Samba share issue with sharing directories on NTFS/FAT32 (Mounted Drives)?

Question

I have some strange problems with Samba server. I am using samba Version 3.5.4 on Ubuntu 10.10.

I have two Windows-XP machines, one on VirtualBox on Ubuntu and another office laptop. Windows machine on VBox has no issues in accessing the shared folders, but the laptop is not able to access all the shared content.

The issue faced on laptop is =>

Shared folders on Ext3 drives have no issues in accessing, but the contents shared on NTFS and FAT32 drives (mounted ones) are not accessible. When I try to open the shared folder, it asks for user name and password, but doesn't accept when I provide it. (even if I provide admin login details!!!).

I changed workgroup value to the domain_name in office laptop, but still the problem persists...

Here is the smdb.conf I am using...

[global]
workgroup = XXX.XXX.ORG
server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
map to guest = Bad User
obey pam restrictions = Yes
pam password change = Yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
unix password sync = Yes
syslog = 0
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
dns proxy = No
usershare allow guests = Yes
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
guest ok = Yes

[homes]
comment = Home Directories

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
read only = No
create mask = 0700
printable = Yes
browseable = No

[print$]
comment = Samba server's CD-ROM
path = /cdrom
force user = nobody
force group = nobody
locking = No 

Workgroup Was defined as "HOMENET" before, changed it to domain name on the office laptop thinking it was the problem, but for no avail

Answer 1

A few things to check:

1. Make sure the users also have permissions at the file-system level (your mount point) to at least read the files.

2. Check the various Samba log files for any error messages or hints as to where the problem might be.

3. Restart the Samba daemons (all of them). Although this usually doesn't make any difference, there have been a few rare occasions over the years where I found it was needed so that the updates to the Samba user accounts would show up (I've not seen this problem in the current versions Samba though).