Mac sharing with the OSD solution

[greyback]

EASIER SOLUTION BELOW, READ 5th POST!!!

Hey,
for all those Mac users out there who find that the OSD cannot find any shared directories, I've got the solution here. After all my ranting about incorrect ports being used, it was actually something much simpler and not the OSD's fault 

OS X samba is setup only to share users directories by default. When connecting to a Mac share, you've to supply the username before you can see what shares are available. The OSD does it the other way around, displaying all public shares before asking for authentication to connect.

So, to have, say for example your Movies folder visible to the OSD, you've to do the following:
1. Turn off Windows sharing in the System Preferences app.
2. Open a terminal
3. Backup the old samba configuration file in case we break it. Type "sudo sp /etc/smb.conf /etc/smb.conf.bak" and enter your password as requested.
4. Type "sudo nano /etc/smb.conf" (enter your password if asked).
5. Using the arrow keys to move the cursor to the bottom of the file and add the following lines (where 'yourusername' is your short username):

Code:

[Movies]
   path = /Users/yourusername/Movies
   public = yes
   writable = no

6. Hold 'ctrl' and press 'X', press 'Y' to confirm that you want to write the file and hit Enter to save to the original file.
7. You can close the Terminal, and turn on Windows Sharing again.

Now try to connect to your Mac with the OSD, a "Movies" folder should now appear which you can connect to (with your Mac's username & password). It should work.
-G

[yanvrno]

I assume you have to run testparm to implement the changes after any edits to the smb.conf file?

To write to the Directory I also assume you say yes to writable and change the ownership to 744 0r 777?        <chown 744 Movies>

I commented out these line and found I don't have to go through the login routine, not sure they all need to be but I'm not much on the security features on a in home system.

  ;guest account = guest
  ;encrypt passwords = yes
  ;passdb backend = opendirectorysam guest

[greyback]

I assume you have to run testparm to implement the changes after any edits to the smb.conf file?

testparm checks the file for correctness only, you've to reload samba (i.e. turn off & on Windows Sharing) to implement the changes. I suppose it's a good thing to do though, as it will point out any typos.

To write to the Directory I also assume you say yes to writable and change the ownership to 744 0r 777?        <chown 744 Movies>

You be meaning chmod. 766 should be the correct permissions to allow samba to read & write to the directory.
-G

[yanvrno]

Your just full of useful tidbits
Thanks

[greyback]

Even easier way to do this!

Simply install Sharepoints. This app allows you to manually create SAMBA shares that the OSD can connect to.

First click the padlock to allow changes & enter in your password.  As an example, in the screenshot below, I create a share called "movies" pointing to my /Users/yourusername/Movies directory, which the OSD can connect to:



Don't forget to turn the Windows (SMB) Sharing setting on. Then just click "Create Share" and you'll be asked for your password. The final result will be this:



Your OSD will now be able to connect to this "movies" share, using your Mac's username & password.
-G

[illin_technology]

I was very excited to read this post (as all other posts referring to networking an OSD with a Mac were way over my head). 

I tried to get SharePoints as set up as possible, and edited the sharing prefs  in my SysPrefs on my (intel) iMac. 

I then fired up the OSD, the folder I want to use on my iMac is showing up but then it asks for username/password and it fails.  I tried both my fullname and the shortname and they both failed.  I tried making another user on my iMac that has permission for this sharing and it fails too.  Any ideas?

I have an ethernet cable plugged into my OSD, then into my router, into a cable modem, the folder I'm trying to share is on my (intel) iMac which is wirelessly on the same network provided by the wireless/ethernet router.  Is this all kosher?

Do I have to do anything with my iMac besides install/configure SharePoints?  Download more software?  What is this strange password problem I'm having?

Am I even asking the correct questions? 

Thanks in advance, I'm excited to get this up and running.  My house-mates are too, no longer will they hear me say, "well, I have that movie/show/clip on my computer, but I don't have a way to show you on this TV".

-nate

[greyback]

Username/password error does not necessarily mean your username & password are wong. It could be that the connection is failing for other reasons.

First, reassurances: your network setup  is fine, the OSD can see your Mac, there's just some small problem preventing it connecting. All you need is to create a share using Sharepoints, and turn Windows Sharing on in System Preferences->Sharing. That's it.

I need some info off you, and I need you to do some trial-and-error exploring to help pinpoint the problem.

Can other computers connect to this Mac share? Using the short username is enough. If you've no other computer handy, can you connect to yourself? I.e. Find your own machine in Network & connect to it (it should ask for your username & password, unless it's too clever).

Are you using Tiger (OS 10.4) or something older? I hope you noticed there's different versions of Sharepoints for each release of OS X.

If there's a failed connection, your Mac will log it and possibly a useful error message. Go to Applications->Utilities->Console. This is where OS X logs any errors or problems it's having. Can you find any output from "samba" or "smbd"? You could also  try searching for your OSD's IP address to see if it's causing errors.

Any titbit of info you can find will help!
-G

[illin_technology]

Great success!  I now have a couple shares up and, successfully, running.

So stoked.  As are my house-mates.

Thanks for all the great help, between that and some tinkerin' I finally got things set up properly.

-nate

[greyback]

Good stuff. Any idea of what you did that fixed it?
-G

[illin_technology]

Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what did it.  I think that after my initial failures I may have toggled some options incorrectly.  I deleted/reinstalled Sharepoints and made sure my next installation was very deliberate and it worked.

Thanks again.

-nate