Hello everyone. There are three computers (all linux) on my home network (wifi). I have a samba server on one of them (ArcoLinux). The 2nd is under Linux Mint and the third, on which I have just installed NixOS. On Linux Mint I can see and use the SHARED directory on my ArcoLinux computer, but I can’t see any computer on NixOS. What’s missing from my setup?
Thanks!
Possibly you need to install Avahi (software) - Wikipedia or some other means of discovering the services being offered by remote computers.
Many home routers will automatically add network hosts to DNS as hostname.lan. If your samba server has the hostname arcolinux, you might reach it with samba URL using the hostname arcolinux.lan.
Thank you for the answer. I had previously installed Avahi without success. My knowledge of network access is very limited and I don’t really know where to start. My smb.conf configuration file is quite simple: basically:
[SAMBASHARE]
246 path = /home/martin/SHARED
247 browseable = yes
248 guest ok = yes
249 public = yes
250 writeable = yes
What does LinuxMint automatically do that is missing from NixOS?
Possibly all you need to change on NixOS is to add samba client support. What desktop environment are you using?
See Samba - NixOS Wiki. If that isn’t enough for you…
See Samba - ArchWiki for more generic details.
Starting with what File Manager you use on Mint, you can discover how it is configured. Then map that config to the equivalent for your NixOS user. If they run the same File Manager, then maybe all you need to do is copy the user config file. But I’m guessing they are different.
The problem you describe is one of service discovery. Avahi implement Internet standards for service discovery. But Microsoft preferred their own, which are implemented in Samba. While there is some level of interoperability, there’s a fair bit of Linux tooling which gets it wrong and breaks Avahi.
From what I read in the Arch Wiki, samba can work with Avahi, but this only matters to you if your samba server is configured to be discoverable by Avahi.
The Arch Wiki also indicates that discovery of samba servers is handled through the samba client used by the File Manager. The NixOS wiki says GVFS is needed for that.
It’s hard to know what will work for you without trying a few things – there are too many variables. Wiki info could be outdated, too.
I’d begin with the NixOS wiki info relevant to your desktop environment. Hopefully that will be enough.
Thank you for the answer, i’ll take a look at all your suggestions.