[SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

(G{in}[AK)TION] · 2024-12-15 21:41:35

Maybe this is more complicated than I thought, But it seems otherwise based on what I read from this post. I understand its old, but its covering the same thing im trying to do here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comm … e_network/

I know that in debian and linut mint debian edition 6, I can open the file manager and click "browse network" or "network" and it will show me whatever devices it discovers.

But when I try to do the same thing using the MATE DE in Arch linux, it shows nothing. I have installed pacakages like gvfs, gvfs-smb, samba, and several others in the guides that I have read but It just cannot discovery anything and always shows up empty. I also tried using the file manager that the cinnamon DE comes with but I get the same result.

the guides I have read also instructed me to edit the "smb.conf" file and "nsswitch.conf" file but no matter what I put in there, still nothing shows up in file manager when I click "browse network" in the file manager.

I did make attempts to modify the firewall and even tried to temporarily disable it, But nothing still shows up.

Is this an ongoing bug? or do I have poor reading skills?

Everything else is working out for me so far, I just cant seem to wrap my head around this whole thing.

Last edited by (G{in}[AK)TION] (2024-12-17 22:16:50)

jonno2002 · 2024-12-16 04:58:42

gvfs sux tbh, buggy as hell in my experience, always having to downgrade due to bugs, sometimes just a simple 'pkill gvfs' works but not always.
just tried it on my tv pc and had to downgrade to:

sudo pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/gvfs-1.54.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /var/cache/pacman/pkg/gvfs-smb-1.54.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

now network shares show up in thunar.
i highly recommend using cifs for mounting samba shares, so much faster and stable !

EDIT:
i believe this is the culprit:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gvfs/-/c … bc9abaa247
seems theyve removed that functionality entirely.
just tested it by installing 1.55 and sure enough it doesnt work, so i guess if you require nt1 support youll have to hold that package back or revert that patch for the current version.

Last edited by jonno2002 (2024-12-16 05:15:16)

(G{in}[AK)TION] · 2024-12-16 06:24:39

Interesting. My OpenWRT router is running Samba4 and the share I have setup on it is the kind that allows anonymous access with no password. I use the share like a flash drive because I dont like using flash drives often.

I will check and see what settings I need to check on my Samba share.

You mention CIFS. would that help me get network discovery work?

EDIT: And thank you for your response and help!

Last edited by (G{in}[AK)TION] (2024-12-16 06:26:39)

jonno2002 · 2024-12-16 07:06:36

no cifs is just a way to mount a known share, have a good read of the wiki page as it explains better than i can. from what i can tell there is no way to browse shares anymore, they have removed that functionality, someone please step in and correct me if thats wrong.

here is an example of a cifs share setup in /etc/fstab:

//192.168.1.69/share_name /mnt/cifs_share cifs _netdev,noauto,x-systemd.automount,x-systemd.mount-timeout=10,x-systemd.idle-timeout=1min,comment=x-gvfs-show,username=guest,password=,uid=1000,gid=1001 0 0

obviously you need to create the mount dir first, those are all the mount options i have set on my tv pc and it seems to work fine, just open thunar/caja/pcmanfm and the mount should be shown in the sidebar and you can click on it to mount/open it.

(G{in}[AK)TION] · 2024-12-16 10:19:53

it appears that this link here https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Samba at Section 2.5.3 mentions this fella here >> https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pyneighborhood

although I did read a few times here and there about avahi. would that work in place of gvfs-smb?

seth · 2024-12-16 14:56:08

First of all check whether smbclient can list the share, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Samba#Client

avahi is for service discovery and mdns (.local domain name system) - it won't help to browse SMB, but to detect smb shares if NetBIOS cannot be ue/d (because SMBv1 was deactivated because of wannacry) nor wsdd is available.
What you can find depends on what the other hosts (providing the shares) use.

Step #1 would be to nmap them itr.
The linked reddit thread advertises NT1, ie. ignore that wannacry is a thing.

(G{in}[AK)TION] · 2024-12-17 00:21:44

[gak@TestBed ~]$ smbclient -L 192.168.1.1
Can't load /etc/samba/smb.conf - run testparm to debug it
Password for [WORKGROUP\gak]:

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
SG_External Disk
IPC$ IPC IPC Service (Samba on OpenWRT)
SMB1 disabled -- no workgroup available
[gak@TestBed ~]$

Looks like its recognized the share on my living room router. probably safe to say that SMB2 is the minimum version supported by the router but im not quite sure.

Decided to also try checking my windows server

[gak@TestBed ~]$ smbclient -L 192.168.1.71 -U Administrator
Can't load /etc/samba/smb.conf - run testparm to debug it
Password for [WORKGROUP\Administrator]:

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
C$ Disk Default share
E Disk
E$ Disk Default share
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
PORTAL Disk
SMB1 disabled -- no workgroup available
[gak@TestBed ~]$

What I also find interesting is that there is an error message telling me that the "smb.conf" is missing. ill take a look into this later. unless you have an answer for this.

EDIT: I talked about this with another user in a discord server and this is what got it kind of working. I say "kind of" because I am only able to discover windows shares. none of my linux based samba shares are showing up.

the packages that I installed were gvfs-smb, gvfs-wsdd, and gvfs-dnssd

Last edited by (G{in}[AK)TION] (2024-12-17 05:33:54)

seth · 2024-12-17 08:29:53

wsdd is how modern windows (post wannacry) announces smb shares, you can establish that for your samba shares as well or use avahi w/ those (what is most likely what you want)
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Samba# … twork_view

(G{in}[AK)TION] · 2024-12-17 21:55:58

I think I got it fully fixed. and part of the problem was between keyboard and chair.

Seth, you were mentioning this whole thing with wannacry and NT1 over and over that I decided to go check to see if my windows computer had SMBv1 installed which I found that it did not. But when I opened windows explorer and clicked on network to scan for hosts with active shares, I saw that my OpenWRT router was not showing up there. So I logged into the OpenWRT router to check what was going on only to find that wsdd2 was not installed. So I installed it and now it is showing up on both my windows desktop and the Arch Linux test bed.

I mean I would call it the Arch linux desktop but its literally a Crosshair VII Hero motherboard paired with a Ryzen 2700x and a vega64. and 16gb of ram. on a test bed. or pc bench. Like I would point out that its got everything else but I have faith you all know that.

I am trying to learn about arch linux.

Anyway, I think I am good here now so thanks for the help!

EDIT:

Reader, I would like to point out again that I fixed the issue by installing these packages.

gvfs-smb, gvfs-wsdd, and gvfs-dnssd

this is working for me as of December 17th, 2024. I hope this still works out for you!

EDIT2: I want to also point out that I am using the MATE DE. File manager it comes with is "Caja".

Last edited by (G{in}[AK)TION] (2024-12-17 22:15:57)

seth · 2024-12-17 22:10:50

\o/
Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-12-15 21:41:35

[SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

#2 2024-12-16 04:58:42

Re: [SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

#3 2024-12-16 06:24:39

Re: [SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

#4 2024-12-16 07:06:36

Re: [SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

#5 2024-12-16 10:19:53

Re: [SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

#6 2024-12-16 14:56:08

Re: [SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

#7 2024-12-17 00:21:44

Re: [SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

#8 2024-12-17 08:29:53

Re: [SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

#9 2024-12-17 21:55:58

Re: [SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

#10 2024-12-17 22:10:50

Re: [SOLVED] Browse networks comes up empty in file manager

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