I need to use a Windows bookkeeping program called Sage.
The version I have is installed on Windows XP, a VBox VM.
Changes to samba have prevented me from mapping samba shares to XP
drives.

Although most other programs on XP are happy with Vbox's shared folders.
Sage is not. This means I have save backups to the "C" drive before
copying them to another "drive", a VM shared drive so that I can be
confident that if the XP VM corrupts, I will still have the backup safe
on a Linux folder.

Given that the Samba setup works perfectly with a Windows 10 VM on
the same computer. I decided the problem had to be because the NT1
(SMB1) protocol had become so deprecated as to no longer do my bidding
despite my edits to smb.conf.

Please stop yawning.

I tried replacing the latest samba with an earlier one which meant
compiling the source. That led me down a dependency path that drove to
despair next I decided to install LMDE 5 and install VBox and samba
from that.

VBox wouldn't install. The log as so often was impenetrable.
So unless a member of this auspicious group come up with a game changer,
I'll stick with what I have.

Actually I intend to retire before the end of next March so it isn't to
much of a chore. Just bloody irritating!

Alan

--
Linux Mint 21.1 kernel version 5.15.0-84-generic Cinnamon 5.6.8
AMD Phenom II x4 955 CPU 16Gb Dram 2TB Barracuda

pinnerite wrote:
> I need to use a Windows bookkeeping program called Sage.
> The version I have is installed on Windows XP, a VBox VM.

Why do you choose/want to use W XP VM w/ Sage? I see its (current)
requirements are W8.1 or higher.

Is this about a personal pref for the XP environment or something else?

It looks like Sage describes its 'versions' as Sage 50 followed by the
year from 2014 to the present. Such as Sage 50 2014 support XP.

A site 'allegedly' offers downloads of older versions but actually doesn't.
https://www.accountspro.co/sage/sage-50-downloads.html#

--
Mike Easter

On 9/26/2023 12:55 PM, pinnerite wrote:
> I need to use a Windows bookkeeping program called Sage.
> The version I have is installed on Windows XP, a VBox VM.
> Changes to samba have prevented me from mapping samba shares to XP
> drives.
>
> Although most other programs on XP are happy with Vbox's shared folders.
> Sage is not. This means I have save backups to the "C" drive before
> copying them to another "drive", a VM shared drive so that I can be
> confident that if the XP VM corrupts, I will still have the backup safe
> on a Linux folder.
>
> Given that the Samba setup works perfectly with a Windows 10 VM on
> the same computer. I decided the problem had to be because the NT1
> (SMB1) protocol had become so deprecated as to no longer do my bidding
> despite my edits to smb.conf.
>
> Please stop yawning.
>
> I tried replacing the latest samba with an earlier one which meant
> compiling the source. That led me down a dependency path that drove to
> despair next I decided to install LMDE 5 and install VBox and samba
> from that.
>
> VBox wouldn't install. The log as so often was impenetrable.
> So unless a member of this auspicious group come up with a game changer,
> I'll stick with what I have.
>
> Actually I intend to retire before the end of next March so it isn't to
> much of a chore. Just bloody irritating!
>
> Alan

Another protocol would be FTP.

Older Windows, has a working IIS. Newer Windows might have
an entry like that in Programs and Features, but you might be
disappointed in what is actually included in that entry. The
older OSes were more complete. And that could give you the
equivalent of an FTPD on the Windows side.

Linux does not like traditional inetd services, unless
"they've been sprinkled with crypto". sftp and stelnet or better.

I don't really expect any software to "lean the right way" in the
interest of getting things done. For example, there was a claim
they were removing ftp:// from all web browsers.

My old Mac G4 had just one good feature on it. It had an FTP server
button. You click that, FTP daemon was running instantly. Do a binary
and a put, and your file is transferred, then click the button again
and turn off the attack surface. Very nice. The Windows IIS one wasn't
that nice. You had to play Administrator Tetris to make that work.

Paul

On Tue, 26 Sep 2023 10:43:01 -0700
Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> wrote:

> pinnerite wrote:
> > I need to use a Windows bookkeeping program called Sage.
> > The version I have is installed on Windows XP, a VBox VM.
>
> Why do you choose/want to use W XP VM w/ Sage? I see its (current)
> requirements are W8.1 or higher.
>
> Is this about a personal pref for the XP environment or something else?
>
> It looks like Sage describes its 'versions' as Sage 50 followed by the
> year from 2014 to the present. Such as Sage 50 2014 support XP.
>
> A site 'allegedly' offers downloads of older versions but actually doesn't.
> https://www.accountspro.co/sage/sage-50-downloads.html#
>
> --
> Mike Easter

I don't what just happened but when I tried to map a samba share from
XP for the umptenth time, it showed the workgoup and I was able to
complete the mapping.

I tried the remaining shares.They were slow but there were no error/rejections.
I had been trying to do this for weeks!

As for for XP itself. My homegrown 16-bit programs will not run on anything above XP and conversion to Linux compatible versions hit a brick wall when I needed to replace two commercial libraries in order to print forms with selected tyopefaces.

My cutsheet scanner runs best under XP, there is no driver for Windows 10 which I need for my professional work - accountancy and taxation. It does run under xsane but you have to press Enter for every sheet. Too slow.

So, it's a mix but I get by. It so happens that I prefer Microsoft Office to Libreoffice. I have two versions. One running under XP (Office 2000) and another under Windows 10 (Office 2003). I prefer the earlier one but it has a bug that was never fixed. In the footer if I set page n of x pages, everything prints as page n of n pages.
If it is important I can reboot into Win 10 to print.

I have never tried Office under wine but I will try that once I retire from active practise. Hopefully before the end of next March.

So, it looks like Samba is fine!

Sorry to have troubled you.

Alan

--
Linux Mint 21.1 kernel version 5.15.0-84-generic Cinnamon 5.6.8
AMD Phenom II x4 955 CPU 16Gb Dram 2TB Barracuda

On 9/26/23 09:55, pinnerite wrote:
> I need to use a Windows bookkeeping program called Sage.
<snip>

I could barely follow your process so:
If you're only real requirement is getting files from windows to Linux
and smb isn't working for you try another sharing protocol. FTP was
suggest, you can try NFS as well, Windows has a client. Or easiest is
probably using WinSCP on windows which uses SSH protocol to establish
connection to an SSH server and you can then use the "explorer" feature
to copy from windows to Linux.

On Tue, 26 Sep 2023 22:37:17 +0100
pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Sep 2023 10:43:01 -0700
> Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> wrote:
>
> > pinnerite wrote:
> > > I need to use a Windows bookkeeping program called Sage.
> > > The version I have is installed on Windows XP, a VBox VM.
> >
> > Why do you choose/want to use W XP VM w/ Sage? I see its (current)
> > requirements are W8.1 or higher.
> >
> > Is this about a personal pref for the XP environment or something else?
> >
> > It looks like Sage describes its 'versions' as Sage 50 followed by the
> > year from 2014 to the present. Such as Sage 50 2014 support XP.
> >
> > A site 'allegedly' offers downloads of older versions but actually doesn't.
> > https://www.accountspro.co/sage/sage-50-downloads.html#
> >
> > --
> > Mike Easter
>
> I don't what just happened but when I tried to map a samba share from
> XP for the umptenth time, it showed the workgoup and I was able to
> complete the mapping.
>
> I tried the remaining shares.They were slow but there were no error/rejections.
> I had been trying to do this for weeks!
>
> As for for XP itself. My homegrown 16-bit programs will not run on anything above XP and conversion to Linux compatible versions hit a brick wall when I needed to replace two commercial libraries in order to print forms with selected tyopefaces.
>
> My cutsheet scanner runs best under XP, there is no driver for Windows 10 which I need for my professional work - accountancy and taxation. It does run under xsane but you have to press Enter for every sheet. Too slow.
>
> So, it's a mix but I get by. It so happens that I prefer Microsoft Office to Libreoffice. I have two versions. One running under XP (Office 2000) and another under Windows 10 (Office 2003). I prefer the earlier one but it has a bug that was never fixed. In the footer if I set page n of x pages, everything prints as page n of n pages.
> If it is important I can reboot into Win 10 to print.
>
> I have never tried Office under wine but I will try that once I retire from active practise. Hopefully before the end of next March.
>
> So, it looks like Samba is fine!
>
> Sorry to have troubled you.
>
> Alan
>
> --
> Linux Mint 21.1 kernel version 5.15.0-84-generic Cinnamon 5.6.8
> AMD Phenom II x4 955 CPU 16Gb Dram 2TB Barracuda

This morning after booting up Linux.then VBox and XP, I found I was back to square one.
XP seemed to find the Workgroup but could go no further.

Alan

--
Linux Mint 21.1 kernel version 5.15.0-84-generic Cinnamon 5.6.8
AMD Phenom II x4 955 CPU 16Gb Dram 2TB Barracuda

pinnerite wrote:
> This morning after booting up Linux.then VBox and XP, I found I was back to square one.
> XP seemed to find the Workgroup but could go no further.

Is this about (VM) *XP* ability to navigate to the desired path; or
about *Sage* ability to navigate to the desired path?

Sometimes an app (itself, per se) has trouble getting somewhere, while
its 'underlying' OS (in this case VM XP) has more navigational 'dexterity'.

--
Mike Easter

On 9/27/2023 6:35 AM, pinnerite wrote:

>> Linux Mint 21.1 kernel version 5.15.0-84-generic Cinnamon 5.6.8
>> AMD Phenom II x4 955 CPU 16Gb Dram 2TB Barracuda
>
> This morning after booting up Linux.then VBox and XP, I found I was back to square one.
> XP seemed to find the Workgroup but could go no further.
>
> Alan

Are you familiar with using IP syntax for your temporary connections ?

nemo smb://192.168.7.23/shared # From a linux session somewhere

explorer.exe \\192.168.7.23\shared # from your WinXP VBox session

That should open an authentication box for the remote device.

That notion won't work for //VBoxSvr which is part of Guest Additions.
It doesn't seem to have an IP stack. I tried with "nbtscan.exe" to
get a fix on it. It's not on 192.168.56.0/24 which is the "host-only"
network of VirtualBox, used when the Host does not have its own network
connection to the Internet. That's a facility which is separate from VBoxSvr.

*******

My test configuration is like this. Each OS got a local DHCP address.

LinuxMint "Cruise" ---------- Win11Home "Wallace"
|
|
VBox WinXP "GuestXP"

I had some trouble, getting the WORKGROUP machines to display, and I
was told I didn't have permission to view them. Unplugging the Win11
network cable (so Win11 would not be the Network Browse Master any more),
caused the problem symptoms to go away. The results are in the picture.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/FzQgBQMf/winxp-shares-with-W11-disconnected.gif

The "Cruise" setup offers two file shares:

(Samba, Ubuntu) A conventional SAMBA share on "Cruise", from the
last time you had a SAMBA problem, and I tried to reproduce.

(VBoxSvr Hostshare) Set up today, using the shared folders in VirtualBox Settings

And both of those sharing methods are working in the picture.

*******

W10 or W11, if sitting on the local network, can interfere with networking
success of a WinXP Guest. I've seen this before. It will kick WinXP and Win7
in the nuts. Since Browse Master elections are every fifteen minutes or so (slow),
if you re-plug a cable, it's always possible a symptom may "come back eventually"
if you plug that network cable back in. On a network partition, a device may
lose Browse Master status faster. Whereas acquiring Browse Master, might
require an Election or two, before it takes over. The slowness of Browse Master
behavior, for at least part of it, was a good design decision on someones part,
as it allows time for the human administrator to check stuff between "breakages" :-/

Using Wireshark, you can see Browse Master activity, as the colour of the
packet entries is different than other network traffic. That's if you needed
to capture a trace, and make sense of it. I haven't checked the Dissector
capabilities recently, to see if a Dissector can read all the Browse Master
packets, and draw you a picture of Election Results. A Dissector, when it is
working, converts packets into logical information about what the protocol
was talking about. It does not work well on File Sharing, because the word
full of Boolean Flags indicating connection problems, is not decoded (it's
like one level too deep for the Dissector). On one occasion, when I manually
decoded the flags, the flag that was asserted was "Need More Information"
as the reason a share could not be connected. Which does not tell you what
was wrong with the credentials exactly. Leaves a LOT to the imagination.

Paul

On Wed, 27 Sep 2023 08:22:32 -0700
Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> wrote:

> pinnerite wrote:
> > This morning after booting up Linux.then VBox and XP, I found I was back to square one.
> > XP seemed to find the Workgroup but could go no further.
>
> Is this about (VM) *XP* ability to navigate to the desired path; or
> about *Sage* ability to navigate to the desired path?
>
> Sometimes an app (itself, per se) has trouble getting somewhere, while
> its 'underlying' OS (in this case VM XP) has more navigational 'dexterity'.
>
> --
> Mike Easter

No it isn't just Sage. None of my XP programs that needed a drive other than "C" or "D" will now work. Fortunately I can copy/move files saved from Sage to Linux folder for security.

Paul's suggestions would involve a laborious set up every time I had to boot XP.
As I would have to do this several times a day as I can only run one VM at a time, it is a no-no.

I also have programs freezing while the hard drive thrashes at least once a day which requires a reboot of Linux and if i am using it, a VM as well.

What puzzles me is why I was able to XP to "see" the network yesterday but not today!

--
Linux Mint 21.1 kernel version 5.15.0-84-generic Cinnamon 5.6.8
AMD Phenom II x4 955 CPU 16Gb Dram 2TB Barracuda

On Wed, 27 Sep 2023 19:25:09 +0100
pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Sep 2023 08:22:32 -0700
> Mike Easter <MikeE@ster.invalid> wrote:
>
> > pinnerite wrote:
> > > This morning after booting up Linux.then VBox and XP, I found I was back to square one.
> > > XP seemed to find the Workgroup but could go no further.
> >
> > Is this about (VM) *XP* ability to navigate to the desired path; or
> > about *Sage* ability to navigate to the desired path?
> >
> > Sometimes an app (itself, per se) has trouble getting somewhere, while
> > its 'underlying' OS (in this case VM XP) has more navigational 'dexterity'.
> >
> > --
> > Mike Easter
>
> No it isn't just Sage. None of my XP programs that needed a drive other than "C" or "D" will now work. Fortunately I can copy/move files saved from Sage to Linux folder for security.
>
> Paul's suggestions would involve a laborious set up every time I had to boot XP.
> As I would have to do this several times a day as I can only run one VM at a time, it is a no-no.
>
> I also have programs freezing while the hard drive thrashes at least once a day which requires a reboot of Linux and if i am using it, a VM as well.
>
> What puzzles me is why I was able to XP to "see" the network yesterday but not today!
>
Believe it or not, the problem has been solved.
I had to disable the VirtualBox NAT adapter and replace it with a Host-only adapter.
It VBox wouldn't allow me to just add it.
I had wasted a rediculous amount of time chasing my tale.

Thanks for all the support.
--
Linux Mint 21.1 kernel version 5.15.0-84-generic Cinnamon 5.6.8
AMD Phenom II x4 955 CPU 16Gb Dram 2TB Barracuda