Samba problem: it sees only the computer that was powered on first.

[sk545]

I got samba installed and all, but when i try to browse the shares on my windows XP computers, it only is able to see the machine that was started first. In other words, if i power on box 1 first, it will see that. If i power on box 2 first, it will see that but not box 1. Same is true vice versa. I am using smb4k 0.3.1 to browse the netwok (which is a home lan with three computers on a router). Only thing i can see wrong is that whatever box samba connects to, becomes the 'master'. Like in this pic:

http://server4.uploadit.org/files2/141203-smb5k.png (takes a few secs to load)


Any way to fix this and get both boxes to show up?

Here is some misc info:

smb.conf file is here:

http://server4.uploadit.org/files2/141203-smb.txt (takes a few secs to load)


Samba Version 3.0.0 running on Debian Sid, kernel 2.6.0test11.

Two other boxes both running WinXP pro, one is FAT32, the other one NTFS. They are configured as a workgroup and i am able to connect from them to the Debian samba box just fine.

Thanks.

[Gertrude]

Do the two conflicting computers have the same IP address?

[knute]

If I read your config file right, you aren't using dns to assign ip's are you?

If each of the computer's has it's own IP address, you need to add that information to your /etc/hosts file, so that they are all recognized. At least that's what I read somewhere one time a while back.

[sk545]

Do the two conflicting computers have the same IP address?

No, they and the samba server are on the same router which assigns them all differernt IP addresses:

http://server4.uploadit.org/files2/151203-barricade.png

IP / Mac addresses

192.168.123.119 - fash - 00-D0-09-72-8D-32
192.168.123.125 - box 2 - 00-04-E2-0B-7E-40
192.168.123.194 - box with samba - 00-10-B5-0C-C2-F3

If I read your config file right, you aren't using dns to assign ip's are you?

I have no idea, where do i make the setting so it uses dns? Only mention of dns seem to be 'dns proxy.'

your /etc/hosts file, so that they are all recognized.

Tried it, didn't work.

Also, if i change something in smb.conf, all i have to do is stop the samba daemons and restart them to have the changes take effect, right? Or do i have to reboot or clear some cache?

Thanks.

Oh, by the way, don't know if this matters, but i did open port 139 on the router. I suppose its not a factor in this case, since i can browse the computer thats turned on first just fine.

[knute]

Ok, don't know if this will work or not, but have you tried putting the ip address of your router into your /etc/resolv.conf file?

I'm thinking that your router is acting like a name server, so if we treat it like one, it should respond in kind.

[cowanrl]

Also, if i change something in smb.conf, all i have to do is stop the samba daemons and restart them to have the changes take effect, right?

That is correct?

It sounds like you are having an issue with browsing on your network.

The first thing to remember is that you may need to wait up to 15 minutes after you turn all of the computers on before the browse list for the network will be complete. Does the list in smb4k ever complete itself over time?

After all the machines have been on for 15 minutes, can you see all of the computers and shares on the network in Windows Explorer on your Windows machines? If you can, then browsing is working OK on your network.
In that case, I would say that since smb4k is beta software, it may not be retrieving the browse list properly from the network master browser.

If you never see all of the computers and shares from your Windows machines there may be a problem with browsing on your network. If that's the case, let us know and there may be some things you can try.

[cowanrl]

Since you're using Samba 3.0, hopefully you've installed the documentation that came with it. In the Samba How-To collection, check out Chapter 10. Network Browsing.
It gives an excellent description of browsing and what can break it. It also has lots of suggestions on how to configure Samba to effectively participate in MS network browsing.

[sk545]

Thanks for the chapter number, just read it, and figured out what was wrong. It seems like smb.conf by default doesn't include all the options there are. The problem was just as i thought it was in the beginning: The master browser would be the machine which was turned on first. To fix this, i had to add these lines in the smb.conf:

[global]
domain master = yes
local master = yes
preferred master = yes
os level = 65

Now, the master browser is the samba server. Pic here:

http://server4.uploadit.org/files2/151203-workyyay2.png

Thanks all, this was getting frustrating.