could help.

Here are some general guides:

1 Like
3

Thanks! Those articles helped. Opening up the firewall to Samba and creating the samba user account worked. This kind of stuff should be pinned to the top of the forum list for common questions. I would think the kind of person brave enough to attempt switching to Linux probably has multiple computers on a network already and would likely want to connect them together. For a new user, connecting to a Windows PC should work out of the box, or be simpler to setup, or documented better. There seems to be answers for common problems it's just so time consuming to get at them. Thank you for your help!

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