PUPPY SAMBA as a File Server to Windows PCs on a small LAN

Using applications, configuring, problems
Message
Author
User avatar
pemasu
Posts: 5474
Joined: Wed 08 Jul 2009, 12:26
Location: Finland

#31 Post by pemasu »

Sorry about input. I used years ago in NT4 and NT 2000 time sme server as file server and as email server. It was easy to configure, using its browser based management system. The server has no X. I configured it using Putty - ssh connection when I had to do commandline stuff which the browser manager didnt handle. As a server it was good. I wouldnt use it for client tasks, lol...like you use Puppy...but as server it was reliable. And it has PDC - advanced samba properties included.

http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page

laszlok53
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed 11 Jul 2012, 10:42

#32 Post by laszlok53 »

pemasu wrote:Sorry about input. I used years ago in NT4 and NT 2000 time sme server as file server and as email server. It was easy to configure, using its browser based management system. The server has no X. I configured it using Putty - ssh connection when I had to do commandline stuff which the browser manager didnt handle. As a server it was good. I wouldnt use it for client tasks, lol...like you use Puppy...but as server it was reliable. And it has PDC - advanced samba properties included.

http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page
Please don't be sorry, I am grateful for every tips and ideas, and I really find yours interesting, downloaded the SME server and will have a look at it.
Must mention that I'm not a big fan of Red Hat, never learned it to use. But it's never too late to learn, I'm only 59 years old...:-)

In the meantime, I've got the Ubuntu 12.04 to act as a PDC, but still having trouble with understanding the smb.conf. And the whole Ubuntu is unnecessarily complex, rather would like to achieve the same with Puppy.

Hoping Martin gives me a hand.

Thanks

/ Laszlo

User avatar
rcrsn51
Posts: 13096
Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

#33 Post by rcrsn51 »

laszlok53 wrote:In the meantime, I've got the Ubuntu 12.04 to act as a PDC, but still having trouble with understanding the smb.conf. And the whole Ubuntu is unnecessarily complex, rather would like to achieve the same with Puppy.
What happens if you take the smb.conf out of Ubuntu and drop it into FatSlacko?

gcmartin

#34 Post by gcmartin »

Having done about 100 Windows server in my life, I understand the task you are facing.

Without getting into the nitty-gritty (which, by the way, is VERY important) i have to ask you couple of questions. Please understand that I am not trying to put you on the spot, but, just trying to help.

Umm...where to start in helping you....ummm?

OK. Let's tart with FATSLACKO or LightHouse64 Mariner. This can probably be used for what you want to do, but, right now, there is no existing model that has been developed within the community to do even a "SIMPLE PDC". What I consider a simple PDC is setup such that the server provides authoritative login support of all users and has some minor policy management fo what they can/cant see.

Now that that has been said, the nitty-gritty starts to come into play. ... or pray.

So,let me start by asking "have you ever done a Windows server midgration before?" Because there are quite a number of things that will need to be understood such that the user community will NOT know that the server was ever touched, much less replaced.

And, is the people you are trying to help running a Terminal Server. Because if they are, SAMBA will do NOTHING (excepting printers) to address that community?

There are more questions, but, this is a start to try to understand what will happen as we try to guide you to roll your sleeves to help the people you are trying to help.

There much much more than the simplistic stuff I have just covered.

Herd to help

gcmartin

#35 Post by gcmartin »

rcrsn51 wrote:What happens if you take the smb.conf out of Ubuntu and drop it into FatSlacko?
What is offered here is valid.

What he is asking, put a little differently is
Were you able to get Ubuntu to serve files and folders as you wanted?
If so, then
  1. copy Ubuntu's smb.conf (/etc/samba/smb.conf) from Ubuntu,
  2. boot FATSlacko and
  3. replace the sbm.conf that you copied from Ubuntu (again /etc/samba/smb.conf in FatSlacko)
  4. open a terminal window and type "testparm"
  5. if you do not see errors then type smbd restart and FATSLacko will share the same stuff that Ubuntu was sharing.
This will ONLY get the system to share. It does NOTHING for users or authentication which will have to be setup separately in FATSlacko.

Even though Ubuntu's version look a little daunting, this smb.conf will work with problem in FATSLacko.

But, to go further, we still need more (many much more) information to be of any real value.

This project is a pioneer effort and its outcome really should be document for home users to authenticate people/persons on their LAN and what they can access.

Here to help.

laszlok53
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed 11 Jul 2012, 10:42

#36 Post by laszlok53 »

Hi Martin,

I can't claim having installed 100 Windows servers, that number would rather stay with about 25 - 30 and Novell NetWareabout the same or a bit less.

Yes, I did already replaced PDCs. with same versions and also with upgrading to newer version. And yes, I did have problems with those cases, not one has gone smoothly, there was always something not doing right. Mainly the trusting between the BDC and the PDC was failing, but also happened that promoting the BDC gone stuck - ruining the whole system, I had to reinstall the PDC from a HD image to get the system back. So yes, I know it is a pain in the @ss to replace a PDC. Yhat is one of the reasons why I'd rather go Linux instead.

In this particular case I have about 40 persons using the system, but 30 of them logs in with the same username/password, so I only have about 10 users I have to migrate. I think it is doable manually.

Yes we use Terminal Servic solutions - but not on the server, deliberately avoided it. We use some Xps and W7s for this, with a brilliant software from Thinstuff. It works flowless.

And yes, you see it correctly, I just need the authorizations function, the file server could be a bonus but not necessary.

I tried FATSLCKO but it did not work at all. I can see the share but can't connect. Tried to find out why, but the only thing I found was that there is no smbusers file anywhere. (Or just I can't find it?). Tried to create an smb user with smbpasswd, but it fails with "no corresponding user found" or something similar.
So I did put it aside for now and carried on with Ubuntu, which seems to work partially. I could even create a machine ID from the workstation - but it creates a new user on the workstation. For example if I had a user on the Xp with the name Bob then it had a directory in Users and documents called bob.domain. Now this system creates a bob.xxxx there xxxx is the name of the ubuntu machine serving as PDC.
Don't know where it comes from, must be somewhere in the Samba, but where?
What more you think I should be careful with?

Now it's 01:00 here in Europe, I give it a sleep for tonight.
I really appreciate your help, and I absolutely don't mind if you talk to me on basic level, I even need it sometimes. It is me asking for help.
As I mentioned English is not my native language, so if I don't seem to be polite enough, please be tolerant with me.

/ Laszlo

laszlok53
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed 11 Jul 2012, 10:42

#37 Post by laszlok53 »

Hi Martin,

I can't claim having installed 100 Windows servers, that number would rather stay with about 25 - 30 and Novell NetWareabout the same or a bit less.

Yes, I did already replaced PDCs. with same versions and also with upgrading to newer version. And yes, I did have problems with those cases, not one has gone smoothly, there was always something not doing right. Mainly the trusting between the BDC and the PDC was failing, but also happened that promoting the BDC gone stuck - ruining the whole system, I had to reinstall the PDC from a HD image to get the system back. So yes, I know it is a pain in the @ss to replace a PDC. Yhat is one of the reasons why I'd rather go Linux instead.

In this particular case I have about 40 persons using the system, but 30 of them logs in with the same username/password, so I only have about 10 users I have to migrate. I think it is doable manually.

Yes we use Terminal Servic solutions - but not on the server, deliberately avoided it. We use some Xps and W7s for this, with a brilliant software from Thinstuff. It works flowless.

And yes, you see it correctly, I just need the authorizations function, the file server could be a bonus but not necessary.

I tried FATSLCKO but it did not work at all. I can see the share but can't connect. Tried to find out why, but the only thing I found was that there is no smbusers file anywhere. (Or just I can't find it?). Tried to create an smb user with smbpasswd, but it fails with "no corresponding user found" or something similar.
So I did put it aside for now and carried on with Ubuntu, which seems to work partially. I could even create a machine ID from the workstation - but it creates a new user on the workstation. For example if I had a user on the Xp with the name Bob then it had a directory in Users and documents called bob.domain. Now this system creates a bob.xxxx there xxxx is the name of the ubuntu machine serving as PDC.
Don't know where it comes from, must be somewhere in the Samba, but where?
What more you think I should be careful with?

Now it's 01:00 here in Europe, I give it a sleep for tonight.
I really appreciate your help, and I absolutely don't mind if you talk to me on basic level, I even need it sometimes. It is me asking for help.
As I mentioned English is not my native language, so if I don't seem to be polite enough, please be tolerant with me.

/ Laszlo

laszlok53
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed 11 Jul 2012, 10:42

#38 Post by laszlok53 »

Sorry for double posting, don't know how I did that.
Moderator, please remove one of them!

/ Laszlo

gcmartin

#39 Post by gcmartin »

It is overlooked in the guide that was Posted for FATSlacko Samba implementation. Sorry about that. That guide was produced to implement FATSlacko as a LAN workstation (same as Windows/Apple PCs). ... NOT as a PDC. SAMBA, though will work as a PDC.

A Puppy FATSlacko PDC guide has not been written, yet, as there are a number of changes that are occurring, in Puppy distros as we speak, which will impact any document at this moment.

This will help you
In LInux + SAMBA, there is a requirement to have a Linux userID AND a SAMBA userID. I make these the same. So do this ( I use the windows ID "administrator" ID as an example)
  1. Create a Linux UserID
  2. Set its password via

    Code: Select all

    passwd administrator
  3. Create a SAMBA user via

    Code: Select all

    smbpasswd -a administrator
  4. Now go to your real Windows PC where the adminsitrator has the same password as you assigned on FATSlacko, open Neighborhood to Midrosoft Net...
Assuming you have FATSlacko and Windows in the same workgroup, access the resources FATSlacko is sharing.

This should address the problem you are seeing.

laszlok53
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed 11 Jul 2012, 10:42

#40 Post by laszlok53 »

I think I found the solution that fits me best
http://www.resara.org

This is a preconfigured Samba server, can act as PDC, well made interface, and it seems to work well. It uses Samba 4, which I know is only Beta, but seem to be very stable. Anyway I'll do not place anything vital on this server yet.

I guess I did not have the guts to do this step fully out without the discussions with you guys, although it is not a Puppy solution.

So I thank you for all the support and the good ideas you provided me!

/ Laszlo

gcmartin

#41 Post by gcmartin »

Yes, there are several very good solutions in the Linux Distro world which are suitably great implementation of SAMBA solutions; everything from simple workstation implementations that we get from Microsoft and Apple to increased functionslity that come with the use of SAMBA features to control and manage information in your LAN.

For those who are interested in what is offered by @Laszlok53 , PLEASE UNDERSTAND THE VERY TOP BANNER AT THIS WEBSITE! iTS important.

If anyone wants other SAMBA recommendations I have tested over the years, PM me because its outside of the scope of the thread and this forum area.

Here to help

laszlok53
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed 11 Jul 2012, 10:42

#42 Post by laszlok53 »

gcmartin wrote:Yes, there are several very good solutions in the Linux Distro world which are suitably great implementation of SAMBA solutions; everything from simple workstation implementations that we get from Microsoft and Apple to increased functionslity that come with the use of SAMBA features to control and manage information in your LAN.

For those who are interested in what is offered by @Laszlok53 , PLEASE UNDERSTAND THE VERY TOP BANNER AT THIS WEBSITE! iTS important.

If anyone wants other SAMBA recommendations I have tested over the years, PM me because its outside of the scope of the thread and this forum area.

Here to help
OMG

3 days after I found them they CLOSE???
Now I have to see if I can manage it as is, or look for an other solution.
Thank you for pointing this out for me!
And yes, be sure I'll PM you on this kind of issues, I mean SAMBA stuff, because my wish is that in spite of my limited knowledge in Linux, I'd like to give it a go wherever it can replace M$ stuff.
Again, THANK YOU!

Cheers

/ Laszlo

whatupuppy
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue 18 Jan 2011, 02:07

#43 Post by whatupuppy »

Hello, I just ran across this post and kid of late but rather late than never.

I am no expert but...
laszlok53 since you have installed ubuntu.

Have you tried to run Win 2000 in virtualbox and then setup what you needed?

gcmartin

A Linux File or Print or media Server

#44 Post by gcmartin »

5 easy solutions using Linux

Dedicated
  • Use a NAS approach (FreeNAS)
  • Use a Linux Distro (SMS) - I add the KDE add-on to the ISO and ran from CD
Puppy using current, stable PUPs that have SAMBA built-in to talk to ALL known LAN devices built.
  • LightHouse64 (64bit)
  • FATSlacko (32bit)
These all work, are stable and mature.

And, correct me if I'm wrong (as I have only installed Ubuntu Servers), but, I believe that SAMBA is included in Ubuntu and all you need do is tailor it to your needs.

Should you need help, there are resources all over the Inet that can/will help with SAMBA (Its been around for over 20 years!)

Only needs; you to setup your SAMBA config file. In fact SMS is probably the easiest since it has Webmin which provides full-screen pages for your system tailoring making it so very, very easy.

Here to help

vektor_alian
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed 21 Feb 2018, 01:07

#45 Post by vektor_alian »

I use Pupserver 435 from archive.org

Post Reply