based on function prototype, the args were switched - this gave an error
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1 <!doctype linuxdoc system> <!-- -*- SGML -*- -->
2 <!--
3 v 0.5 18 Oct 1996 Dan Shearer Dan.Shearer@unisa.edu.au
4 First linuxdoc-sgml version, outline only
5 v 0.6 25 Oct 1996 Dan
6 Filled in from current text faq
7 v 0.7 1 June 1997 Paul
8 Replicated changes in txt faq to sgml faq
9 9 June 1997 Paul
10 Lots of changes, added doco list, updated compatible systems list
11 added NT SP3 entry, added Year 2000 entry, Getting ready for 1.9.17
12 v 0.8 7th Oct 97 Paul
13 changed samba.canberra entries to samba.anu.../samba/
14 -->
16 <article>
18 <title> Samba FAQ
20 <author>Paul Blackman, <tt>ictinus@samba.org</tt>
21 <author>Jelmer Vernooij, <tt>jelmer@samba.org</tt>
23 <date>v 1.0, August 2002
25 <abstract> This is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document for
26 Samba, the free and very popular SMB server product. An SMB server
27 allows file and printer connections from clients such as Windows,
28 OS/2, Linux and others. Current to version 3.0. Please send any
29 corrections to the author.
30 </abstract>
32 <toc>
34 <sect> General Information<p> <label id="general_info">
36 All about Samba - what it is, how to get it, related sources of
37 information, how to understand the version numbering scheme, pizza
38 details
40 <sect1> What is Samba? <p> <label id="introduction">
41 Samba is a suite of programs which work together to allow clients to
42 access to a server's filespace and printers via the SMB (Server
43 Message Block) protocol. Initially written for Unix, Samba now also
44 runs on Netware, OS/2 and VMS.
46 In practice, this means that you can redirect disks and printers to
47 Unix disks and printers from Lan Manager clients, Windows for
48 Workgroups 3.11 clients, Windows NT clients, Linux clients and OS/2
49 clients. There is also a generic Unix client program supplied as part
50 of the suite which allows Unix users to use an ftp-like interface to
51 access filespace and printers on any other SMB servers. This gives the
52 capability for these operating systems to behave much like a LAN
53 Server or Windows NT Server machine, only with added functionality and
54 flexibility designed to make life easier for administrators.
56 The components of the suite are (in summary):
58 <itemize>
59 <item><bf>smbd</bf>, the SMB server. This handles actual connections from clients, doing all the file, permission and username work
60 <item><bf>nmbd</bf>, the Netbios name server, which helps clients locate servers, doing the browsing work and managing domains as this capability is being built into Samba
61 <item><bf>smbclient</bf>, the Unix-hosted client program
62 <item><bf>smbrun</bf>, a little 'glue' program to help the server run external programs
63 <item><bf>testprns</bf>, a program to test server access to printers
64 <item><bf>testparms</bf>, a program to test the Samba configuration file for correctness
65 <item><bf>smb.conf</bf>, the Samba configuration file
66 <item><bf>smbprint</bf>, a sample script to allow a Unix host to use smbclient to print to an SMB server
67 <item><bf>Documentation!</bf> DON'T neglect to read it - you will save a great deal of time!
68 </itemize>
70 The suite is supplied with full source (of course!) and is GPLed.
72 The primary creator of the Samba suite is Andrew Tridgell. Later
73 versions incorporate much effort by many net.helpers. The man pages
74 and this FAQ were originally written by Karl Auer.
76 <sect1> What is the current version of Samba? <p><label id="current_version">
77 At time of writing, the current version was 1.9.17. If you want to be
78 sure check the bottom of the change-log file. <url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/alpha/change-log">
80 For more information see <ref id="version_nums" name="What do the
81 version numbers mean?">
83 <sect1> Where can I get it? <p> <label id="where">
84 The Samba suite is available via anonymous ftp from
85 samba.org. The latest and greatest versions of the suite are in
86 the directory:
88 /pub/samba/
90 Development (read "alpha") versions, which are NOT necessarily stable
91 and which do NOT necessarily have accurate documentation, are
92 available in the directory:
94 /pub/samba/alpha
96 Note that binaries are NOT included in any of the above. Samba is
97 distributed ONLY in source form, though binaries may be available from
98 other sites. Recent versions of some Linux distributions, for example,
99 do contain Samba binaries for that platform.
101 <sect1> What do the version numbers mean? <p> <label id="version_nums">
102 It is not recommended that you run a version of Samba with the word
103 "alpha" in its name unless you know what you are doing and are willing
104 to do some debugging. Many, many people just get the latest
105 recommended stable release version and are happy. If you are brave, by
106 all means take the plunge and help with the testing and development -
107 but don't install it on your departmental server. Samba is typically
108 very stable and safe, and this is mostly due to the policy of many
109 public releases.
111 How the scheme works:
112 <enum>
113 <item>When major changes are made the version number is increased. For
114 example, the transition from 1.9.15 to 1.9.16. However, this version
115 number will not appear immediately and people should continue to use
116 1.9.15 for production systems (see next point.)
118 <item>Just after major changes are made the software is considered
119 unstable, and a series of alpha releases are distributed, for example
120 1.9.16alpha1. These are for testing by those who know what they are
121 doing. The "alpha" in the filename will hopefully scare off those who
122 are just looking for the latest version to install.
124 <item>When Andrew thinks that the alphas have stabilised to the point
125 where he would recommend new users install it, he renames it to the
126 same version number without the alpha, for example 1.9.16.
128 <item>Inevitably bugs are found in the "stable" releases and minor patch
129 levels are released which give us the pXX series, for example 1.9.16p2.
130 </enum>
131 So the progression goes:
132 <verb>
133 1.9.15p7 (production)
134 1.9.15p8 (production)
135 1.9.16alpha1 (test sites only)
137 1.9.16alpha20 (test sites only)
138 1.9.16 (production)
139 1.9.16p1 (production)
140 </verb>
141 The above system means that whenever someone looks at the samba ftp
142 site they will be able to grab the highest numbered release without an
143 alpha in the name and be sure of getting the current recommended
144 version.
146 <sect1> What platforms are supported? <p> <label id="platforms">
147 Many different platforms have run Samba successfully. The platforms
148 most widely used and thus best tested are Linux and SunOS.
150 At time of writing, the Makefile claimed support for:
151 <itemize>
152 <item> A/UX 3.0
153 <item> AIX
154 <item> Altos Series 386/1000
155 <item> Amiga
156 <item> Apollo Domain/OS sr10.3
157 <item> BSDI
158 <item> B.O.S. (Bull Operating System)
159 <item> Cray, Unicos 8.0
160 <item> Convex
161 <item> DGUX.
162 <item> DNIX.
163 <item> FreeBSD
164 <item> HP-UX
165 <item> Intergraph.
166 <item> Linux with/without shadow passwords and quota
167 <item> LYNX 2.3.0
168 <item> MachTen (a unix like system for Macintoshes)
169 <item> Motorola 88xxx/9xx range of machines
170 <item> NetBSD
171 <item> NEXTSTEP Release 2.X, 3.0 and greater (including OPENSTEP for Mach).
172 <item> OS/2 using EMX 0.9b
173 <item> OSF1
174 <item> QNX 4.22
175 <item> RiscIX.
176 <item> RISCOs 5.0B
177 <item> SEQUENT.
178 <item> SCO (including: 3.2v2, European dist., OpenServer 5)
179 <item> SGI.
180 <item> SMP_DC.OSx v1.1-94c079 on Pyramid S series
181 <item> SONY NEWS, NEWS-OS (4.2.x and 6.1.x)
182 <item> SUNOS 4
183 <item> SUNOS 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4 (Solaris 2.2, 2.3, and '2.4 and later')
184 <item> Sunsoft ISC SVR3V4
185 <item> SVR4
186 <item> System V with some berkely extensions (Motorola 88k R32V3.2).
187 <item> ULTRIX.
188 <item> UNIXWARE
189 <item> UXP/DS
190 </itemize>
192 <sect1> How can I find out more about Samba? <p> <label id="more">
193 There are a number of places to look for more information on Samba, including:
194 <itemize>
195 <item>Two mailing lists devoted to discussion of Samba-related matters.
196 <item>The newsgroup, comp.protocols.smb, which has a great deal of discussion on Samba.
197 <item>The WWW site 'SAMBA Web Pages' at <url url="http://samba.edu.au/samba/"> includes:
198 <itemize>
199 <item>Links to man pages and documentation, including this FAQ
200 <item>A comprehensive survey of Samba users.
201 <item>A searchable hypertext archive of the Samba mailing list.
202 <item>Links to Samba source code, binaries, and mirrors of both.
203 </itemize>
204 <item>The long list of topic documentation. These files can be found in the 'docs' directory of the Samba source, or at <url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/">
205 <itemize>
206 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Application_Serving.txt" name="Application_Serving.txt">
207 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/BROWSING.txt" name="BROWSING.txt">
208 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/BUGS.txt" name="BUGS.txt">
209 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DIAGNOSIS.txt" name="DIAGNOSIS.txt">
210 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DNIX.txt" name="DNIX.txt">
211 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DOMAIN.txt" name="DOMAIN.txt">
212 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DOMAIN_CONTROL.txt" name="CONTROL.txt">
213 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/ENCRYPTION.txt" name="ENCRYPTION.txt">
214 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Faxing.txt" name="Faxing.txt">
215 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/GOTCHAS.txt" name="GOTCHAS.txt">
216 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/HINTS.txt" name="HINTS.txt">
217 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/INSTALL.sambatar" name="INSTALL.sambatar">
218 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/INSTALL.txt" name="INSTALL.txt">
219 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/MIRRORS" name="MIRRORS">
220 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/NetBIOS.txt" name="NetBIOS.txt">
221 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/OS2.txt" name="OS2.txt">
222 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/PROJECTS" name="PROJECTS">
223 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Passwords.txt" name="Passwords.txt">
224 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Printing.txt" name="Printing.txt">
225 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.DCEDFS" name="README.DCEDFS">
226 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.OS2" name="README.OS2">
227 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.jis" name="README.jis">
228 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.sambatar" name="README.sambatar">
229 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/SCO.txt" name="SCO.txt">
230 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/SMBTAR.notes" name="SMBTAR.notes">
231 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Speed.txt" name="Speed.txt">
232 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Support.txt" name="Support.txt">
233 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/THANKS" name="THANKS">
234 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Tracing.txt" name="Tracing.txt">
235 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/UNIX-SMB.txt" name="SMB.txt">
236 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Warp.txt" name="Warp.txt">
237 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/WinNT.txt" name="WinNT.txt">
238 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/history" name="history">
239 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/security_level.txt" name="level.txt">
240 <item><url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/wfw_slip.htm" name="slip.htm">
241 </itemize>
242 </itemize>
244 <sect1>How do I subscribe to the Samba Mailing Lists?<p><label id="mailinglist">
245 Send email to <htmlurl url="mailto:listproc@samba.org" name="listproc@samba.org">. Make sure the subject line is
246 blank, and include the following two lines in the body of the message:
247 <tscreen><verb>
248 subscribe samba Firstname Lastname
249 subscribe samba-announce Firstname Lastname
250 </verb></tscreen>
251 Obviously you should substitute YOUR first name for "Firstname" and
252 YOUR last name for "Lastname"! Try not to send any signature stuff, it
253 sometimes confuses the list processor.
255 The samba list is a digest list - every eight hours or so it
256 regurgitates a single message containing all the messages that have
257 been received by the list since the last time and sends a copy of this
258 message to all subscribers.
260 If you stop being interested in Samba, please send another email to
261 <htmlurl url="mailto:listproc@samba.org" name="listproc@samba.org">. Make sure the subject line is blank, and
262 include the following two lines in the body of the message:
263 <tscreen><verb>
264 unsubscribe samba
265 unsubscribe samba-announce
266 </verb></tscreen>
267 The <bf>From:</bf> line in your message <em>MUST</em> be the same address you used when
268 you subscribed.
270 <sect1> Something's gone wrong - what should I do? <p> <label id="wrong">
271 <bf>[#] *** IMPORTANT! *** [#]</bf>
272 <p>DO NOT post messages on mailing lists or in newsgroups until you have
273 carried out the first three steps given here!
275 Firstly, see if there are any likely looking entries in this FAQ! If
276 you have just installed Samba, have you run through the checklist in
277 <url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/DIAGNOSIS.txt" name="DIAGNOSIS.txt">? It can save you a lot of time and effort.
278 DIAGNOSIS.txt can also be found in the docs directory of the Samba distribution.
280 Secondly, read the man pages for smbd, nmbd and smb.conf, looking for
281 topics that relate to what you are trying to do.
283 Thirdly, if there is no obvious solution to hand, try to get a look at
284 the log files for smbd and/or nmbd for the period during which you
285 were having problems. You may need to reconfigure the servers to
286 provide more extensive debugging information - usually level 2 or
287 level 3 provide ample debugging info. Inspect these logs closely,
288 looking particularly for the string "Error:".
290 Fourthly, if you still haven't got anywhere, ask the mailing list or
291 newsgroup. In general nobody minds answering questions provided you
292 have followed the preceding steps. It might be a good idea to scan the
293 archives of the mailing list, which are available through the Samba
294 web site described in the previous
295 section.
297 If you successfully solve a problem, please mail the FAQ maintainer a
298 succinct description of the symptom, the problem and the solution, so
299 I can incorporate it in the next version.
301 If you make changes to the source code, _please_ submit these patches
302 so that everyone else gets the benefit of your work. This is one of
303 the most important aspects to the maintainence of Samba. Send all
304 patches to <htmlurl url="mailto:samba-patches@samba.org" name="samba-patches@samba.org">. Do not send patches to Andrew Tridgell or any
305 other individual, they may be lost if you do.
307 <sect1> Pizza supply details <p> <label id="pizza">
308 Those who have registered in the Samba survey as "Pizza Factory" will
309 already know this, but the rest may need some help. Andrew doesn't ask
310 for payment, but he does appreciate it when people give him
311 pizza. This calls for a little organisation when the pizza donor is
312 twenty thousand kilometres away, but it has been done.
314 Method 1: Ring up your local branch of an international pizza chain
315 and see if they honour their vouchers internationally. Pizza Hut do,
316 which is how the entire Canberra Linux Users Group got to eat pizza
317 one night, courtesy of someone in the US
319 Method 2: Ring up a local pizza shop in Canberra and quote a credit
320 card number for a certain amount, and tell them that Andrew will be
321 collecting it (don't forget to tell him.) One kind soul from Germany
322 did this.
324 Method 3: Purchase a pizza voucher from your local pizza shop that has
325 no international affiliations and send it to Andrew. It is completely
326 useless but he can hang it on the wall next to the one he already has
327 from Germany :-)
329 Method 4: Air freight him a pizza with your favourite regional
330 flavours. It will probably get stuck in customs or torn apart by
331 hungry sniffer dogs but it will have been a noble gesture.
333 <sect>Compiling and installing Samba on a Unix host<p><label id="unix_install">
335 <sect1>I can't see the Samba server in any browse lists!<p><label id="no_browse">
336 See <url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/BROWSING.txt" name="BROWSING.txt">
337 for more information on browsing. Browsing.txt can also be found
338 in the docs directory of the Samba source.
340 If your GUI client does not permit you to select non-browsable
341 servers, you may need to do so on the command line. For example, under
342 Lan Manager you might connect to the above service as disk drive M:
343 thusly:
344 <tscreen><verb>
345 net use M: \\mary\fred
346 </verb></tscreen>
347 The details of how to do this and the specific syntax varies from
348 client to client - check your client's documentation.
350 <sect1>Some files that I KNOW are on the server doesn't show up when I view the files from my client! <p> <label id="missing_files">
351 See the next question.
352 <sect1>Some files on the server show up with really wierd filenames when I view the files from my client! <p> <label id="strange_filenames">
353 If you check what files are not showing up, you will note that they
354 are files which contain upper case letters or which are otherwise not
355 DOS-compatible (ie, they are not legal DOS filenames for some reason).
357 The Samba server can be configured either to ignore such files
358 completely, or to present them to the client in "mangled" form. If you
359 are not seeing the files at all, the Samba server has most likely been
360 configured to ignore them. Consult the man page smb.conf(5) for
361 details of how to change this - the parameter you need to set is
362 "mangled names = yes".
364 <sect1>My client reports "cannot locate specified computer" or similar<p><label id="cant_see_server">
365 This indicates one of three things: You supplied an incorrect server
366 name, the underlying TCP/IP layer is not working correctly, or the
367 name you specified cannot be resolved.
369 After carefully checking that the name you typed is the name you
370 should have typed, try doing things like pinging a host or telnetting
371 to somewhere on your network to see if TCP/IP is functioning OK. If it
372 is, the problem is most likely name resolution.
374 If your client has a facility to do so, hardcode a mapping between the
375 hosts IP and the name you want to use. For example, with Lan Manager
376 or Windows for Workgroups you would put a suitable entry in the file
377 LMHOSTS. If this works, the problem is in the communication between
378 your client and the netbios name server. If it does not work, then
379 there is something fundamental wrong with your naming and the solution
380 is beyond the scope of this document.
382 If you do not have any server on your subnet supplying netbios name
383 resolution, hardcoded mappings are your only option. If you DO have a
384 netbios name server running (such as the Samba suite's nmbd program),
385 the problem probably lies in the way it is set up. Refer to Section
386 Two of this FAQ for more ideas.
388 By the way, remember to REMOVE the hardcoded mapping before further
389 tests :-)
391 <sect1>My client reports "cannot locate specified share name" or similar<p> <label id="cant_see_share">
392 This message indicates that your client CAN locate the specified
393 server, which is a good start, but that it cannot find a service of
394 the name you gave.
396 The first step is to check the exact name of the service you are
397 trying to connect to (consult your system administrator). Assuming it
398 exists and you specified it correctly (read your client's docs on how
399 to specify a service name correctly), read on:
401 <itemize>
402 <item> Many clients cannot accept or use service names longer than eight characters.
403 <item> Many clients cannot accept or use service names containing spaces.
404 <item> Some servers (not Samba though) are case sensitive with service names.
405 <item> Some clients force service names into upper case.
406 </itemize>
408 <sect1>My client reports "cannot find domain controller", "cannot log on to the network" or similar <p> <label id="cant_see_net">
409 Nothing is wrong - Samba does not implement the primary domain name
410 controller stuff for several reasons, including the fact that the
411 whole concept of a primary domain controller and "logging in to a
412 network" doesn't fit well with clients possibly running on multiuser
413 machines (such as users of smbclient under Unix). Having said that,
414 several developers are working hard on building it in to the next
415 major version of Samba. If you can contribute, send a message to
416 <htmlurl url="mailto:samba@samba.org" name="samba@samba.org"> !
418 Seeing this message should not affect your ability to mount redirected
419 disks and printers, which is really what all this is about.
421 For many clients (including Windows for Workgroups and Lan Manager),
422 setting the domain to STANDALONE at least gets rid of the message.
424 <sect1>Printing doesn't work :-(<p> <label id="no_printing">
425 Make sure that the specified print command for the service you are
426 connecting to is correct and that it has a fully-qualified path (eg.,
427 use "/usr/bin/lpr" rather than just "lpr").
429 Make sure that the spool directory specified for the service is
430 writable by the user connected to the service. In particular the user
431 "nobody" often has problems with printing, even if it worked with an
432 earlier version of Samba. Try creating another guest user other than
433 "nobody".
435 Make sure that the user specified in the service is permitted to use
436 the printer.
438 Check the debug log produced by smbd. Search for the printer name and
439 see if the log turns up any clues. Note that error messages to do with
440 a service ipc$ are meaningless - they relate to the way the client
441 attempts to retrieve status information when using the LANMAN1
442 protocol.
444 If using WfWg then you need to set the default protocol to TCP/IP, not
445 Netbeui. This is a WfWg bug.
447 If using the Lanman1 protocol (the default) then try switching to
448 coreplus. Also not that print status error messages don't mean
449 printing won't work. The print status is received by a different
450 mechanism.
452 <sect1>My programs install on the server OK, but refuse to work properly<p><label id="programs_wont_run">
453 There are numerous possible reasons for this, but one MAJOR
454 possibility is that your software uses locking. Make sure you are
455 using Samba 1.6.11 or later. It may also be possible to work around
456 the problem by setting "locking=no" in the Samba configuration file
457 for the service the software is installed on. This should be regarded
458 as a strictly temporary solution.
460 In earlier Samba versions there were some difficulties with the very
461 latest Microsoft products, particularly Excel 5 and Word for Windows
462 6. These should have all been solved. If not then please let Andrew
463 Tridgell know via email at <htmlurl url="mailto:samba@samba.org" name="samba@samba.org">.
465 <sect1>My "server string" doesn't seem to be recognised<p><label id="bad_server_string">
466 OR My client reports the default setting, eg. "Samba 1.9.15p4", instead
467 of what I have changed it to in the smb.conf file.
469 You need to use the -C option in nmbd. The "server string" affects
470 what smbd puts out and -C affects what nmbd puts out.
472 Current versions of Samba (1.9.16 +) have combined these options into
473 the "server string" field of smb.conf, -C for nmbd is now obsolete.
475 <sect1>My client reports "This server is not configured to list shared resources" <p> <label id="cant_list_shares">
476 Your guest account is probably invalid for some reason. Samba uses the
477 guest account for browsing in smbd. Check that your guest account is
478 valid.
480 See also 'guest account' in smb.conf man page.
482 <sect1>Log message "you appear to have a trapdoor uid system" <p><label id="trapdoor_uid">
483 This can have several causes. It might be because you are using a uid
484 or gid of 65535 or -1. This is a VERY bad idea, and is a big security
485 hole. Check carefully in your /etc/passwd file and make sure that no
486 user has uid 65535 or -1. Especially check the "nobody" user, as many
487 broken systems are shipped with nobody setup with a uid of 65535.
489 It might also mean that your OS has a trapdoor uid/gid system :-)
491 This means that once a process changes effective uid from root to
492 another user it can't go back to root. Unfortunately Samba relies on
493 being able to change effective uid from root to non-root and back
494 again to implement its security policy. If your OS has a trapdoor uid
495 system this won't work, and several things in Samba may break. Less
496 things will break if you use user or server level security instead of
497 the default share level security, but you may still strike
498 problems.
500 The problems don't give rise to any security holes, so don't panic,
501 but it does mean some of Samba's capabilities will be unavailable.
502 In particular you will not be able to connect to the Samba server as
503 two different uids at once. This may happen if you try to print as a
504 "guest" while accessing a share as a normal user. It may also affect
505 your ability to list the available shares as this is normally done as
506 the guest user.
508 Complain to your OS vendor and ask them to fix their system.
510 Note: the reason why 65535 is a VERY bad choice of uid and gid is that
511 it casts to -1 as a uid, and the setreuid() system call ignores (with
512 no error) uid changes to -1. This means any daemon attempting to run
513 as uid 65535 will actually run as root. This is not good!
515 <sect>Common client questions<p> <label id="client_questions">
517 <sect1>Are there any Macintosh clients for Samba?<p> <label id="mac_clients">
518 Yes! Thursby now have a CIFS Client / Server called DAVE - see <url url="http://www.thursby.com/">.
519 They test it against Windows 95, Windows NT and samba for compatibility issues.
520 At the time of writing, DAVE was at version 1.0.1. The 1.0.0 to 1.0.1 update is available
521 as a free download from the Thursby web site (the speed of finder copies has
522 been greatly enhanced, and there are bug-fixes included).
524 Alternatives - There are two free implementations of AppleTalk for
525 several kinds of UNIX machnes, and several more commercial ones.
526 These products allow you to run file services and print services
527 natively to Macintosh users, with no additional support required on
528 the Macintosh. The two free omplementations are Netatalk,
529 <url url="http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk/">, and CAP,
530 <url url="http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/appletalk/atalk.html">. What Samba offers
531 MS Windows users, these packages offer to Macs. For more info on
532 these packages, Samba, and Linux (and other UNIX-based systems)
533 see <url url="http://www.eats.com/linux_mac_win.html">
535 <sect1>"Session request failed (131,130)" error<p> <label id="sess_req_fail">
536 The following answer is provided by John E. Miller:
538 I'll assume that you're able to ping back and forth between the
539 machines by IP address and name, and that you're using some security
540 model where you're confident that you've got user IDs and passwords
541 right. The logging options (-d3 or greater) can help a lot with that.
542 DNS and WINS configuration can also impact connectivity as well.
544 Now, on to 'scope id's. Somewhere in your Win95 TCP/IP network
545 configuration (I'm too much of an NT bigot to know where it's located
546 in the Win95 setup, but I'll have to learn someday since I teach for a
547 Microsoft Solution Provider Authorized Tech Education Center - what an
548 acronym...) [Note: It's under Control Panel | Network | TCP/IP | WINS
549 Configuration] there's a little text entry field called something like
550 'Scope ID'.
552 This field essentially creates 'invisible' sub-workgroups on the same
553 wire. Boxes can only see other boxes whose Scope IDs are set to the
554 exact same value - it's sometimes used by OEMs to configure their
555 boxes to browse only other boxes from the same vendor and, in most
556 environments, this field should be left blank. If you, in fact, have
557 something in this box that EXACT value (case-sensitive!) needs to be
558 provided to smbclient and nmbd as the -i (lowercase) parameter. So, if
559 your Scope ID is configured as the string 'SomeStr' in Win95 then
560 you'd have to use smbclient -iSomeStr [otherparms] in connecting to
563 <sect1>How do I synchronise my PC's clock with my Samba server? <p><label id="synchronise_clock">
564 To syncronize your PC's clock with your Samba server:
565 <itemize>
566 <item> Copy timesync.pif to your windows directory
567 <item> timesync.pif can be found at:
568 <url
569 url="http://samba.org/samba/binaries/miscellaneous/timesync.pif">
570 <item> Add timesync.pif to your 'Start Up' group/folder
571 <item> Open the properties dialog box for the program/icon
572 <item> Make sure the 'Run Minimized' option is set in program 'Properties'
573 <iteM> Change the command line section that reads [\\sambahost] to reflect the name of your server.
574 <item> Close the properties dialog box by choosing 'OK'
575 </itemize>
576 Each time you start your computer (or login for Win95) your PC will
577 synchronize its clock with your Samba server.
579 Alternativley, if you clients support Domain Logons, you can setup Domain Logons with Samba
580 - see: <url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/BROWSING.txt" name="BROWSING.txt"> *** for more information.
581 <p>Then add
582 <tscreen><verb>
583 NET TIME \\%L /SET /YES
584 </verb></tscreen>
585 as one of the lines in the logon script.
586 <sect1>Problems with WinDD, NTrigue, WinCenterPro etc<p>
587 <label id="multiple_session_clients">
589 All of the above programs are applications that sit on an NT box and
590 allow multiple users to access the NT GUI applications from remote
591 workstations (often over X).
593 What has this got to do with Samba? The problem comes when these users
594 use filemanager to mount shares from a Samba server. The most common
595 symptom is that the first user to connect get correct file permissions
596 and has a nice day, but subsequent connections get logged in as the
597 same user as the first person to login. They find that they cannot
598 access files in their own home directory, but that they can access
599 files in the first users home directory (maybe not such a nice day
600 after all?)
602 Why does this happen? The above products all share a common heritage
603 (and code base I believe). They all open just a single TCP based SMB
604 connection to the Samba server, and requests from all users are piped
605 over this connection. This is unfortunate, but not fatal.
607 It means that if you run your Samba server in share level security
608 (the default) then things will definately break as described
609 above. The share level SMB security model has no provision for
610 multiple user IDs on the one SMB connection. See <url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/security_level.txt" name="security_level.txt"> in
611 the docs for more info on share/user/server level security.
613 If you run in user or server level security then you have a chance,
614 but only if you have a recent version of Samba (at least 1.9.15p6). In
615 older versions bugs in Samba meant you still would have had problems.
617 If you have a trapdoor uid system in your OS then it will never work
618 properly. Samba needs to be able to switch uids on the connection and
619 it can't if your OS has a trapdoor uid system. You'll know this
620 because Samba will note it in your logs.
622 Also note that you should not use the magic "homes" share name with
623 products like these, as otherwise all users will end up with the same
624 home directory. Use [\\server\username] instead.
626 <sect1>Problem with printers under NT<p> <label id="nt_printers">
627 This info from Stefan Hergeth
628 hergeth@f7axp1.informatik.fh-muenchen.de may be useful:
630 A network-printer (with ethernetcard) is connected to the NT-Clients
631 via our UNIX-Fileserver (SAMBA-Server), like the configuration told by
632 Matthew Harrell harrell@leech.nrl.navy.mil (see WinNT.txt)
633 <enum>
634 <item>If a user has choosen this printer as the default printer in his
635 NT-Session and this printer is not connected to the network
636 (e.g. switched off) than this user has a problem with the SAMBA-
637 connection of his filesystems. It's very slow.
639 <item>If the printer is connected to the network everything works fine.
641 <item>When the smbd ist started with debug level 3, you can see that the
642 NT spooling system try to connect to the printer many times. If the
643 printer ist not connected to the network this request fails and the
644 NT spooler is wasting a lot of time to connect to the printer service.
645 This seems to be the reason for the slow network connection.
647 <item>Maybe it's possible to change this behaviour by setting different
648 printer properties in the Print-Manager-Menu of NT, but i didn't try it yet.
649 </enum>
651 <sect1>Why are my file's timestamps off by an hour, or by a few hours?<p><label id="dst_bugs">
652 This is from Paul Eggert eggert@twinsun.com.
654 Most likely it's a problem with your time zone settings.
656 Internally, Samba maintains time in traditional Unix format,
657 namely, the number of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 Universal Time
658 (or ``GMT''), not counting leap seconds.
660 On the server side, Samba uses the Unix TZ variable to convert
661 internal timestamps to and from local time. So on the server side, there are
662 two things to get right.
663 <enum>
664 <item>The Unix system clock must have the correct Universal time.
665 Use the shell command "sh -c 'TZ=UTC0 date'" to check this.
667 <item>The TZ environment variable must be set on the server
668 before Samba is invoked. The details of this depend on the
669 server OS, but typically you must edit a file whose name is
670 /etc/TIMEZONE or /etc/default/init, or run the command `zic -l'.
672 <item>TZ must have the correct value.
673 <enum>
674 <item>If possible, use geographical time zone settings
675 (e.g. TZ='America/Los_Angeles' or perhaps
676 TZ=':US/Pacific'). These are supported by most
677 popular Unix OSes, are easier to get right, and are
678 more accurate for historical timestamps. If your
679 operating system has out-of-date tables, you should be
680 able to update them from the public domain time zone
681 tables at <url url="ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/">.
683 <item>If your system does not support geographical timezone
684 settings, you must use a Posix-style TZ strings, e.g.
685 TZ='PST8PDT,M4.1.0/2,M10.5.0/2' for US Pacific time.
686 Posix TZ strings can take the following form (with optional
687 items in brackets):
688 <verb>
689 StdOffset[Dst[Offset],Date/Time,Date/Time]
690 </verb>
691 where:
692 <itemize>
693 <item> `Std' is the standard time designation (e.g. `PST').
695 <item> `Offset' is the number of hours behind UTC (e.g. `8').
696 Prepend a `-' if you are ahead of UTC, and
697 append `:30' if you are at a half-hour offset.
698 Omit all the remaining items if you do not use
699 daylight-saving time.
701 <item> `Dst' is the daylight-saving time designation
702 (e.g. `PDT').
704 The optional second `Offset' is the number of
705 hours that daylight-saving time is behind UTC.
706 The default is 1 hour ahead of standard time.
708 <item> `Date/Time,Date/Time' specify when daylight-saving
709 time starts and ends. The format for a date is
710 `Mm.n.d', which specifies the dth day (0 is Sunday)
711 of the nth week of the mth month, where week 5 means
712 the last such day in the month. The format for a
713 time is [h]h[:mm[:ss]], using a 24-hour clock.
714 </itemize>
715 Other Posix string formats are allowed but you don't want
716 to know about them.
717 </enum>
718 </enum>
719 On the client side, you must make sure that your client's clock and
720 time zone is also set appropriately. [[I don't know how to do this.]]
721 Samba traditionally has had many problems dealing with time zones, due
722 to the bizarre ways that Microsoft network protocols handle time
723 zones. A common symptom is for file timestamps to be off by an hour.
724 To work around the problem, try disconnecting from your Samba server
725 and then reconnecting to it; or upgrade your Samba server to
726 1.9.16alpha10 or later.
728 <sect1> How do I set the printer driver name correctly? <p><label id="printer_driver_name">
729 Question:
730 On NT, I opened "Printer Manager" and "Connect to Printer".
731 Enter ["\\ptdi270\ps1"] in the box of printer. I got the
732 following error message:
733 <tscreen><verb>
734 You do not have sufficient access to your machine
735 to connect to the selected printer, since a driver
736 needs to be installed locally.
737 </verb></tscreen>
738 Answer:
740 In the more recent versions of Samba you can now set the "printer
741 driver" in smb.conf. This tells the client what driver to use. For
742 example:
743 <tscreen><verb>
744 printer driver = HP LaserJet 4L
745 </verb></tscreen>
746 with this, NT knows to use the right driver. You have to get this string
747 exactly right.
749 To find the exact string to use, you need to get to the dialog box in
750 your client where you select which printer driver to install. The
751 correct strings for all the different printers are shown in a listbox
752 in that dialog box.
754 You could also try setting the driver to NULL like this:
755 <tscreen><verb>
756 printer driver = NULL
757 </verb></tscreen>
758 this is effectively what older versions of Samba did, so if that
759 worked for you then give it a go. If this does work then let us know via <htmlurl url="mailto:samba@samba.org" name="samba@samba.org">,
760 and we'll make it the default. Currently the default is a 0 length
761 string.
763 <sect1>I've applied NT 4.0 SP3, and now I can't access Samba shares, Why?<p><label id="NT_SP3_FIX">
764 As of SP3, Microsoft has decided that they will no longer default to
765 passing clear text passwords over the network. To enable access to
766 Samba shares from NT 4.0 SP3, you must do <bf>ONE</bf> of two things:
767 <enum>
768 <item> Set the Samba configuration option 'security = user' and implement all of the stuff detailed in <url url="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/ENCRYPTION.txt" name="ENCRYPTION.txt">.
769 <item> Follow Microsoft's directions for setting your NT box to allow plain text passwords. see <url url="http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q166/7/30.htm" name="Knowledge Base Article Q166730">
770 </enum>
772 <sect>Specific client application problems<p> <label id="client_problems">
774 <sect1>MS Office Setup reports "Cannot change properties of '\MSOFFICE\SETUP.INI'"<p> <label id="cant_change_properties">
775 When installing MS Office on a Samba drive for which you have admin
776 user permissions, ie. admin users = username, you will find the
777 setup program unable to complete the installation.
779 To get around this problem, do the installation without admin user
780 permissions The problem is that MS Office Setup checks that a file is
781 rdonly by trying to open it for writing.
783 Admin users can always open a file for writing, as they run as root.
784 You just have to install as a non-admin user and then use "chown -R"
785 to fix the owner.
787 <sect>Miscellaneous<p> <label id="miscellaneous">
788 <sect1>Is Samba Year 2000 compliant?<p><label id="Year2000Compliant">
789 The CIFS protocol that Samba implements
790 negotiates times in various formats, all of which
791 are able to cope with dates beyond 2000.
793 </article>