[Samba] Need Help Getting Windows XP To Use Samba Properly [Closed]

[Ryan Novosielski]

Might you be able to provide a couple of links to other places you've seen this on the internet (or sample search terms)? Perhaps one has some of the information that could be used to look into the problem further, or something that could be used to triangulate the problem. Would be neat to get it nailed down one way or another.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre
On Jan 3, 2011 8:36, Hodges,	Robert CTR USAF AFMC 520 SMXS/MXDEC <robert.hodges.ctr at hill.af.mil> wrote: 

Jeremy, All,



I truly appreciate your willingness to help me work on this further.

Unfortunately, we have simply run out of time.



To make matters worse, I cannot provide traces, logs, etc because this

is a classified government system that cannot be exposed in any way,

which means rather difficult and sometimes problematic troubleshooting

limitations that may keep this problem from being solved.  However, this

error is found all over the internet and rarely do you ever see a fix

for it.  When I have seen one, it's not a fix that works for me.



To make matters worse, Microsoft stamped a "Microsoft has confirmed this

to be a problem with the products specified" on WinXP and Samba.

Microsoft has no fix, they have tried many times before, and as it now

stands, appears to be disinterested in providing a hot fix due to the

remaining shelf life of XP.  Any support you get form Microsoft on this

particular issue is what they call a "best effort", and do not guarantee

a fix like they do with their own products.



For anyone that wants to play around with this, here's the config:



All static IPs

Workgroup only, no domain

Solaris with Samba loaded, a few shares, enabled as WINS server,

configured as Master Browser

No DNS server

XP has WINS setting pointing at Samba box, hosts file used instead of

DNS, lmjosts file NTO in use because of WINS on Samba, XP's Computer

Browser service disabled to force XP to see Samba box as master browser

(otherwise will elect itself as master browser and totally ignore Samba)



Behavior:

WinXP can map to any resource on Samba with zero problems - it is not a

permissions issue.  Attempting to browse to a Samba resource, however,

produces "The specified network name is no longer available" in XP.  If

Computer Browser service enabled on XP, XP may or may not be able to

browse to Samba box (this is entirely unstable, because within 15

minutes, if XP has elected itself as master browser, XP will eventually

time out and lose the server list, and "Specified network no longer

available" error returns).

Never, is WinXP able to retrieve the browse list from Samba.  Microsoft

claims that this is because the network configuration is too simplified

and because real WINS and DNS servers are not in use.  All we're trying

to do is get one stinkin' XP workstation to talk to one stinkin' Samba

box in a simple workgroup.  That's it.  So far, it's got everyone that

looks at this problem absolutely baffled as to how this could not work.



Those who have looked at it and given up:



Microsoft

US Air Force

US Marine Corps

Various private military contractors

Samba email list group (best support so far, but still no dice)



Again, thanks to all who have tried figuring this out.  I know I haven't

given you much to work with, so don't feel bad.  It's just that I have

simply run out of time to get this resolved.



Bob







 -----Original Message-----

From: Jeremy Allison [mailto:jra at samba.org] 

Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 3:04 PM

To: Hodges, Robert CTR USAF AFMC 520 SMXS/MXDEC

Cc: samba

Subject: Re: [Samba] Need Help Getting Windows XP To Use Samba Properly

[Closed]



On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 12:29:53PM -0700, Hodges, Robert CTR USAF AFMC

520 SMXS/MXDEC wrote:

> Well, here's what's happening.

> 

> Microsoft Tech Support confirms that this is a problem with Windows

XP.

> There is no fix, and I don't expect one coming considering XP's end of

> life in 2012.  All Microsoft has are workarounds.



Don't throw in the towel just yet. I've never seen a WindowsXP

box that won't work with Samba, we just need more info.



> Microsoft's recommendations are to add more servers to the mix (DNS,

> WINS, etc) and if that doesn't work, then one of their several

> "workarounds" is to dump the use of Samba altogether.  None of the

> proposed workarounds work for us, we're locked into a specific

> configuration.

> 

> So both Microsoft and my shop are throwing in the towel on this one

and

> we're resorting to simply mapping to all the shares instead of having

> users browse to them.  Sounds simple, but this represents a huge

config

> and documentation change on many levels for us, a lot bigger than

anyone

> could know.  A very frustrating and expensive workaround if you knew

the

> scope.



Don't do this yet. I haven't seen any debug logs from

you, or a network trace. Changing your config without

proper investigation is completely premature IMHO.



> This decision to pull the plug was made after I came across an online

> forum where someone had this very same issue, worked with Microsoft

Tech

> Support for 7 months(!), and it never got resolved.



We have been networking Windowx XP boxes to Samba

for longer than anyone still working in Microsoft

Tech support, trust me on that :-). So I'd still

like to fix this properly.



> So, it sucks to be me.  



Please get the network trace and debug level 10 log

of the Windows XP box trying to connect to Samba, this

should give us the information we need to fix it.



Jeremy.

-- 

To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the

instructions:  https://lists.samba.org/mailman/options/samba