What is the easiest way to join Ubuntu to a Windows network?

[lex-ington]

When I go to places/network - I see all of the computers hooked up to my router. I can even ping the windows boxes.

Is there an easy way - besides the 100 steps to use Samba (which confuses me alot) - to just join the windows network currently setup to share files?

[just brew it!]

Do you want to access files on the Windows boxes from the Ubuntu box, or the other way around? (Or both?)

Edit: I assume you want to access the Ubuntu box from Windows? (Otherwise Places / Network would've gotten the job done...)

To share Ubuntu files out to Windows, you're going to need Samba. But setting it up is a lot simpler than it used to be...

[bthylafh]

Actually, in newer Ubuntus you can just right-click on a folder, select Properties, go to the Share tab, and select "Share this folder". You'll still need Samba in the background (if it's not installed, it should automatically get installed), but further configuration isn't necessary if you're not too worried about security or fine-grained permissions.

[[SDG]Mantis]

The installation and GUI tools to use samba are much improved. It more-or-less boils down to installing samba using the package manager. The samba meta-package includes client and server.

I *believe* that the newer versions of Ubuntu automatically install and configure samba when you share a folder.

Edit: You can do a fair bit of manual tweaking and configuration if you like. But reading the docs on the Ubuntu wiki (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SettingUpSamba) it looks like there is almost nothing strictly necessary for Ubuntu after 8.04. (I primarily run Fedora which has a gui configuration tool for managing shares in the version that I am using on the machine next to me, though it might have been replaced in a later release.)

[Blazex]

the newer versions, like 7.10 or so and up, should automatically join windows networks right off install or even on live, i havent tried that with live disc though.
either way they see the windows machines without doing anything as it is.

[just brew it!]

A few tips for using Samba on Ubuntu:

- I can confirm bthylafh's comment about Ubuntu 9.04 automatically installing Samba the first time you try to share a folder. One minor quirk: after installing the service, it brings up a dialog telling you that you need to restart your session to complete the installation. But if you click the button to confirm, nothing happens. You do in fact need to restart the session though, or things don't seem to work quite right. So just manually log out and log back in again, and you should be good to go.

- The automatic Samba installation doesn't give you any way to set the Windows workgroup name; you just end up with the default (which is "workgroup"). What you want to do is install the package system-config-samba. This will add a Samba item to your System -> Administration menu, which provides a simple GUI interface for doing the most common Samba administration tasks (like setting the workgroup name, adding arbitrary Samba users and folder shares, etc.)

- Power users may wish to install the swat package, which provides a comprehensive browser-based Samba management interface. After installing swat, change the group of the /etc/samba/smb.conf file to adm, and enable group write permission on it (you must do this to get swat to play nice with Ubuntu's security model where the root account is disabled by default). Restart the system. The management interface is accessed by opening a web browser, entering localhost:901 in the address bar, and giving the login name and password of any account with admin privileges when prompted. (Note: swat is not for the faint of heart; but it still beats manually editing the smb.conf file, which is for masochists only!)

[lex-ington]

I am happy to report that I installed samba and smb4 GUI and the network is now running like a dream. It is a glorious feeling to see a network running as easily as this is. WOW!!!!

thanks for all of the replies.

[Nitrodist]

Thanks for the tip with system-config-samba, jbi.

[lex-ington]

I think that the ability for the latest version of Ubuntu and Windows 7 to be able to work so seemlessly together is a blessing to behold. Even my wife's laptop which has Vista Home Basic on it is seen by the others flawlessly.

I now need to find a way to speed up the wireless portions of my network (HTPC and wife's laptop). The wireless N USB adaptors that I have both bring down the entire network to the point of me having to reset the router every time i try them!! (the router and the USB adaptors are Belkin)

Maybe if I put in a wireless N card it would speed up? I have a wireless G card in the HTPC right now.

[lex-ington]

New problem . . .but rather keep this thread going than start a new one.

I had to install Windows XP to get my version of AutoCAD to work properly (OH how I hate the way Autodesk implements their version control!!! ). So, I cleared everything on my Linux box and installed XP - the I installed Ubuntu 9.10. No problems. Installed samba. No problems.

Went to Networks and clicked on the Windows Network icon . . . . . problem. I got an error message saying "smb" could not be started. So I go into the synaptic manager and install the smb lib stuff and some other stuff and now I get the message "Failed to retrieve share list from server". The last time I did this - as stated in the previous posts - it was a simple right click and share. Now I can't even get to see the rest of the machines on my network.

Can someone help me out please? I would love to get this back up and running as soon as I can.

Thanks.

[Flying Fox]

On my Xubuntu, I just use System -> Shared Folders and you can configure users, shares, and workgroup name. I believe Ubuntu has the same thing out of the box. When you first bring up the applet, it will prompt to install NFS and Samba. I just pick Samba and let it do its thing. Works right after setting up and all. My needs for now are just to read the working folder of FAH so I actually need more relaxed security (added nobody to the access list). I may explore smb4 GUI when I really feel like it I guess.

the I installed Ubuntu 9.10. No problems. Installed samba. No problems.

Went to Networks and clicked on the Windows Network icon . . . . . problem. I got an error message saying "smb" could not be started. So I go into the synaptic manager and install the smb lib stuff and some other stuff and now I get the message "Failed to retrieve share list from server". The last time I did this - as stated in the previous posts - it was a simple right click and share. Now I can't even get to see the rest of the machines on my network.

You may be running to the same thing here. Looks like the community is just starting to try the new release out otherwise this would have been major outcries on the internetz already.

To confirm, I do a "ps -ef|grep nmbd" and you should not see nmbd running. The "fix" the on the known issues page works 100% so far (like 5 reboots on my VM).

[axeman]

Another tip for using a ubuntu machine on a windows network. If you don't have some sort of dynamic dns setup, you won't be able to resolve windows machines to IP addresses for purposes other than file sharing. For example 'ping machinename' might not work. If you are running some sort of non-standard service from the Windows machine, you might have issues as well. To fix this, install the winbind package (its not just for WINS), and add the keyword "wins" to the hosts: line in /etc/nsswitch.conf. Mine looks like this:

Code: Select all

hosts:          files wins mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4


This allows regular old *nix programs to use resolve windows hosts names using netbios names, not just dns. By default Windows machines will fallback to things like netbios name resolution if names are not resolved by DNS, this makes your Ubuntu machine work the same way. I like the simplicity of using VNC to remote control everything, so my Windows machines are running VNC to allow remote control from any VNC client (RDP clients for *nix are not that great), without winbind, I would need to give the VNC client an IP instead of a machine name. Now if your router runs DNS and creates DNS records for local machines that register with DHCP, this is all pointless for you, but good to know.