After Upgrade to 3.0.0-15, Connecting to other computers via Samba times out

[ScottyK]

Noticed this problem this morning on all four of my Kubuntu 11.10 computers.

Upgraded to the 3.0.0-15 kernel last night, this morning when trying to access files on the other computers, I get a "timeout on server - workgroup" error. The four computers can no longer connect to each other.

All four computers are running Samba 3.5.11

Also, the lone Windows 7 computer in the house can not see any of the kubuntu computers anymore.

I've read that if you are sharing linux to linux, NFS is better. I've searched Google for a good How-to to set up up, but could not find anything current. If you know of a good setup guide, I'm interested.

Below is the output of my smb.conf file. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

# Global parameters
[global]
	server role = domain controller
	workgroup = WORKGROUP
	realm = 
	netbios name = KUBUNTU-DESKTOP

[netlogon]
	path = /var/lib/samba/sysvol/scripts
	read only = No

[sysvol]
	path = /var/lib/samba/sysvol
	read only = No

[Music]
path = /media/sdc1/Music 
browseable = yes
writable = no

[Kids Shows]

path = /media/sdc1/Kid's Shows
browseable = yes
writable = no

[oshunluvr]

Re: After Upgrade to 3.0.0-15, Connecting to other computers via Samba times out

I'd start looking into your log files for the samba error. You might have an easier time if you just downgraded to the earlier kernel and waited for the issue to be fixed.

NFS is super simple to set up and much better (faster, more stable, etc.) than samba IMO. Basically, if you want sharing among all computers, they each have to be server and client. Term "export" is used to describe a directory shared by the nfs server.

Steps are -
install nfs-common, nfs-kernel-server, libnfsidmap2,
set up /etc/exports (example below)
restart nfs server (or initiate exporting with "exportfs -a" command)
mount shared exports if desired via fstab

Once mounted, the NFS shares are accessed just like a file on the host. Meaning they stream, permissions apply and so on. If you do not intend for all your users to have access to every file, then that's basically it. If you want all users to be able to access all the shared files, one thing to consider is permission issues. You need to control the permissions and file ownership. If you purpose is for all users to access the files, you'll want some sort of way to change ownership of the files to something they can all access.

I use a special group that I assign to all my users "share" and then use sticky-bits to assign group rights to all files in the shared directory.

Here's my server export example:

/shared 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(rw,async,secure,no_subtree_check,noh ide,all_squash,anonuid=65534,anongid=560)

the anonuid makes all files have the user "nobody" and the anongid is my "share" group number 560.

To mount this on my client I use this fstab line:

server://shared nfs auto,intr,users,rw,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,nobootw ait 0 0

So here's the tricky part: If I am using the server and I copy a file to the exported directory, the file would not be accessible by all because it would have the ownership of the user logged on the server computer. All files put into that share via a client computer would be accessible by all because the export function changes the owner/group to nobody/share. To fix this, I assign the /shared directory the owner/group nobody/share and then set the SUID and SGID bits to the directory. The directory then retains nobody/share as owner/group for all files.

I hope that's not too complicated sounding. It's easier to do than explain!

If you want to attempt it, I'll help you through it. First thing is to install and setup the nfs software and exports. Then play with mounting them. You'll need to have properly defined hostnames (you should anyway) or use static IP's to mount the shares easily.

[dibl]

Re: After Upgrade to 3.0.0-15, Connecting to other computers via Samba times out

A good guide for NFS setup is here.

Note that portmon is deprecated -- you need the rpcbind package instead.

[ScottyK]

Re: After Upgrade to 3.0.0-15, Connecting to other computers via Samba times out

Thanks for the tips guys! Setting up NFS looks like a good project later tonight or tomorrow.

And thanks for the link dibl - I was having trouble finding something current, and this is perfect.

[oshunluvr]

Re: After Upgrade to 3.0.0-15, Connecting to other computers via Samba times out

Another suggestion: If one of the computers is on all the time (or nearly so) and it has the space - consider setting it up as the host for a single shared directory. This prevents needlessly duplicated files and increases the likelihood you'll find a file that you're looking for without having to search through multiple directories.

Another way to solve this but slightly more complicated to set up is to combine all the shared directories through bind mounts.

[ScottyK]

Re: After Upgrade to 3.0.0-15, Connecting to other computers via Samba times out

OK, it's 1700 my time, and all the computers are merrily taking to each other. I haven't installed any updates or anything.

What would happen that after a morning of timeout errors, suddenly everything works?

Guess I marked this [Solved-No Action on my Part]