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Accepted
SteveC
Asked: 2019-11-29 18:43:29 +0800 CST

Cannot See Directories on Ubuntu 19.10 from Windows 10

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I have a desktop running 19.10. I would like to use it as a file server on my LAN. I have set up Open SSH and I am able to access through Putty on my Windows 10 laptop. Also, I have installed Samba through the terminal. My laptop sees it on the Network in the file explorer but it says "This folder is empty."

Do I need to set up access to my directories? I have removed the monitor from this desktop so I would like to make these changes via terminal in Putty.

networking server ssh samba

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    For starters, you need to actually create a smb share. It is done by editing configuration file. Most cases, it is fairly tedious job for some reason and often results in frustration and failure.

    As a recommendation if you run your desktop headless, is to install a tool called Cockpit. It also has a plugin for Samba(also docker and others).

    sudo apt install cockpit cockpit-storaged

    Then install Samba plugin for Cockpit by running

    wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/enira/cockpit-smb-plugin/master/install.sh | sudo bash

    After that, open browser, enter your desktops local IP adress and add port 9090(for example, 192.168.0.110:9090), then log in with your desktop's credentials(and tick "Reuse my password for privileged tasks" if you want to adjust the settings there). Then you can fairly simply manage and create your SMB shares.

    As I am running a headless too, I am not going back to ssh after having Cockpit for sure. You can set a static IP, SMB shares, manage docker, manage Tuned powersaving settings, even virtual machines, if you want and the best part - it has a terminal right there as well.

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