Samba share not showing in Win 10 guest

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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FlexMcMurphy
Posts: 22
Joined: 18. Apr 2021, 01:07

Samba share not showing in Win 10 guest

Post by FlexMcMurphy »

Hello,

My laptop has:
Host=Manjaro
Guest=Win 10

I have a few other devices on the same LAN.
Two of them, and their Samba shares, are auto-populating in the Win 10 Guest Network Neighbourhood
I have a Raspberry Pi with Samba shares that does not appear there but strangely it DOES appear in the Network Neighbourhood when I boot in to a Win 10 bare metal install.
The Virtualbox Network Settings of the Win 10 VM are set to "Bridged Adapter" and point to the correct Wifi adapter so I have network connectivity from the Win 10 guest to the lan and can ping the Pi.

The Pi has Samba server with some shares and using SMB3 protocol.
I use wsdd to make these shares auto-populate the Win 10 Network Neighbourhood and as mentioned, this is working from a Win 10 bare metal install but not in the Win 10 VM.

I CAN "Map-network drive" to that Pi and the Samba shares are accessible from the Win 10 VM.

Why does the Pi not auto-populate in the Win 10 VM Network Neighbourhood?
I tried restarting the Pi (the wsdd and samba services there) and other troubleshooting tips in this helpful blog.
E.g:
In Windows VM "Services":
"Function Discovery Provider Host” => Set : Startup Type => Automatic
"Function Discovery Resource Publication” => Set : Startup Type => Automatic (Delayed Start)
Then rebooted the Win 10 VM.
I tried disabling the Win 10 VM firewall, no joy.

I may have over-looked something but so far so not so good. I'm guessing this is a setting in the Win 10 VM OS installation or maybe in the network setup in Virtualbox?

Any help much appreciated.

Flex
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Samba share not showing in Win 10 guest

Post by mpack »

If the network is working then VirtualBox has done its job. It plays no other role in SMB shares, which is entirely a software protocol.
FlexMcMurphy
Posts: 22
Joined: 18. Apr 2021, 01:07

Re: Samba share not showing in Win 10 guest

Post by FlexMcMurphy »

@mpack

Thank you. Yes I agree, after some more testing this is an issue about making "Function Discovery" work in Windows 10 in a post Netbios era.
I am running wsdd on a Pi. The Pi shows up in the Win 10 Network Neighbourhood if Win 10 is installed bare metal. However the Pi does not appear there when Win 10 is running in a VM.
The issue is somehow related to UDP multicasting and the bridged network adapter in Virtualbox and how wsdd handles this situation.
Binary implementations of wsdd don't have this issue, the python3 version by christgau does.
I am now checking with the authors of the wsdd program to see if they can help.

Cheers,

Flex
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Samba share not showing in Win 10 guest

Post by mpack »

I don't currently share folders from inside my Pihole, but SMB is SMB and I do have a Synology NAS (SMB3) which my Win10 and Win11 VMs see just fine.

I assume that you don't have auto-login enabled on Windows 10, as ISTR that insecurity blocks you from using SMB3.
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