[CLUE-Tech] Sharing Windows 98 files with Samba-lite under VMware 3.1.1 and RH 7.2

[bof]

Hello,

I trying to share some of the files on my Linux system using Samba and 
VMware. I'm running RH 7.2 as the host and Windows 98 as the guest under 
VMware-workstation 3.1.1. My computer name is Bill and the directory 
containing the files I want to share is /home/bof/files. When Windows 98 
loads, I can see Bill under network neighborhood, but when I click it, 
nothing comes up.

I followed the instructions that VMware gives under its help file under 
the line for "Move files under virtual machines" -> "Sharing files 
between guest and host operating systems" to set up sharing. Here's what 
I did.

Under Linux, I configured the /etc/vmware/vmnet1/smb/smb.conf file by 
doing the following:

   1. Comment out the line starting with interfaces=<IP addresses>.
   2. Below this line, add interfaces=vmnet1 vmnet8.
   3. Provide a network workgroup name. Set workgroup=workgroup.
   4. If you do not want to use the standard DNS name for the Linux
      system, set netbiosname=<Linux system name>.
   5. You can leave security=user, unless you cannot connect, in which
      case you would use security=share.
   6. Set encrypt passwords=yes.
   7. In the [global] section, define a different shared memory access
      key. Add this line:
      sysv shm key=/dev/vmnet8
   8. For better performance, at this line:
      socket options = TCP_NODELAY
      edit the line to state:
      socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
   9. To create the share, add the following:
      [SHARE_NAME]
      /home/bof/files
      public = no
      writable = yes
      printable = noHello,
  10. Comment out the line starting with interfaces=<IP addresses>.
  11. Below this line, add interfaces=vmnet1 vmnet8.
  12. Provide a network workgroup name. Set workgroup=workgroup.
  13. If you do not want to use the standard DNS name for the Linux
      system, set netbiosname=<Linux system name>.
  14. You can leave security=user, unless you cannot connect, in which
      case you would use security=share.
  15. Set encrypt passwords=yes.
  16. In the [global] section, define a different shared memory access
      key. Add this line:
      sysv shm key=/dev/vmnet8
  17. For better performance, at this line:
      socket options = TCP_NODELAY
      edit the line to state:
      socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
  18. To create the share, add the following:
      [SHARE_NAME]
      /home/bof/files
      public = no
      writable = yes
      printable = no
      I then restarted vmware. 



When Windows started, I configured Control panel -> Networking as follows:

    Added the Client for Microsoft Networks, and enabled file sharing. 
Once I did this, a line appeared for File and printer sharing for 
Microsoft Networks. It has the properties Browse Master -> Automatic, 
and LM announce -> No
    Added NetBUI. It has bindings for Client for Microsoft Networks and 
for file and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks
    Added TCP/IP with it set up for obtaining an IP address automatically

Of course, I had to restart Windows 98 after doing this.

When Windows 98 starts, I may have to click several times in Windows 
Explorer on Network Neighborhood to get Bill to show up under it. 
(Sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn't.) While doing this, I get 
a dialog box stating "Unable to browse the network." If I close this 
box, and then click "Entire network", then Workgroup, Bill will show up. 
When I click on Bill, nothing shows as being shared.

Under properties for Network Neighborhood, the tab Identification is set 
with computer name -> Bill, and workgroup -> WORKGROUP. The tab Access 
Control is set to Shared-level access control. If I try to set it to 
User-level access control, the word "WORKGROUP" appears in the box for 
"Obtain list of users and groups from" and when I click the OK button, I 
get a dialog box  stating "Windows could not find the specified security 
provider on the network. Do you want to use the name you typed anyway? 
Yes or No." If I click "Yes",  I then get a dialog box asking me to 
"select the kind of authenticator you typed" and choose in a drop-down 
box between "Windows NT domain" and "Windows NT server". I've tried 
using "Windows NT domain" instead of using Shared-level access control, 
and then changed the smb.conf file security line to user = shared, 
without avail: all it seems to do is make Windows take longer to load.

It was my understanding that I should at least get as shared my /home 
directory from Linux as the default from the lines in smb.conf

    ; Home directories
    [homes]
      comment = Home directories
      browseable = no
      writable = yes

If I set the line browsable to = yes, I still don't have /home/bof show up.

It was also my understanding from the help file mentioned above that

    if you use the same user name and password to log in to the guest as
    you do the Linux host, then you are not prompted to log in when you
    browse the Linux host.

This is not the case, as I am prompted to log in when Windows starts as 
bof. I enter the password that I have configured using "vmware-smbpasswd 
vmnet1 -a bof". Note that when I run this command to change my password, 
I get the following message:

    params.c:Parameter() - Ignoring badly formed line in configuration
    file: /home/bof/files

The password is then accepted. (In desperation, I've tried changing the 
line to comment = /home/bof/files in smb.conf, and it eliminates the 
error message, but I still don't have anything as being shared).

When restarting vmware, I get this

    Stopping VMware services:
       Virtual machine monitor                                 [  OK  ]
       Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                       [  OK  ]
       DHCP server on /dev/vmnet1                              [  OK  ]
       SMB share server on /dev/vmnet1                         [  OK  ]
       SMB name server on /dev/vmnet1                          [  OK  ]
       Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1                     [  OK  ]
       DHCP server on /dev/vmnet8                              [  OK  ]
       NAT networking on /dev/vmnet8                           [  OK  ]
       Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8                     [  OK  ]
       Virtual ethernet                                        [  OK  ]
    Starting VMware services:
       Virtual machine monitor                                 [  OK  ]
       Virtual ethernet                                        [  OK  ]
       Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                       [  OK  ]
       Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background)        [  OK  ]
       Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background)        [  OK  ]
       NAT networking on /dev/vmnet8                           [  OK  ]

This is everything I've done or found out over the past several hours 
trying to get file sharing working. Maybe someone who has successfullly 
sharing set up under VMware can tell my what I am doing wrong?

While I still have some hair left ....

BOF