9.10 Nautilus - Cannot access FreeNAS CIFS/SMB folder containing more than 627 files

[John]

Binary package hint: nautilus

Attempts to access a folder on a FreeNAS CFIS/SMB share via Ubuntu 9.10 Nautilus that contains more than 627 files results in: The folder contents could not be be displayed (Invalid argument) and inability to view folder contents.

Test Case:
**************************
1. On local hard disk, create two folders ("temp627" and "temp628") containing 627 and 628 files respectively.
File names in temp627 were xaaa, xaab, xaac, ... xayc
File names in temp628 were xaaa, xaab, xaac, ... xayd
Each file contained a single "x" character (files generated using "split" command though this is likely irrelevant). Note that contents of both of these folders may be accessed without issue using Nautilus while they reside on the local hard disk.

2. Start Nautilus via menu (i.e., <Places><Network><Server><Share><folder>). Sequentially, copy temp627 and temp628 from local hard disk and paste to the share (in Nautilus view).

3. Double-clicking on "temp627" on the CFIS/SMB share in Nautilus results in the folder opening and contents accessible, but double-clicking on "temp628" on the CFIS/SMB share in Nautilus results in the folder contents cannot be be displayed (Invalid argument) message and contents not accessible.

4. This behavior was repeated on multiple shares and in multiple folder locations. NOTE: Utilizing a Windows XP system, I CAN access both folders on the share without issue and all of the files are present.
**************************

This test case was more than just a curiosity -- I have several folders with many (~10,000) files on the share and would like to be able to access via Ubuntu. Is this a known limitation or bug? Does anyone have any suggestions that would resolve this limit? Is there some other way I might access these files via Ubuntu?

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Dec 24 13:17:03 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/nautilus
Package: nautilus 1:2.28.1-0ubuntu3
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.53-generic
SourcePackage: nautilus
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic i686

[John (john-dyjach)]

Some additional information regarding the issue reported:

1. Refer to the test case listed above. Attempting to access the folders from command line using gvfs-ls results in file contents listed for temp627, but invalid parameter reported for temp628 as depicted below:
************
$ gvfs-ls "smb://freenas.local/sharetemp/Number of Files Test/temp628"
Error opening: Invalid parameters
************
... perhaps the issue is not with Nautilus ...

2. Same behavior observed with test case using a second Ubuntu PC (i.e., different hardware).

3. Both Ubuntu PCs were originally configured with Ubuntu 9.04 and subsequently upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10.

[A. Walton (awalton)]

Can you list the contents of the folder with smbclient?

[John (john-dyjach)]

NOT able to list the contents of the folder temp628 with smbclient. Successful listing contents of folder temp627. See below:
*******************
smb: \Number of Files Test\> dir temp628/*
Invalid packet length! (65576 bytes).
Receiving SMB: Server stopped responding
Read error: Success listing \Number of Files Test\temp628\*
Error in dskattr: Read error: Success
smb: \Number of Files Test\>
*******************

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

samba issue since smbclient has it too

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately we can't fix it without more information.

Please include the information requested at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSamba#samba-client.

[John (john-dyjach)]

*******
Did this work under a previoius release? --> I do not know.
*******
$ dpkg-query -W -f='${Package} ${Version} ${Source} ${Status}\n' | grep samba
libsmbclient 2:3.4.0-3ubuntu5.3 samba install ok installed
libwbclient0 2:3.4.0-3ubuntu5.3 samba install ok installed
samba-common 2:3.4.0-3ubuntu5.3 samba install ok installed
samba-common-bin 2:3.4.0-3ubuntu5.3 samba install ok installed
smbclient 2:3.4.0-3ubuntu5.3 samba install ok installed
*******
How is the remote share accessed from the Ubuntu system? / Can it be accessed using smbclient? --> See previous text in this bug report.
*******
$ smbclient -L //freenasserver
Enter john's password:
Domain=[HOMELAN] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.0.34]

 Sharename Type Comment
 --------- ---- -------
 ShareDawn Disk Dawn's private share
 ShareJohn Disk John's private share
 ShareMusic Disk Shared music files
 SharePhoto Disk Share photo files
 ShareTemp Disk Shared tempory files
 ShareVideo Disk Shared video files
 IPC$ IPC IPC Service (FreeNAS Server)
Domain=[HOMELAN] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.0.34]

 Server Comment
 --------- -------
 XXXXXXXX P4x1600
 FREENASSERVER FreeNAS Server

 Workgroup Master
 --------- -------
 HOMELAN FREENASSERVER
*******
Machine details: As mentioned above, this is a FreeNAS server -->
Name freenas.local
Version 0.69.2 Muad'Dib (revision 4700)
built on Thu Jun 11 00:06:51 UTC 2009
OS Version FreeBSD 6.4-RELEASE-p5 (revision 199506)
Platform i386-embedded on AMD Athlon(TM) XP 1800+ (1536MHz)
*******
Food for thought: My 28Dec2009 note (above) shows "Invalid packet length! (65576 bytes)". The value of "65576" strikes me as suspiciously close to 65536 (i.e., 16-bit max). If I had to make a guess, its not the number of files per se, but the number of files AND the length of the file names (i.e., when the directory listing is attempted). Please let me know if any other data would be of use.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

This needs to be reproduced against a recent samba server to see where the problem exactly lies...

[Linux000 (michael-yoyo)]

Using the latest version of FreeNAS and duplicating the test procedure, this bug seems to have been fixed.
Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please report any bugs you see in the future, Thanks!

[Roasted (roastedtiresx)]

I can confirm similar findings even on newer software, although my findings were slightly different.

Server = FreeNAS 8 (64 bit). Running a ZFS Raid1 Array on two 500gb drives.
Client = Ubuntu 11.04 (64 bit).
Running the latest SMB/CIFS available on 11.04.
(I also duplicated the issue on a different FreeNAS 8 (64 bit) box using two 80gb drives in ZFS Raid1 as well)

I ran into the issue spoken above, though I didn't run into it at 627 files. I ran into it at 575 files. From there I got prompted "Invalid Argument." If I had 574 files on the server (all 1.0MB in size), I could browse just fine. Once I added the 575th file, I could not browse. If I SSH'd into the FreeNAS box and removed one single file, I was able to browse again.

I got the same results with PCMan, Thunar, Nautilus, and Dolphin. When I repeated the same steps with an Ubuntu 10.04 machine being the server instead of FreeNAS 8, I did NOT exhibit any issues. I was able to write thousands of files with no issues at all. These files were written from an Ubuntu 11.04 (64 bit) client.

Oddly, I did NOT have this issue when I connected to the FreeNAS server from a Windows 7 client. It seems to be something to do with Samba/CIFS in Linux (Ubuntu in particular is what I tested) versus FreeNAS 8.

I formatted my FreeNAS 8 box and put FreeNAS 0.7.2 (64 bit) on it. I also set up a ZFS based array. I did NOT exhibit any problems there. FreeNAS 0.7.2 performed as expected well beyond thousands of files.

Due to all of the scenarios I applied these findings at, it's definitely something with FreeNAS 8 and/or ZFS. I'm doubtful it's a ZFS issue due to my ZFS success on 0.7.2. I made the FreeNAS developers aware in the "freenas" IRC chat room. I'm not sure what movement will happen from here, as it is out of my hands.

Until then, I will be utilizing Linux on my file server instead, as I have not had any CIFS/SMB related issues to any degree in the Linux-to-Linux or Windows-to-Linux scenarios.