[Samba] clients not connecting to samba shares

[Rowland Penny]

On 01/04/2023 17:51, Gary Dale via samba wrote:

> 
> The single point of authority requires modifying every Linux 
> installation I've got to point to that authority. And what happens when 
> the Authority isn't accessible (e.g. a laptop while on vacation)? It 
> needs to fallback to a local password authority.

If the laptop is running Linux, then add 'winbind offline logon = yes' 
to the smb.conf, winbind will cache the required credentials.


> Again, these lines are from the Samba wiki. They weren't my idea. If 
> something is now obsolete, the wiki pages should be updated by someone 
> who knows how Samba currently operates. I note that the wiki 
> distinguishes between pre and post 4.6. If further changes to Samba were 
> made, the wiki doesn't reflect it.

Can you please tell me just where in the Samba wiki it says add those 
lines to a DC's smb.conf ?
Failing that, can you please say where in the wiki you think it says that ?
Either way, I will fix it so it explicitly says to never add those lines 
to a DC's smb.conf, they have never been used or worked on a DC.

> 
> 
>>
>>>          vfs objects = acl_xattr
>>
>> Now that is a really, really big mistake. Whilst 'acl_xattr' is one of 
>> the vfs objects used by a DC, you have just turned off the main one ' 
>> dfs_samba4'
> 
> See previous comment.

See my previous comment and here:
https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Using_the_acl_xattr_VFS_Module

Where it states:

On a Samba Active Directory (AD) domain controller (DC), the acl_xattr 
module is automatically globally enabled and cannot be deactivated. You 
must not add it to your smb.conf file manually.

Also see here:

https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Setting_up_Samba_as_an_Active_Directory_Domain_Controller

Where amongst other things it says this:

You should be aware that if wish to use a vfs object on a DC share e.g. 
recycle, you must not just set vfs objects = recycle in the share. Doing 
this will turn off the default vfs objects dfs_samba4 and acl_xattr. You 
must set vfs objects = dfs_samba4 acl_xattr recycle.

That is under the 'Using the Domain Controller as a File Server 
(Optional)' heading

>>
> That may be true for full-time domain admins. However it seems less apt 
> for people using Linux at home who need to run a windows (virtual) 
> machine occasionally. Linux isn't built around AD and even using 
> Kerberos is rarely something home users do.

Yes, historically, Linux wasn't built around AD, but that isn't a reason 
to not use it. You will find it easier to maintain than individual 
machines, just one place to maintain users, groups etc, rather than on 
every machine. Want to change a users password ? Either do it once on an 
AD DC, or go to every machine and change it, this can get tiring if you 
have a lot of machines.

> 
> And from what I've been seeing, you actually need to run a Windows 
> client to administer AD - Linux programs no longer seem to be capable of 
> doing everything that is needed. That makes advising using AD 
> problematic - something to be avoided if possible.

You can use samba-tool or one of the numerous other methods.

> 
> As for forgetting NT4-style domains, I'm following documentation that 
> deals strictly with Samba 4. I'd been running AD servers in various 
> locations for a long time (an office with only Windows clients, my home 
> with a mix of Linux and Windows clients). It's only in the last year 
> that (some) things have stopped working. That's not due to a switch from 
> NT4 to AD. It's due to AD breaking things.

An NT4-style domain relies on SMBv1, this is going away and is generally 
turned off now.

> 
> My Linux server has been a great single-point of maintenance without my 
> needing to jump through hoops. Conversely, getting any Linux workstation 
> to authenticate to an AD instance has never worked. I tried that a few 
> times over the last decade with zero success. In fact my workstation's 
> /etc/nssswitch.conf still has the settings to use winbind for 
> authentication. Fortunately it allows a fallback...

If you cannot get a Linux machine to authenticate to AD, then it sounds 
like you are doing something wrong.

Can you share the smb.conf from your workstation ?

> 
> Can you point me to an up-to-date and accurate howto on setting up a 
> Linux client to use AD and NFS4?

I will get back to you on that, as I said, I do not know much about NFS 
because I do not use it, I just use Samba, on everything.

Rowland