SAMBA not seeing network machines (save one)

[teraquad]

Hi,

I have about 5 network devices that SAMBA does not see however 1 bangs right up every time. how can improve the number of shares/machines that samba sees.

The local network consist of 2 iomega storage units 3 windows xp mschines and 3 fedora 16 machines. all but this 1 function normally.

The only difference i can think of is that SAMBA was installed on installation rather than after setup.

This machine is also running the Apache server which the others do not.

Thanks for any help!

[george_toolan]

Please be more specific.

Samba is a file/print server.

What exactly is the error message?

[teraquad]

Sorry, there is an error message.(Failed to retrieve share list from server) the machine in question simply does not show the other network devices when i click on the network icon on the desk top. But, one machine shows every time without question. For that machine it pops up immediately and i do not have to drill down through the (network>windows network>workgroup) only to receive the error (Failed to retrieve share list from server)

Samba cinfig

# Samba config file created using SWAT 
# from UNKNOWN (127.0.0.1) 
# Date: 2012/05/24 07:47:12 
 
[global] 
    workgroup = OFFICE 
    server string = Samba Server Version %v 
    log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m 
    max log size = 50 

    idmap config * : backend = tdb 
    cups options = raw 
 
[homes] 
    comment = Home Directories 
    read only = No 
    browseable = No 
 
[printers] 
    comment = All Printers 
    path = /var/spool/samba 
    printable = Yes 
    print ok = Yes 
    browseable = No 
 
[Public] 
    comment = George's Public File 
    path = /home/george/Public 
    valid users = abrt, george 
    read only = No 
 
[Downloads] 
    comment = George's Downloads 
    path = /home/george/Downloads 
    valid users = abrt, george 
    read only = No

# /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# An example Name Service Switch config file. This file should be
# sorted with the most-used services at the beginning.
#
# The entry '[NOTFOUND=return]' means that the search for an
# entry should stop if the search in the previous entry turned
# up nothing. Note that if the search failed due to some other reason
# (like no NIS server responding) then the search continues with the
# next entry.
#
# Valid entries include:
#
#    nisplus            Use NIS+ (NIS version 3)
#    nis            Use NIS (NIS version 2), also called YP
#    dns            Use DNS (Domain Name Service)
#    files            Use the local files
#    db            Use the local database (.db) files
#    compat            Use NIS on compat mode
#    hesiod            Use Hesiod for user lookups
#    [NOTFOUND=return]    Stop searching if not found so far
#

# To use db, put the "db" in front of "files" for entries you want to be
# looked up first in the databases
#
# Example:
#passwd:    db files nisplus nis
#shadow:    db files nisplus nis
#group:     db files nisplus nis

passwd:     files
shadow:     files
group:      files
initgroups: files

#hosts:     db files nisplus nis dns
hosts:      files dns nis nisplus db

# Example - obey only what nisplus tells us...
#services:   nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#networks:   nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#protocols:  nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#rpc:        nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#ethers:     nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#netmasks:   nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files     

bootparams: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

ethers:     files
netmasks:   files
networks:   files
protocols:  files
rpc:        files
services:   files

netgroup:   nisplus

publickey:  nisplus

automount:  files nisplus
aliases:    files nisplus

Thanks, hope this helps!

PS: i cannotping via hostname although ip works fine

[sea]

Have you checked /etc/hosts?
You might add a line like:

192.168.XX.YY    YOURHOSTNAME

As example my /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1   localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
::1         localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6
192.168.10.110  ocean

This should let you connect to it using its name.

Have you tried to enable browsing for the [home] section?

[teraquad]

Thanks, as i understand it, that won't work with dhcp. All of my other hosts do fine. In the dhcp environment. I have been searching samba.conf, hosts, and nsswitch for discrepancies between those files and ones on another machine, without any luck.

It seems as if the search order for the hosts is in error because I can ping the hosts name on a couple of machines and it finds outside ip's not local ones. I have seen this before and the fault has been nsswitch.conf. In that the hosts line needs to see dns or file or db or nis or whatever first before it goes on to find the ip's on an outside network. I am just not sure what the order should be, or if that is the problem.

Thanks!

[teraquad]

Hi,

I am still battling the problem.
I can not ping my local machines by host name.
I can ping by ip address.
I use DHCP
My firewall is disabled
Selinux is disabled

I find many post on this problem but they all end when someone mentions DHCP

Perhaps someone can point me towards the right path.

[koperry]

I use F16 on a mixed network, linux, win7, NAS and see them all. I typically install Samba, then sudo chkconfig nmb on and sudo chkconfig smb on, then sudo service smb start and the same for nmb. I will then edit smb.conf, change mygroup to workgroup as the other machines are set to workgroup, save and restart smb and nmb. You will also want to make sure that Samba and Samba client are enabled in your firewall. I usually do this via cli sudo system-config-firewall-tui and go from there.

I usually disable selinux to avoid conflicts, I saw you had both firewall and selinux disabled so that shouldn't be an issue holding you back.

That's what I usually do and see the 5-6 devices on the network and when we have a guest on the network they show up as well with no need to enter via the window networks icon.

This works for me hopefully you figure it out.

[teraquad]

Thanks for the reply!

I see 5-6 devices on my other machines and have started and restarted smb and nmb many times now without results. I did notice that on installation nmb didn't start up automatic though smb did. i had to do that manually. (perhaps a clue)

I have had some time to work with it and have found that i cannot ping any other machine via host name. So perhaps it is not a samba problem. Interestingly when i do ping another machine it returns an outside ip address 69.16.143.104 Not in my network. In fact pinging other machines result in the same ip being returned. I have loaded the hosts file with the correct information and it works as advertised, however this is an DHCP network and the hosts file method will fail eventually.

I am at a loss as to where to go next.

Thanks for the help.

[koperry]

I installed F17 on release day and set up the same way and it works great. I wish I had a better answer for you.

[teraquad]

Maybe i will upgrade the problem away. sure would like to upgrade anyway.

Thanks for your help.

[teraquad]

Hi,

Well i have done the fresh install of f17 instead and still see the same problem. No network items on the desktop not even the one that origionally poped up with the previous install. I am beginning to wonder if the alpha version might not be better.

In any event, I still cannot ping anyl host on my network via hostname. The host resolve to outside ip's instead of local ones.

Any help would be appriceated.

[teraquad]

I don't know what happened to the later post in this thread. But the problem is still alive and well i am still in the dark.

I have not been able to fully understand the methods of name resolution nor ultimately why my machine is unable to resolve by name other local machines. It always goes to the outside dns even for it's own ip. at least on one program, Webmin

Any help or direction would be appreciated.

[teraquad]

Hi, I have made some progress as i have been able to populate the network servers folder with the names of all the machines on my network. This was done by the brute force method of installing everything that had samba in its description. This includes a second virgin f17 installation on a laptop which behaves exactly as the machine with the original problem as mentioned above. So i am inclined to believe there has been a change in the way samba does business in the name resolution department.

I still cannot ping local addresses by host name. Further i cannot load the lmhosts, hosts, or resolve file with the appropriate name/ip pairs with any positive results.

With my f16 machine i managed to tease out of the nsswitchs file which method samba on f16 uses for name resolution, wins resolution. This is odd because there are no wins servers on my network nor are any of the machines on the network configured to utilize wins servers.

While using the nsswitchs file i have noticed that from f16 to f17 there have been large changes in the naming conventions of pointing to the method of resolution. This makes it impossible to simply do what f16 did.

I am very confused and now have 2 machines with the identical problem. Both are fresh f17 installs with very little other than the basic install software on board. I hope someone can guide me in solving this problem.

Thanks for your help!

[Doug G]

ping and /etc/hosts don't affect samba. Windows networking uses SMB protocol (hence the name SAMBA) and finds network names through a process called browsing (unrelated to internet browsing).

The samba server uses the smb and nmb daemons to provide a windows-compatible network for your computer out to other computers. nmb is the part that provides the smb network names for other comptuers to browse your samba shares and resources.

On your fedora machine, samba also gives you smbclient which is unrelated to your samba server, and is a client program that allows you to SMB browse and connect to other windows networking computers and resources available on your network, be they actual windows machines or other samba server machines.

Some things have to be setup properly for this to work. The samba servers and windows computers need to belong to the same windows workgroup. You need to have a valid username/password for the target computer. Firewalls must be configured to allow SMB traffic (in windows firewall you have to enable file & printer sharing, for example).

Once all that is set up you should be able to use and share rresources on your windows network.

From a command prompt you can use something like

smbclient -L -U <windows-username>%<windows-password> target-computer

This should give you a list of all shares on the windows/samba server.

[teraquad]

Thanks for your reply!

I was unable to get anything from the command below, I assume my substitutions were incorrect. As a result i went to the internet and found the more simplified commands for which i also received no results. I hope their lack of information provides some useful clues.

smbclient -L -U <windows-username>%<windows-password> target-computer


Please note that my firewall and selinux is disabled on all machines in question. Their names are as follows.

terartrip win-xp dhcp
cindyg win-vista dhcp
cindy-pc win-xp dhcp
teraquad fc16 dhcp
vaio fc17 dhcp
zoneminder fc17 fixed ip 192.168.1.70
iomega_1tb NAS fixed ip 192.168.1.6
iomega-01cbdd NAS fixed ip 192.168.8

[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# smbclient -L VAIO
Enter root's password: 
Connection to VAIO failed (Error NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL)
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# smbclient -L TERAQUAD
Enter root's password: 
Connection to TERAQUAD failed (Error NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL)
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# smbclient -L ZONEMINDER
Enter root's password: 
session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# smbclient -L //VAIO
Enter root's password: 
Connection to VAIO failed (Error NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL)
[root@vaio ~]# smbclient -L //OFFICE
Enter root's password: 
Connection to OFFICE failed (Error NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL)
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# 
[root@vaio ~]# smbclient -L //zoneminder
Enter root's password: 
Anonymous login successful
Domain=[OFFICE] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.6.5-86.fc17]

    Sharename       Type      Comment
    ---------       ----      -------
    Downloads       Disk      
    Public          Disk      
    IPC$            IPC       IPC Service (Samba Server Version 3.6.5-86.fc17)
    Canon-MX870-series Printer   Canon MX870 series
    MX870LAN-1      Printer   MX870LAN-1
    HP-PhotoSmart-C3100 Printer   HP PhotoSmart C3100
Anonymous login successful
Domain=[OFFICE] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.6.5-86.fc17]

    Server               Comment
    ---------            -------
    CINDY-PC             cindys pc in her office
    CINDYG               THE BOSS
    IOMEGA-01CBDD        Iomega StorCenter Pro 150d
    IOMEGA_1TB           Home Media Drive
    VAIO                 Samba Server Version 3.6.5-86.fc17
    ZONEMINDER           Samba Server Version 3.6.5-86.fc17

    Workgroup            Master
    ---------            -------
    OFFICE               ZONEMINDER
[root@vaio ~]#

The ip for zoneminder is loaded in the lmhosts and hosts files.

Thanks for the information, ifeel i have moved forward a little bit now.
Thanks!