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This is my first foray into ubuntu and linux following Plex week and their video by Lon Seidman demonstrating the use of a mini pc with linux operating system as a plex media server.

Currently I have three windows pc all connected to the internet via wifi, a linux satellite receiver connected by lan and numerous large volume media drives installed inside Yottamaster drive bays which are lan connected directly to my router.

In windows, I have no problems at all in accessing the network shares but in ubintu it seems to be a bit of a different scenario.

For example, I have opened the file explorer and clicked on other locations. If I type smb:// followed by the IP address, the folders are seen but double clicking the folders will not open them.

If I try to use the file location smb://ipaddress/nameoffolder/ in Plex Media Server on ubuntu it will not open the file location as a directory to find certain files...

I am not sure what I am doing wrong?

Can anyone give me a bit of guidance please. I appreciate this may seem basic to you all but this is the very first time I have even looked at ubuntu.

Thanks guys.

chunx1970
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1 Answers1

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It seems you're facing issues with accessing your network shares via SMB on Ubuntu, which is a common issue when transitioning from Windows to Linux-based systems like Ubuntu.

1. Ensure Samba (SMB) is Installed

Ubuntu uses Samba to communicate with SMB shares. Make sure it's installed on your system. Open a terminal and run the following command to install Samba and the required dependencies:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba smbclient cifs-utils

2. Check SMB Access via File Explorer

In the Ubuntu File Explorer (Nautilus), go to Other Locations, and in the Connect to Server box, enter:

`smb://IP-address-of-share`

You should be prompted for a username and password. If you are still having issues: Try entering your credentials manually, or if the network share is public, try accessing it without credentials. Sometimes authentication errors prevent access.

3. Mount the Network Share

If using the File Explorer isn't working well, you can try mounting the SMB share manually. Here’s how: First, create a directory where the share will be mounted:

sudo mkdir /mnt/share

Then, mount the share using the mount.cifs command:

sudo mount -t cifs //IP-address-of-share/share-name /mnt/share -o username=your-username,password=your-password,uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g)

This will mount the SMB share at the /mnt/share location.

4. Grant Plex Access to the Share

For Plex to access the network shares, ensure the following; Plex should have access to the mounted directory. You may need to grant Plex access to these folders:

sudo chown -R plex:plex /mnt/share

In Plex, when adding media directories, you should now be able to browse to /mnt/share and add the appropriate media directories.

5. Automount on Boot (Optional)

If you want the network share to be mounted automatically on every boot, you can add it to your /etc/fstab file: Edit the /etc/fstab file:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add the following line to mount the share at boot:

//IP-address-of-share/share-name /mnt/share cifs username=your-username,password=your-password,uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0

Save the file and test it with:

sudo mount -a

6. Test with SMB Client

You can also test the SMB connection from the terminal using smbclient:

smbclient //IP-address-of-share/share-name -U your-username

If the connection works here, it should indicate the share is correctly configured.

Thusitha Sumanadasa
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