[Samba] linux client DNS issues

[Patrick Goetz]

On 2/7/22 15:04, Rowland Penny via samba wrote:
> On Mon, 2022-02-07 at 12:45 -0600, Patrick Goetz via samba wrote:
>> BTW, I can't find anything in the log files to help me with
>> debugging
>> this.  At what log level do DNS errors start showing up in the log
>> files?
> 
> OK, I have setup Arch in a VM and installed Samba and I got the same
> error, no DNS update.
> 
> I checked /etc/hostname and it only has the short hostname in it, I
> then checked /etc/hosts and it had three lines:
> 
> 127.0.0.1 localhost
> ::1 localhost
> 127.0.1.1 archmem.samdom.example.com archmem
> 
> As a test I commented out the last line, left the domain and then
> rejoined the domain, this time it worked without the DNS error.
> 

Thanks for testing this.  But now it seems more obvious that there's 
something about my setup which is triggering this behavior and I'm dying 
to know what it is.

You installed exactly these additional packages for Samba?
# pacman -Syu samba smbclient krb5 pam-krb5 dnsutils

(acl, attr, ldb, and cifs-utils are installed as dependencies)


Presumably using `net ads join`? Did you run a samba-tool dns query to 
make sure the Arch VM was actually in DNS?

I've now tried every variation.  My original /etc/hosts file looked like 
this:

------------
# Static table lookup for hostnames.
# See hosts(5) for details.

192.168.1.84 erap-gnome.ea.linuxcs.com  erap-gnome
------------

I tried adding the loopback interface:

------------
# Static table lookup for hostnames.
# See hosts(5) for details.

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost

192.168.1.84 erap-gnome.ea.linuxcs.com  erap-gnome
------------

commenting out the host IP address, using a FQDN in /etc/hostname and 
all combinations of the above and I still get the DNS error every time.

Roland, from your description, how does `net ads join -U administrator` 
even know what domain you're trying to join?  Does it use the 
/etc/krb5.conf file?  If so, why does the Samba Wiki sternly warn you to 
remove any 127.0.1.1 entry in /etc/hosts and add the system IP address 
as shown above instead?


> I could get to like Arch, except for one thing, the install procedure
> is archaic (is that what 'arch' is short for ?), the last time I used
> such an install procedure was over 20 years ago :-D
> 

I'm guessing you used the installer included with the ISO only recently 
after much gnashing of teeth, hand wringing, and push back. Arch doesn't 
have a good installer (and didn't have one at all until recently) by 
design; i.e. on purpose.  What you're supposed to do is go to 
https://archlinux.org and use the Installation Guide referenced under 
Documentation in the right side panel and get your hands dirty 
assembling the system from scratch.  Kind of like how I made my kid help 
me build his first computer from parts. This way you have hands on 
knowledge of how your system is set up.

There are some advantages to this.  Installing Arch on somewhat 
non-standard hardware is so much easier than installing, say, Ubuntu 
precisely because you're not locked into an installation regime and can 
twiddle with more knobs.  I've had to give up on installing Ubuntu on 
some systems after hours of frustration followed by a quick, easy, and 
deterministic 30 minute installation of Arch. Even the most recent 
version of the Ubuntu installer (for example) won't let you configure 
the EFI partition as an md RAID1, which you kind of need if you're going 
to have truly redundant OS disks, which I do by default on nearly every 
machine these days, as SSDs are cheap and my labor expensive, not to 
mention that users don't appreciate downtime as much as they should.

For people who want an Arch system which can be installed by a novice 
with a slick and modern installer, take a look at EndeavorOS, Manjaro, 
or Garuda (among others).  Garuda linux is somewhat new, but they shot 
for the moon at all levels; i.e. not just eye candy, which I studiously 
avoid because I'd rather not waste CPU cycles on stuff like this when 
running multiple VMs all the time; this is some next level stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK280Y0cNmQ


> Rowland
>   
> 
>