Hi everybody!
I have an awesome problem with my Samba server. 2 days ago I installed RH7 on an old computer at work, since I thought it might work as an extra fileserver. Well, I read tons of man-pages and managed to get Samba up and running. But not too good though. If I ping it, I get some 20-60 % packet loss, both to and from the RH box. My colleague says it isn't a physical problem, since he claims it worked perfectly with the former Os(win98).
I can do a net use to my Samba resources, but if I try to browse any folders the NT client crashes. If I do a "tail -f" on my computers logfile I get a lot of messages about the connection being opened/closed to my computer quit frequently, and weird one ssaying "call_nt_transact_ioctl:currently not implemented" and "read_socket_data:recv failure"

Does anyone know what this is all about? i did the "testparm" on my smb.conf and it went smoothly??

Regards!

P.S: I tried 3 different swedish discussionforums but so far, no success :0(

Hi
I can't really help you, but this sounds similar to my Win98 crash scenario posted yesterday, though packet loss shouldn't have anything to do with Samba. When my win98 machine crashes, it sometimes says the network resource is unavailable, or word says there is file corruption. Maybe packet loss is to blame. Only reply I've had so far is to suggest windows profile problems, but everything that needs to be shared seems to be. Can you open docs at all? I can open one with no problems -only crashes on subsequent attempts.
If I get any replies to my other post, I'll let you know.
Regards
Jim

Like Jim I don't think your pinging packet loss has anything to do with Samba. To test it stop samba and then try pinging again.

I found a great site for setting up samba, http://www.phonax.com he has sample config files that are VERY easy to understand and edit. I would say 80% of my samba knowledge comes from playing with those files and see what effects it has.

I learnt HEAPS and now my samba.conf file looks nothing like his samples but I could not have done it without them.

I just can't get my head around most of the man pages and HOWTOS so I don't bother any more. I just search the internet cause someone else would have asked any question I can think of.

Looked at the link, thought about it, tried changing WINS server settings, nmb non functional. Returned to previous settings, working again, just. Seems to me that it's just incredibly slow, and that wincrap gets bored and hangs. However, it strikes me as abnormal for software used for commercial servers to be this slow. I undoubtedly need to redo my config--- at present have setup with guest access as I struggled to figure the password scenarios. Maybe that's it. Will devote some time to it when I've finished my research crap. In the meantime, all bright ideas appreciated
Jim

Hi
Decided research was too boring for Friday, so playing with samba. I'm convinced this is a password problem, testparm on both systems shows connection denied (I'm sure that didn't happen before), and log files all seem to point in that direction. I originally got things going using the NHF at linuxnewbie.com, using guest access only. I'll tinker away and see if I can fix it.
Jim

Update
Tinkered and set up proper user logins. Win machine crashes when accessing files, explorer dies, whole thing locks up and have to use the power switch to reboot. I reran testparm on my smb.conf, which now says connections allowed to both machines.

smb.conf looks like this

# Samba config file created using SWAT
# from jimslaptop.42strathmore (192.168.1.2)
# Date: 2001/04/27 12:48:21

# Global parameters
[global]
workgroup = 42STRATHMORE
server string = Samba Server
security = SHARE
encrypt passwords = Yes
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
max log size = 0
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
os level = 60
preferred master = Yes
domain master = Yes
wins support = Yes
printing = lprng

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
guest ok = Yes
printable = Yes
browseable = No

[Campics]
comment = Campics
path = /home/samba/Campics
writeable = Yes

[Docs]
comment = Docs
path = /home/samba/Docs
writeable = Yes

[stuff]
comment = Stuff
path = /home/samba/stuff
writeable = Yes

[lp]
path = /var/spool/samba
writeable = Yes
guest ok = Yes
printable = Yes
print command = lpr -P %p %s; rm %s
printer = lp
oplocks = No
share modes = No

[windisc]
path = /mnt/windisc
writeable = Yes

It looks OK to me. I am coming to the conclusion that there is something wrong with my win98 setup ? TCP/IP settings. Or am I missing something vital?

Jim

How's your packet loss now?

If you have a network problem then you will get lots of problems with samba and everything else.

If your still having such a large packet loss look into that first.