[Solved - I hope] PCLinuxOS PC wont show up in samba network

[broadstairs]

I have installed task-samba and smb4K all OK. I went through the same configure and set the same workgroup as the Windows PC and just to be safe I rebooted. I have setup the samba shares and users and all seems OK. I cannot see this Linux PC in smb4k but I can see and connect to the Windows PC ok. The windows PC also cannot find the Linux PC.

If I use the smb:// protocol in Dolphin it works connecting to the windows PC but wont connect to the Linux PC, this is using their name and not IP address. However I can connect via the smb:// protocol using the IP address of the Linux PC. I am at a loss now as to why smb4k cannot see the shares at all when I scan the workgroup.

Anyone suggest what I have done wrong or missed?

Stuart

[pags]

Name resolution (WINS, DNS)?

Are both machines members of the same Workgroup?

[broadstairs]

Name resolution (WINS, DNS)?

Are both machines members of the same Workgroup?

Name resolution is DNS ( I have no WINS Server) and yes all are same workgroup name.

Stuart

[muungwana]

open the terminal, run the following command and give your output. Enter roots password when asked for a password.

I think you have the same problem some people also have, name resolution fails. Possible solution is adding computer names and their corresponding IP addresses in "/etc/hosts" file

 su -c "smbtree -d 2 -N"

[broadstairs]

Strange thing is that my previous distro worked 'out of the box' without having to add IP's.

Anyway output is

Code:

rlimit_max: increasing rlimit_max (1024) to minimum Windows limit (16384)
added interface eth0 ip=fe80::beae:c5ff:feaa:5799%eth0 bcast=fe80::ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff%eth0 netmask=ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::
added interface eth0 ip=192.168.0.6 bcast=192.168.0.255 netmask=255.255.255.0
Got a positive name query response from 192.168.0.8 ( 192.168.0.8 )
Got a positive name query response from 192.168.0.8 ( 192.168.0.8 )
DISORGANISATION
        \\CROWHILL2
                \\CROWHILL2\Programs            Weather PC Programs
                \\CROWHILL2\WeatherData         Weather PC Weather Data
                \\CROWHILL2\C$                  Default share
                \\CROWHILL2\ADMIN$              Remote Admin
                \\CROWHILL2\F$                  Default share
                \\CROWHILL2\Windows             W2K
                \\CROWHILL2\Work                Weather PC Work
                \\CROWHILL2\D$                  Default share
                \\CROWHILL2\IPC$                Remote IPC
                \\CROWHILL2\E$                  Default share

This PC is my W2K box which is up 24x7 running a weather station so is usually the Master Browser. Also I have a laptop with LXDE on it and that exhibits the same symptoms as well.

Other thing is that if I use the Control Centre and go Network Sahring and then Access SMB shares, if I search servers the linux box shows up but with a different host name from the one in the hosts file, there I have 127.0.0.1 Crowhill localhost as IP Name and Alias respectively. If I double click on that old name it shows the shares OK.

Somewhere it has picked up an old name from when I was playing around trying to get it to work.

Stuart

[nixer]

Somewhere it has picked up an old name from when I was playing around trying to get it to work.

This can be removed from the /etc/hosts file.  In PCC > Network & Internet look at the bottom where you can edit this file.  Remove the entry that you do not want.

Also, this problem sounds like like a similar problem that I have had before with ip access allowed in the smb.conf file.  Have you "configured" the samba server in the samba area of PCC?  Click on PCC > Network Sharing > Samba Server .   When this window opens click on Samba Server from the menu and go through the configuration.  In one of the windows it will ask you what ip addresses you will allow.  I usually put this in that line:

127.0.0.1 192.168.1.0/24

127.0.0.1 allows for access on that pclinuxos machine and the 192.168.1.0/24 allows for access from all machines on that ip subnet.  You will want to change this subnet to your network ip.

Tex did an excellent write up on samba configuration just recently.  It may even be stickied. 
Hope this helps.

[broadstairs]

Thanks for the tip. I had seen it and on previous distros I have setup samba etc with no problems at all so I am quite used to doing it, however it has normally worked so I have not had any debugging to do previously!

I am getting myself a bit confused here now.

First thing I have found on both my Linux PCs running PCLinuxOS is that the smb service does not start at boot which obviously causes problems, I have ticked the start on boot bit in the PCC which should fix that but it should be setup to start on boot when you install and configure it in my view.

Also I find on a reboot of one of the PCs that the hosts file gets changed and has an entry for 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost added as the first entry and my entry 127.0.0.1 Crowhill localhost gets changed to 127.0.0.1 Crowhill (without the alias). So somewhere in the boot process it is setting up the wrong name and alias and overriding my entry. I need to sort that before I think this will start working properly.

Stuart

[muungwana]

I re-read your posts and it look like you have a different problem from the other i though you had.

To recap.

Your master server is a win2k box thats up 24/7.

Linux can see your windows box.
Windows box can see linux but only through using IP address.
Linux can see linux only through an IP address.
When you search, the linux server shows up but with a different name.
The old name works, the new one doesnt.

The problem seem to be with the win2k master server list of computers. Its list of samba serves need to be updated to reflect new reality of your network.

Try restarting file sharing service there to see if it will clear its old cache.

[broadstairs]

Well I seem to have sorted it. What I needed to do in addition to the write up Tex did was:-

1. Go into PCC and make sure smb was set to start at boot time as mine was not .....
2. When setting up the samba server it seems that a netbios name is mandatory and make sure it is unique for each PC on the local network ...

now I have all my PCLinuxOS PCs appearing in smb4k as they should and are mountable and additions to hosts file should not be needed as you are not reliant on IP addresses.

The thing is that I do not believe I needed to do this on my other Linux installs for other distros as the hostname was setup and picked up by the Samba server OK and this does not seem to be happening here.

Stuart

[muungwana]

yap.

This distro does not ask for a user to set up hostname and it defaults to "localhost". If you do not set up a netbios name, then samba will default to use "localhost" and i can see a confusion on the network when more than one computer show up with "localhost" as its name.

Somebody, somewhere on your network should have complained about the name collision.

I am glad you got this one solved.

[broadstairs]

This distro does not ask for a user to set up hostname and it defaults to "localhost". If you do not set up a netbios name, then samba will default to use "localhost" and i can see a confusion on the network when more than one computer show up with "localhost" as its name.

Well would it be a good idea to have an option to setup a hostname and allow it to default if none given?

Somebody, somewhere on your network should have complained about the name collision.

That would be me since it is a private home network 

Stuart

[nixer]

Well would it be a good idea to have an option to setup a hostname and allow it to default if none given?

Maybe, but then again, there might be some new users coming over from that "other operating system" that would not understand what a hostname is and this would be confusing.  In my opinion, it is easier for a previous user of linux to know and change the hostname than to ask a relatively unnecessary question during the install.

This is just my opinion, but as a new linux user, I preferred to have the install ASAP - As Simple As Possible.

I am glad you got this problem sorted out.  Cheers.