Need Linux Help - Can't see Windows Workgroup.

Great minds!

Just getting ready to jump on that myself, plus I want to connect to a Linux based NAS that I put together on a RasPi 4.  I can get to the Linux NAS server from my Windows machines, but now ready to jump on connecting from the Jetson Nano.

And I just got the Arduino IDE loaded on the Jetson just a few minutes ago.  Don't know why I did that, but it might come in handy for testing Arduino shetches in the future.

Ironically the biggest problem I'm having with Ubuntu 18.04 is connecting to all my Ubuntu 16.04 machines! They can talk to each other, but the 18.04 doesn't want to join in the conversation!  I have another 18.04 that I haven't tried, I'll test it out later as it dual-boots with Windows 10 and I'm running it in Windows right now.

I can connect to Windows and Mac machines just fine, and I never modified my smb.conf.  It just worked out of the box, although I did install Samba when I first set up the computer (this is my newest one, I've only had it for a couple of months) because I just always do that.

I know Windows gets a lot of bad press, but in my opinion, Microsoft has got networking perfected, nothing networks as well as a Windows box. Linux and OSX always involve a lot of teeth-pulling to get it to work. At least when you finally get Linux to work it keeps working forever, OSX will eventually "forget" the network shares and require you to do it all over again.

I assume you have also checked the Windows side of things, and that your other Windows computers can connect to each other?  And, if so, you have tried to connect to Ubuntu with Windows?

Any chance that your Windows box(es) are running the Pro version of Windows instead of the Home version? I believe the Pro version defaults to using Active Directory, like the Pro version of Windows 7 did.

One thing - you certainly aren't doing something stupid, this is a problem that everyone runs into.

If I think of anything I'll let you know.

BTW, my version of Ubuntu on this machine is Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS. Just in case it matters.

Posted by: @dronebot-workshop

I assume you have also checked the Windows side of things, and that your other Windows computers can connect to each other?  And, if so, you have tried to connect to Ubuntu with Windows?

Sorry, just read your post a bit better and can see that you've already answered that!  Forgive me, I'm running on no sleep today!

Posted by: @codecage

Just getting ready to jump on that myself

I'll be anxious to hear how you make  out.

Posted by: @codecage

plus I want to connect to a Linux based NAS that I put together on a RasPi 4. 

That reminded me that I tried this before on the Raspberry Pies and had the exact same problem.  I could never get them to see windows either.  I did manage to see them from windows though.  But I just fired up a pi right now and I it's not   showing up on my  Windows network.

The Raspberry Pi and the Jetson nano can see each other though, so that much is working.

I'm really confused now.

I can see both the Raspberry Pi and the Jetson Nano from one of my Windows machines.  But not from the other one.  The two Windows machines have no problem sharing files between them.

However, when I go to the Network and Sharing Center I see that one of them lists the Private Network as Robo_SID (the name of my Network), while the other one (the one that can see the Linux machines)  lists the Private Network as Robo_SID 2.

I do recall messing with this stuff some time ago, including even setting up a "Virtual Network", maybe this is a hangover from that.  I'm not sure  where Robo_SID 2 is defined on this machine?   I  probably created that somewhere along the way, but I have no clue what it is now.

In the meantime the Pi and the Jetson Nano don't see any of the  Windows machines.   But they do see each other and I can exchange files between them.

So it appears I have the following to some degree:

1.  The Windows machines can share files between them
2. The Linux machines can share files between them.
3. One Windows machines can  read and write files to either the Pi or the Jetson Nano
4. Neither the Pi or the Jetson Nano and see either Window machines.

Both Windows are running  Windows 10.

Now I need to see if I can figure out the difference between Robo_SID and  Robo_SID 2.

The Windows that is connected to Robo_ SID  2 can see the Linux Machines.  So there's something different going on there, but I don't remember how or where I had set that up.

@robo-pi

What steps have you taken on the Linux side to determine what they can see?  Is there a firewall or a VPN anywhere in your local network?

Posted by: @codeslinger

@robo-pi

What steps have you taken on the Linux side to determine what they can see?  Is there a firewall or a VPN anywhere in your local network?

Unfortunately I've tried everything I can think of.  I've disabled the firewalls on the Windows machines entirely.  My security program was taking conniptions! ?  But turning off the firewalls didn't make any difference anyway.

One thing that is really confusing me is why one of my Windows machines can access the Linux machines and the other one can't.   I can't find any differences between them.   Well, they do have different device drivers for the Network adapters.  So I tried to update the  driver on the computer that can't see the Linux machines but Windows wouldn't let me do that anyway.  It just reported back that I already have the latest and greatest driver for my machine.    I guess these two different computers have different network adapters installed anyway so they probably each need their own drivers.

But even so, that shouldn't affect what the Linux computers can see.   I'm about at the end of my rope with this stuff.  This isn't the first time I  tried this.   I tried it a while back with the Raspberry Pies and couldn't get them to see Windows either.  So I eventually gave up.   At least the Windows machine could read and write files to the pies so I just used the Windows machine when I wanted to  move files between the machines.   I can still do that with the one Windows machine.   But not with the other one.

However, what I really wanted to do was access my main external hard  drives from the Jetson Nano.  The drive is  physically  plugged into one  Windows machine.   The second  Windows machine can access the drive over the Network from the first Windows machine.

But right now I can't see that drive from either the Raspberry Pies or the Jetson Nano.  So that's a bit of a  bummer.    I'm thinking of buying a second external drive just for the Linux machines to share among themselves.  That's probably what I'll end up doing.  Its not the ideal situation, but I suppose it can get me by.

I want to get all my files off all my computers so that all the date files are on external drives that I can easily  back up.   The only thing I want on my computers is the actual software programs.

I'm trying to clean up my act here. ? 

One thing that has inspired this is because I have files all over the place on different machines and I always need to search around to figure out which file is the most updated version.   If I start saving all my files on a single Network disk, then it will always be the updated version.  No more multiple local files on different computers.

I actually should have done this years ago.  But as they say, it's never too late to clean up your act. ? 

@robo-pi

Have you tried entering:

netstat -a

from the command line of either of the Linux boxes?  That will show you everything that the box is aware of.  See if the IP address of the windows box shows up instead of the host name.

Mike

@robo-pi

Posted by: @robo-pi

One thing that is really confusing me is why one of my Windows machines can access the Linux machines and the other one can't. 

Sometimes it's easy to overlook the little things, not saying you have, but just a couple of suggestions:

Can the Windows machine that can't access the Linux machine actually successfully ping it?

If ping  fails, then it could be:
   1) Firewall?
   2) Not on the same network and even workgroup?
   3) Bad cable?

Also, are you trying by IP or Hostname?

Cheers!

@robo-pi @dronebot-workshop

Got it 

First you need to specifically share the windows folder. Go to the windows folder and mark it as shared, everybody, no password. If possible, test it from another windows computer

Then you need to install a samba CLIENT on the pi. Samba is for file sharing, yes, but it's not just a server, it's also a client

sudo apt-get install samba-common smbclient samba-common-bin smbclient cifs-utils

Then make a directory on your pi to mount the share to

sudo mkdir /mnt/winshare

Then mount the share (I only have one folder on my basement pc that's already shared, so this is my specific example. And don't forget, linux is specific when it comes to capitalized letters) I probably could have used the windows pc name, but I took a shortcut and used the IP instead

sudo mount -t cifs //192.168.1.17/Videos /mnt/winshare

If you don't see an error when you try to mount it, it probably worked, so, try it

cd /mnt/winshare

And take a peek to see if your files are there

ls

If you see your files, then it probably worked 🙂

Now, as to browsing the local network, yea, I gotta figure that out

@spyder

Posted by: @spyder

Then you need to install a samba CLIENT on the pi. Samba is for file sharing, yes, but it's not just a server, it's also a client

Hmnnn... I  assumed that samba or other was already there, because one of his windows machines is able to see Linux just fine?

@frogandtoad

Installing samba server doesn't automatically install the client. It's 2 different programs

@spyder

Are you saying he needs to install the client on Windows?

@frogandtoad

Just in case I misunderstood you, I'm talking about putting the client on the linux machine. As long as the folder is properly shared on the windows machine, no other software is need on the windows pc