[Samba] Browser Elections Failing

[Moray Henderson]

Samba 3.4.7 on CentOS 5.4 (although I saw the same behaviour with
earlier versions of both).  Samba is set to be the PDC and master
browser, and we have bumped the os level up to its maximum:

  workgroup = WORKGROUP
  netbios name = LINUX
  os level = 255
  preferred master = Yes
  local master = Yes
  domain master = Yes
  browse list = Yes
  enhanced browsing = Yes
  wins proxy = No
  wins support = Yes

Periodically, however, some Windows laptop comes onto our network and
steals Local Master from the Samba server.  Then, when the laptop is
removed, no further browser elections occur.  I can force an election
with "smbcontrol nmbd force-election", which the server wins (no pun
intended), but isn't that supposed to happen automatically if the
previous master disappears?

Any ideas why a server with those settings would lose Local Master, or
fail to regain it when the other machine becomes unavailable?


Moray.
"To err is human.  To purr, feline"