Can't Connect to Samba share but I can SSH and I can connect to other shares

Okay, I think I have everything working. Unfortunately I was not able to figure out why it wasn’t working the first time. But here’s what I have now…

I enabled the firewall as per your instructions:

$ sudo systemctl enable --now firewalld
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.fedoraproject.FirewallD1.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/firewalld.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/firewalld.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/firewalld.service.

$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone="home" --list-services
dhcpv6-client mdns samba-client ssh

$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone="public" --list-services
dhcpv6-client ssh

$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone="home" --add-source="192.168.1.0/24"
success

$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone="home" --add-service="samba"
success

rebooted all 3 machines and I was still able to connect to my shares!

Next, I added the PAM stuff back into smb.conf along with the 2 folders I actually want to share, I removed the public folder, and I set usershare allow guests = no:

[global]
  workgroup = WORKGROUP
  server string = Manjaro Samba Server
  server role = standalone server
  log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
  max log size = 1000
  guest account = nobody
  map to guest = Bad Password

  min protocol = SMB2
  max protocol = SMB3

  obey pam restrictions = yes
  unix password sync = yes
  passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
  pam password change = yes
  
  usershare path = /var/lib/samba/usershares
  usershare max shares = 100
  usershare allow guests = no
  usershare owner only = yes
  
[documents]
  path = /home/rob215x/Documents
  guest ok = no
  writable = yes
  printable = no
  force user = rob215x

[video]
  path = /home/rob215x/Videos
  guest ok = no
  writable = yes
  printable = no
  force user = rob215x

rebooted all 3 machines AGAIN and I was still able to connect to my shares!

  • I tried the anonymous login and I was denied (this is what I want!)
  • I tried a different username and I was denied (good!)

So, in conclusion, I don’t know why it wasn’t working before. Besides some typo or mistake I’m not aware of, there are 3 main differences in this install:

  • I did NOT install Thunar-shares-plugin this time.
  • I ran all of the apparmor commands listed in your guide.
  • I did NOT add the PAM stuff to my smb.conf until AFTER I had the shares working.

@linux-aarhus let me know if you have any thoughts and if I should mark this as solved. Thanks!!