1<HTML> 2<HEAD> 3<TITLE> Samba FAQ: Compiling and installing Samba on a Unix host</TITLE> 4</HEAD> 5<BODY> 6<A HREF="sambafaq-1.html">Previous</A> 7<A HREF="sambafaq-3.html">Next</A> 8<A HREF="sambafaq.html#toc2">Table of Contents</A> 9<HR> 10<H2><A NAME="s2">2. Compiling and installing Samba on a Unix host</A></H2> 11 12<P> 13<A NAME="unix_install"></A> 14</P> 15 16<H2><A NAME="ss2.1">2.1 I can't see the Samba server in any browse lists!</A></H2> 17 18<P> 19<A NAME="no_browse"></A> 20 21See BROWSING.txt for more information on browsing. BROWSING.txt can 22be found in the docs directory of the Samba source.</P> <P>If your GUI 23client does not permit you to select non-browsable servers, you may 24need to do so on the command line. For example, under Lan Manager you 25might connect to the above service as disk drive M: thusly: 26<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> 27<PRE> 28 net use M: \\mary\fred 29</PRE> 30</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> 31 32The details of how to do this and the specific syntax varies from 33client to client - check your client's documentation.</P> 34 35 36<H2><A NAME="ss2.2">2.2 Some files that I KNOW are on the server doesn't show up when I view the files from my client! </A></H2> 37 38<P> 39<A NAME="missing_files"></A> 40 41See the next question.</P> 42 43<H2><A NAME="ss2.3">2.3 Some files on the server show up with really wierd filenames when I view the files from my client! </A></H2> 44 45<P> 46<A NAME="strange_filenames"></A> 47 48If you check what files are not showing up, you will note that they 49are files which contain upper case letters or which are otherwise not 50DOS-compatible (ie, they are not legal DOS filenames for some reason).</P> 51<P>The Samba server can be configured either to ignore such files 52completely, or to present them to the client in "mangled" form. If you 53are not seeing the files at all, the Samba server has most likely been 54configured to ignore them. Consult the man page smb.conf(5) for 55details of how to change this - the parameter you need to set is 56"mangled names = yes".</P> 57 58 59<H2><A NAME="ss2.4">2.4 My client reports "cannot locate specified computer" or similar</A></H2> 60 61<P> 62<A NAME="cant_see_server"></A> 63 64This indicates one of three things: You supplied an incorrect server 65name, the underlying TCP/IP layer is not working correctly, or the 66name you specified cannot be resolved.</P> 67<P>After carefully checking that the name you typed is the name you 68should have typed, try doing things like pinging a host or telnetting 69to somewhere on your network to see if TCP/IP is functioning OK. If it 70is, the problem is most likely name resolution.</P> 71<P>If your client has a facility to do so, hardcode a mapping between the 72hosts IP and the name you want to use. For example, with Man Manager 73or Windows for Workgroups you would put a suitable entry in the file 74LMHOSTS. If this works, the problem is in the communication between 75your client and the netbios name server. If it does not work, then 76there is something fundamental wrong with your naming and the solution 77is beyond the scope of this document.</P> 78<P>If you do not have any server on your subnet supplying netbios name 79resolution, hardcoded mappings are your only option. If you DO have a 80netbios name server running (such as the Samba suite's nmbd program), 81the problem probably lies in the way it is set up. Refer to Section 82Two of this FAQ for more ideas.</P> 83<P>By the way, remember to REMOVE the hardcoded mapping before further 84tests :-) </P> 85 86 87<H2><A NAME="ss2.5">2.5 My client reports "cannot locate specified share name" or similar</A></H2> 88 89<P> 90<A NAME="cant_see_share"></A> 91 92This message indicates that your client CAN locate the specified 93server, which is a good start, but that it cannot find a service of 94the name you gave.</P> 95<P>The first step is to check the exact name of the service you are 96trying to connect to (consult your system administrator). Assuming it 97exists and you specified it correctly (read your client's doco on how 98to specify a service name correctly), read on:</P> 99<P> 100<UL> 101<LI> Many clients cannot accept or use service names longer than eight characters.</LI> 102<LI> Many clients cannot accept or use service names containing spaces.</LI> 103<LI> Some servers (not Samba though) are case sensitive with service names.</LI> 104<LI> Some clients force service names into upper case.</LI> 105</UL> 106</P> 107 108 109<H2><A NAME="ss2.6">2.6 My client reports "cannot find domain controller", "cannot log on to the network" or similar </A></H2> 110 111<P> 112<A NAME="cant_see_net"></A> 113 114Nothing is wrong - Samba does not implement the primary domain name 115controller stuff for several reasons, including the fact that the 116whole concept of a primary domain controller and "logging in to a 117network" doesn't fit well with clients possibly running on multiuser 118machines (such as users of smbclient under Unix). Having said that, 119several developers are working hard on building it in to the next 120major version of Samba. If you can contribute, send a message to 121<A HREF="mailto:samba@samba.org">samba@samba.org</A> !</P> 122<P>Seeing this message should not affect your ability to mount redirected 123disks and printers, which is really what all this is about.</P> 124<P>For many clients (including Windows for Workgroups and Lan Manager), 125setting the domain to STANDALONE at least gets rid of the message.</P> 126 127 128<H2><A NAME="ss2.7">2.7 Printing doesn't work :-(</A></H2> 129 130<P> 131<A NAME="no_printing"></A> 132 133Make sure that the specified print command for the service you are 134connecting to is correct and that it has a fully-qualified path (eg., 135use "/usr/bin/lpr" rather than just "lpr").</P> 136<P>Make sure that the spool directory specified for the service is 137writable by the user connected to the service. In particular the user 138"nobody" often has problems with printing, even if it worked with an 139earlier version of Samba. Try creating another guest user other than 140"nobody".</P> 141<P>Make sure that the user specified in the service is permitted to use 142the printer.</P> 143<P>Check the debug log produced by smbd. Search for the printer name and 144see if the log turns up any clues. Note that error messages to do with 145a service ipc$ are meaningless - they relate to the way the client 146attempts to retrieve status information when using the LANMAN1 147protocol.</P> 148<P>If using WfWg then you need to set the default protocol to TCP/IP, not 149Netbeui. This is a WfWg bug.</P> 150<P>If using the Lanman1 protocol (the default) then try switching to 151coreplus. Also not that print status error messages don't mean 152printing won't work. The print status is received by a different 153mechanism.</P> 154 155 156<H2><A NAME="ss2.8">2.8 My programs install on the server OK, but refuse to work properly</A></H2> 157 158<P> 159<A NAME="programs_wont_run"></A> 160 161There are numerous possible reasons for this, but one MAJOR 162possibility is that your software uses locking. Make sure you are 163using Samba 1.6.11 or later. It may also be possible to work around 164the problem by setting "locking=no" in the Samba configuration file 165for the service the software is installed on. This should be regarded 166as a strictly temporary solution.</P> 167<P>In earlier Samba versions there were some difficulties with the very 168latest Microsoft products, particularly Excel 5 and Word for Windows 1696. These should have all been solved. If not then please let Andrew 170Tridgell know via email at 171<A HREF="mailto:samba@samba.org">samba@samba.org</A>.</P> 172 173 174<H2><A NAME="ss2.9">2.9 My "server string" doesn't seem to be recognised</A></H2> 175 176<P> 177<A NAME="bad_server_string"></A> 178 179OR My client reports the default setting, eg. "Samba 1.9.15p4", instead 180of what I have changed it to in the smb.conf file.</P> 181<P>You need to use the -C option in nmbd. The "server string" affects 182what smbd puts out and -C affects what nmbd puts out.</P> 183<P>Current versions of Samba (1.9.16 +) have combined these options into 184the "server string" field of smb.conf, -C for nmbd is now obsolete.</P> 185 186 187<H2><A NAME="ss2.10">2.10 My client reports "This server is not configured to list shared resources" </A></H2> 188 189<P> 190<A NAME="cant_list_shares"></A> 191 192Your guest account is probably invalid for some reason. Samba uses the 193guest account for browsing in smbd. Check that your guest account is 194valid.</P> 195<P>See also 'guest account' in smb.conf man page.</P> 196 197 198<H2><A NAME="ss2.11">2.11 Log message "you appear to have a trapdoor uid system" </A></H2> 199 200<P> 201<A NAME="trapdoor_uid"></A> 202 203This can have several causes. It might be because you are using a uid 204or gid of 65535 or -1. This is a VERY bad idea, and is a big security 205hole. Check carefully in your /etc/passwd file and make sure that no 206user has uid 65535 or -1. Especially check the "nobody" user, as many 207broken systems are shipped with nobody setup with a uid of 65535.</P> 208<P>It might also mean that your OS has a trapdoor uid/gid system :-)</P> 209<P>This means that once a process changes effective uid from root to 210another user it can't go back to root. Unfortunately Samba relies on 211being able to change effective uid from root to non-root and back 212again to implement its security policy. If your OS has a trapdoor uid 213system this won't work, and several things in Samba may break. Less 214things will break if you use user or server level security instead of 215the default share level security, but you may still strike 216problems.</P> 217<P>The problems don't give rise to any security holes, so don't panic, 218but it does mean some of Samba's capabilities will be unavailable. 219In particular you will not be able to connect to the Samba server as 220two different uids at once. This may happen if you try to print as a 221"guest" while accessing a share as a normal user. It may also affect 222your ability to list the available shares as this is normally done as 223the guest user.</P> 224<P>Complain to your OS vendor and ask them to fix their system.</P> 225<P>Note: the reason why 65535 is a VERY bad choice of uid and gid is that 226it casts to -1 as a uid, and the setreuid() system call ignores (with 227no error) uid changes to -1. This means any daemon attempting to run 228as uid 65535 will actually run as root. This is not good!</P> 229 230 231<HR> 232<A HREF="sambafaq-1.html">Previous</A> 233<A HREF="sambafaq-3.html">Next</A> 234<A HREF="sambafaq.html#toc2">Table of Contents</A> 235</BODY> 236</HTML> 237