Setting up a guest Samba share on OS X (not server)

[ObviousTroll]

So,

I'm trying to create an anonymous-only read-only share on my powerbook so that my windows buddies can access some files. I added the following section to /etc/smb.conf:

[Manuals]
comment = Mike's Documentation
browseable = yes
guest ok = yes
read only = yes
path = /Users/michaelheinz/Manuals

The share got created, but it can only be accessed if someone logs into the powerbook - which is *not* the desired behavior. I've tried various combos of "guest only" and "guest ok" but the windows guys still get forced to log in.

Any ideas about what I'm doing wrong?

 

[jmgalvin]

You might be overdoing things a bit here. Generally, in osx, you open System Prefs/Sharing/Services, check Personal File sharing, and check Windows Sharing to allow Windows users to access your machine.

You stick whatever you want to share in the Public folder in the Users folder, & set Read/Write priveleges, on either the Public folder or any folder (or doc) within the Public folder via the Get Info/Ownership & Permissions/Details. If you want, you can set the permissions for the Public folder to apply to all subfolders - or not.

 

[jimoblak]

Dunno. I use simpler stuff:

http://www.zisman.ca/Articles/2004/sharepoints.html

http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[ObviousTroll]

Jmgalvin -

Moving the files is unacceptable in this case; I really don't want to have to remember to move or update data into the public folder when I want to share it. Plus, it's a rather galling limitation compared to how easy it is to share folders on Windows.

Jimoblak -

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, even setting guest access through the tool doesn't seem to work (and the smb.conf file seems equivalent to my own). I wonder if being on ActiveDirectory is messing things up (the samba log is full of error messages from opendirectory_auth_user).