Xfce Forum

lintek

Member

Registered: 2013-02-07

Posts: 31

[SOLVED] Thunar issue: Double-click on PC name doesn't open

Guest VM configuration hosted on Windows 11 Home laptop:
Xubuntu 24.04.1, Xfce 4.18, Thunar 4.18.8

This is not really a major concern, since the question involves Windows 7 Pro. However, I'm interested if someone can advise me on a possible solution. Given the stated configuration above, my home network also includes a Windows 11 Home laptop, a Windows 10 Home laptop, and a Windows 7 Pro laptop.

Samba is running in the VM and I can successfully use Thunar to navigate to the shares hosted by the Windows laptops. I just double-click on each named laptop and the share is displayed, then double-click on the shared folder. On first attempt, I had to authenticate username, domain, and password. No problems there. Or I could use smb://laptop-name/share.

Only with the Windows 7 laptop do I have a problem. When I double-click on the laptop's name displayed, nothing happens. I never receive the authentication popup. However, when I attempt the connection using the smb:// command, I do, and I successfully connect to the share.

That's the issue, the double-click does nothing for Windows 7, but for Windows 11 and Windows 10 is does open to the shared folder(s).

Added later 3 h 01 min 10 s:
Interesting observation. Within my Ubuntu 22.04 VM which is running Thunar 4.16.10, when I double-click on the Windows & item in the "Browser Network" section, it opens to the shared folder.

Last edited by lintek (2025-01-14 20:23:49)

lintek

Member

Registered: 2013-02-07

Posts: 31

Re: [SOLVED] Thunar issue: Double-click on PC name doesn't open

This subject must not affect as many people as I thought, or I did not explain the problem properly. Since the original post I have moved my VM installation to:
  Xubuntu 24.10
  Xfce 4.18
  Thunar 4.19.3
  Samba 4.20.4

I changed a number of home network parameters across my mixed home network.
  Windows 11 Home
  Windows 10 Home
  Windows 7 Pro
  VM running Xubuntu 24.10

What change for all Windows laptops:
  NetBIOS from the router = enabled
  Windows 7 and Windows 10 in same WORKGROUP as Xubuntu VM
  Windows 11 in a different WORKGROUP
  Network discovery = enabled
  File sharing = enabled
  Use 128-bit encryption = enabled
  Turn off password protection = enabled
  SMB1 (client/server) enabled on Windows 7 and Windows 10
  SMB1 (client/server) disabled on Windows 11

What change for the Xubuntu VM:
smb.conf:
  guest ok = yes
  guest account = <my-name>
  client min protocol = NT1
  server min protocol = NT1
  inherit permissions = yes

The results have been positive. From the Windows laptops, I can navigate (browse from the network folder) all the shares without having to enter a username/password. From the Xubuntu VM, I still had to enter a username/password to navigate (browse) into the shares from Thunar's network folder. Once Thunar created a SMB mount I created a bookmark (shortcut) which is remembered.

However, as the title of the original post still applies. When browsing the through Thunuar's network folder, this is the effect:
  for Windows 11: double click the share's folder it opens and mounts
  for Windows 10: double click the share's folder it opens and mounts
  for Windows 7: double click the share's folder doesn't open or mount (nothing happens)

Solution to the problem connecting to Windows 7: Use Gigolo tool which allows me to create the connection to Windows 7 and save it as a Thunar bookmark. When I click on the bookmark, the Windows 7 share mounts successfully.

It has been an adventure trying to get Thunar to work in a Windows mixed home network. This was a post I entered a long time ago on the same subject, but using a different Linux distribution and versions of SMB at the time. https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=9055
And all the Windows 7 registry settings that worked at that time don't apply today. I had to reset those parameters to match those in Windows 10/11. In addition, remove the LmCompatibilityLevel setting all together. More research on that item led me to allow Windows 7 to use it's default setting. Adding the 0 or 1 value actually caused Windows 7 not to be able to make a connection to the Xubuntu share.

Well, that the long and short of the story.

lintek

Member

Registered: 2013-02-07

Posts: 31

Re: [SOLVED] Thunar issue: Double-click on PC name doesn't open

However, as the title of the original post still applies. When browsing the through Thunuar's network folder, this is the effect:
  for Windows 11: double click the share's folder it opens and mounts, displays the share list from server
  for Windows 10: double click the share's folder it opens and mounts, displays the share list from server
  for Windows 7: double click the share's folder doesn't open or mount or display the share list from server (nothing happens)
-------------

Update and solution found. Two problems:
1) Thunar didn't display a error message.
2) Windows 7 Pro Network Security parameters were misconfigured.

In order to see what was really happening from the Linux side, I installed PCManFM. Navigate to the Windows 7 share in hopes to see an error message if the shared folder doesn't open. Well, I got the error: "Failed to retrieve share list from server Permission denied". That meant to me, the problem was coming from Windows 7.

A little more reach told me that the Network Security parameter: Minimum session security for NTLM for SSP based (including RPC clients) = Require NTLMv2 session security had to be set. Once this was done, when I double click on the Windows 7 shared folder it opened and displayed the share list: ADMIN$, C$, print$, and SHARE (the shared folder from the Windows 7 laptop). I basically was looking for the same out I would get from the smbtree command. The mount part executed successfullt when I clicked on the SHARE folder.

\\LAPTOP3                LAPTOP3
        \\LAPTOP3\ADMIN$             Remote Admin
        \\LAPTOP3\C$                 Default share
        \\LAPTOP3\IPC$               Remote IPC
        \\LAPTOP3\print$             Printer Drivers
        \\LAPTOP3\SHARE              Windows 7

This resolves everything now. I'm never working with Windows 7 or anything older. Whew!