Hi all,

Installed Linux on an old ex-Windows laptop. It's Zorin 15.2 Lite, based
upon Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS. I'm really happy with it, it works much faster
and more efficient than Windows.
But I'd like to share the user directories and files in the Windows
network. In the Home directory there are two user directories which I
want to share. But in Properties of the user directories in the file
explorer I can see no way how to do that.
How can I share those folders?
Many thanks in advance.

Fokke Nauta

On 21/09/2021 09:37, Fokke Nauta wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Installed Linux on an old ex-Windows laptop. It's Zorin 15.2 Lite, based
> upon Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS. I'm really happy with it, it works much faster
> and more efficient than Windows.
> But I'd like to share the user directories and files in the Windows
> network. In the Home directory there are two user directories which I
> want to share. But in Properties of the user directories in the file
> explorer I can see no way how to do that.
> How can I share those folders?
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> Fokke Nauta
=========================
Recently I installed the latest Zorin OS 16 (core version) on an old
Dell laptop with i5 2core CPU and am very happy with this distro.
Additional apps I install via the cli not through the Zorin software base.

Frank in County Wicklow -Ireland

Fokke Nauta wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Installed Linux on an old ex-Windows laptop. It's Zorin 15.2 Lite, based
> upon Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS. I'm really happy with it, it works much faster
> and more efficient than Windows.
> But I'd like to share the user directories and files in the Windows
> network. In the Home directory there are two user directories which I
> want to share. But in Properties of the user directories in the file
> explorer I can see no way how to do that.
> How can I share those folders?
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> Fokke Nauta

In Properties, I don't see the Sharing tab that had
been invented several years ago (and worked properly
at the time).

If I google on "Thunar sharing tab", I get this gem...

"The thunar-shares-* plugin is for sharing a folder on your local system"

Here is a picture of your quarry. The Share tab is on the right.
Your project now, is to find that in Synaptic or whatever.
I don't know if that is in Thunar already or not.

https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/thunar-shares-plugin

There will be plenty more details. smbd and nmbd versus Systemd.
The samba config file will likely need work. And so on.

There might even be a sambashare group to add to the
user account. I got that name by running

groups

and perhaps that group needs to be added to your user account.

Paul

On 21/09/2021 13:59, Paul wrote:
> Fokke Nauta wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Installed Linux on an old ex-Windows laptop. It's Zorin 15.2 Lite,
>> based upon Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS. I'm really happy with it, it works
>> much faster and more efficient than Windows.
>> But I'd like to share the user directories and files in the Windows
>> network. In the Home directory there are two user directories which I
>> want to share. But in Properties of the user directories in the file
>> explorer I can see no way how to do that.
>> How can I share those folders?
>> Many thanks in advance.
>>
>> Fokke Nauta
>
> In Properties, I don't see the Sharing tab that had
> been invented several years ago (and worked properly
> at the time).
>
> If I google on "Thunar sharing tab", I get this gem...
>
>    "The thunar-shares-* plugin is for sharing a folder on your local
> system"

Hi Paul,

Thanks. I have only three tabs: General, Emblems and Permissions. No
Share tab.
I searched on the onternet and installed Samba. But I got stuck, can't
find it and start it.

> Here is a picture of your quarry. The Share tab is on the right.
> Your project now, is to find that in Synaptic or whatever.
> I don't know if that is in Thunar already or not.

No, it's not.

> https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/thunar-shares-plugin
>
> There will be plenty more details. smbd and nmbd versus Systemd.
> The samba config file will likely need work. And so on.

This may be the solution, but I have to edit some things as Root. Don't
know how to achive that, I'm running an user account with admin rights.
>
> There might even be a sambashare group to add to the
> user account. I got that name by running
>
>    groups
>
> and perhaps that group needs to be added to your user account.
>
>    Paul

Fokke

On 21/09/2021 12:35, wicklowham wrote:
> On 21/09/2021 09:37, Fokke Nauta wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Installed Linux on an old ex-Windows laptop. It's Zorin 15.2 Lite,
>> based upon Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS. I'm really happy with it, it works
>> much faster and more efficient than Windows.
>> But I'd like to share the user directories and files in the Windows
>> network. In the Home directory there are two user directories which I
>> want to share. But in Properties of the user directories in the file
>> explorer I can see no way how to do that.
>> How can I share those folders?
>> Many thanks in advance.
>>
>> Fokke Nauta
> =========================
> Recently I installed the latest Zorin OS 16 (core version) on an old
> Dell laptop with i5 2core CPU and am very happy with this distro.
> Additional apps I install via the cli not through the Zorin software base.
>
> Frank in County Wicklow -Ireland

I purchsed Zorin 16 Pro, but was very unlucky with this system. And too
heavy for this laptop. So - I went back to 15.2 Lite.

Fokke

Z
On 21/09/2021 13:22, Fokke Nauta wrote:
> On 21/09/2021 12:35, wicklowham wrote:
>> On 21/09/2021 09:37, Fokke Nauta wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Installed Linux on an old ex-Windows laptop. It's Zorin 15.2 Lite,
>>> based upon Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS. I'm really happy with it, it works
>>> much faster and more efficient than Windows.
>>> But I'd like to share the user directories and files in the Windows
>>> network. In the Home directory there are two user directories which I
>>> want to share. But in Properties of the user directories in the file
>>> explorer I can see no way how to do that.
>>> How can I share those folders?
>>> Many thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> Fokke Nauta
>> =========================
>> Recently I installed the latest Zorin OS 16 (core version) on an old
>> Dell laptop with i5 2core CPU and am very happy with this distro.
>> Additional apps I install via the cli not through the Zorin software
>> base.E
> I purchsed Zorin 16 Pro, but was very unlucky with this system. And too
> heavy for this laptop. So - I went back to 15.2 Lite.
>
> Fokke
==================
Fokke,
As stated before I installed Zorin 16 (core) which is rather light and
subsequently added apps from the Ubuntu repository through the cli.

Zorin 16 Pro possibly had to many bells and whistles for your laptop

I am now awaiting Zorin 16 light (32 bit if still available)for
installation on an old Asus Aspire.

Frank (nl person) in County Wicklow - Ireland

On 21/09/2021 14:54, wicklowham wrote:
> Z
> On 21/09/2021 13:22, Fokke Nauta wrote:
>> On 21/09/2021 12:35, wicklowham wrote:
>>> On 21/09/2021 09:37, Fokke Nauta wrote:
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> Installed Linux on an old ex-Windows laptop. It's Zorin 15.2 Lite,
>>>> based upon Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS. I'm really happy with it, it works
>>>> much faster and more efficient than Windows.
>>>> But I'd like to share the user directories and files in the Windows
>>>> network. In the Home directory there are two user directories which
>>>> I want to share. But in Properties of the user directories in the
>>>> file explorer I can see no way how to do that.
>>>> How can I share those folders?
>>>> Many thanks in advance.
>>>>
>>>> Fokke Nauta
>>> =========================
>>> Recently I installed the latest Zorin OS 16 (core version) on an old
>>> Dell laptop with i5 2core CPU and am very happy with this distro.
>>> Additional apps I install via the cli not through the Zorin software
>>> base.E
>> I purchsed Zorin 16 Pro, but was very unlucky with this system. And
>> too heavy for this laptop. So - I went back to 15.2 Lite.
>>
>> Fokke
> ==================
> Fokke,
> As stated before I installed Zorin 16 (core) which is rather light  and
> subsequently added apps from the Ubuntu repository through the cli.
>
> Zorin 16 Pro possibly had to many bells and whistles for your laptop
>
> I am now awaiting Zorin 16 light  (32 bit if still available)for
> installation on an old Asus  Aspire.
>
> Frank (nl person) in County Wicklow - Ireland

Ha Frank,

Ja, heb net op de site gezien dat de 16 Pro Lite versie er aan komt. Dan
moet ik dat maar eens proberen.
De Pro versie beviel me echt niet.
Heb eerst de 12.4 versie geprobeerd, maar dat was ook geen succes.
Bevalt het in Ierland? Ik heb vijf jaar in Engeland gewoond.

Fokke

Fokke Nauta wrote:
> On 21/09/2021 13:59, Paul wrote:

> No, it's not.
>
>> https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/thunar-shares-plugin

I tried Xubuntu 21.04 and thunar-shares-plugin is
missing there too. It's not in Synaptic in your Zorin.

Which means either it has gone unsupported (developer
backed away), or it is not compatible with the thing
as is.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=300891

"Thunar shares is no more sadly."

The thread carries some info on their workaround,
but now that thread is in your hands... :-)

I want a solution that worked as well as it *used* to work!!!

Not some terminal screens full of rubbish. If I wanted
screens full of rubbish, I could try LFS or Gentoo or
Arch or something.

Maybe some other file manager still has the integration
for that...

Paul

Fokke Nauta wrote:
> On 21/09/2021 13:59, Paul wrote:
>> Fokke Nauta wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Installed Linux on an old ex-Windows laptop. It's Zorin 15.2 Lite,
>>> based upon Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS. I'm really happy with it, it works
>>> much faster and more efficient than Windows.
>>> But I'd like to share the user directories and files in the Windows
>>> network. In the Home directory there are two user directories which I
>>> want to share. But in Properties of the user directories in the file
>>> explorer I can see no way how to do that.
>>> How can I share those folders?
>>> Many thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> Fokke Nauta
>>
>> In Properties, I don't see the Sharing tab that had
>> been invented several years ago (and worked properly
>> at the time).
>>
>> If I google on "Thunar sharing tab", I get this gem...
>>
>>     "The thunar-shares-* plugin is for sharing a folder on your local
>> system"
>
> Hi Paul,
>
> Thanks. I have only three tabs: General, Emblems and Permissions. No
> Share tab.
> I searched on the onternet and installed Samba. But I got stuck, can't
> find it and start it.
>
>> Here is a picture of your quarry. The Share tab is on the right.
>> Your project now, is to find that in Synaptic or whatever.
>> I don't know if that is in Thunar already or not.
>
> No, it's not.
>
>> https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/thunar-shares-plugin
>>
>> There will be plenty more details. smbd and nmbd versus Systemd.
>> The samba config file will likely need work. And so on.
>
> This may be the solution, but I have to edit some things as Root. Don't
> know how to achive that, I'm running an user account with admin rights.
>>
>> There might even be a sambashare group to add to the
>> user account. I got that name by running
>>
>>     groups
>>
>> and perhaps that group needs to be added to your user account.
>>

Okay a little more info would help here, but I have found it much easier
to just edit the samba server configuration over that any filemanager
plugin or gui.

1) I am assuming you want to share directories on the Linux system
within more than one Linux home accounts to so Windows system?

2) More than one Windows user or not?

######################################
Here is what I would do. As a admin account on Linux, i.e. sudo
privileges...

1) Make sure samba server is installed

sudo apt install samba

2) Always make a backup before you potentially f'up something.

sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.backup

3) Now edit the file. For this example I will use Jack and Jill for
examples of two Linux user accounts whose files you want to share. You
didn't say if you wanted to give Windows users ability to write to these
shares, I will assume YES.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

4) At the end of of the file add your shares:

[jackstuff]
comment = Jack's shareable stuff
path = /home/jack/some/dir/path
browseable = yes
writeable = yes
# Since Windows users can write here, be nice set user:group
force user = jack
force group = jack
create mask = 664
directory mask = 775

[jillstuff]
comment = Jill's shareable stuff
path = /home/jill/some/other/dir/path
browseable = yes
writeable = yes
force user = jill
force group = jill
create mask = 664
directory mask = 775

4) Save the file with CTRL+X and restart samba

sudo systemctl restart smbd

5) Now the shares will be accessible from Windows as
\\MACHINE_IP\jackstuff and \\MACHINE_IP\jillstuff
but a Windows user will not be able to access just yet because you have
to register the Windows users on the Linux machine with smbpasswd
because by default the security level of samba server is
"security = user"

sudo smbpassws -a winuser1

BTW this includes Jack and Jill if they also have a Windows system:

sudo smbpassws -a jack

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

On 21/09/2021 23:42, Jonathan N. Little wrote:
> Fokke Nauta wrote:
>> On 21/09/2021 13:59, Paul wrote:
>>> Fokke Nauta wrote:
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> Installed Linux on an old ex-Windows laptop. It's Zorin 15.2 Lite,
>>>> based upon Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS. I'm really happy with it, it works
>>>> much faster and more efficient than Windows.
>>>> But I'd like to share the user directories and files in the Windows
>>>> network. In the Home directory there are two user directories which I
>>>> want to share. But in Properties of the user directories in the file
>>>> explorer I can see no way how to do that.
>>>> How can I share those folders?
>>>> Many thanks in advance.
>>>>
>>>> Fokke Nauta
>>>
>>> In Properties, I don't see the Sharing tab that had
>>> been invented several years ago (and worked properly
>>> at the time).
>>>
>>> If I google on "Thunar sharing tab", I get this gem...
>>>
>>>     "The thunar-shares-* plugin is for sharing a folder on your local
>>> system"
>>
>> Hi Paul,
>>
>> Thanks. I have only three tabs: General, Emblems and Permissions. No
>> Share tab.
>> I searched on the onternet and installed Samba. But I got stuck, can't
>> find it and start it.
>>
>>> Here is a picture of your quarry. The Share tab is on the right.
>>> Your project now, is to find that in Synaptic or whatever.
>>> I don't know if that is in Thunar already or not.
>>
>> No, it's not.
>>
>>> https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/thunar-shares-plugin
>>>
>>> There will be plenty more details. smbd and nmbd versus Systemd.
>>> The samba config file will likely need work. And so on.
>>
>> This may be the solution, but I have to edit some things as Root. Don't
>> know how to achive that, I'm running an user account with admin rights.
>>>
>>> There might even be a sambashare group to add to the
>>> user account. I got that name by running
>>>
>>>     groups
>>>
>>> and perhaps that group needs to be added to your user account.
>>>
>
> Okay a little more info would help here, but I have found it much easier
> to just edit the samba server configuration over that any filemanager
> plugin or gui.
>
> 1) I am assuming you want to share directories on the Linux system
> within more than one Linux home accounts to so Windows system?

I only want to share the user directories in the home directory.

> 2) More than one Windows user or not?

Yes, two Windows users.

> ######################################
> Here is what I would do. As a admin account on Linux, i.e. sudo
> privileges...
>
> 1) Make sure samba server is installed
>
> sudo apt install samba
>
> 2) Always make a backup before you potentially f'up something.
>
> sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.backup
>
> 3) Now edit the file. For this example I will use Jack and Jill for
> examples of two Linux user accounts whose files you want to share. You
> didn't say if you wanted to give Windows users ability to write to these
> shares, I will assume YES.
>
> sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
>
> 4) At the end of of the file add your shares:
>
> [jackstuff]
> comment = Jack's shareable stuff
> path = /home/jack/some/dir/path
> browseable = yes
> writeable = yes
> # Since Windows users can write here, be nice set user:group
> force user = jack
> force group = jack
> create mask = 664
> directory mask = 775
>
> [jillstuff]
> comment = Jill's shareable stuff
> path = /home/jill/some/other/dir/path
> browseable = yes
> writeable = yes
> force user = jill
> force group = jill
> create mask = 664
> directory mask = 775
>
> 4) Save the file with CTRL+X and restart samba
>
> sudo systemctl restart smbd
>
> 5) Now the shares will be accessible from Windows as
> \\MACHINE_IP\jackstuff and \\MACHINE_IP\jillstuff
> but a Windows user will not be able to access just yet because you have
> to register the Windows users on the Linux machine with smbpasswd
> because by default the security level of samba server is
> "security = user"
>
> sudo smbpassws -a winuser1
>
> BTW this includes Jack and Jill if they also have a Windows system:
>
> sudo smbpassws -a jack
>

Thanks, Jonathan.
I will follow your instuctions and will let you know if it works.
I'm curious.

Fokke

On 21/09/2021 21:33, Paul wrote:
> Fokke Nauta wrote:
>> On 21/09/2021 13:59, Paul wrote:
>
>> No, it's not.
>>
>>> https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/thunar-shares-plugin
>
> I tried Xubuntu 21.04 and thunar-shares-plugin is
> missing there too. It's not in Synaptic in your Zorin.
>
> Which means either it has gone unsupported (developer
> backed away), or it is not compatible with the thing
> as is.
>
> https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=300891
>
>    "Thunar shares is no more sadly."
>
> The thread carries some info on their workaround,
> but now that thread is in your hands... :-)
>
> I want a solution that worked as well as it *used* to work!!!
>
> Not some terminal screens full of rubbish. If I wanted
> screens full of rubbish, I could try LFS or Gentoo or
> Arch or something.
>
> Maybe some other file manager still has the integration
> for that...
>
>    Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your investigation.
It's sad that the Thunar file manager has no share facilities.
I will first follow Jonathan's instructions. If it won't work, I'll have
a further look at your link.

Fokke

On 21/09/2021 23:42, Jonathan N. Little wrote:
<cut>
>
> Okay a little more info would help here, but I have found it much easier
> to just edit the samba server configuration over that any filemanager
> plugin or gui.
>
> 1) I am assuming you want to share directories on the Linux system
> within more than one Linux home accounts to so Windows system?
>
> 2) More than one Windows user or not?
>
> ######################################
> Here is what I would do. As a admin account on Linux, i.e. sudo
> privileges...
>
> 1) Make sure samba server is installed
>
> sudo apt install samba
>
> 2) Always make a backup before you potentially f'up something.
>
> sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.backup
>
> 3) Now edit the file. For this example I will use Jack and Jill for
> examples of two Linux user accounts whose files you want to share. You
> didn't say if you wanted to give Windows users ability to write to these
> shares, I will assume YES.
>
> sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
>
> 4) At the end of of the file add your shares:
>
> [jackstuff]
> comment = Jack's shareable stuff
> path = /home/jack/some/dir/path
> browseable = yes
> writeable = yes
> # Since Windows users can write here, be nice set user:group
> force user = jack
> force group = jack
> create mask = 664
> directory mask = 775
>
> [jillstuff]
> comment = Jill's shareable stuff
> path = /home/jill/some/other/dir/path
> browseable = yes
> writeable = yes
> force user = jill
> force group = jill
> create mask = 664
> directory mask = 775
>
> 4) Save the file with CTRL+X and restart samba
>
> sudo systemctl restart smbd
>
> 5) Now the shares will be accessible from Windows as
> \\MACHINE_IP\jackstuff and \\MACHINE_IP\jillstuff
> but a Windows user will not be able to access just yet because you have
> to register the Windows users on the Linux machine with smbpasswd
> because by default the security level of samba server is
> "security = user"
>
> sudo smbpassws -a winuser1
>
> BTW this includes Jack and Jill if they also have a Windows system:
>
> sudo smbpassws -a jack
>

I followed your instructions.
The last item I entered was sudo passwd -a fokke

The laptop shows up in the Windows network but is not accessible.
I give it up. Happily on the laptop I have access to all Windows shares,
so happily I'm able to copy files from the Windows ps's to the laptop.
It should have been nice if the laptop was accessible from the network
but it's no disaster.

Thanks for your help anyway!

Fokke

Fokke Nauta wrote:

> I give it up. Happily on the laptop I have access to all Windows shares,
> so happily I'm able to copy files from the Windows ps's to the laptop.
> It should have been nice if the laptop was accessible from the network
> but it's no disaster.
>
You may want to try Servefile
https://github.com/sebageek/servefile

or (to download files only)
$ python3 -m http.server
https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2020/05/http-file-server-ubuntu-20-04/

Fokke Nauta wrote:

> On 21/09/2021 23:42, Jonathan N. Little wrote:

>>
>> sudo smbpassws -a jack
^^^^^^^^^
actually typo smbpasswd
>>
>
> I followed your instructions.
> The last item I entered was sudo passwd -a fokke

^^^^^^
different command
passwd sets a password for user accounts on Linux system

smbpasswd sets a password for samba users access to share on samba
server. Samba users do not have to have a user account on Linux system

enter:

sudo smbpasswd -a fokke

then try and access share from Windows system user fokke

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

Fokke Nauta wrote:
> It's sad that the Thunar file manager has no share facilities.

I think (read somewhere) the defunct plugin only went one way.

--
Mike Easter

Mike Easter wrote:
> Fokke Nauta wrote:
>> It's sad that the Thunar file manager has no share facilities.
>
> I think (read somewhere) the defunct plugin only went one way.
>

It was a sharing tab, that worked, and caused up to
two packages to be installed as part of enable-ment.

And it used to work. I was impressed by that, that
it worked, the first time I saw it. At first, I
couldn't believe my eyes, when I saw that tab :-)

Paul

Paul wrote:
> Mike Easter wrote:
>> Fokke Nauta wrote:
>>> It's sad that the Thunar file manager has no share facilities.
>>
>> I think (read somewhere) the defunct plugin only went one way.
>>
>
> It was a sharing tab, that worked, and caused up to two packages to
> be installed as part of enable-ment.
>
> And it used to work. I was impressed by that, that it worked, the
> first time I saw it. At first, I couldn't believe my eyes, when I saw
> that tab :-)
>
This is what I read (what I meant by 'one-way'):

> The thunar-shares-* plugin is for sharing a folder on your local
> system - not for accessing shares on remote system. <Mar 20, 2021>

https://forum.manjaro.org/t/problem-with-thunar-accessing-samba-shares/58885

--
Mike Easter

Fokke Nauta wrote:
> It's sad that the Thunar file manager has no share facilities.

Here's a samba GUI page. I'm going to take a look at the KDE ones in
Neon, konqueror and smb4k.

https://www.samba.org/samba/GUI/

--
Mike Easter