Posted on 05/15/2023 3:44:47 PM PDT by ducttape45
Good evening fellow Freepers. I'm in search of some computer assistance with Linux Mint and accessing a Windows network.
In times past, whenever I programmed Linux on a computer, I never had problems getting it to interface with my Windows network. That all changed in recent weeks/months, apparently.
Now, whenever I try to access a Windows network with a Linux machine, I get this error:
Unable to mount location
Failed to retrieve share list from server: No such file or directory
If you look at the discussion going on at the link, I've tried almost everything suggested, and then some. But so far, nothing has worked. There are other discussion forums on this topic, and again, nothing those suggested work.
So I thought I'd consult Linux experts here to see if anyone else has run into this problem and what possible solutions you might have.
Thank you and have a great evening!
Ping!
How are you trying to access the drive, from the GUI or from CLI. If from the GUI, what are you using? (e.g. Gnome, KDE, etc.)
Can you ping the Windows box?
What kind of network is this? Hoe? Small business? Enterprise? What boxes (e.g. switches) lie between the Linux box and the Windows box?
If duct tape don’t work, then try WD-40!
Next be sure cifs-utils (or your distro's equivalent) is installed.
Since this is a Windows share, you'll have to provide credentials to login to your Window server in the mount command.
Might be a stupid question but I’ll ask it anyway because you never know. . . Is the Linux machine and Windows machine on the same network? I made a similar mistake a few weeks ago setting up a remote control in my recording studio. I felt like an idiot. Lol!
First, define your “Windows network”. Is that a Local Area Network aka LAN?
Is your ASUS AC-1300 router running its DHCP server? Or, are you using manual IP addresses for each LAN device?
Learn the LAN IP address of the Windows machine to which you are trying to connect the Linux machine. Try, simply:
smb://Windows_Machine_LAN_IP_Address/
For example, smb://192.168.22.32
I recently upgraded my Mint 20.3 to Mint 21.1. I got the Dolphin file manager to recognize and access (with network password, etc.) my Windows 10pro desktop.
What version of Mint/Windows are you using?
I could not get previous versions of Mint to actually access Windows laptops or desktops.
I have a simple home network, wired and wireless. All devices connected to the network through my ASUS router. I used Linux Mint 20.3 on my Linux machines. I can ping all the computers on the network, and I can also ping the router. There are no switches between any of the devices.
It’s a simple home network, so yes, they are on the same network.
Ping.
smb://192.168.50.183: No such file or directory
Yet I can ping the machine and that works fine.
I’m running 20.3. I was warned not to upgrade to version 21 yet as many people were encountering problems with it. Will Dolphin work on 20.3?
I am assuming that you do have connections between Windows machines and can file share between them.
The suggestions I have, are so you get a connection between Linux and Windows:
PING, accomplished
Connection, not yet accomplished (between Linux and Windows)
Share / sharing . . . later
Sometimes helps, when both machines each have a user account that is using the exact same username and password:
Machine A (Linux box)
Username: joeA
Password: smpassWordA
Machine B (Windows box)
Username: joeA
Password: smpassWordA
I could not get Dolphin to work on 20.3.
It would ‘see’ the network but I could not get it to connect.
There’s got to be some patch/update that either Linux or Microsoft, or both, pushed that now causes this problem. Just a couple of months ago everything worked fine, now, phffft, nothing.
Also, on the Windows machine (”Machine B”), create a folder (aka directory) to share:
C:\shthis
and enable sharing for it - and be sure that user “joeA” has full permission for access to that folder.
So, you would be trying to connect from the Linux box (”Machine A”) to:
smb://192.168.50.183/shthis
Or try to mount that share in the display for your Linux box.
In the past couple months a windows update prevents windows 10 from accessing the Homegroup top level harddrive shares on windows 7/8. However, a FOLDER that is shared that is on the harddrive can still be shared. Perhaps you should try sharing a FOLDER not at the top level harddrive to see if that can indeed be shared i.e. D: can not be shared, but D:\FOLDER , FOLDER can be shared.
I have folders on each of my Windows machines, W7 & W10, that are shared and that can be accessed by any of those computers. I routinely copy files back and forth between them, even now. There is even a USB drive that is shared via my router, an ASUS AC1300.
However, when I use my Linux machine, it can't view any of the shared drives on any of the other machines, not even the USB drive on the router, which all worked beforehand.
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