[Samba] Unable to find the Domain Master Browser - novice experience

[Steve Nash]

Bottom-line: this is now working for me.

 

# /etc/samba/smb.conf

#

# Modifications made 1108260839 steve.nash at theiet.org

#

#======================= Global Settings =======================

 

[global]

        log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

        guest account = Family

        load printers = no

 

#1      read prediction = yes

        map to guest = bad user

        null passwords = yes

        encrypt passwords = true

#1      winbind trusted domains only = yes

#1      winbind use default domain = yes

        wins support = true

#1      available = no

        netbios name = NashFS

        browseable = yes

        server string = %h (Samba, Ubuntu)

#1      winbind enum users = no

        default = Storage

        workgroup = NASH

        os level = 20

#1      winbind enum groups = no

        security = user

        preferred master = yes

#1

        domain master = yes

        local master = yes

#1

        usershare allow guests = yes

        max log size = 1000

 

[Storage]

        browseable = yes

        writeable = yes

        delete readonly = yes

        path = /Storage

        force group = sambashare

        force user = Family

        comment = Storage for Windows

        public = yes

        available = yes

 

ENVIRONMENT

I set up a Ubuntu 10.04 host (NashFS) to be a central file-server for Home
network used by about 10 various MSWindows machines.

My objective was to create just a storage area that any of the family can
use.

 

But I was finding that the view of the "Network" from MSWindows was not
consistent or reliable.

.         I have no MS "Domain" as far as I know. 

.         Just a workgroup.

.         I have tried to avoid Win7 Homegroups because I cannot find any
explanation of what they do! 

 

Eventually got round to checking /var/log/syslog on NashFS 

Found messages saying:

                Unable to find the Domain Master Browser name NASH<1b> for
the workgroup NASH

 

I use Webmin to configure the services on this machine.   

Webmin > Servers > Samba Windows File Sharing> Global Configuration >
Windows Networking

showed "Master Browser?" as Automatic.

 

My first change was here, to set this to Yes.

 

What took me a while to figure out is the restarting the Samba daemon smbd
is not enough.

Looking at /etc/samba/smb.conf showed me what I wanted to see, but
restarting smbd was having no effect.

 

I needed to restart nmbd also, but this is not visible from Webmin, so:

                sudo service nmbd restart

 

NOTES

As far as I can figure out I do not need winbind.  It is part of the Webmin
display of Samba.

At some point, in setting up Samba, it had become active and was putting
other messages into syslog.  The file shown above includes lines related to
winbind that I just recently commented out.  I have now rid myself of
winbind with:

sudo apt-get purge winbind

There are other commented lines that I have left in this copy just in case
you see them too and want to know that it works for me without them.  

There are several other lines in there that are meaningless to me, so do not
rely on my expertise J.

 

If this little doc is useful to you please let me know steve.nash at theiet.org