Cannot browse samba shares

[Glenn]

In Ubuntu 8.10, samba shares cannot be browsed. A volume can be mounted using Places->Connect to Server, but no directories or files are visible. If gnome-commander is installed, the share can be mounted and the *directories* can be browsed, but files cannot be seen. This is apparently a bug in samba (discussed below)l

Example:
The following directories exist on the share:
Backup
Backup1

In Gnome Commander, the directories show up as:
Backu
Backup

The Backup directory can be opened, but nothing (unless there are two files with the same name (with the exception of the last character) are present.

Using Places->Connect to Server, only Backup will show, as this method will not show a directory if it cannot get path info. In addition, if directories oink, oink1 and oink2 are present in the share, *only* oink will show up, as the last character being dropped off of all of them results in oin, oink and oink.

Traces taken with wireshark show that the packets being sent from the client system are dropping the last character of directories and files when requesting path info. The directory information is sent earlier in a FIND_FIRST2 response from the server side. However, a bug, possibly in samba, drops the last character on directory requests. I will attach two traces, both are very similar. "fail" was taken when connecting using Places->Connect to Server, "success" was taken when connecting with Gnome Commander.

[Mathias Gug (mathiaz)]

Could you try to connect to the shares with the smbclient command from a terminal? Does it work?

[Glenn (glenn-e-williams)]

Hi Mathias -

I tried with with smbclient and see the same problem. Anything else you'd like me to try?

[Ian Davis (nospam-iandavis)]

I have this problem on two Dell laptops (a D820 and a D410) and can confirm that the last character is truncated. Shares on my NAS appear to be empty. Using Gnome Commander shows the files with truncated names but they cannot be accessed.

Interestingly Nautilus shows files where there is another file with the same name but with a file extension one character longer. For example if the folder has "example.py" and "example.pyc" then Nautilus will display "example.py" but it cannot be accessed. This is presumably just because truncating example.pyc coincidenallt matches another filename.

This bug makes it impossible to access remote SMB shares

[Ian Booth (eyebeear)]

I also have this problem with shared folders on my NAS and can confirm that the last character of the folder name is indeed truncated.

Ubuntu 8.04 does not have this problem.

Shares on Windows machines are unaffected.

NAS is Buffalo LinkStation 250GB (HD-H250LAN)

[Giorgos Koklas (geo-kok-deactivatedaccount)]

I can confirm this bug. I set up a fresh install of ubuntu. and share some folders using Nautilus right click menu. After ubuntu installs samba I create a user with smbpassw and edit the smb.conf so that "workgroup" matches my workgroup.
The network consists of a winxp home machien and an ubuntu machine.

On the windows machine: I can access shares just fine. When prompted I enter the required user password and the share is accessible.

On Ubuntu: At first everything works fine. After a few reboots though the following start to happen:
1. Nautilus does not "remember" to the shared emblel on the shared folder, although it does remain shared and accessible from other machines.
2. If I go to Places-->Network nothing shows up in Nautilus, as if there is no network (Only the "default" Windows Network icon shows which point to nothing of course).
3. I can access the shares if I go to Places-->Connect to and specify the shared path.
4. Gnome commander seems to work But not always. Can not seem to be able to reproduce the reasons why it does not in some cases.

This is specific to Gnome. Everyhting seems to work fine once I install konqueror on ubuntu and access the shares through it. Really annoying bug.

[punchednthenose (erichharder)]

same thing happened to me as with all these people. what to do?

[steveb (sb-baggs)]

I have this problem on 8.10, but only on one device.

In Nautilus I can see files in shares on WinXP machines, and I can see files in shares on a Maxtor Shared Storage NAS.

I can see shares on a Buffalo Terastation Pro, but when viewed in Nautilus they appear empty. If I use smb://nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn/share in Firefox, I can see file and folder names, but they are truncated - the last character of the filename is missing.

Needless to say the Terastation is my main data store, so this is a showstopper for me - I'm staying with Hardy until it is sorted, with Intrepid on a partition so I can test this from time to time so I know when it is fixed.

[Rene Zeldenthuis (rene-superflop)]

Also here a fresh 8.10 install and unable to browse (worked with 8.04). Maybe due to installing language support?
Hard to imagine this bug only affects us... Can also reproduce this bug with smbclient; last character is missing.

[tonyw (tony-whyman)]

I don't see why this has been marked as a duplicate of 292836.

I have this problem on Hardy. I have a server running 8.04 and Samba. I have no problem seeing this server from WinXP, but it has become invisible for an 8.04 client, except when mounting the samba shares through smbmount. Smbclient does not work though.

[tonyw (tony-whyman)]

I forget to mention - this setup worked fine until a recent update screwed things up.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

tonyw: this has been marked a duplicate because the original poster issue (share mounted but last character missing) is a duplicate of bug 282298. Several people from this bug (Rene Zeldenthuis, Ian Booth...) confirmed it fixed on the other.

Your issue is apparently different (server is hardy, share invisible, can mount from smbmount but not from smbclient), please file another bug about it.