SMB questions

1st Official Post

    Hello, i'm new here!

    Installed LE on one of my Pi 3's, just to try something new =)

    Smoother GUI than OSMC, and just a better feeling so far.

    ONE problem i have with LE, and that's a biggie..

    When i try to add my shares from the Windows 10 computer i keep getting "Operation not permitted"-error after i click WORKGROUP > THE-COMPUTER.

    Side note: it works on my older Pi2's with OSMC, and even installed KODI on my Phones (Android, Samsung S7 and S8+) and they could without any problems just add the shares.

    What different with LibreELEC?

    I went to settings and changed SMB1 as min, and SMB3 as max. Didn't work either.

    Also activated all smb protocols on Windows 10..

    Thanks!

    // newbie

    • Official Post

    Win10 needs to use SMB2+ and you need to enable the user/pass function on the Samba server so it can make an authenticated connection to the server. Anon/guest access is "not permitted" is the most likely thing.

    Quote from mrBira

    I went to settings and changed SMB1 as min, and SMB3 as max. Didn't work either.

    What SMB min/max settings did you change?

    The settings you need to change are Settings > Services > SMB client (you'll need to ensure Advanced or Expert mode). The default settings this will connect to SMB1, SMB2 and SMB3 servers, so really doesn't need any changes when connecting to a Windows 10 server.

    What isn't supported by LibreELEC is anonymous access to shares (and this also isn't supported by Microsoft in Windows 10 - it was dropped a few updates ago). You'll now need to create a user account on your Windows 10 PC and assign it to your share, then enter the username/password of the account into Kodi when prompted (ie. when you access the share).

    Browsing the network (WORKGROUP > THE-COMPUTER etc.) no longer works reliably as it depends on SMB1 and, with this being disabled by default by most vendors (including Microsoft), the ability to browse the network using Samba is not expected to work. You must now add your SMB network with "Add network location...", then add your source.

    Finally, enabling SMB1 in Windows 10 is a bad idea - Microsoft had very good reason to disable it.

    Quote from milhouse

    What SMB min/max settings did you change?

    The settings you need to change are Settings > Services > SMB client (you'll need to ensure Advanced or Expert mode). The default settings this will connect to SMB1, SMB2 and SMB3 servers, so really doesn't need any changes when connecting to a Windows 10 server.

    What isn't supported by LibreELEC is anonymous access to shares (and this also isn't supported by Microsoft in Windows 10 - it was dropped a few updates ago). You'll now need to create a user account on your Windows 10 PC and assign it to your share, then enter the username/password of the account into Kodi when prompted (ie. when you access the share).

    Browsing the network (WORKGROUP > THE-COMPUTER etc.) no longer works reliably as it depends on SMB1 and, with this being disabled by default by most vendors (including Microsoft), the ability to browse the network using Samba is not expected to work. You must now add your SMB network with "Add network location...", then add your source.

    Finally, enabling SMB1 in Windows 10 is a bad idea - Microsoft had very good reason to disable it.

    Thanks guys!

    I went into Settings > LibreELEC settings > Services and tried to allowing smb1 also..

    Now i have disabled SMB v1 in Win10 again... heh.

    I don't use guest shares. I got a seperate account for the Raspberrys.

    Before, i could just add the source, then i got asked for account/password in Kodi, but now i get that "Operation not permitted" directly.

    Oh, i tried that "Add network location..", and that actually works - BUT - what i wanna play keep buffering ALL the time, unwatchable! =(

    (even low quality series)

    Nothing wrong with the network, just to mention.

    I have similar LibreElec 8.2.5 woes. Everything was working in 8.0.2, browsing Samba, only entering credentials once. Now that i upgraded i can't browse the shares. Windows can't browse LibreElec's shares either. But the movies still play though, which is a bit bizarre.

    I can also trigger a video lib scan from the web interface and it succesfully finds new stuff.

    Would have been helpful with some smbclient cmdline tools to debug.

    Ok, news for you =)

    When i add an external USB disc to my router (Technicolor Xtrem) and add that share in Kodi (SMB) everything works as it should!

    No stuttering or buffering either... strange, huh!?

    ah yes,

    Setting up username/password is now a requirement for samba browsing. It would suit LE to have a default libreelec/libreelec user/pass, instead of just failing.

    Quote from brunis

    It would suit LE to have a default libreelec/libreelec user/pass, instead of just failing.

    That *is* the default username/password for the LibreELEC Samba Server.

    Changing this password to something stronger is a good idea.

    milhouse yes, what chewitt was saying. The default is off. If you are worried about security of the default password, you should make it part of the install, to ask for a password or generate one for the user to write down.

    Quite a few forum posts have been hit by this upgrade snag, people can't access their shares anymore and are clueless as to why.

    At the moment I think it's a case of waiting until the tipping point, i.e. when the majority of Windows (or other) installations require authentication then it makes sense for it to be enabled by default in the LibreELEC Samba Server. At the moment only Windows 10 users with the Fall Creators update (released Feb 2018) require authentication by default, which leaves a vast number of Windows (and non-Windows other) users that do not require authentication by default.

    Perhaps closer to the time of LE9 release this can be reviewed - admittedly the Fall Creators update has been quite, erm, "popular" thanks to Microsoft essentially forcing it on Windows 10 users, so it may be the case that Win 10 + FC will have exceeded 50% share later in the year (at the time of writing total Win10 market share is about 46%).

    So, yes, authentication is likely something we can enable as the default in *new* installations of LE9, but IMHO the timing isn't quite right for LE8. Also, the authentication setting is unlikely to be changed for *existing* LibreELEC installations when upgrading to LibreELEC 9 - after all, if the old LibreELEC installation doesn't need to be authenticated then nor will their new upgraded LibreELEC installation.

    And finally, if users do something beyond our control and upgrade their Microsoft client (ie. Windows 10) so that it suddenly starts requiring authentication and subsequently fails with an obscure "Operation not permitted" error, there's very little we can do about that - it's up to the user to now reconfigure their LibreELEC Server to match the security requirements of their newly upgraded Microsoft client,

    However I'm sure we will get used to answering posts in the forum when users mention "SMB", "Windows 10" and "Operation not permitted". Answer: "Enable authentication in the LibreELEC Server".

    As with anything which involves migrating users to increased default security, it will take time for most users to make the transition, and the early days will be the most painful.

    How about triggering it with the SMB protocols? Ask on install or notify on upgrades. Tell users if they are using Windows 10 to switch to SMB3 or if they are on Windows 7/8 to stay on SMB1-2.

    I'm assuming Windows 10 compatibility requires SMB3 ..?

    I agree with your assessments. There will be a long transition period and it will probably be painful for most samba/windows users.

    • Official Post

    Displaying upgrade messages in the GUI only works for English (without a large translation effort) and also requires the functionality of the settings add-on to be extended, which is probably more work than supporting SMB issues in the forums :)