Re: samba hell

[Rick Stevens <rstevens vitalstream com>]

Marty Landman wrote:
> At 12:08 PM 1/29/2004, Rick Stevens wrote:
>
> > Marty Landman wrote:
> >
> > > any idea why I've lost the ability to browse network neighborhood on 
> > > my xp home box since setting up samba on the linux box?
> >
> >
> > The only thing I can think of is the browser election process.
>
>
> Rick I posted a follow up - with revised subject - because I fixed it. 
> Turned out that my previous failed install of samba on my freebsd box 
> somehow interacting with the linux-samba install caused this. Once I got 
> samba servers running on both the linux and fbsd boxes on my lan the xp 
> explorer problem went away.

Then it probably was the browser election.  That can get squirelly.

> > I don't have your smb.conf file handy, but check the file for the 
> > "local browser" and "browser list" options.
>
>
> Not using those. I've got as stripped down a pair of conf files as 
> possible and will gladly post them both if you like. Apparently they are 
> both part of what's happening on my lan from what I experienced.

Ah.  Well, by default, the system doesn't use domain authentication, so
the default values should be fine. ("yes" to both)
> > If you care to post the file again, I'll have a look.
>
>
> What I'm interested in knowing now is how to access shares between the 
> linux and fbsd boxes, and also why I can't access shares from my w9x 
> boxes. BTW there are 5 boxes in my office lan
>
> xp home - my workstation
> w98 - my wife's workstation
> w95 - a fileserver
> rh 9 linux - sandbox
> fbsd 4.8 - web dev server (lan only)
>
> **Just occurred to me, am I being somehow wasteful running samba servers 
> on both my unix machines? Would I be better off running on one and then 
> assuming this is possible, set up shares from the other to access from 
> my xp workstation?

Sure.  I actually have a system here that a client hosed.  They wrote
their website on windows (where filenames aren't case sensitive) and
actually run the site using Apache on Linux (where filenames ARE case
sensitive), so the site didn't work.

I moved the site files to another directory and exported that new
directory via Samba.  I then mounted that share via smbfs back onto the
same directory it originally was.  Since Samba gets rid of the case
sensitivity, the site works.  It's damned ugly, but otherwise they'd
have to go through their entire site and downcase all file references.
The client thinks I'm a bloody genius!  (well, I am, but that's another
story ;-)

As to your issue, you can do it two ways.  One, run two Samba servers
as you are now.  There's nothing "wasteful" about that.  In fact, it
makes your network clearer (each machine is offering its own files).

Two, run one Samba server and one NFS server.  Have the Samba server
mount the NFS server's files and export them as shares.  In this case,
the network is a bit murky since some of the files on the Samba server
really AREN'T on it at all, and that can get confusing (along with
adding another layer of permissions--NFS to Samba to Windows).

It's your call.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens vitalstream com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-                       When in doubt, mumble.                       -
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