[PROBLEM] Samba setup.....Idiot guide required??

[TheOldPresbyope]

I assumed the credentials in question must be stored in the Windows Registry (because everything gets dumped there). 

Sure enough, firing up my Win10 guest OS just now and searching the registry for my moOde player’s hostname “sunroom” I find it in keys in several places in the tree. One branch is suggestive of credentials, the other of share names. I also see everything else I’ve ever connected to since I installed Win10.

I am not about to perform brain surgery on my Win10 to delete these keys but I assume that’s the only way to eradicate the problem. Sure, I could backup the registry first but I’ll leave the exercise for someone else.

Regards,
Kent

PS - notice how I said I was out but I keep popping back in? Curiosity is a curse.

[Tonewheelkev]

Couldn't resist it....
Hostname : Moode (not very imaginative I know)...searched registry....and deleted all refs
Similarly with smb.....only one found.

Rebooting PC....plot thickens.
Network now has a new Folder....Moode....NO credentials asked for!
Inside....all the folders that are SMB scanned in Moodeaudio....the 3 Drives, NAS, Playlists and SD card.
Now....all 3 drives are protected (message is USE ANOTHER DISK/REMOVE WRITE PROTECTION as bfore).....but the SD card (partition that has Stereo Test file)...CAN be written to.

At this point....neither Moode nor smb are found in the registry.

Not sure where this gets me tho'.......

[TheOldPresbyope]

Couldn't resist it....
Hostname : Moode (not very imaginative I know)...searched registry....and deleted all refs
Similarly with smb.....only one found.

Rebooting PC....plot thickens.
Network now has a new Folder....Moode....NO credentials asked for!
Inside....all the folders that are SMB scanned in Moodeaudio....the 3 Drives, NAS, Playlists and SD card.
Now....all 3 drives are protected (message is USE ANOTHER DISK/REMOVE WRITE PROTECTION as bfore).....but the SD card (partition that has Stereo Test file)...CAN be written to.

At this point....neither Moode nor smb are found in the registry.

Not sure where this gets me tho'.......

A test I did earlier doing the same thing suggested to me that changing the SMB server hostname isn't sufficient, from which I inferred Windows is logging the IP address (or, god forbid, the MAC address) as well as the hostname when it establishes a connection. But that's pure tea-leaf reading on my part.

It still sounds like moOde itself is doing what it's intended to.

How are the partitions on those three USB drives formatted? vfat/FAT32 is highly recommended. Supposedly, Linux support of the proprietary NTFS has become solid over the last decade but....

As a test, you could substitute a USB thumbdrive with some music in a FAT32 partition and see if that's accessible and writable as an SMB share.

[old guy maundering]
Up until this episode, my attitude toward Microsoft Windows was one of studied indifference; I use it only when I must and that is happening more rarely every year. I keep it around mostly for testing purposes. Now, however, I'm developing an active dislike for it.

Mind you, I used (more to the point, helped our secretarial staff use) every version of Windows at work since 1.0 hit our lab in 1985 until I retired so it's not like I have no experience with it. I personally switched to Linux on my PCs soon after Linus first distributed it to the world. After all, I was already running Unix on all the engineering workstations in my lab. 
[/old guy maundering]

Regards,
Kent

[Tonewheelkev]

A test I did earlier doing the same thing suggested to me that changing the SMB server hostname isn't sufficient, from which I inferred Windows is logging the IP address (or, god forbid, the MAC address) as well as the hostname when it establishes a connection. But that's pure tea-leaf reading on my part.

It still sounds like moOde itself is doing what it's intended to.

How are the partitions on those three USB drives formatted? vfat/FAT32 is highly recommended. Supposedly, Linux support of the proprietary NTFS has become solid over the last decade but....

As a test, you could substitute a USB thumbdrive with some music in a FAT32 partition and see if that's accessible and writable as an SMB share.

[old guy maundering]
Up until this episode, my attitude toward Microsoft Windows was one of studied indifference; I use it only when I must and that is happening more rarely every year. I keep it around mostly for testing purposes. Now, however, I'm developing an active dislike for it.

Mind you, I used (more to the point, helped our secretarial staff use) every version of Windows at work since 1.0 hit our lab in 1985 until I retired so it's not like I have no experience with it. I personally switched to Linux on my PCs soon after Linus first distributed it to the world. After all, I was already running Unix on all the engineering workstations in my lab. 
[/old guy maundering]

Regards,
Kent

"As a test, you could substitute a USB thumbdrive with some music in a FAT32 partition and see if that's accessible and writable as an SMB share."
Hmmm the drives are all NTFS.....so an excellent idea...I'm onto it.

On the Linux front....tried Ubuntu back in 2010....then was supplied with 'free' Windows by the College I was teaching at.
Suppose things have moved on a bit now....would Ubuntu be the distro to have a go with??

[TheOldPresbyope]

There's approximately a gazillion LInux-based distros. Check out https://distrowatch.com to see the landscape.

I have Linux Mint on my laptop and debian on a compute server under the desk.

Linux Mint is built on Ubuntu and Ubuntu is built on debian, as is Raspberry Pi OS, so there's a strong family resemblance.

ETA- Many of the Linux distros will boot and run off an external drive so you can test them without touching the OS already on your computer. If you like one, you can install it in a dual-boot fashion side-by-side with Windows (requires enough space on your primary drive to create a big-enough new partition) or, like I did, reformat* the primary disk, install a Linux distro as "the" OS and then use Virtual Box as a vehicle for reinstalling Windows as a guest OS.


*To tell the truth, I replaced the old hard disk with a new SSD.

Regards,
Kent

[Tonewheelkev]

Well....putting a handful of albums onto an old 16gb stick....formatted to Fat32, did the trick.
Immediately visible/accessible in Library.....Hooray!

I thought I'd done all the relevant research before formatting the 3 x SSds to NTFS......Blast!!!  

Just to be clear....Fat32 is the way to go for Pi attached drives running Moode?
Any other considerations?

Looks like I've got a lot of transferring/formatting to do.......aaaaaggghhhhh

[Nutul]

Just to be clear....Fat32 is the way to go for Pi attached drives running Moode?

For what we have learned so far, it seems that Fat32 gives a lot less headaches when it comes to sharing them via SMB from a Linux machine...
Linux can cope with a myriad of file-systems (if you had a Linux machine instead of a Windows one I'd suggest Ext4) but you won't be able to use them in a Windows environment; so yes, stick to Fat32.
I think ExFAT also can do; but you better try it.

[Tonewheelkev]

I think ExFAT also can do; but you better try it.

Yeah....was also going to try ExFAT....thanks!
Just trying to land on the best choice...for performance and most comprehensive 'usablility'.....
.....as I hope not to be coming back to this

[Nutul]

I think ExFAT also can do; but you better try it.

Yeah....was also going to try ExFAT....thanks!
Just trying to land on the best choice...for performance and most comprehensive 'usablility'.....
.....as I hope not to be coming back to this

As this has somehow proved that there are some caveats sharing NTFS-formatted drives from moOde (they could be read, but not written...) maybe we can make a sticky like moOde SMB shares - What works and what may not...

[Tim Curtis]

Stick with Fat32. Its fast, reliable and has the best support across operating systems.