[Samba] samba 3.0.22 and OS/2 connectivity

[Guenter Kukkukk]

Hi Peter,

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Brown" <losepete at ntlworld.com>
To: <samba at lists.samba.org>
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 9:39 PM
Subject: [Samba] samba 3.0.22 and OS/2 connectivity


> Hi All
>
> I have a Linksys NSLU2 device which is used to hook USB2 drives upto my
> network as network attached storage.
>
> The Linksys firmware upgrade for this device includes samba 3.0.11 which
> is a non-starter regarding OS/2 connectivity.
>
> There is an alternative firmware based on the Linksys firmware called
> Unslung from http://www.nslu2-linux.org/
>
> The Unslung firmware allows "unslinging" the operating system from
> firmware to disk and allows upgrade and additional packages.
>
> Having followed the instructions carefully I managed to "Unsling" the
> NSLU2 and apply the samba 3.0.22 upgrade available for this system.
>
> After a bit of hunting around I managed to find the smb.conf parameter
> that allows OS/2 based systems to access samba shares and can now read
> from the shares fine.
>
> What I cannot do is write easily to any of the shares; ie Selecting a
> folder on my local drive and dragging it to a shared folder on the NSLU2
> results in this OS/2  error:-
>
> SYS0266 : The specified file was not copied
>
>
> Inspecting the shared folder reveals that the folder has been created
> but is empty - no file copying performed.
>
>
> I investigated command line alternatives to copying files using xcopy
> with some strange results.
>
> In these screensnaps S: is a mapped drive of the nslu2 share /disk2 aka
> "For everyone"
>
>
> [S:\Pete]xcopy i:\temp temp /s /e /v /h /t /r
> The current target for XCOPY, temp,
> can be a directory or file name and must be specified.  Respond Y
> if the target is a directory or N if the target is a file name.
>
> Does temp specify a directory (Y/N)? y
> SYS1693: The system cannot create the directory.
>
>
> 0 file(s) copied.
>
>
> [S:\Pete]
>
>
>
> If I make a directory, change to that directory and then perform an
> xcopy it works:-
>
> [S:\Pete\temp]xcopy j:\temp\* /s /e /v /h /t /r
> The extended attributes for the file or directory were
> discarded because the target file system does not support them.
>
> The extended attributes for the file or directory were
> discarded because the target file system does not support them.
>
>
> Source files are being read...
>
> J:\temp\History.txt
> J:\temp\ide.txt
> J:\temp\OS2_Install.exe
> J:\temp\OS2_UnZip.exe
> J:\temp\WDSibyl.dat
>
> 5 file(s) copied.
>
>
> [S:\Pete\temp]
>
>
>
> But if the source contains a subdirectory I get an error and the whole
> process stops:-
>
>
> [S:\Pete\temp]md PostArmor
>
> [S:\Pete\temp]cd PostArmor
>
> [S:\Pete\temp\PostArmor]xcopy j:\PostArmor\* /s /e /v /h /t /r
> The extended attributes for the file or directory were
> discarded because the target file system does not support them.
>
> The extended attributes for the file or directory were
> discarded because the target file system does not support them.
>
>
> Source files are being read...
>
> SYS1248: A subdirectory or file S:\Pete\temp\PostArmor\docs already exists.
>
>
> 0 file(s) copied.
>
>
> [S:\Pete\temp\PostArmor]
>
>
>
> I tried getting around that error with the xcopy /o parameter:-
>
>
> [S:\Pete\temp\PostArmor]xcopy j:\PostArmor\* /s /e /v /h /t /r /o
> The extended attributes for the file or directory were
> discarded because the target file system does not support them.
>
> The extended attributes for the file or directory were
> discarded because the target file system does not support them.
>
>
> Source files are being read...
>
> The extended attributes for the file or directory were
> discarded because the target file system does not support them.
>
> SYS1248: A subdirectory or file S:\Pete\temp\PostArmor\docs\images
> already exists.
>
>
> 0 file(s) copied.
>
>
>
> Needless to say whatever I have done to the samba configuration does not
> seem to upset Windows2000 - I can startup my VPC w2k installation and
> have no problems at all accessing the nslu2 shares for reading and
> writing...
>
> I am now starting to wonder if there is something a little flaky as
> regards samba 3.0.22 and OS/2 connectivity? - or is there some secret
> parameter I've missed in the smb.conf file?
>
> Any/All help appreciated.
>
> Pete
> -- 
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latest samba 3.0.22 does a pretty good job regarding OS/2 connectivity - but,
as often, there are some pitfalls - additional thougths and checks apply.
The most basic difference of OS/2 is its usage of 'extended attributes' (EAs).
Samba can handle EAs pretty well - but _only_, if the used *nix kernel and
the used file system can handle EAs, too.
In *nix terms, EAs are called 'xattr'.
Sorry, the Linksys NSLU2 is new to me - so I had a short look into the specs.
The specs claim, that 'FAT32', 'NTFS' or 'ext3' can be used...

To _really_ work properly (in all cases), OS/2 needs an EA space of 64KB!
Even if xattr support is compiled into the kernel - and 'ext3' is enabled (in fstab)
for xattr usage:
/dev/hdb6            /ext3                ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 2
xattr limitations of 'ext3' would count. 'ext3' is only able to store about 3.9KB EAs!

reiserfs, JFS and XFS are file systems, which support 64KB EAs.

So, if you _really_ don't need EAs to be stored onto the Linksys samba server, some
entries in your smb.conf should be checked.
Think twice - the OS/2 workplace shell is using EAs heavily - so you won't be
able to use that GUI stuff anyway! (The WPS flags nearly _any_ EA error).

Samba3 has some minor glitches, when the used file system does _not_ support
EAs - but you told it to use EAs in smb.conf.
(Directories - which are told to contain EAs - might be created, and short lateron an
error EAS_NOT_SUPPORTED is returned... so then you have that subdir
created ... but OS/2 got confused...)

Peter, a 1st try to get better results should be
   ea support = no
in smb.conf
xcopy should behave much more as expected. (still sending expected EA warnings)
Please post your smb.conf!

Best wishes - Guenter

btw - you can also reach me on irc.freenode.net channels
#samba-os2
#samba-os2-technical