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OSX and Samba

OK, here's another request of my readers for tech help.

I use a music server in my home with Samba file sharing on it.

I used to be able to connect to it via the finder in OSX, but when I upgraded to Tiger, it stopped working.  I've tried a number of hacks suggested by the vendor of the music servers, but the bottom line is nothing seems to work.

I am wondering if there is some kind of software I could run on OSX that would fix this problem for me.

Suggestions in the comments or via email are greatly appreciated.

PS - I can access the samba drive on my windows machines and the one Mac that is still running OSX  Panther, the problem is limited to OSX Tiger.

January 16, 2006 Venture Capital and Technology | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

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Have you checked here:

http://www.macwindows.com/tiger.html#SMB1

Can you access that SAMBA server from Windows just to make sure that it's on the network?

You should be able to run the command line smbclient to test it out in OS X.

Posted by: Raj Bala | Jan 16, 2006 10:02:22 AM

Fred,
It looks like you have the same setup as I do. I use two methods on two OS X machines and both seem to work fine under Tiger. The easiest one is just to place the shared Music directory in the dock and that seems to do the trick. On the other machine I edited netinfo to automount at boot - I have to say the first one is easier and more dependable. There's a whole slew of other suggestions at macosxhints: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031022164821984

Posted by: rajesh | Jan 16, 2006 10:48:19 AM

I have found more difficulty going the other way (i.e. going from Windows to OSX). Is the Samba a pure windows machine or is using Linux? Obviously Samba is MS technology, however you can, of course, connect via samba from OSX to Linux as I did prior to me learning some UNIX code.

Make sure that your user name and password are accurate. When upgrading it will change the passcode key and I have experienced some problems in the past.

Whatever you do, do not use DAVE. DAVE, prior to jaguar was very helpful in sharing drives, but it is a mess to get rid of. There is no need for it, but some people still push it.

Make sure that you have iScobbler at startup on your Mac as well.

Posted by: Ted | Jan 16, 2006 12:07:42 PM

I've been there. I also have an AudioRequest-based home system (down on Morton Street!) and the upgrade to Tiger broke my Samba connection. Don't lose heart; there's a solution.

Read what Thomas Peebles has to say (it worked for me):

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=722265

BTW, I use a network of netstreams.com devcies to play my music? What are you using?

doug

Posted by: Doug Ellis | Jan 16, 2006 2:06:17 PM

Fred,

Once you get your Samba server issue straightened out, you should set up a shoutcast server on one of your macs.

Play your content via itunes and control it from your cell/smartphone via bluetooth or a TCP/IP connection using Salling Clicker.

Salling Clicker works from your new phone and will even display the album art and song info.

Posted by: nono | Jan 16, 2006 2:32:00 PM

Fred........................here's a long shot..................I mean a LONG shot at fixing your TIGER/SAMBA problem.

Some files may not be copied over from the Panther OS when updating to Tiger............I was able to fix a similar problem with the process outlined below. Keep in mind that I am not familiar with wireless systems nor Samba. Good luck.


• Turn off the Samba application.

• On the Tiger computer....take a look at [your hard drive]/System/Library/ScriptingAdditions and compare the contents to the same folder on the Panther computer. Make sure you record the configuration of the Tiger folder BEFORE you play with it because if this 'fix' does NOT work you should restore it to it's original configuration.

• If the two folders differ............copy and transfere the missing Panther files to the Tiger folder. If the "ScriptingAdditions" folder does not exist at all on the new Tiger system...............transfere a copy of the whole folder from the Panther to the Tiger system. You can use whatever media you have to accomplish this transfer between computers..............thumb drive, CD-RW, wireless means, e-mail (at most about a 1.5 meg file), etc.

• Start up Samba................and here's hoping!


Posted by: Ned Engeman | Jan 17, 2006 11:04:37 AM

its a bug in tiger, click go -> connect to server then put in

smb://username@192.168.ip.address/

Posted by: Nik Cubrilovic | Jan 18, 2006 5:53:12 AM

Hi Fred --

I had a similar problem recently after configuring a Fedora Core 4 Linux box (w/ Samba and all the goodies) as a media server.

I encountered (what sounds like) almost the exact same problem as you're having, since I was able to access the share on my Windows XP box without a hitch.

Here are some more details:
http://sablog.com/archives/2006/01/04/linux-media-server-redux
http://sablog.com/archives/2006/01/03/how-to-setup-a-linux-media-server

Unfortunately, I had to:
- recompile the latest Samba verion on my Fedora Core 4 media server (a real pain in the butt)
- modify my mac's /etc/smb.conf file (simple enough)
- create an Applescript that launches on boot to Auto-mount the network share

If you're having the same problem (not sure from the details of your post), everything was pretty straightforward except for the Samba compilation/configuration.

Shanti

Posted by: Shanti Braford | Jan 19, 2006 7:20:15 PM

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