Odd Behavior With Anonymous Access CIFS Share

[rbrinson]

Ok. I'm about ready to pull my hair out. For the past couple of days, I have been trying to establish CIFS shares for specific purposes. At first I was trying to establish a Multimedia share with anonymous access and shares for credentialed users. However, this would not work as Windows cannot be connected to the same resource under two different logins. I finally decided to just do an anonymous access share since this is a home media server with access only within my local area network.

I have setup the share and can read, write, and delete to the share with standard applications like Notepad and Word. However, I'm running into a real problem with Windows Live Gallery. I right-click on All photos and videos and choose Include a Folder in the Gallery. I then click Add and navigate to my CIFS share. I then right-click on the newly added folder and select Set as default save location. It tells me that the folder on the CIFS share cannot be set as the default save folder for this library because it is read only. However, it is not; I just saved to the folder through windows explorer and with applications, like Notepad and Word. What am I missing? I have read numerous how-to articles and tutorials and the FreeNAS docs, but I am getting nowhere fast.

Here's how things are set up on the NAS:

FreeNAS v. 8.2

Permissions for Volume Shared



Configuration of Windows CIFS Share



Configuration of Windows CIFS Service





Adding CIFS Share as a Source for Windows Live Gallery



Error from Windows Live Gallery



But look Ma, I can read and write to the folder on this share from within Windows Explorer and other applications.

 

[ProtoSD]

My guess it that Windows Live Gallery is trying to access the share with different credentials. You didn't mention what version of Windows you're using, but if you're using Windows 7, try opening the "Credential Manager" which you should be able to find in the Control Panel.

This is just where I would try first.

 

[toddos]

The error is not from Windows Live Gallery, but from Windows 7's built-in Library functionality. Through the UI, you can only add local folders and shares that are indexed on the server with a search indexer compatible with Windows Search 4 (basically, this means it's limited to shares exposed by other Windows machines). To add FreeNAS CIFS shares to Windows 7 Libraries, you need to use something like the Windows 7 Library Tool. From there you can add non-indexed shares and set them as default save targets.

The only other way around this is to somehow provide a Windows Search 4-compatible search indexer plugin for FreeNAS, which does not exist at the moment (and probably never will).

 

[rbrinson]

Thank you for the replies. @protosd, the client machine is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I also thought that maybe perhaps Windows Live Gallery was using some System account to execute, but checking with the Task Manager showed that it was operating under my wife's account. Also, since it is an anonymous share, I'm not sure that it would matter.

@toddos, I will give the Windows 7 Library Tool that you have suggested a try and report back.

 

[rbrinson]

Hi, @toddos. I tried the Windows 7 Library Tool this past weekend. It allowed me to add the Pictures directory on my Multimedia share to the Pictures Library of Windows 7 and set the NAS share as the default save location. Windows Live Gallery still would not allow me to set the NAS share as the default save location still complaining that the directory was read only. However, the NAS share is part of its library, and I was able to set the NAS share as the save location for things like cameras and CDs in the application options. So, I think things are as good as I can get with Windows Live Gallery.

Thank you for your help!

 

[rbrinson]

Hi, @protosd and @toddos. I wanted to update you and any other interested readers on this situation. While my wife's computer (Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit) can continue to read, write, and delete files on the Multimedia Windows share of my FreeNAS server through Windows Explorer, the Camera Import utility that is built into Windows 7 still does not think it has Write access when trying to target the share for importing pictures. I'm starting to think that at some point during the import process, it tries to utilize an account that does not have access to the credentials stored in the Windows Credentials vault, and thus, it does not have the permissions necessary to write to the share. On my computer (Windows 7 Professional 64bit), I was able to utilize the functionality built into iTunes to transfer my entire 14 GB iTunes library over to the Multimedia share without a hiccup. So, if I could just figure out how to give the SYSTEM account (or whatever other account) the credentials, perhaps the Camera Import application would work correctly.

 

[rbrinson]

I have found another thread on the forums that speaks to this issue. Apparently, it is a bug. It's marked as SOLVED, but it isn't really; the ticket originator found a workaround, but it involves destroying your RAIDZ volume.

 

[toddos]

I wonder if maybe Windows is just being dumb? For example, using the previously-mentioned Windows 7 Library Tool, I can correctly set a FreeNAS share as the default save location, despite complaints about permissions being ordered incorrectly (the library tool doesn't complain, it just does it). Photo Gallery complains, and the Libraries manager from Explorer complains (the two use the same dialog), but Library Tool just works and once the default location is set everything seems to be fine.

Library management in Win7 seems half-baked at best.