I'm relatively new to Linux (i.e., I avoid the command line like the plague). I've played around with several distros. I currently have Puppy on USB, a Ubuntu laptop, and 2 old PCs with Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS 2009.2.

One of of the main needs I have is to access the shared MyDocuments folder on my XP Home SP3 machine. My Ubuntu laptop accesses it no problem. The Mint and PCLOS installs access it with no problem. Just today, the Ubuntu 10.04 LiveCD accesses it with no problem.

Kubuntu 10.04 LiveCD has a problem. Dolphin sees the share automatically. But it keeps prompting me for authentication when I try to access the share via Dolphin. I never provide any authentication in any of the others listed above. They “just work”. I don't know what ID and password to use. I try the XP user name and password but it just keeps prompting me for authentication. It sometimes randomly lets me drill down thru the folders but when I get to the file level I can't open a file.

Now, here's the interesting part: I tried Mandriva 2010 in February and I ran into the same exact problem in accessing the share. I could not get a satisfying explanation as to why I was prompted for authentication from that forum so I gave up and installed Mint 8 instead.

Note: After reading this KDE forum and seeing that Dolphin is not real popular, I went back and tried Konq and was able to open a file with no authentication. A bit later Konq started prompting for authentication.

So now I'm booted back into Ubuntu 10.04 LiveCD.

I'd love to install either Mandriva 2010 or Kubuntu 10.04 but I've got to be able to easily and consistently access the XP share. Any explanation of why KDE prompts for authentication when the others I'm using do not would be most appreciated.

Please check in System Settings > Sharing, there is a KCM there which can configure the default username and password to use, make sure it is blank.

Have you tried logging in as "Guest"?

bcooksley wrote:Please check in System Settings > Sharing, there is a KCM there which can configure the default username and password to use, make sure it is blank.

Have you tried logging in as "Guest"?

I checked the Sharing and no password was populated. What do you mean logging in as "Guest"? Are you talking about logging into Kubuntu or to the XP share? If the latter, how would I do that? Is there something on the XP side that automatically knows that "Guest" is allowed?

From what I can remember, the Guest account usually has to be enabled on XP for anonymous login to work. In any case, simply try entering "Guest" and no password when KDE prompts for authentication.

I'm having a similar problem with Chakra Linux with KDE 4.4

I'm having a problem logging on to the SMB shares on my network with Dolphin. Same thing with Konqueror if I try "smb://6xp/GTV". All of the machines I'm trying to log onto are Windows XP SP3 with no security on any of the files. I have the same problem for every Windows XP machine on the network. The only machine I can access is an Ubuntu Linux machine running Samba. From my Ubuntu machine I have no problems accessing the files. Every time I try to log onto them I get an authorization dialog window. When I try "guest" and no password the window pops up again. I would immediatly suspect a firewall problem but I have no problem accessing them from the command line.

Both

Code: Select all

sudo mount -t cifs //6xp/GTV /mnt/6xp

and

Code: Select all

 smbclient //6xp/GTV

work fine.

Could this be a KDE configuration problem or is there something I'm missing?

Can you please ensure that no username or password is filled in at System Settings > Sharing > Windows Shares?

I had username set as "guest" and password was blank. I went ahead and removed them but still have the same problem.

Unfortunately I do not know why this issue occurs. Please file a bug report at bugs.kde.org if the Windows XP boxes can all access each other.

i'm having the same problem on my system: opensuse 11.4 with kde 4.7

I have a acryan playon! dvrhd that uses samba to share files. The shares and workgroup are passwordless.

When i browse to the workgroup with dolphin, it prompts me to fill in the username and password.
I can't leave it blank, because dolphin will prompt for it again.

I found out what caused it: in systemsettings i had my username and password for another samba-network configured.

After i removed these credentials, dolphin was able to enter the acryan without prompting for user name and password.

now the other network is still accessible, but i have to enter my credentials now every time i want to access a share on it.

Over time, Microsoft has adjusted SMB permissions and behavior such that connecting over a network to shares without passwords or using accounts without passwords is difficult. Perhaps you could put a password on the accounts and shares in question and see if that makes it easier to connect?

Well, the acryan does not offer any configuration for that.

I'm also experiencing the same bug. Dolphin sometimes keeps asking me about samba creditentials on -some- shares of a Windows XP machine. Problem doesn't exist when connecting to Kubuntu smb shares.

Is there a bug report for this issue or should we file one? Currenly I'm using KDE 4.6.2, but I've seen this bug ever since the KDE 4.2/4.3 days.

I'm having this same problem on openSUSE TW.

I can't access passwordless windows shares...

Does this have a solution already?

The problem still remains... I have the same issue now, in 2021 Just can't log in to windows share with blank password with any account, meanwhile everything is ok between windows machines while accessing each other.