Fedora 7 and Samba Problem

[nenenaiad]

In investigating why the Fedora 7 Samba server was not being show in View Workgroup Computers on an XP box, I discovered that something very strange is happening when the Fedora 7 box is shutdown.

I have monitored this by running net view under command on the XP box. After server startup the server IS NOT shown on the list.

If I go into the Samba Server config screen under Server Settings, both my folder shares are shown and marked Visible, but however on clicking on either of the shares the visible box is NOT ticked on either of them. Ticking the visible box and exiting results in the Samba Server now being showed within Net view when I run it again.

If I shutdown the server, I am then in exactly the same position again and only by ticking the box above etc etc can I see the Samba Server etc etc.

Is this a bug ? Is there a workaround ? Have tried a few things but all to no avail.

Regards

Dave

[sinistar_ice]

if you go to the administration menu -> Server Settings -> Services Management make
make sure there's a tick next to smb if not tick and click save not smb should run on startup.

[oconkero]

No that is definatly not the problem, he is talking about when you shutdown or restart the server/computer it makes the samba shares unvisible (unchecked) i too have the same problem and i cannot arrive at a conclusion. If anyone can look into what is happening to samba during the shutdown or startup maybe we will find the answer. Thanks all

-- "Human knowledge belongs to the world."

[nenenaiad]

Thanks sinister_ice and oconkero. Yes quite right oconkero that is the problem I am having.
I have noted that the browseable = yes clause keeps getting semi - coloned and therefore commented out by some mechanism or another, to the extent that I have two or three of them associated with a particular share in smb.conf.

I have tried editing the smb.conf directly, all to no avail.

About all I am thinking about trying is an update via yum, which I have never used before.

If I find anything I shall post an answer here.

Thanks for any comments - much appreciated.

Regards

Dave

[oconkero]

oh so its commented out in the samba config file? hmm, is this done everytime the computer boots?

hmm yes i see, i have the config for my share as follows

...

[www]

   path = /var/www
   writeable = yes
;  browseable = yes
   valid users = user
   comment = www
;  browseable = yes
;  browseable = yes
;  browseable = yes

as you can see this is a repetitive problem that resets itself each time a shutdown is commenced or a the computer is booted up.

-- "Human knowledge belongs to the world."

[oconkero]

ok well i tied this... uncomenting the first browseable tag and set it equal to yes of course. that seamed at the moment that it would stop all other repeating browseable tags and enabled browsing. like this

...

[www]

   path = /var/www
   writeable = yes
   browseable = yes
   valid users = user
   comment = www
;  browseable = yes
;  browseable = yes
;  browseable = yes

ok this is what i did, made a backup of the non visible config and used "diff" in the terminal with config of smb.conf that i just changed (without restart) to visible and the only difference is

;  browseable = yes

i really hope this helps you. i have to go for now but ill keep working at it later. and thank you all for the help.

-- "Human knowledge belongs to the world."

[oconkero]

ok finaly! i got it, i am invincible! heh ok here we go guys all you have to do.. i think is delete all added extra lines of the comented share browsable tag. and keep one which is uncomented and set to yes..

like so

...

[www]

   path = /var/www
   writeable = yes
   browseable = yes
   valid users = user
   comment = www

lastly remember to restart the service and then give it a try, im still testing but it should work.

UPDATE: Should work, just remember to restart the "SMB" and "NMB" services after editing and saving the config file

-- "Human knowledge belongs to the world."

[nenenaiad]

I think that I tried this - shall try a few other things when I get in front of the machine on Monday.

Regards

Dave

[oconkero]

Remember Nenenaiad to restart "SMB" and "NMB" that should make it run smoothly, no?

UPDATE: Nope, i noticed after restarting, it doesnt work although the config file does not change it doesnt work.

-- "Human knowledge belongs to the world."

[nenenaiad]

Yes, I was pretty sure that it wouldn't and I seem to remember that it is something that I retried early on.
The machine in question is a machine at work, so I will look at it tomorrow.

Regards

dave

[oconkero]

Did anyone find a solution? maybe something you drew on a cocktail napkin? anything?

-- "Human knowledge belongs to the world."

[oconkero]

SOLUTION

Wo wo wo, I found it, ok your right it wasn't "just" the smb.conf but it is one part of the problem... ok the problem i arrived at becuse i was thinking while starting the services.. in the old Fedora core 6 samba would automaticaly start the SMB service and!... the NMB service! so to fix make sure you do the following:

1) Edit the "/etc/samba/smb.conf" file and make the following changes (may vary, mine are for the "/var/www" folder)

...

[www]

   path = /var/www
   writeable = yes
   browseable = yes
   valid users = user
   comment = www

Make sure!!! to remove the comment in front of the first "browseable = yes" AND if you want you can remove all Other repeating browseable tags.

2) Then goto the "System > Administration > Server Settings > Services" and make SURE that "smb" AND "nmb" are both checked as to run when the computer is booted

Well thats all there is to it, so if you continue to have problems just check your firewalls guys on both the server and the client computers, oh and also SELinux to make sure its not blocking the directorys from being shared. Oh and remember "Human knowledge belongs to the world."

Please dont hesitate to email me if you continue to have problems.

-- "Human knowledge belongs to the world."

[nenenaiad]

Hi,

Following the tests I carried out on Monday, I believe there to be a bug in hoe the Samba Server configuration section interracts with Samba and particularly smb.conf.

If you modify smb.conf directly, then it appears that some of the modifications that are made are commented out on shutdown.

I have found that when I next start up it will take a visit to Server Settings and Samba Configuration in order to go through the process of changing one of the shares to visible and then O.K.'ing it.
AS SOON as this is done, then the share can be seen on a PC attached to the network.

Since Samba HAS NOT been stopped and started at this point, this implies to me that some Memory stored variable has been altered by what has just been done. One would presume that at some stage(shutdown) this change would be reflected in say smb.conf ready for the next startup, and I think that it is something connected with this mechanism, that is bugged.

My intention is to connect up the server to the Internet so that I can use Yum to see whether any updates applied provide me with a fix. I shall also raise this issue elsewhere in this forum.

At least we know what the fault is, and there is a workaround.

Rgds

Dave

[oconkero]

Are you sure? I have seen no alterations in my configuration since my last post as to when I last edited it manually. And well as for using the configuation program as soon as you click ok, it starts the services.

[wekoenig3]

I am having a problem also. I did a fresh install of FC7 and ran the SAMBA setup before I let yum auto-install updates. Linux box could connect to all the XP boxes, although I did not check to see if they could connect to the Linux box. After letting yum run its updates, I could not connect to the shared folders on the XP boxes. If your above solution works, could you step me through it 'cause I'm something of a newb. Thanks!

Bill Koenig