Cannot access Ubuntu samba shares from Mac OS after install of Ubuntu 14.10

Just installed Ubuntu 14.10 on my server, replacing 14.04 (not upgrading it). I gave it the same name (ubuntu-server) as before. I installed Samba and redefined the shares previously established, using the same names: sde, sdf, etc.

However, I can no longer access those shares from Mac OS (Yosemite). I've rebooted the server and the Mac OS systems, to no avail. The server and the shares appear on both of the Macs, but my connection to the server is that of Guest, and although I've enabled Guest access, when I try to access one of the shares, I get a dialog "The operation can't be completed because the original item for "" can't be found". If I try to change the connection to be as a registered user, I get "There was a problem connecting to the server "". Check the server name or ip address and then try again . . .".

Does anyone know what the problem is or what I can check to get further details about what the actual problem is?

Regards, David

Had the exact same issue. Try the following:

sudo smbpasswd -a <username> #this should be your home account username on Ubuntu

it should prompt you to set a samba password, which is stored separately to your Ubuntu passwords. You can set it the same as your Home user password if you wish, although it is not recommended. Then do:

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Scroll to the bottom of the file and add/edit your shared folders as follows:

[<folder_name>]
path = /home/<user_name>/<folder_name>
available = yes
valid users = <user_name>
read only = no
browseable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

Then restart samba with:

sudo service smbd restart

last but not least:

testparm

If all is well you should see a message like:

Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
rlimit_max: increasing rlimit_max (1024) to minimum Windows limit (16384)
Processing section "[printers]"
Processing section "[print$]"
Processing section "[<folder_name>]"
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE

Lifted from instructions here.

This worked for me on Mac OS 10.10.1.