mount -t smbfs ... only root can do that

Hi

I'm trying to mount a windows share from a linux box as a regular user

~$ mount -t smbfs -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian

and I get "mount: only root can do that"

I have googled till I'm blue and only found references to ensuring that the
suid bit is set (and it is) on smbmount and smbmnt as is mount

-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 8056 Sep 25 19:57 /usr/bin/smbmnt
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 575372 Sep 25 19:57 /usr/bin/smbmount
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 76888 Dec 7 05:35 /bin/mount

other solutions suggest autofs which doesn't seem to be an option - at
least not until I get this working. I am running Debian (testing) distro on
a pretty standard setup

any help would be greatly apreciated

J

James wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'm trying to mount a windows share from a linux box as a regular user
>
> ~$ mount -t smbfs -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian
>
> and I get "mount: only root can do that"

Try

$ smbmount -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian
$ smbumount caspian

if you do mount through /etc/fstab, give "user" as one of the options.

//caspian/E /caspian smbfs defaults,user,username=james,pasword=123 0 0

Andrey Asadchev <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:bt2947$2k02b$1
@ID-134500.news.uni-berlin.de:

> James wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I'm trying to mount a windows share from a linux box as a regular user
>>
>> ~$ mount -t smbfs -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian
>>
>> and I get "mount: only root can do that"
>
> Try
>
> $ smbmount -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian
> $ smbumount caspian
>
> if you do mount through /etc/fstab, give "user" as one of the options.
>
> //caspian/E /caspian smbfs defaults,user,username=james,pasword=123 0 0
>
>
>

Hmmm - tried that and get the following


"Usage: mount.smbfs service mountpoint [-n] [-o options,...]
Version 3.0.0-Debian

Options:
username=<arg> SMB username
....
....
....
This command is designed to be run from within /bin/mount by giving
the option '-t smbfs'. For example:
mount -t smbfs -o username=tridge,password=foobar //fjall/test
/data/test"

My conclusion so far, is if smbmount and smbmnt are suid root but won't
mount a smb share as a regular user it must be (a) hard coded at compile
time or (b) managed by a wrapper or (c) be referring to an external
config file or system wide security setting much like Suse has with their
permissions.XXX file, don't know if Debian has a similar option,

any ideas ??

J

James wrote:
> Andrey Asadchev <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:bt2947$2k02b$1
> @ID-134500.news.uni-berlin.de:
>
>
>>James wrote:
>>
>>>Hi
>>>
>>>I'm trying to mount a windows share from a linux box as a regular user
>>>
>>>~$ mount -t smbfs -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian
>>>
>>>and I get "mount: only root can do that"
>>
>>Try
>>
>>$ smbmount -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian
>>$ smbumount caspian
>>
>>if you do mount through /etc/fstab, give "user" as one of the options.
>>
>>//caspian/E /caspian smbfs defaults,user,username=james,pasword=123 0 0
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> Hmmm - tried that and get the following
>
>
> "Usage: mount.smbfs service mountpoint [-n] [-o options,...]
> Version 3.0.0-Debian
>
> Options:
> username=<arg> SMB username
> ...
> ...
> ...
> This command is designed to be run from within /bin/mount by giving
> the option '-t smbfs'. For example:
> mount -t smbfs -o username=tridge,password=foobar //fjall/test
> /data/test"
>
> My conclusion so far, is if smbmount and smbmnt are suid root but won't
> mount a smb share as a regular user it must be (a) hard coded at compile
> time or (b) managed by a wrapper or (c) be referring to an external
> config file or system wide security setting much like Suse has with their
> permissions.XXX file, don't know if Debian has a similar option,
>
> any ideas ??
>
> J

Hi
Sorry man, i messed up a bit
$ smbmount -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian
should be
$ smbmount //caspian/E caspian -o username=james,password=123

optionss go in the back

I double checked on my machine just to make sure (i run debian too) :-)

Anyways.

mount is setuid but only filesystems listed in fstab are allowed for
mounts (with user flag) - afaik.
when you pass "-t smb(fs)?", mount actually calls /sbin/mount.smb(fs)?
If you do

$ ls /sbin/mount.smb*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Dec 31 21:12 /sbin/mount.smb
-> /usr/bin/smbmount
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Dec 31 21:12
/sbin/mount.smbfs -> /usr/bin/smbmount

From man page of smbmout
NOTE: smbmount calls smbmnt(8) to do the actual mount. You must make
sure that smbmnt is in the path so that it can be found

$ ls -al /usr/bin/smbmnt
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 430760 Apr 7 2003 /usr/bin/smbmnt

smbmnt does final magic and it is setuid.

hope this does not make stuff too muddy. good luck.

>
> I double checked on my machine just to make sure (i run debian too)
> :-)
>
> Anyways.
>
> mount is setuid but only filesystems listed in fstab are allowed for
> mounts (with user flag) - afaik.
> when you pass "-t smb(fs)?", mount actually calls /sbin/mount.smb(fs)?
> If you do
>
> $ ls /sbin/mount.smb*
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Dec 31 21:12
> /sbin/mount.smb -> /usr/bin/smbmount
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Dec 31 21:12
> /sbin/mount.smbfs -> /usr/bin/smbmount
>
> From man page of smbmout
> NOTE: smbmount calls smbmnt(8) to do the actual mount. You must make
> sure that smbmnt is in the path so that it can be found
>
> $ ls -al /usr/bin/smbmnt
> -rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 430760 Apr 7 2003
> /usr/bin/smbmnt
>
> smbmnt does final magic and it is setuid.
>
> hope this does not make stuff too muddy. good luck.
>
>
>


eureka it works - one change was that I had chown /etc/samba to
root:users group users - not sure that is a good thing - otherwise i got

"
params.c:OpenConfFile() - Unable to open configuration file
"/etc/samba/smb.conf":
Permission denied
Can't load /etc/samba/smb.conf - run testparm to debug it
"
many thanks for the help - next time I'll persevere with the man page ;-)

regards - and happy new year



James

In article <bt2947$2k02b$(E-Mail Removed)>, Andrey
Asadchev <(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>James wrote:
>> Hi
>> I'm trying to mount a windows share from a linux box as a regular
>>user
>> ~$ mount -t smbfs -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian
>> and I get "mount: only root can do that"
>
>Try
>
>$ smbmount -o username=james,password=123 //caspian/E caspian
>$ smbumount caspian
>
>if you do mount through /etc/fstab, give "user" as one of the options.
>
>//caspian/E /caspian smbfs defaults,user,username=james,pasword=123 0 0
>
>
And if you want users to be able to mount it using "mount", you _must_
declare it in /etc/fstab (with the "user" option). This is because not
doing so means you need to tell mount what type of mount to do (with -t)
and this is only ever allowed for root.
--
Rob Pearce

The "from" must be wrong, nothing that helpful ever comes from the TAN team!