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Preface: I know that many people have asked similar questions over the years. I have read many responses to these questions, and blog entries on other sites, but I am still unable to configure samba to do what I want.

I have two Linux computers (running Fedora 37) on a local network, pw-tower and pw72. pw-tower has some data files that I want to be able to read (not write) from pw72. Because the data files are not sensitive, and because I am making the files read-only from pw72, I want the convenience of not having to type a password each time I want to mount the share.

pw-tower hosts a Samba server. Here are the relevant sections from /etc/samba/smb.conf:

[global]

workgroup = WORKGROUP
server string = Samba Server Version %v
netbios name = pw-tower
hosts deny = ALL
hosts allow = 192.168.1. 127.
interfaces = enp1s0 lo
guest account = repair
security = user
passdb backend = tdbsam

[data]
comment = Shared data stored on a large removeable drive
path = /run/media/david/D2T-07202016/data
browseable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = yes
writable = no

There is a 'repair' account on both pw-tower and pw72. They each have the same password. Plus I used smbpasswd to set the same password for 'repair' on pw-tower.

I set the permissions for /run/media/david/D2T-07202016/data so that the 'repair' user can read this directory.

$ ls -ld /run/media/david/D2T-07202016/data
drwxrwxrwx. 14 david samba_file_readers 4096 Jun  3 09:32 /run/media/david/D2T-07202016/data

Both 'david' and 'repair' are members of the 'samba_file_readers' group.

Finally, I am trying to mount the 'data' share on pw72 with commands such as the following:

sudo mount -t cifs //pw-tower/data /mounts/pw-tower-data -o username=repair,sec=none,guest

I either get prompted for a password or I get a permission denied error (mount error(13): Permission denied).

The only way I have been able to log in without typing a password is by setting up a credentials file for 'david' on pw72. But this is not a permanent solution because I am not comfortable having my password in a plaintext file no matter what the file's permissions are. When I set up a similar credentials file for 'repair', I got permission denied. I would be OK with having the 'repair' password in a file although it is not ideal.

I know that Samba works slightly differently on some Linux computers. I know that guest access is supported and many people have gotten it to work. I am open to any suggestions.

David Levner
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2 Answers2

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You have done everything wrong. A Samba 'guest' user is supposed to be unknown to Samba, so delete the Samba users you have created. Add 'guest only = yes' to the share and 'map to guest = bad user' to the 'global]' part of your smb.conf Finally, Samba is suppose to work the same on all distros (provided they are using the same version).

Rowland Penny
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  • Welcome to SuperUser! While it seems that you know what you are talking about, please note that sentences like "You have done everything wrong." at the beginning of an answer don't help anyone. You can look on the site linked below how to write good answers. – DarkDiamond Jun 04 '23 at 07:58
  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Jun 04 '23 at 07:58
  • @DarkDiamond: I know how to write correct answers and my answer was correct, the OP had done everything wrong. – Rowland Penny Jun 04 '23 at 08:05
  • I tried Rowland Penny's suggestion but I'm still getting permission denied errors. See my "answer" below for more details. – David Levner Jun 04 '23 at 16:14
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I figured out what was wrong: one of the directories in the path that I wanted to share had permissions rwxr-x---.

$ ls -ld /run
drwxr-xr-x. 52 root root 1520 Jun  4 12:49 /run
$ ls -ld /run/media
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 60 Jun  3 01:51 /run/media
$ ls -ld /run/media/david
drwxr-x---+ 3 root root 60 Jun  3 01:51 /run/media/david

To fix the problem, I did this:

$ sudo chmod 755 /run/media/david
$ ls -ld /run/media/david
drwxr-xr-x+ 3 root root 60 Jun  3 01:51 /run/media/david

After that change, the mount command on pw72 (the client computer) worked.

I also followed Rowland Perry's advice, adding 'guest only = yes' to the [data] share and 'map to guest = bad user' to the [global] section of smb.conf. Then I ran testparm and restarted smb and nmb with sudo systemctl restart smb nmb. Next I issued the following mount command on the client machine:

sudo mount -t cifs //pw-tower/data /mounts/pw-tower-data -o guest

Here is the output of the above command (before I fixed the permissions issue on /run/media/david):

mount error(13): Permission denied
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs) and kernel log messages (dmesg)

And here is the output of dmesg:

[1184391.470699] CIFS: Attempting to mount \\pw-tower\data
[1184391.484290] CIFS: VFS: cifs_mount failed w/return code = -13

On the computer that hosts the Samba server, I ran sudo systemctl status smb and got this output:

Jun 04 11:54:03 pw-tower smbd[86079]: [2023/06/04 11:54:03.635577,  0] ../../source3/smbd/smb2_service.c:168(chdir_current_service)
Jun 04 11:54:03 pw-tower smbd[86079]:   chdir_current_service: vfs_ChDir(/run/media/david/D2T-07202016/data) failed: Permission denied. Current token: uid=99, gid=99, 1 groups: 99
Jun 04 11:54:03 pw-tower smbd[86079]: [2023/06/04 11:54:03.636304,  0] ../../source3/smbd/smb2_service.c:168(chdir_current_service)
Jun 04 11:54:03 pw-tower smbd[86079]:   chdir_current_service: vfs_ChDir(/run/media/david/D2T-07202016/data) failed: Permission denied. Current token: uid=99, gid=99, 1 groups: 99
Jun 04 11:54:03 pw-tower smbd[86079]: [2023/06/04 11:54:03.636968,  0] ../../source3/smbd/smb2_service.c:168(chdir_current_service)
Jun 04 11:54:03 pw-tower smbd[86079]:   chdir_current_service: vfs_ChDir(/run/media/david/D2T-07202016/data) failed: Permission denied. Current token: uid=99, gid=99, 1 groups: 99

Note that uid=99 is the user nobody.

Based on the Samba log file, it appears that the problem is with the permissions of the data directory. But the permissions are wide open.

$ ls -ld /run/media/david/D2T-07202016/data
drwxrwxrwx. 14 david samba_file_readers 4096 Jun  3 09:32 /run/media/david/D2T-07202016/data

For good measure, I added the user nobody to the group samba_file_readers but the result was the same.

Bottom line: the problem is now solved. Thanks to everyone's suggestions.

David Levner
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