1 Samba FAQ 2 Paul Blackman, ictinus@samba.org 3 v 0.8, June '97 4 5 This is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document for Samba, the 6 free and very popular SMB server product. An SMB server allows file 7 and printer connections from clients such as Windows, OS/2, Linux and 8 others. Current to version 1.9.17. Please send any corrections to the 9 author. 10 ______________________________________________________________________ 11 12 Table of Contents: 13 14 1. General Information 15 16 1.1. What is Samba? 17 18 1.2. What is the current version of Samba? 19 20 1.3. Where can I get it? 21 22 1.4. What do the version numbers mean? 23 24 1.5. What platforms are supported? 25 26 1.6. How can I find out more about Samba? 27 28 1.7. How do I subscribe to the Samba Mailing Lists? 29 30 1.8. Something's gone wrong - what should I do? 31 32 1.9. Pizza supply details 33 34 2. Compiling and installing Samba on a Unix host 35 36 2.1. I can't see the Samba server in any browse lists! 37 38 2.2. Some files that I KNOW are on the server doesn't show up when 39 I view the files from my client! 40 41 2.3. Some files on the server show up with really wierd filenames 42 when I view the files from my client! 43 44 2.4. My client reports "cannot locate specified computer" or 45 similar 46 47 2.5. My client reports "cannot locate specified share name" or 48 similar 49 50 2.6. My client reports "cannot find domain controller", "cannot log 51 on to the network" or similar 52 53 2.7. Printing doesn't work :-( 54 55 2.8. My programs install on the server OK, but refuse to work 56 properly 57 58 2.9. My "server string" doesn't seem to be recognised 59 60 2.10. My client reports "This server is not configured to list 61 shared resources" 62 63 2.11. Log message "you appear to have a trapdoor uid system" 64 65 3. Common client questions 66 67 3.1. Are there any Macintosh clients for Samba? 68 69 3.2. "Session request failed (131,130)" error 70 71 3.3. How do I synchronise my PC's clock with my Samba server? 72 73 3.4. Problems with WinDD, NTrigue, WinCenterPro etc 74 75 3.5. Problem with printers under NT 76 77 3.6. Why are my file's timestamps off by an hour, or by a few 78 hours? 79 80 3.7. How do I set the printer driver name correctly? 81 82 3.8. I've applied NT 4.0 SP3, and now I can't access Samba shares, 83 Why? 84 85 4. Specific client application problems 86 87 4.1. MS Office Setup reports "Cannot change properties of 88 'MSOFFICEUP.INI'" 89 90 5. Miscellaneous 91 92 5.1. Is Samba Year 2000 compliant? 93 ______________________________________________________________________ 94 95 11.. GGeenneerraall IInnffoorrmmaattiioonn 96 97 98 99 All about Samba - what it is, how to get it, related sources of 100 information, how to understand the version numbering scheme, pizza 101 details 102 103 104 11..11.. WWhhaatt iiss SSaammbbaa?? 105 106 107 Samba is a suite of programs which work together to allow clients to 108 access to a server's filespace and printers via the SMB (Server 109 Message Block) protocol. Initially written for Unix, Samba now also 110 runs on Netware, OS/2 and VMS. 111 112 In practice, this means that you can redirect disks and printers to 113 Unix disks and printers from Lan Manager clients, Windows for 114 Workgroups 3.11 clients, Windows NT clients, Linux clients and OS/2 115 clients. There is also a generic Unix client program supplied as part 116 of the suite which allows Unix users to use an ftp-like interface to 117 access filespace and printers on any other SMB servers. This gives the 118 capability for these operating systems to behave much like a LAN 119 Server or Windows NT Server machine, only with added functionality and 120 flexibility designed to make life easier for administrators. 121 122 The components of the suite are (in summary): 123 124 125 +o ssmmbbdd, the SMB server. This handles actual connections from clients, 126 doing all the file, permission and username work 127 128 +o nnmmbbdd, the Netbios name server, which helps clients locate servers, 129 doing the browsing work and managing domains as this capability is 130 being built into Samba 131 132 133 +o ssmmbbcclliieenntt, the Unix-hosted client program 134 135 +o ssmmbbrruunn, a little 'glue' program to help the server run external 136 programs 137 138 +o tteessttpprrnnss, a program to test server access to printers 139 140 +o tteessttppaarrmmss, a program to test the Samba configuration file for 141 correctness 142 143 +o ssmmbb..ccoonnff, the Samba configuration file 144 145 +o ssmmbbpprriinntt, a sample script to allow a Unix host to use smbclient to 146 print to an SMB server 147 148 +o DDooccuummeennttaattiioonn!! DON'T neglect to read it - you will save a great 149 deal of time! 150 151 The suite is supplied with full source (of course!) and is GPLed. 152 153 The primary creator of the Samba suite is Andrew Tridgell. Later 154 versions incorporate much effort by many net.helpers. The man pages 155 and this FAQ were originally written by Karl Auer. 156 157 158 11..22.. WWhhaatt iiss tthhee ccuurrrreenntt vveerrssiioonn ooff SSaammbbaa?? 159 160 161 At time of writing, the current version was 1.9.17. If you want to be 162 sure check the bottom of the change-log file. 163 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/alpha/change-log> 164 165 For more information see ``What do the version numbers mean?'' 166 167 168 11..33.. WWhheerree ccaann II ggeett iitt?? 169 170 171 The Samba suite is available via anonymous ftp from samba.org. 172 The latest and greatest versions of the suite are in the directory: 173 174 /pub/samba/ 175 176 Development (read "alpha") versions, which are NOT necessarily stable 177 and which do NOT necessarily have accurate documentation, are 178 available in the directory: 179 180 /pub/samba/alpha 181 182 Note that binaries are NOT included in any of the above. Samba is 183 distributed ONLY in source form, though binaries may be available from 184 other sites. Recent versions of some Linux distributions, for example, 185 do contain Samba binaries for that platform. 186 187 188 11..44.. WWhhaatt ddoo tthhee vveerrssiioonn nnuummbbeerrss mmeeaann?? 189 190 191 It is not recommended that you run a version of Samba with the word 192 "alpha" in its name unless you know what you are doing and are willing 193 to do some debugging. Many, many people just get the latest 194 recommended stable release version and are happy. If you are brave, by 195 all means take the plunge and help with the testing and development - 196 but don't install it on your departmental server. Samba is typically 197 very stable and safe, and this is mostly due to the policy of many 198 public releases. 199 How the scheme works: 200 201 1. When major changes are made the version number is increased. For 202 example, the transition from 1.9.15 to 1.9.16. However, this 203 version number will not appear immediately and people should 204 continue to use 1.9.15 for production systems (see next point.) 205 206 2. Just after major changes are made the software is considered 207 unstable, and a series of alpha releases are distributed, for 208 example 1.9.16alpha1. These are for testing by those who know what 209 they are doing. The "alpha" in the filename will hopefully scare 210 off those who are just looking for the latest version to install. 211 212 3. When Andrew thinks that the alphas have stabilised to the point 213 where he would recommend new users install it, he renames it to the 214 same version number without the alpha, for example 1.9.16. 215 216 4. Inevitably bugs are found in the "stable" releases and minor patch 217 levels are released which give us the pXX series, for example 218 1.9.16p2. 219 220 So the progression goes: 221 222 1.9.15p7 (production) 223 1.9.15p8 (production) 224 1.9.16alpha1 (test sites only) 225 : 226 1.9.16alpha20 (test sites only) 227 1.9.16 (production) 228 1.9.16p1 (production) 229 230 231 The above system means that whenever someone looks at the samba ftp 232 site they will be able to grab the highest numbered release without an 233 alpha in the name and be sure of getting the current recommended ver- 234 sion. 235 236 237 11..55.. WWhhaatt ppllaattffoorrmmss aarree ssuuppppoorrtteedd?? 238 239 240 Many different platforms have run Samba successfully. The platforms 241 most widely used and thus best tested are Linux and SunOS. 242 243 At time of writing, the Makefile claimed support for: 244 245 +o A/UX 3.0 246 247 +o AIX 248 249 +o Altos Series 386/1000 250 251 +o Amiga 252 253 +o Apollo Domain/OS sr10.3 254 255 +o BSDI 256 257 +o B.O.S. (Bull Operating System) 258 259 +o Cray, Unicos 8.0 260 261 +o Convex 262 263 +o DGUX. 264 265 +o DNIX. 266 267 +o FreeBSD 268 269 +o HP-UX 270 271 +o Intergraph. 272 273 +o Linux with/without shadow passwords and quota 274 275 +o LYNX 2.3.0 276 277 +o MachTen (a unix like system for Macintoshes) 278 279 +o Motorola 88xxx/9xx range of machines 280 281 +o NetBSD 282 283 +o NEXTSTEP Release 2.X, 3.0 and greater (including OPENSTEP for 284 Mach). 285 286 +o OS/2 using EMX 0.9b 287 288 +o OSF1 289 290 +o QNX 4.22 291 292 +o RiscIX. 293 294 +o RISCOs 5.0B 295 296 +o SEQUENT. 297 298 +o SCO (including: 3.2v2, European dist., OpenServer 5) 299 300 +o SGI. 301 302 +o SMP_DC.OSx v1.1-94c079 on Pyramid S series 303 304 +o SONY NEWS, NEWS-OS (4.2.x and 6.1.x) 305 306 +o SUNOS 4 307 308 +o SUNOS 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4 (Solaris 2.2, 2.3, and '2.4 and later') 309 310 +o Sunsoft ISC SVR3V4 311 312 +o SVR4 313 314 +o System V with some berkely extensions (Motorola 88k R32V3.2). 315 316 +o ULTRIX. 317 318 +o UNIXWARE 319 320 +o UXP/DS 321 322 323 11..66.. HHooww ccaann II ffiinndd oouutt mmoorree aabboouutt SSaammbbaa?? 324 325 326 There are a number of places to look for more information on Samba, 327 including: 328 329 +o Two mailing lists devoted to discussion of Samba-related matters. 330 331 +o The newsgroup, comp.protocols.smb, which has a great deal of 332 discussion on Samba. 333 334 +o The WWW site 'SAMBA Web Pages' at <http://samba.edu.au/samba/> 335 includes: 336 337 +o Links to man pages and documentation, including this FAQ 338 339 +o A comprehensive survey of Samba users. 340 341 +o A searchable hypertext archive of the Samba mailing list. 342 343 +o Links to Samba source code, binaries, and mirrors of both. 344 345 +o The long list of topic documentation. These files can be found in 346 the 'docs' directory of the Samba source, or at 347 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/> 348 349 +o Application_Serving.txt 350 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Application_Serving.txt> 351 352 +o BROWSING.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/BROWSING.txt> 353 354 +o BUGS.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/BUGS.txt> 355 356 +o DIAGNOSIS.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DIAGNOSIS.txt> 357 358 +o DNIX.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DNIX.txt> 359 360 +o DOMAIN.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DOMAIN.txt> 361 362 +o CONTROL.txt 363 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DOMAIN_CONTROL.txt> 364 365 +o ENCRYPTION.txt 366 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/ENCRYPTION.txt> 367 368 +o Faxing.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Faxing.txt> 369 370 +o GOTCHAS.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/GOTCHAS.txt> 371 372 +o HINTS.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/HINTS.txt> 373 374 +o INSTALL.sambatar 375 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/INSTALL.sambatar> 376 377 +o INSTALL.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/INSTALL.txt> 378 379 +o MIRRORS <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/MIRRORS> 380 381 +o NetBIOS.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/NetBIOS.txt> 382 383 +o OS2.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/OS2.txt> 384 385 +o PROJECTS <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/PROJECTS> 386 387 +o Passwords.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Passwords.txt> 388 389 +o Printing.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Printing.txt> 390 391 +o README.DCEDFS <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.DCEDFS> 392 393 +o README.OS2 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.OS2> 394 395 +o README.jis <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.jis> 396 397 +o README.sambatar 398 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.sambatar> 399 400 +o SCO.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/SCO.txt> 401 402 +o SMBTAR.notes <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/SMBTAR.notes> 403 404 +o Speed.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Speed.txt> 405 406 +o Support.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Support.txt> 407 408 +o THANKS <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/THANKS> 409 410 +o Tracing.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Tracing.txt> 411 412 +o SMB.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/UNIX-SMB.txt> 413 414 +o Warp.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Warp.txt> 415 416 +o WinNT.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/WinNT.txt> 417 418 +o history <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/history> 419 420 +o level.txt 421 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/security_level.txt> 422 423 +o slip.htm <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/wfw_slip.htm> 424 425 426 11..77.. HHooww ddoo II ssuubbssccrriibbee ttoo tthhee SSaammbbaa MMaaiilliinngg LLiissttss?? 427 428 429 Send email to listproc@samba.org. Make sure the subject line is 430 blank, and include the following two lines in the body of the message: 431 432 433 subscribe samba Firstname Lastname 434 subscribe samba-announce Firstname Lastname 435 436 437 438 439 Obviously you should substitute YOUR first name for "Firstname" and 440 YOUR last name for "Lastname"! Try not to send any signature stuff, it 441 sometimes confuses the list processor. 442 443 The samba list is a digest list - every eight hours or so it 444 regurgitates a single message containing all the messages that have 445 been received by the list since the last time and sends a copy of this 446 message to all subscribers. 447 448 If you stop being interested in Samba, please send another email to 449 listproc@samba.org. Make sure the subject line is blank, and 450 include the following two lines in the body of the message: 451 452 453 unsubscribe samba 454 unsubscribe samba-announce 455 456 457 458 459 The FFrroomm:: line in your message _M_U_S_T be the same address you used when 460 you subscribed. 461 462 463 11..88.. SSoommeetthhiinngg''ss ggoonnee wwrroonngg -- wwhhaatt sshhoouulldd II ddoo?? 464 465 466 ## ****** IIMMPPOORRTTAANNTT!! ****** ## 467 468 DO NOT post messages on mailing lists or in newsgroups until you have 469 carried out the first three steps given here! 470 471 Firstly, see if there are any likely looking entries in this FAQ! If 472 you have just installed Samba, have you run through the checklist in 473 DIAGNOSIS.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/DIAGNOSIS.txt>? It can 474 save you a lot of time and effort. DIAGNOSIS.txt can also be found in 475 the docs directory of the Samba distribution. 476 477 Secondly, read the man pages for smbd, nmbd and smb.conf, looking for 478 topics that relate to what you are trying to do. 479 480 Thirdly, if there is no obvious solution to hand, try to get a look at 481 the log files for smbd and/or nmbd for the period during which you 482 were having problems. You may need to reconfigure the servers to 483 provide more extensive debugging information - usually level 2 or 484 level 3 provide ample debugging info. Inspect these logs closely, 485 looking particularly for the string "Error:". 486 487 Fourthly, if you still haven't got anywhere, ask the mailing list or 488 newsgroup. In general nobody minds answering questions provided you 489 have followed the preceding steps. It might be a good idea to scan the 490 archives of the mailing list, which are available through the Samba 491 web site described in the previous section. 492 493 If you successfully solve a problem, please mail the FAQ maintainer a 494 succinct description of the symptom, the problem and the solution, so 495 I can incorporate it in the next version. 496 497 If you make changes to the source code, _please_ submit these patches 498 so that everyone else gets the benefit of your work. This is one of 499 the most important aspects to the maintainence of Samba. Send all 500 patches to samba@samba.org. Do not send patches to Andrew 501 Tridgell or any other individual, they may be lost if you do. 502 503 504 11..99.. PPiizzzzaa ssuuppppllyy ddeettaaiillss 505 506 507 Those who have registered in the Samba survey as "Pizza Factory" will 508 already know this, but the rest may need some help. Andrew doesn't ask 509 for payment, but he does appreciate it when people give him pizza. 510 This calls for a little organisation when the pizza donor is twenty 511 thousand kilometres away, but it has been done. 512 513 Method 1: Ring up your local branch of an international pizza chain 514 and see if they honour their vouchers internationally. Pizza Hut do, 515 which is how the entire Canberra Linux Users Group got to eat pizza 516 one night, courtesy of someone in the US 517 518 Method 2: Ring up a local pizza shop in Canberra and quote a credit 519 card number for a certain amount, and tell them that Andrew will be 520 collecting it (don't forget to tell him.) One kind soul from Germany 521 did this. 522 523 Method 3: Purchase a pizza voucher from your local pizza shop that has 524 no international affiliations and send it to Andrew. It is completely 525 useless but he can hang it on the wall next to the one he already has 526 from Germany :-) 527 528 529 Method 4: Air freight him a pizza with your favourite regional 530 flavours. It will probably get stuck in customs or torn apart by 531 hungry sniffer dogs but it will have been a noble gesture. 532 533 534 22.. CCoommppiilliinngg aanndd iinnssttaalllliinngg SSaammbbaa oonn aa UUnniixx hhoosstt 535 536 537 538 22..11.. II ccaann''tt sseeee tthhee SSaammbbaa sseerrvveerr iinn aannyy bbrroowwssee lliissttss!! 539 540 541 See BROWSING.txt <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/BROWSING.txt> for 542 more information on browsing. Browsing.txt can also be found in the 543 docs directory of the Samba source. 544 545 If your GUI client does not permit you to select non-browsable 546 servers, you may need to do so on the command line. For example, under 547 Lan Manager you might connect to the above service as disk drive M: 548 thusly: 549 550 551 net use M: \\mary\fred 552 553 554 555 556 The details of how to do this and the specific syntax varies from 557 client to client - check your client's documentation. 558 559 560 22..22.. SSoommee ffiilleess tthhaatt II KKNNOOWW aarree oonn tthhee sseerrvveerr ddooeessnn''tt sshhooww uupp wwhheenn II 561 vviieeww tthhee ffiilleess ffrroomm mmyy cclliieenntt!! 562 563 564 See the next question. 565 566 22..33.. SSoommee ffiilleess oonn tthhee sseerrvveerr sshhooww uupp wwiitthh rreeaallllyy wwiieerrdd ffiilleennaammeess 567 wwhheenn II vviieeww tthhee ffiilleess ffrroomm mmyy cclliieenntt!! 568 569 570 If you check what files are not showing up, you will note that they 571 are files which contain upper case letters or which are otherwise not 572 DOS-compatible (ie, they are not legal DOS filenames for some reason). 573 574 The Samba server can be configured either to ignore such files 575 completely, or to present them to the client in "mangled" form. If you 576 are not seeing the files at all, the Samba server has most likely been 577 configured to ignore them. Consult the man page smb.conf(5) for 578 details of how to change this - the parameter you need to set is 579 "mangled names = yes". 580 581 582 22..44.. MMyy cclliieenntt rreeppoorrttss ""ccaannnnoott llooccaattee ssppeecciiffiieedd ccoommppuutteerr"" oorr ssiimmiillaarr 583 584 585 This indicates one of three things: You supplied an incorrect server 586 name, the underlying TCP/IP layer is not working correctly, or the 587 name you specified cannot be resolved. 588 589 After carefully checking that the name you typed is the name you 590 should have typed, try doing things like pinging a host or telnetting 591 to somewhere on your network to see if TCP/IP is functioning OK. If it 592 is, the problem is most likely name resolution. 593 594 595 If your client has a facility to do so, hardcode a mapping between the 596 hosts IP and the name you want to use. For example, with Man Manager 597 or Windows for Workgroups you would put a suitable entry in the file 598 LMHOSTS. If this works, the problem is in the communication between 599 your client and the netbios name server. If it does not work, then 600 there is something fundamental wrong with your naming and the solution 601 is beyond the scope of this document. 602 603 If you do not have any server on your subnet supplying netbios name 604 resolution, hardcoded mappings are your only option. If you DO have a 605 netbios name server running (such as the Samba suite's nmbd program), 606 the problem probably lies in the way it is set up. Refer to Section 607 Two of this FAQ for more ideas. 608 609 By the way, remember to REMOVE the hardcoded mapping before further 610 tests :-) 611 612 613 22..55.. MMyy cclliieenntt rreeppoorrttss ""ccaannnnoott llooccaattee ssppeecciiffiieedd sshhaarree nnaammee"" oorr ssiimmii-- 614 llaarr 615 616 617 This message indicates that your client CAN locate the specified 618 server, which is a good start, but that it cannot find a service of 619 the name you gave. 620 621 The first step is to check the exact name of the service you are 622 trying to connect to (consult your system administrator). Assuming it 623 exists and you specified it correctly (read your client's doco on how 624 to specify a service name correctly), read on: 625 626 627 +o Many clients cannot accept or use service names longer than eight 628 characters. 629 630 +o Many clients cannot accept or use service names containing spaces. 631 632 +o Some servers (not Samba though) are case sensitive with service 633 names. 634 635 +o Some clients force service names into upper case. 636 637 638 22..66.. MMyy cclliieenntt rreeppoorrttss ""ccaannnnoott ffiinndd ddoommaaiinn ccoonnttrroolllleerr"",, ""ccaannnnoott lloogg 639 oonn ttoo tthhee nneettwwoorrkk"" oorr ssiimmiillaarr 640 641 642 Nothing is wrong - Samba does not implement the primary domain name 643 controller stuff for several reasons, including the fact that the 644 whole concept of a primary domain controller and "logging in to a 645 network" doesn't fit well with clients possibly running on multiuser 646 machines (such as users of smbclient under Unix). Having said that, 647 several developers are working hard on building it in to the next 648 major version of Samba. If you can contribute, send a message to 649 samba@samba.org ! 650 651 Seeing this message should not affect your ability to mount redirected 652 disks and printers, which is really what all this is about. 653 654 For many clients (including Windows for Workgroups and Lan Manager), 655 setting the domain to STANDALONE at least gets rid of the message. 656 657 658 659 660 661 22..77.. PPrriinnttiinngg ddooeessnn''tt wwoorrkk ::--(( 662 663 664 Make sure that the specified print command for the service you are 665 connecting to is correct and that it has a fully-qualified path (eg., 666 use "/usr/bin/lpr" rather than just "lpr"). 667 668 Make sure that the spool directory specified for the service is 669 writable by the user connected to the service. In particular the user 670 "nobody" often has problems with printing, even if it worked with an 671 earlier version of Samba. Try creating another guest user other than 672 "nobody". 673 674 Make sure that the user specified in the service is permitted to use 675 the printer. 676 677 Check the debug log produced by smbd. Search for the printer name and 678 see if the log turns up any clues. Note that error messages to do with 679 a service ipc$ are meaningless - they relate to the way the client 680 attempts to retrieve status information when using the LANMAN1 681 protocol. 682 683 If using WfWg then you need to set the default protocol to TCP/IP, not 684 Netbeui. This is a WfWg bug. 685 686 If using the Lanman1 protocol (the default) then try switching to 687 coreplus. Also not that print status error messages don't mean 688 printing won't work. The print status is received by a different 689 mechanism. 690 691 692 22..88.. MMyy pprrooggrraammss iinnssttaallll oonn tthhee sseerrvveerr OOKK,, bbuutt rreeffuussee ttoo wwoorrkk pprroopp-- 693 eerrllyy 694 695 696 There are numerous possible reasons for this, but one MAJOR 697 possibility is that your software uses locking. Make sure you are 698 using Samba 1.6.11 or later. It may also be possible to work around 699 the problem by setting "locking=no" in the Samba configuration file 700 for the service the software is installed on. This should be regarded 701 as a strictly temporary solution. 702 703 In earlier Samba versions there were some difficulties with the very 704 latest Microsoft products, particularly Excel 5 and Word for Windows 705 6. These should have all been solved. If not then please let Andrew 706 Tridgell know via email at samba@samba.org. 707 708 709 22..99.. MMyy ""sseerrvveerr ssttrriinngg"" ddooeessnn''tt sseeeemm ttoo bbee rreeccooggnniisseedd 710 711 712 OR My client reports the default setting, eg. "Samba 1.9.15p4", 713 instead of what I have changed it to in the smb.conf file. 714 715 You need to use the -C option in nmbd. The "server string" affects 716 what smbd puts out and -C affects what nmbd puts out. 717 718 Current versions of Samba (1.9.16 +) have combined these options into 719 the "server string" field of smb.conf, -C for nmbd is now obsolete. 720 721 722 22..1100.. MMyy cclliieenntt rreeppoorrttss ""TThhiiss sseerrvveerr iiss nnoott ccoonnffiigguurreedd ttoo lliisstt sshhaarreedd 723 rreessoouurrcceess"" 724 725 726 Your guest account is probably invalid for some reason. Samba uses the 727 guest account for browsing in smbd. Check that your guest account is 728 valid. 729 730 See also 'guest account' in smb.conf man page. 731 732 733 22..1111.. LLoogg mmeessssaaggee ""yyoouu aappppeeaarr ttoo hhaavvee aa ttrraappddoooorr uuiidd ssyysstteemm"" 734 735 736 This can have several causes. It might be because you are using a uid 737 or gid of 65535 or -1. This is a VERY bad idea, and is a big security 738 hole. Check carefully in your /etc/passwd file and make sure that no 739 user has uid 65535 or -1. Especially check the "nobody" user, as many 740 broken systems are shipped with nobody setup with a uid of 65535. 741 742 It might also mean that your OS has a trapdoor uid/gid system :-) 743 744 This means that once a process changes effective uid from root to 745 another user it can't go back to root. Unfortunately Samba relies on 746 being able to change effective uid from root to non-root and back 747 again to implement its security policy. If your OS has a trapdoor uid 748 system this won't work, and several things in Samba may break. Less 749 things will break if you use user or server level security instead of 750 the default share level security, but you may still strike problems. 751 752 The problems don't give rise to any security holes, so don't panic, 753 but it does mean some of Samba's capabilities will be unavailable. In 754 particular you will not be able to connect to the Samba server as two 755 different uids at once. This may happen if you try to print as a 756 "guest" while accessing a share as a normal user. It may also affect 757 your ability to list the available shares as this is normally done as 758 the guest user. 759 760 Complain to your OS vendor and ask them to fix their system. 761 762 Note: the reason why 65535 is a VERY bad choice of uid and gid is that 763 it casts to -1 as a uid, and the setreuid() system call ignores (with 764 no error) uid changes to -1. This means any daemon attempting to run 765 as uid 65535 will actually run as root. This is not good! 766 767 768 33.. CCoommmmoonn cclliieenntt qquueessttiioonnss 769 770 771 772 773 33..11.. AArree tthheerree aannyy MMaacciinnttoosshh cclliieennttss ffoorr SSaammbbaa?? 774 775 776 Yes! Thursby now have a CIFS Client / Server called DAVE - see 777 <http://www.thursby.com/>. They test it against Windows 95, Windows 778 NT and samba for compatibility issues. At the time of writing, DAVE 779 was at version 1.0.1. The 1.0.0 to 1.0.1 update is available as a free 780 download from the Thursby web site (the speed of finder copies has 781 been greatly enhanced, and there are bug-fixes included). 782 783 Alternatives - There are two free implementations of AppleTalk for 784 several kinds of UNIX machnes, and several more commercial ones. 785 These products allow you to run file services and print services 786 natively to Macintosh users, with no additional support required on 787 the Macintosh. The two free omplementations are Netatalk, 788 <http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk/>, and CAP, 789 <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/appletalk/atalk.html>. What Samba offers MS 790 Windows users, these packages offer to Macs. For more info on these 791 packages, Samba, and Linux (and other UNIX-based systems) see 792 <http://www.eats.com/linux_mac_win.html> 793 33..22.. SSeessssiioonn rreeqquueesstt ffaaiilleedd ((113311,,113300))"" eerrrroorr 794 795 796 The following answer is provided by John E. Miller: 797 798 I'll assume that you're able to ping back and forth between the 799 machines by IP address and name, and that you're using some security 800 model where you're confident that you've got user IDs and passwords 801 right. The logging options (-d3 or greater) can help a lot with that. 802 DNS and WINS configuration can also impact connectivity as well. 803 804 Now, on to 'scope id's. Somewhere in your Win95 TCP/IP network 805 configuration (I'm too much of an NT bigot to know where it's located 806 in the Win95 setup, but I'll have to learn someday since I teach for a 807 Microsoft Solution Provider Authorized Tech Education Center - what an 808 acronym...) Note: It's under Control Panel | Network | TCP/IP | WINS 809 Configuration there's a little text entry field called something like 810 811 This field essentially creates 'invisible' sub-workgroups on the same 812 wire. Boxes can only see other boxes whose Scope IDs are set to the 813 exact same value - it's sometimes used by OEMs to configure their 814 boxes to browse only other boxes from the same vendor and, in most 815 environments, this field should be left blank. If you, in fact, have 816 something in this box that EXACT value (case-sensitive!) needs to be 817 provided to smbclient and nmbd as the -i (lowercase) parameter. So, if 818 your Scope ID is configured as the string 'SomeStr' in Win95 then 819 you'd have to use smbclient -iSomeStr otherparms in connecting to it. 820 821 822 33..33.. HHooww ddoo II ssyynncchhrroonniissee mmyy PPCC''ss cclloocckk wwiitthh mmyy SSaammbbaa sseerrvveerr?? 823 824 825 To syncronize your PC's clock with your Samba server: 826 827 +o Copy timesync.pif to your windows directory 828 829 +o timesync.pif can be found at: 830 <http://samba.org/samba/binaries/miscellaneous/timesync.pif> 831 832 +o Add timesync.pif to your 'Start Up' group/folder 833 834 +o Open the properties dialog box for the program/icon 835 836 +o Make sure the 'Run Minimized' option is set in program 'Properties' 837 838 +o Change the command line section that reads \sambahost to reflect 839 the name of your server. 840 841 +o Close the properties dialog box by choosing 'OK' 842 843 Each time you start your computer (or login for Win95) your PC will 844 synchronize its clock with your Samba server. 845 846 Alternativley, if you clients support Domain Logons, you can setup 847 Domain Logons with Samba - see: BROWSING.txt 848 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/BROWSING.txt> *** for more 849 information. 850 851 Then add 852 853 854 NET TIME \\%L /SET /YES 855 856 857 858 859 as one of the lines in the logon script. 860 861 33..44.. PPrroobblleemmss wwiitthh WWiinnDDDD,, NNTTrriigguuee,, WWiinnCCeenntteerrPPrroo eettcc 862 863 864 All of the above programs are applications that sit on an NT box and 865 allow multiple users to access the NT GUI applications from remote 866 workstations (often over X). 867 868 What has this got to do with Samba? The problem comes when these users 869 use filemanager to mount shares from a Samba server. The most common 870 symptom is that the first user to connect get correct file permissions 871 and has a nice day, but subsequent connections get logged in as the 872 same user as the first person to login. They find that they cannot 873 access files in their own home directory, but that they can access 874 files in the first users home directory (maybe not such a nice day 875 after all?) 876 877 Why does this happen? The above products all share a common heritage 878 (and code base I believe). They all open just a single TCP based SMB 879 connection to the Samba server, and requests from all users are piped 880 over this connection. This is unfortunate, but not fatal. 881 882 It means that if you run your Samba server in share level security 883 (the default) then things will definately break as described above. 884 The share level SMB security model has no provision for multiple user 885 IDs on the one SMB connection. See security_level.txt 886 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/security_level.txt> in the docs 887 for more info on share/user/server level security. 888 889 If you run in user or server level security then you have a chance, 890 but only if you have a recent version of Samba (at least 1.9.15p6). In 891 older versions bugs in Samba meant you still would have had problems. 892 893 If you have a trapdoor uid system in your OS then it will never work 894 properly. Samba needs to be able to switch uids on the connection and 895 it can't if your OS has a trapdoor uid system. You'll know this 896 because Samba will note it in your logs. 897 898 Also note that you should not use the magic "homes" share name with 899 products like these, as otherwise all users will end up with the same 900 home directory. Use \serversername instead. 901 902 903 33..55.. PPrroobblleemm wwiitthh pprriinntteerrss uunnddeerr NNTT 904 905 906 This info from Stefan Hergeth hergeth@f7axp1.informatik.fh-muenchen.de 907 may be useful: 908 909 A network-printer (with ethernetcard) is connected to the NT-Clients 910 via our UNIX-Fileserver (SAMBA-Server), like the configuration told by 911 Matthew Harrell harrell@leech.nrl.navy.mil (see WinNT.txt) 912 913 1. If a user has choosen this printer as the default printer in his 914 NT-Session and this printer is not connected to the network (e.g. 915 switched off) than this user has a problem with the SAMBA- 916 connection of his filesystems. It's very slow. 917 918 2. If the printer is connected to the network everything works fine. 919 920 3. When the smbd ist started with debug level 3, you can see that the 921 NT spooling system try to connect to the printer many times. If the 922 printer ist not connected to the network this request fails and the 923 NT spooler is wasting a lot of time to connect to the printer 924 service. This seems to be the reason for the slow network 925 connection. 926 927 4. Maybe it's possible to change this behaviour by setting different 928 printer properties in the Print-Manager-Menu of NT, but i didn't 929 try it yet. 930 931 932 33..66.. WWhhyy aarree mmyy ffiillee''ss ttiimmeessttaammppss ooffff bbyy aann hhoouurr,, oorr bbyy aa ffeeww hhoouurrss?? 933 934 935 This is from Paul Eggert eggert@twinsun.com. 936 937 Most likely it's a problem with your time zone settings. 938 939 Internally, Samba maintains time in traditional Unix format, namely, 940 the number of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 Universal Time (or 941 ``GMT''), not counting leap seconds. 942 943 On the server side, Samba uses the Unix TZ variable to convert 944 internal timestamps to and from local time. So on the server side, 945 there are two things to get right. 946 947 1. The Unix system clock must have the correct Universal time. Use 948 the shell command "sh -c 'TZ=UTC0 date'" to check this. 949 950 2. The TZ environment variable must be set on the server before Samba 951 is invoked. The details of this depend on the server OS, but 952 typically you must edit a file whose name is /etc/TIMEZONE or 953 /etc/default/init, or run the command `zic -l'. 954 955 3. TZ must have the correct value. 956 957 a. If possible, use geographical time zone settings (e.g. 958 TZ='America/Los_Angeles' or perhaps TZ=':US/Pacific'). These 959 are supported by most popular Unix OSes, are easier to get 960 right, and are more accurate for historical timestamps. If your 961 operating system has out-of-date tables, you should be able to 962 update them from the public domain time zone tables at 963 <ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/>. 964 965 b. If your system does not support geographical timezone settings, 966 you must use a Posix-style TZ strings, e.g. 967 TZ='PST8PDT,M4.1.0/2,M10.5.0/2' for US Pacific time. Posix TZ 968 strings can take the following form (with optional items in 969 brackets): 970 971 StdOffset[Dst[Offset],Date/Time,Date/Time] 972 973 974 where: 975 976 +o `Std' is the standard time designation (e.g. `PST'). 977 978 +o `Offset' is the number of hours behind UTC (e.g. `8'). Prepend 979 a `-' if you are ahead of UTC, and append `:30' if you are at a 980 half-hour offset. Omit all the remaining items if you do not 981 use daylight-saving time. 982 983 +o `Dst' is the daylight-saving time designation (e.g. `PDT'). 984 985 The optional second `Offset' is the number of hours that 986 daylight-saving time is behind UTC. The default is 1 hour ahead 987 of standard time. 988 989 +o `Date/Time,Date/Time' specify when daylight-saving time starts 990 and ends. The format for a date is `Mm.n.d', which specifies 991 the dth day (0 is Sunday) of the nth week of the mth month, 992 where week 5 means the last such day in the month. The format 993 for a time is hh:mm[:ss], using a 24-hour clock. 994 995 Other Posix string formats are allowed but you don't want to 996 know about them. 997 998 On the client side, you must make sure that your client's clock and 999 time zone is also set appropriately. [I don't know how to do 1000 this.] Samba traditionally has had many problems dealing with time 1001 zones, due to the bizarre ways that Microsoft network protocols 1002 handle time zones. A common symptom is for file timestamps to be 1003 off by an hour. To work around the problem, try disconnecting from 1004 your Samba server and then reconnecting to it; or upgrade your 1005 Samba server to 1.9.16alpha10 or later. 1006 1007 1008 33..77.. HHooww ddoo II sseett tthhee pprriinntteerr ddrriivveerr nnaammee ccoorrrreeccttllyy?? 1009 1010 1011 Question: On NT, I opened "Printer Manager" and "Connect to Printer". 1012 Enter "\ptdi270s1" 1013 in the box of printer. I got the following error message: 1014 1015 1016 You do not have sufficient access to your machine 1017 to connect to the selected printer, since a driver 1018 needs to be installed locally. 1019 1020 1021 1022 1023 Answer: 1024 1025 In the more recent versions of Samba you can now set the "printer 1026 driver" in smb.conf. This tells the client what driver to use. For 1027 example: 1028 1029 1030 printer driver = HP LaserJet 4L 1031 1032 1033 1034 1035 with this, NT knows to use the right driver. You have to get this 1036 string exactly right. 1037 1038 To find the exact string to use, you need to get to the dialog box in 1039 your client where you select which printer driver to install. The 1040 correct strings for all the different printers are shown in a listbox 1041 in that dialog box. 1042 1043 You could also try setting the driver to NULL like this: 1044 1045 1046 printer driver = NULL 1047 1048 1049 1050 1051 this is effectively what older versions of Samba did, so if that 1052 worked for you then give it a go. If this does work then let us know 1053 via samba@samba.org, and we'll make it the default. Cur- 1054 rently the default is a 0 length string. 1055 1056 1057 33..88.. II''vvee aapppplliieedd NNTT 44..00 SSPP33,, aanndd nnooww II ccaann''tt aacccceessss SSaammbbaa sshhaarreess,, 1058 WWhhyy?? 1059 1060 1061 As of SP3, Microsoft has decided that they will no longer default to 1062 passing clear text passwords over the network. To enable access to 1063 Samba shares from NT 4.0 SP3, you must do OONNEE of two things: 1064 1065 1. Set the Samba configuration option 'security = user' and implement 1066 all of the stuff detailed in ENCRYPTION.txt 1067 <ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/ENCRYPTION.txt>. 1068 1069 2. Follow Microsoft's directions for setting your NT box to allow 1070 plain text passwords. see Knowledge Base Article Q166730 1071 <http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q166/7/30.htm> 1072 1073 1074 44.. SSppeecciiffiicc cclliieenntt aapppplliiccaattiioonn pprroobblleemmss 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 44..11.. MMSS OOffffiiccee SSeettuupp rreeppoorrttss ""CCaannnnoott cchhaannggee pprrooppeerrttiieess ooff ''MMSSOOFF-- 1080 FFIICCEEUUPP..IINNII''"" 1081 1082 1083 When installing MS Office on a Samba drive for which you have admin 1084 user permissions, ie. admin users = username, you will find the setup 1085 program unable to complete the installation. 1086 1087 To get around this problem, do the installation without admin user 1088 permissions The problem is that MS Office Setup checks that a file is 1089 rdonly by trying to open it for writing. 1090 1091 Admin users can always open a file for writing, as they run as root. 1092 You just have to install as a non-admin user and then use "chown -R" 1093 to fix the owner. 1094 1095 1096 55.. MMiisscceellllaanneeoouuss 1097 1098 1099 1100 55..11.. IIss SSaammbbaa YYeeaarr 22000000 ccoommpplliiaanntt?? 1101 1102 1103 The CIFS protocol that Samba implements negotiates times in various 1104 formats, all of which are able to cope with dates beyond 2000. 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115 1116 1117 1118 1119 1120 1121 1122 1123