1 <html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>Chapter 34. Analysing and solving samba problems</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="samba.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.60.1"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="SAMBA Project Documentation"><link rel="up" href="troubleshooting.html" title="Part V. Troubleshooting"><link rel="previous" href="diagnosis.html" title="Chapter 33. The Samba checklist"><link rel="next" href="bugreport.html" title="Chapter 35. Reporting Bugs"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Chapter 34. Analysing and solving samba problems</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="diagnosis.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Part V. Troubleshooting</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="bugreport.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="chapter" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="problems"></a>Chapter 34. Analysing and solving samba problems</h2></div><div><div class="author"><h3 class="author"><span class="firstname">Gerald</span> <span class="othername">(Jerry)</span> <span class="surname">Carter</span></h3><div class="affiliation"><span class="orgname">Samba Team<br></span><div class="address"><p><tt class="email"><<a href="mailto:jerry@samba.org">jerry@samba.org</a>></tt></p></div></div></div></div><div><div class="author"><h3 class="author"><span class="firstname">Jelmer</span> <span class="othername">R.</span> <span class="surname">Vernooij</span></h3><div class="affiliation"><span class="orgname">The Samba Team<br></span><div class="address"><p><tt class="email"><<a href="mailto:jelmer@samba.org">jelmer@samba.org</a>></tt></p></div></div></div></div><div><div class="author"><h3 class="author"><span class="firstname">David</span> <span class="surname">Bannon</span></h3><div class="affiliation"><span class="orgname">Samba Team<br></span><div class="address"><p><tt class="email"><<a href="mailto:dbannon@samba.org">dbannon@samba.org</a>></tt></p></div></div></div></div><div><p class="pubdate">8 Apr 2003</p></div></div><div></div></div><div class="toc"><p><b>Table of Contents</b></p><dl><dt><a href="problems.html#id3010907">Diagnostics tools</a></dt><dt><a href="problems.html#id3011048">Installing 'Network Monitor' on an NT Workstation or a Windows 9x box</a></dt><dt><a href="problems.html#id3011333">Useful URLs</a></dt><dt><a href="problems.html#id3011378">Getting help from the mailing lists</a></dt><dt><a href="problems.html#id3011530">How to get off the mailing lists</a></dt></dl></div><p>
2 There are many sources of information available in the form
3 of mailing lists, RFC's and documentation. The docs that come
4 with the samba distribution contain very good explanations of
5 general SMB topics such as browsing.</p><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id3010907"></a>Diagnostics tools</h2></div></div><div></div></div><p>
6 One of the best diagnostic tools for debugging problems is Samba itself.
7 You can use the <tt class="option">-d option</tt> for both <span class="application">smbd</span> and <span class="application">nmbd</span> to specify what
8 <i class="parameter"><tt>debug level</tt></i> at which to run. See the man pages on smbd, nmbd and
9 smb.conf for more information on debugging options. The debug
10 level can range from 1 (the default) to 10 (100 for debugging passwords).
12 Another helpful method of debugging is to compile samba using the
13 <b class="userinput"><tt>gcc -g </tt></b> flag. This will include debug
14 information in the binaries and allow you to attach gdb to the
15 running smbd / nmbd process. In order to attach gdb to an smbd
16 process for an NT workstation, first get the workstation to make the
17 connection. Pressing ctrl-alt-delete and going down to the domain box
18 is sufficient (at least, on the first time you join the domain) to
19 generate a 'LsaEnumTrustedDomains'. Thereafter, the workstation
20 maintains an open connection, and therefore there will be an smbd
21 process running (assuming that you haven't set a really short smbd
22 idle timeout) So, in between pressing ctrl alt delete, and actually
23 typing in your password, you can attach gdb and continue.
25 Some useful samba commands worth investigating:
26 </p><pre class="screen">
27 <tt class="prompt">$ </tt><b class="userinput"><tt>testparm | more</tt></b>
28 <tt class="prompt">$ </tt><b class="userinput"><tt>smbclient -L //{netbios name of server}</tt></b>
30 An SMB enabled version of tcpdump is available from
31 <a href="http://www.tcpdump.org/" target="_top">http://www.tcpdup.org/</a>.
32 Ethereal, another good packet sniffer for Unix and Win32
33 hosts, can be downloaded from <a href="http://www.ethereal.com/" target="_top">http://www.ethereal.com</a>.
35 For tracing things on the Microsoft Windows NT, Network Monitor
36 (aka. netmon) is available on the Microsoft Developer Network CD's,
37 the Windows NT Server install CD and the SMS CD's. The version of
38 netmon that ships with SMS allows for dumping packets between any two
39 computers (i.e. placing the network interface in promiscuous mode).
40 The version on the NT Server install CD will only allow monitoring
41 of network traffic directed to the local NT box and broadcasts on the
42 local subnet. Be aware that Ethereal can read and write netmon
44 </p></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id3011048"></a>Installing 'Network Monitor' on an NT Workstation or a Windows 9x box</h2></div></div><div></div></div><p>
45 Installing netmon on an NT workstation requires a couple
46 of steps. The following are for installing Netmon V4.00.349, which comes
47 with Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, on Microsoft Windows NT
48 Workstation 4.0. The process should be similar for other versions of
49 Windows NT / Netmon. You will need both the Microsoft Windows
50 NT Server 4.0 Install CD and the Workstation 4.0 Install CD.
52 Initially you will need to install <span class="application">Network Monitor Tools and Agent</span>
53 on the NT Server. To do this
54 </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p>Goto <span class="guibutton">Start</span> - <span class="guibutton">Settings</span> - <span class="guibutton">Control Panel</span> -
55 <span class="guibutton">Network</span> - <span class="guibutton">Services</span> - <span class="guibutton">Add</span> </p></li><li><p>Select the <span class="guilabel">Network Monitor Tools and Agent</span> and
56 click on <span class="guibutton">OK</span>.</p></li><li><p>Click <span class="guibutton">OK</span> on the Network Control Panel.
57 </p></li><li><p>Insert the Windows NT Server 4.0 install CD
58 when prompted.</p></li></ul></div><p>
59 At this point the Netmon files should exist in
60 <tt class="filename">%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\netmon\*.*</tt>.
61 Two subdirectories exist as well, <tt class="filename">parsers\</tt>
62 which contains the necessary DLL's for parsing the netmon packet
63 dump, and <tt class="filename">captures\</tt>.
65 In order to install the Netmon tools on an NT Workstation, you will
66 first need to install the 'Network Monitor Agent' from the Workstation
68 </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p>Goto <span class="guibutton">Start</span> - <span class="guibutton">Settings</span> - <span class="guibutton">Control Panel</span> -
69 <span class="guibutton">Network</span> - <span class="guibutton">Services</span> - <span class="guibutton">Add</span></p></li><li><p>Select the <span class="guilabel">Network Monitor Agent</span> and click
70 on <span class="guibutton">OK</span>.</p></li><li><p>Click <span class="guibutton">OK</span> on the Network Control Panel.
71 </p></li><li><p>Insert the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 install
72 CD when prompted.</p></li></ul></div><p>
73 Now copy the files from the NT Server in <tt class="filename">%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\netmon\*.*</tt>
74 to <tt class="filename">%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\netmon\*.*</tt> on the Workstation and set
75 permissions as you deem appropriate for your site. You will need
76 administrative rights on the NT box to run netmon.
78 To install Netmon on a Windows 9x box install the network monitor agent
79 from the Windows 9x CD (<tt class="filename">\admin\nettools\netmon</tt>). There is a readme
80 file located with the netmon driver files on the CD if you need
81 information on how to do this. Copy the files from a working
83 </p></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id3011333"></a>Useful URLs</h2></div></div><div></div></div><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p>See how Scott Merrill simulates a BDC behavior at
84 <a href="http://www.skippy.net/linux/smb-howto.html" target="_top">
85 http://www.skippy.net/linux/smb-howto.html</a>. </p></li><li><p>FTP site for older SMB specs:
86 <a href="ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/drg/CIFS/" target="_top">
87 ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/drg/CIFS/</a></p></li></ul></div></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id3011378"></a>Getting help from the mailing lists</h2></div></div><div></div></div><p>
88 There are a number of Samba related mailing lists. Go to <a href="http://samba.org" target="_top">http://samba.org</a>, click on your nearest mirror
89 and then click on <b class="command">Support</b> and then click on <b class="command">
90 Samba related mailing lists</b>.
92 For questions relating to Samba TNG go to
93 <a href="http://www.samba-tng.org/" target="_top">http://www.samba-tng.org/</a>
94 It has been requested that you don't post questions about Samba-TNG to the
95 main stream Samba lists.</p><p>
96 If you post a message to one of the lists please observe the following guide lines :
97 </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p> Always remember that the developers are volunteers, they are
98 not paid and they never guarantee to produce a particular feature at
99 a particular time. Any time lines are 'best guess' and nothing more.
100 </p></li><li><p> Always mention what version of samba you are using and what
101 operating system its running under. You should probably list the
102 relevant sections of your <tt class="filename">smb.conf</tt> file, at least the options
103 in [global] that affect PDC support.</p></li><li><p>In addition to the version, if you obtained Samba via
104 CVS mention the date when you last checked it out.</p></li><li><p> Try and make your question clear and brief, lots of long,
105 convoluted questions get deleted before they are completely read !
106 Don't post html encoded messages (if you can select colour or font
107 size its html).</p></li><li><p> If you run one of those nifty 'I'm on holidays' things when
108 you are away, make sure its configured to not answer mailing lists.
109 </p></li><li><p> Don't cross post. Work out which is the best list to post to
110 and see what happens, i.e. don't post to both samba-ntdom and samba-technical.
111 Many people active on the lists subscribe to more
112 than one list and get annoyed to see the same message two or more times.
113 Often someone will see a message and thinking it would be better dealt
114 with on another, will forward it on for you.</p></li><li><p>You might include <span class="emphasis"><em>partial</em></span>
115 log files written at a debug level set to as much as 20.
116 Please don't send the entire log but enough to give the context of the
117 error messages.</p></li><li><p>(Possibly) If you have a complete netmon trace ( from the opening of
118 the pipe to the error ) you can send the *.CAP file as well.</p></li><li><p>Please think carefully before attaching a document to an email.
119 Consider pasting the relevant parts into the body of the message. The samba
120 mailing lists go to a huge number of people, do they all need a copy of your
121 smb.conf in their attach directory?</p></li></ul></div></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id3011530"></a>How to get off the mailing lists</h2></div></div><div></div></div><p>To have your name removed from a samba mailing list, go to the
122 same place you went to to get on it. Go to <a href="http://lists.samba.org/" target="_top">http://lists.samba.org</a>,
123 click on your nearest mirror and then click on <b class="command">Support</b> and
124 then click on <b class="command"> Samba related mailing lists</b>. Or perhaps see
125 <a href="http://lists.samba.org/mailman/roster/samba-ntdom" target="_top">here</a>
127 Please don't post messages to the list asking to be removed, you will just
128 be referred to the above address (unless that process failed in some way...)
129 </p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="diagnosis.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="troubleshooting.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="bugreport.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 33. The Samba checklist </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Chapter 35. Reporting Bugs</td></tr></table></div></body></html>