[Samba] [3.0.23d] Subdirectories of share root appear empty (sometimes)

[James Farmer]

Hi.  We're having a bit of a strange problem with Samba, and we're
hoping someone might be able to offer some good advice as it's
exhausted our ideas.  Thanks.

Our office has a SUSE Linux box that we use as a fileserver, using Samba
to expose it to our Windows machines, in the form of three shares.
Sometimes (it's inconsistent but seems to happen several times a week),
one of our computers will stop 'seeing' the contents of the
subdirectories of the root of one of the shares.  When we open the
share in Explorer, the contents of the root appears as expected, but
when we navigate into any subdirectory it appears as empty.  Meanwhile,
we can open the share on another machine, and all the subdirectory
contents appear as expected.

We've observed this problem on one (and only one) of the shares, which
is itself confusing as they're all configured exactly the same.  We've
tried rebooting the Windows machine but the same problem is observed
when it comes back.  We've also tried rebooting the Samba service, but
again the same problem is observed!  If we leave it for long enough,
however, eventually it starts working again.  Our best guess is that
the Windows machine somehow caches some bad data, somehow.

Thus far this problem has only been observed from two of our Windows
machines; one runs 32-bit Windows XP Pro and the other 64-bit Windows
Server 2003.

The Samba log shows everything appearing normal, e.g.:

[2007/06/18 14:07:12, 2] auth/auth.c:check_ntlm_password(309)
   check_ntlm_password:  authentication for user [fred] -> [fred] -> 
fred] succeeded
[2007/06/18 14:07:12, 2] lib/access.c:check_access(323)
   Allowed connection from  (192.168.1.149)
[2007/06/18 14:07:12, 1] smbd/service.c:make_connection_snum(950)
   kronos (192.168.1.149) connect to service CVS initially as user fred 
(uid=1000, gid=100) (pid 18524)
[2007/06/18 14:07:12, 2] smbd/reply.c:reply_tcon_and_X(711)
   Serving CVS as a Dfs root
[2007/06/18 14:10:37, 2] smbd/open.c:open_file(352)
   port opened file cvs.html read=Yes write=No (numopen=3)
[2007/06/18 14:10:47, 2] smbd/close.c:close_normal_file(344)
   port closed file cvs.html (numopen=2)

Our smb.conf file is quite simple:
    workgroup = JAMES_RE
    server string = Office File Server
    hosts allow = 192.168.1. 127.
    printcap name = /etc/printcap
    load printers = no
    log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
    log level = 2
    max log size = 128

    security = user
    encrypt passwords = yes
    smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
    ssl CA certFile = /usr/share/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt
    username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
    socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
    remote announce = 192.168.1.255
    local master = yes
    os level = 128
    domain master = yes
    preferred master = yes
    domain logons = yes
    name resolve order = host bcast
    dns proxy = no
    veto oplock files = /*.pst/ibdata*/ib_logfile*/

[NETLOGON]
    path = /etc/samba
    read only = yes

[homes]
    comment = Home Directories
    browseable = no
    writable = yes
    case sensitive = yes
    force create mode = 0664
    create mode = 0664
    force directory mode = 0775
    directory mode = 0775

[Common]
    comment = Common Directory
    path = /home/Common
    browseable = yes
    read only = no
    force create mode = 0664
    create mode = 0664
    force directory mode = 0775
    directory mode = 0775

[CVS]
    comment = CVS Repository
    path = /home/CVS
    browseable = yes
    read only = no
    force create mode = 0660
    create mode = 0660
    force directory mode = 0770
    directory mode = 0770

Any advice anyone may have on this matter would be much appreciated.
Many thanks,

James.