I have honestly spent at least 6 to 8 hours trying to get this to work. Here's what I've got.
Ubuntu-server file server Rasberry Pi with Xbian Several Windows 7 Machines
I've set up a samba share on the ubuntu server. I can access it from the Windows Machines without logging in at all but I have to manually type the address (\Gandalf\Shares). It doesn't show up in my network automatically (I'd like it to but whatever).
The problem I'm having is accessing it from XBMC. I can't access it from my Rasberry or XBMC on my windows machines no matter how I try to get to it. It seems like I get a different error everytime.
Here's the kicker, When I first got my rasberry I set all this up and it all worked perfectly. I could see it on any windows 7 machine on the network and I could get to it right from the file manager in xbmc. It took me about 30 minutes of Googling and trial and error so I had no idea it would be so difficult to do again. But since then I reinstalled xbian on the pi and reinstalled Ubuntu-server on the linux box. Essentially, I started from scratch with the same config.
I'm really pulling my hair out over this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Here's my smb.conf file
[global]
; General server settings
netbios name = Gandalf
server string =
workgroup = FELLOWSHIP
announce version = 5.0
socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_KEEPALIVE SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_$
passdb backend = tdbsam
security = user
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
name resolve order = hosts wins bcast
wins support = yes
syslog = 1
syslog only = yes
map to guest = bad user
; NOTE: If you need access to the user home directories uncomment the
; lines below and adjust the settings to your hearts content.
;[homes]
;valid users = %S
;create mode = 0600
;directory mode = 0755
;browseable = no
;read only = no
;veto files = /*.{*}/.*/mail/bin/
; NOTE: Only needed if you run samba as a primary domain controller.
; Not needed as this config doesn't cover that matter.
;[netlogon]
;path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon
;admin users = Administrator
;valid users = %U
;read only = no
; NOTE: Again - only needed if you're running a primary domain controller.
;[Profiles]
;path = /var/lib/samba/profiles
;valid users = %U
;create mode = 0600
;directory mode = 0700
;writeable = yes
;browseable = no
[Shares]
path = /shares
browseable = yes
read only = no
guest ok = yes
#create mask = 0775
#directory mask = 0775
writeable = yes
available = yes