I see you have practically tried everything. I recommend starting with a fresh copy of the smb.conf file. It should look something like this:
[global]
workgroup = XTREME
server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
dns proxy = no
force user = cyrex
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
syslog = 0
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
encrypt passwords = true
obey pam restrictions = yes
unix password sync = yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
pam password change = yes
map to guest = bad user
usershare allow guests = yes
[printers]
comment = All Printers
browseable = no
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = yes
create mask = 0700
[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
[movies]
path = /media/cyrex/titan
browseable = yes
guest ok = yes
In this case I only have the movies share which I made. It works under Windows XP, 7 or 8. I added/modified the following options to the default smb.conf
which do the following:
guest ok
= yes - This helps with the password issue.
force user = cyrex
- This also helps with the password issue and lets users see the content of the shared resource instead of only seeing the shared resource.
browseable = yes
- Will let users see the shared resource when navigating on the network.
workgroup = XTREME
- This is the workgroup on my LAN.
Notice I do not have any other attributes or permissions to make the example easier and as you mentioned, it is local so not much worry on security. After doing that I only did sudo service smbd restart
to let samba read the new setup.
To create the original smb.conf do the following:
sudo cp -a /usr/share/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/
You can find a bit more information about samba in:
How can I connect to a Samba server using its hostname instead of the IP?
Here's my smb.conf file. Whats wrong with it?