-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-This FAQ was originally prepared by Karl Auer (Karl.Auer@anu.edu.au) and is
+This FAQ was originally prepared by Karl Auer and is
currently maintained by Paul Blackman (ictinus@lake.canberra.edu.au).
As Karl originally said, 'this FAQ was prepared with lots of help from numerous
* SECTION ONE: General information
All about Samba - what it is, how to get it, related sources of
- information.
+ information, how to understand the version numbering scheme,
+ pizza details
* SECTION TWO: Compiling and installing Samba on a Unix host
Common problems that arise when building and installing Samba under
Unix.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* 2: What is the current version of Samba?
-At time of writing, the current version was 1.9.15. If you want to be sure
+At time of writing, the current version was 1.9.16. If you want to be sure
check the bottom of the change-log file.
(ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/samba/alpha/change-log)
+For more information see question 5, "What do the version numbers mean?"
+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* 3: Where can I get it?
versions of some Linux distributions, for example, do contain Samba binaries
for that platform.
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+* 5: What do the version numbers mean?
+
+It is not recommended that you run a version of Samba with the word "alpha"
+in its name unless you know what you are doing and are willing to do some
+debugging. Many, many people just get the latest recommended stable release
+version and are happy. If you are brave, by all means take the plunge and
+help with the testing and development - but don't install it on your
+departmental server. Samba is typically very stable and safe, and this is
+mostly due to the policy of many public releases.
+
+How the scheme works:
+
+1) when major changes are made the version number is increased. For example,
+the transition from 1.9.15 to 1.9.16. However, this version number will not
+appear immediately and people should continue to use 1.9.15 for production
+systems (see next point.)
+
+2) just after major changes are made the software is considered
+unstable, and a series of alpha releases are distributed, for example
+1.9.16alpha1. These are for testing by those who know what they are doing.
+The "alpha" in the filename will hopefully scare off those who are just
+looking for the latest version to install.
+
+3) when Andrew thinks that the alphas have stabilised to the point where he
+would recommend new users install it, he renames it to the same version
+number without the alpha, for example 1.9.16.
+
+4) inevitably bugs are found in the "stable" releases and minor
+patch levels are released which give us the pXX series, for example
+1.9.16p2.
+
+So the progression goes:
+
+ 1.9.15p7 (production)
+ 1.9.15p8 (production)
+ 1.9.16alpha1 (test sites only)
+ :
+ 1.9.16alpha20 (test sites only)
+ 1.9.16 (production)
+ 1.9.16p1 (production)
+
+The above system means that whenever someone looks at the samba ftp site
+they will be able to grab the highest numbered release without an
+alpha in the name and be sure of getting the current recommended
+version.
+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* 4: What platforms are supported?
comprehensive survey of Samba users. Another useful resource is the hypertext
archive of the Samba mailing list.
-Send email to listproc@anu.edu.au. Make sure the subject line is blank, and
-include the following two lines in the body of the message:
+Send email to listproc@samba.anu.edu.au. Make sure the subject line is
+blank, and include the following two lines in the body of the message:
subscribe samba Firstname Lastname
subscribe samba-announce Firstname Lastname
since the last time and sends a copy of this message to all subscribers.
If you stop being interested in Samba, please send another email to
-listproc@anu.edu.au. Make sure the subject line is blank, and include the
-following two lines in the body of the message:
+listproc@samba.anu.edu.au. Make sure the subject line is blank, and
+include the following two lines in the body of the message:
unsubscribe samba
unsubscribe samba-announce
If you make changes to the source code, _please_ submit these patches so that
everyone else gets the benefit of your work. This is one of the most important
aspects to the maintainence of Samba. Send all patches to
-samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au, not Andrew Tridgell or any other individual.
+samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au, not Andrew Tridgell or any other individual and
+not the samba team mailing list.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+* n: Pizza Supply Details
+
+Those who have registered in the Samba survey as "Pizza Factory" will already
+know this, but the rest may need some help. Andrew doesn't ask for payment,
+but he does appreciate it when people give him pizza. This calls for a little
+organisation when the pizza donor is twenty thousand kilometres away, but
+it has been done.
+
+Method 1: Ring up your local branch of an international pizza chain and see if
+they honour their vouchers internationally. Pizza Hut do, which is how the
+entire Canberra Linux Users Group got to eat pizza one night, courtesy of
+someone in the US
+
+Method 2: Ring up a local pizza shop in Canberra and quote a credit card
+number for a certain amount, and tell them that Andrew will be collecting
+it (don't forget to tell him.) One kind soul from Germany did this.
+
+Method 3: Purchase a pizza voucher from your local pizza shop that has no
+international affiliations and send it to Andrew. It is completely useless
+but he can hang it on the wall next to the one he already has from Germany :-)
+
+Method 4: Air freight him a pizza with your favourite regional flavours. It will
+probably get stuck in customs or torn apart by hungry sniffer dogs but it will
+have been a noble gesture.
===============================================================================
SECTION TWO: Compiling and installing Samba on a Unix host
* 1: I can't see the Samba server in any browse lists!
*** Until the FAQ can be updated, please check the file:
-*** ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/samba/BROWSING.txt
+*** ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/samba/docs/BROWSING.txt
*** for more information on browsing.
If your GUI client does not permit you to select non-browsable servers, you may
Complain to your OS vendor and ask them to fix their system.
+Note: the reason why 65535 is a VERY bad choice of uid and gid is that
+it casts to -1 as a uid, and the setreuid() system call ignores (with
+no error) uid changes to -1. This means any daemon attempting to run
+as uid 65535 will actually run as root. This is not good!
+
===============================================================================
SECTION FOUR: Specific client problems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* 1: Are any MacIntosh clients for Samba.
-In Rob Newberry's words (rob@eats.com, Sun, 4 Dec 1994):
+Yes. Thursby Software Systems have released 'Dave' - a SMB client for
+MacIntosh systems. This is a commercial product and inclusion in this
+faq does not imply any endorsement by the Samba developers. Having said
+that, the first public demonstration of 'Dave' was to the Samba server
+run by Andrew Tridgell over the Internet from Redmond, Washington, USA to
+Australia as part of the first CIFS developers conference.
+
+For more details on 'Dave' contact :
+
+Web contact: www.thursby.com
-The answer is "No." Samba speaks SMB, the protocol used for Microsoft networks.
-The Macintosh has ALWAYS spoken Appletalk. Even with Microsoft "services for
-Macintosh", it has been a matter of making the server speak Appletalk. It is
-the same for Novell Netware and the Macintosh, although I believe Novell has
-(VERY LATE) released an extension for the Mac to let it speak IPX.
+Thursby Software Systems, Inc.
+5840 W. Interstate 20
+Arlington, Texas 76017 U.S.A.
+Voice: 817-478-5070
+FAX: 817-561-2313
+sales@thursby.com
+
+There are currently no Free Software solutions other than to make
+your UNIX server talk AppleTalk.
+
+In Rob Newberry's words (rob@eats.com, Sun, 4 Dec 1994):
In future Apple System Software, you may see support for other protocols, such
as SMB -- Applet is working on a new networking architecture that will make it
easier to support additional protocols. But it's not here yet.
-Now, the nice part is that if you want your Unix machine to speak Appletalk,
-there are several options. "Netatalk" and "CAP" are free, and available on the
-net. There are also several commercial options, such as "PacerShare" and
-"Helios" (I think). In any case, you'll have to look around for a server, not
-anything for the Mac.
+If you want your Unix machine to speak Appletalk, there are several options.
+"Netatalk" and "CAP" are free, and available on the net. There are also
+several commercial options, such as "PacerShare" and "Helios" (I think).
+In any case, you'll have to look around for a server, not anything for the Mac.
-Depending on you OS, some of these may not help you. I am currently
+Depending on your OS, some of these may not help you. I am currently
coordinating the effort to get CAP working with Native Ethertalk under Linux,
but we're not done yet.
Each time you start your computer (or login for Win95) your PC will
synchronize it's clock with your Samba server.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+* 4: Problems with WinDD, NTrigue, WinCenterPro etc
+
+All of the above programs are applications that sit on an NT box and
+allow multiple users to access the NT GUI applications from remote
+workstations (often over X).
+
+What has this got to do with Samba? The problem comes when these users
+use filemanager to mount shares from a Samba server. The most common
+symptom is that the first user to connect get correct file permissions
+and has a nice day, but subsequent connections get logged in as the
+same user as the first person to login. They find that they cannot
+access files in their own home directory, but that they can access
+files in the first users home directory (maybe not such a nice day
+after all?)
+
+Why does this happen? The above products all share a common heritage
+(and code base I believe). They all open just a single TCP based SMB
+connection to the Samba server, and requests from all users are piped
+over this connection. This is unfortunate, but not fatal.
+
+It means that if you run your Samba server in share level security
+(the default) then things will definately break as described above. The
+share level SMB security model has no provision for multiple user IDs
+on the one SMB connection. See security_level.txt in the docs for more
+info on share/user/server level security.
+
+If you run in user or server level security then you have a chance,
+but only if you have a recent version of Samba (at least 1.9.15p6). In
+older versions bugs in Samba meant you still would have had problems.
+
+If you have a trapdoor uid system in your OS then it will never work
+properly. Samba needs to be able to switch uids on the connection and
+it can't if your OS has a trapdoor uid system. You'll know this
+because Samba will note it in your logs.
+
+Also note that you should not use the magic "homes" share name with
+products like these, as otherwise all users will end up with the same
+home directory. Use \\server\username instead.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+* 5: Problem with printers under NT
+
+This info from Stefan Hergeth may be useful:
+
+ A network-printer (with ethernetcard) is connected to the NT-Clients via
+ our UNIX-Fileserver (SAMBA-Server), like the configuration told by
+ Matthew Harrell <harrell@leech.nrl.navy.mil> (see WinNT.txt)
+
+ 1.) If a user has choosen this printer as the default printer in his
+ NT-Session and this printer is not connected to the network
+ (e.g. switched off) than this user has a problem with the SAMBA-
+ connection of his filesystems. It's very slow.
+
+ 2.) If the printer is connected to the network everything works fine.
+
+ 3.) When the smbd ist started with debug level 3, you can see that the
+ NT spooling system try to connect to the printer many times. If the
+ printer ist not connected to the network this request fails and the
+ NT spooler is wasting a lot of time to connect to the printer service.
+ This seems to be the reason for the slow network connection.
+
+ 4.) Maybe it's possible to change this behaviour by setting different printer
+ properties in the Print-Manager-Menu of NT, but i didn't try it
+ yet.
+
+ I hope this information will help in some way.
+
+ Stefan Hergeth <hergeth@f7axp1.informatik.fh-muenchen.de>
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+* 6: Why are my file's timestamps off by an hour, or by a few hours?
+
+This is from Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com>.
+
+Most likely it's a problem with your time zone settings.
+
+Internally, Samba maintains time in traditional Unix format,
+namely, the number of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 Universal Time
+(or ``GMT''), not counting leap seconds.
+
+On the server side, Samba uses the Unix TZ variable to convert internal
+timestamps to and from local time. So on the server side, there are two
+things to get right.
+
+ 1. The Unix system clock must have the correct Universal time.
+ Use the shell command "sh -c 'TZ=UTC0 date'" to check this.
+
+ 2. The TZ environment variable must be set on the server
+ before Samba is invoked. The details of this depend on the
+ server OS, but typically you must edit a file whose name is
+ /etc/TIMEZONE or /etc/default/init, or run the command `zic -l'.
+
+ 3. TZ must have the correct value.
+
+ 3a. If possible, use geographical time zone settings
+ (e.g. TZ='America/Los_Angeles' or perhaps
+ TZ=':US/Pacific'). These are supported by most
+ popular Unix OSes, are easier to get right, and are
+ more accurate for historical timestamps. If your
+ operating system has out-of-date tables, you should be
+ able to update them from the public domain time zone
+ tables at <URL:ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/>.
+
+ 3b. If your system does not support geographical time zone
+ settings, you must use a Posix-style TZ strings, e.g.
+ TZ='PST8PDT,M4.1.0/2,M10.5.0/2' for US Pacific time.
+ Posix TZ strings can take the following form (with optional
+ items in brackets):
+
+ StdOffset[Dst[Offset],Date/Time,Date/Time]
+
+ where:
+
+ `Std' is the standard time designation (e.g. `PST').
+
+ `Offset' is the number of hours behind UTC (e.g. `8').
+ Prepend a `-' if you are ahead of UTC, and
+ append `:30' if you are at a half-hour offset.
+ Omit all the remaining items if you do not use
+ daylight-saving time.
+
+ `Dst' is the daylight-saving time designation
+ (e.g. `PDT').
+
+ The optional second `Offset' is the number of
+ hours that daylight-saving time is behind UTC.
+ The default is 1 hour ahead of standard time.
+
+ `Date/Time,Date/Time' specify when daylight-saving
+ time starts and ends. The format for a date is
+ `Mm.n.d', which specifies the dth day (0 is Sunday)
+ of the nth week of the mth month, where week 5 means
+ the last such day in the month. The format for a
+ time is [h]h[:mm[:ss]], using a 24-hour clock.
+
+ Other Posix string formats are allowed but you don't want
+ to know about them.
+
+On the client side, you must make sure that your client's clock and
+time zone is also set appropriately. [[I don't know how to do this.]]
+
+Samba traditionally has had many problems dealing with time zones, due
+to the bizarre ways that Microsoft network protocols handle time
+zones. A common symptom is for file timestamps to be off by an hour.
+To work around the problem, try disconnecting from your Samba server
+and then reconnecting to it; or upgrade your Samba server to
+1.9.16alpha10 or later.
+
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+* 7: How do I set the printer driver name correctly?
+
+Question:
+> On NT, I opened "Printer Manager" and "Connect to Printer".
+> Enter "\\ptdi270\ps1" in the box of printer. I got the
+> following error message:
+>
+> You do not have sufficient access to your machine
+> to connect to the selected printer, since a driver
+> needs to be installed locally.
+
+Answer:
+
+In the more recent versions of Samba you can now set the "printer
+driver" in smb.conf. This tells the client what driver to use. For
+example, I have:
+
+ printer driver = HP LaserJet 4L
+
+and NT knows to use the right driver. You have to get this string
+exactly right.
+
+To find the exact string to use, you need to get to the dialog box in
+your client where you select which printer driver to install. The
+correct strings for all the different printers are shown in a listbox
+in that dialog box.
+
+You could also try setting the driver to NULL like this:
+
+ printer driver = NULL
+
+this is effectively what older versions of Samba did, so if that
+worked for you then give it a go. If this does work then let me know
+and I'll make it the default. Currently the default is a 0 length
+string.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* 8: I have upgraded my NT 4.0 system to service pack 3. Why
+ can't I connect anymore ?
+
+This is not a bug. Microsoft has changed their policy on sending
+unencrypted passwords over the net. They no longer default to allowing
+unencrypted passwords to be sent over the net. This effects all Samba
+servers which are configured to use security=share or security=user level
+security without password encryption. They do, however, have a fix which
+can be applied to the registry to fix the problem. Here's a synopsis
+from the SP3 web page that discusses how to enable unencrypted password
+sending from an NT 4.0 box.
+
+A better solution is to re-compile Samba to use encrypted passwords.
+See the document :
+
+ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/samba/docs/ENCRYPTION.txt
+
+>SYMPTOMS
+>==========
+>
+>Connecting to SMB servers (such as Samba) with unencrypted password fails
+after upgrading to Windows NT 4.0 service pack 3 version 1.76.
+>
+>CAUSE
+>======
+>
+>The SMB redirector in Windows NT 4.0 service pack 3 version 1.76 handles
+>unencrypted passwords differently than previous version of Windows NT.
+>Beginning with this version, the SMB redirector will not send an
+>unencrypted password unless you add a registry entry to enable them.
+>
+>RESOLUTION
+>===========
+>
+>To enable unencrypted (plain text) passwords modify the registry in this way.
+>
+>
+>
+>WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide
+>problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them.
+>Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of
+>Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.
+>
+>
+>
+>1. Run Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE).
+>
+>2. From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following key:
+>
+>
+>
+>\system\currentcontrolset\services\rdr\parameters
+>
+>
+>
+>3. From the Edit menu, select Add Value.
+>
+>4. Add the following:
+>
+>
+>
+>Value Name: EnablePlainTextPassword
+>
+>Data Type: REG_DWORD
+>
+>Data: 1
+>
+>
+>
+>5. Choose OK and quit Registry Editor.
+>
+>6. Shutdown and restart Windows NT.
+>
+>
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
===============================================================================
SECTION FIVE: Specific client application problems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
git.samba.org / samba.git / blobdiff