No longer able to mount shares from Windows ME without knowing IP address

[David Lee Lambert]

Binary package hint: samba

I'm having trouble mounting two directories shared from a Windows ME computer on the local network. I can mount them fine from Debian Etch and Windows XP; in the past I've mounted them fine from Ubuntu B, D, G and H, from Slackware, from earlier versions of Debian and from Windows Server 2003.

On a computer I recently upgraded to Jaunty, I have the following two lines in /etc/fstab (after editing in response to a message about "dmask" and "fmask" being deprecated):

//PurpleComputer/DQFILES /purple/dqfiles cifs rw,auto,file_mode=0660,dir_mode=0770,gid=dq,noperm,credentials=/root/for-PurpleComputer.cred 0 3
//PurpleComputer/PROGRAMFILES /purple/programfiles cifs rw,auto,file_mode=0444,dir_mode=0555,noperm,credentials=/root/for-PurpleComputer.cred 0 2

The first share is shared from Windows ME as read-write with a share password; the second is shared as read-only with no password. "ping PurpleComputer" and "smbclient -L //PurpleComputer" both work fine.

# mount /purple/programfiles
mount error(2): No such file or directory
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g.man mount.cifs)
# mount /purple/dqfiles
mount error(2): No such file or directory
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g.man mount.cifs)
# mount | grep /purple
# apt-cache policy smbfs
smbfs:
  Instalados: 2:3.3.2-1ubuntu3.3
  Candidato: 2:3.3.2-1ubuntu3.3
  Tabla de versión:
 *** 2:3.3.2-1ubuntu3.3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:3.3.2-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
     2:3.2.3-1ubuntu3.7 0
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Packages

On another computer I recently performed a fresh install of Intrepid. Mounting the same share also fails, but with a different error-message:

$ sudo smbmount \\\\PurpleComputer\\DQFILES /purple/dqfiles/ -o uid=davidl,file_mask=0660
mount error: could not find target server. TCP name PurpleComputer/DQFILES not found
No ip address specified and hostname not found

I know this sounds like bug 235560, but I've checked /etc/nsswitch.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf, and they seem to be appropriate. I am able to mount a SMB share shared by Debian Etch with Jaunty.

[Andreas Noteng (andreas-noteng)]

Thanks for your help making Ubuntu better by reporting this bug.
First a stupid question: do the /purple/dqfiles and /purple/programfiles directories exist in the Jaunty installation?
Second: Why would you install Jaunty? It's supported until October 2010, but I'll strongly recommend Karmic, or even Lucid (still in Alpha). Could you please test a recent jaunty live-cd and see if you can reproduce the bug?
Third: Windows ME is most likely the worst OS ever released...

[David Lee Lambert (davidl)]

1st: Yes.

2nd: Tested with a live CD (the install CD).

# smbclient -L //PurpleComputer
Password: (just hit Enter)
(success)

# sudo mkdir -p /purple/dqfiles
# sudo mount //PurpleComputer/DQFILES /purple/dqfiles -t smbfs -o uid=ubuntu,user=davidl
mount: wrong fs type, bad option ...
# dmesg
...
smbfs: CIFS is deprecated ...
smbfs: mount_data version 1919251317 is not supported

# sudo mount //PurpleComputer/DQFILES /purple/dqfiles -t cifs -o uid=ubuntu,user=davidl
mount: wrong fs type, bad option ...
# dmesg
...
CIFS VFS: cifs_mount failed w/ return code = -22

3rd: Windows ME runs some games better than Wine. Also, last time I tried the scanner we use with that computer with Ubuntu, there were no drivers for it; although that was a few releases of Ubuntu back... As stated before, this used to work from the exact same computer except with an earlier version of Ubuntu; and it currently works from Debian Etch and Windows XP.

[David Lee Lambert (davidl)]

I upgraded to kernel '2.6.28-18-generic'. Now the general symptom is the same, but the exact error-messages are a little bit different.

# ping -c 10 PurpleComputer
...
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 8999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.446/0.456/0.472/0.028 ms

# smbclient -N -L //PurpleComputer
...
        Sharename Type Comment
        --------- ---- -------
...
        DQFILES Disk (password required)
...

# mount /purple/dqfiles
mount error(112): Host is down
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g.man mount.cifs)
# dmesg
...
[302613.664316] CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 114 mid 1
[302613.664356] CIFS VFS: cifs_mount failed w/return code = -112

[David Lee Lambert (davidl)]

OK, I found a message on the Samba mailing-list that helped.

http://lists.samba.org/archive/linux-cifs-client/2007-February/001720.html

Using that, I figured out a work-around:

# mount.cifs //PurpleComputer/DQFILES /purple/dqfiles/ -o rw,file_mode=0660,dir_mode=0770,gid=dq,credentials=/root/for-PurpleComputer.cred,ip=192.168.15.6,servernetbiosname=PURPLECOMPUTER
(success)

Having to hard-code the IP address is an annoyance, but in my case it is in fact a static IP address. If it wasn't, I could put the following in a script:

mount.cifs //PurpleComputer/DQFILES /purple/dqfiles/ -o rw,file_mode=0660,dir_mode=0770,gid=dq,credentials=/root/for-PurpleComputer.cred,ip=`nmblookup PurpleComputer | grep '<00>' | cut -f 1 -d ' '`,servernetbiosname=PURPLECOMPUTER

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Lucid Lynx. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Andreas Noteng (andreas-noteng)]

Lucid has been released, could you please retest using a fully updated Lucid?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for samba (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]