Comment 3 for bug 316862

Dear Zack,

Thanks for taking this seriously. I've spent a few hours on it this morning
and added to the bug report what I have found.

For your information I attach to this email the screenshots of what I
observe. By the way, for historical reasons, our staff workgroup is given
the awkward name fo27183142, not Staff.

Cheers,

Mark

2009/1/13 Zack Powers <email address hidden>

> Testing this in Jaunty on 4:40PM EST, Jan 13th.
>
> When using the "Connect to Server..." dialog in Place->Connect to
> Server..., Nautilus gives an error when attempting to browse a share.
>
> When opening Nautilus and using the "Network" shortcut to browse the
> network root, browsing various shares and workgroups work fine.
>
> When pasting smb:// URLs into the nautilus address bar browsing also
> works fine.
>
> Mark Ellse, could you clarify which method you used to browse the
> shares?
>
> To see screen shots of me browsing different shares visit
> http://acm.umflint.edu/~zpowers/sambaError/<http://acm.umflint.edu/%7Ezpowers/sambaError/>
>
> ** Attachment added: "Screenshot-Windows shares on its-ds-1 - File
> Browser.png"
>
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/21177450/Screenshot-Windows%20shares%20on%20its-ds-1%20-%20File%20Browser.png
>
> --
> Nautilus fails to browse windows shares
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/316862
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in "nautilus" source package in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: nautilus
>
> Forgive long explanation below detailing, as well as the range of the
> problem, some experiments to isolate the problem.
> Windows peer-to-peer network with
> (a) about twenty Windows 2000 and 98 machines
> (b) one Ubuntu machine running Samba server for student purposes (smb.conf
> Workgroup = Students, Dapper LTS Server)
> (c) one LTSP network with three terminals running Samba server for staff
> purposes (smb.conf set to make Staff the workgroup) (Intrepid, latest
> patches as of 13/1/09)
> (d) one standalone Ubuntu Intrepid machine (smb.conf Workgroup = Staff,
> Intrepid, latest patches as of 13/1/09)
> (e) two Ubuntu machines running from the live CD for test purposes. (No
> workgroup set)
>
> It's a school. There are two workgroups: Staff and Students.
>
> Windows (Staff) machines (a) always show the presence of the other machines
> on their (Staff) workgroup.
> Nautilus on (b) to (e) intermittently displays the Windows machines on the
> Staff workgroup.
> When Nautilus works, Places, Network on machines (c) and (d) displays the
> machines on the Staff workgroup, and also the Windows Network icon, through
> which you can find the Student workgroup. On machines (e), where no
> workgroup is set, one has to go through the Windows Network icon to the
> Staff network.
> When Nautilus doesn't work, only the Windows Network icon is visible.
> Clicking that makes the other Windows networks visible, but no shares on the
> Staff workgroup are visible. But (b) on the Student network, is always
> visible.
>
> BUT, Smb4K is installed on (c) and (d), and even when Nautilus is off,
> using Smb4K, one can seek, browse, connect to other machines on the Staff
> network.
>
> The two machines (d) using live CD's are there for test purposes. They
> observe the same behaviour with Intrepid, Hardy, Gutsy live CDs.
>
> Possibly associated bugs:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bug/207072
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/26933
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/193232
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba/+bug/282113
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bug/215570
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba/+bug/73591
>
> Thoughts:
>
> i) I did not observe this behaviour when using Gutsy, so thought it was a
> post-Gutsy problems. But now it is clearly evident in Gutsy. That makes me
> think that the problem may have arisen not through a change in Ubuntu, but
> from a change in the Windows network. I did wonder if this was a consequence
> of a Windows 2000 security update, possible affecting the Windows browser
> service.
>
> ii) I noticed that that attempting to browse the Staff workgroup via
> Places, Network, Windows Network, Staff results in an extremely rapid return
> of '0 items', whereas when browsing the other default (empty) workgroups
> (WORKGROUP, MSHOME) it takes about six seconds before '0 items' is
> displayed. This means that there is something on the network that is rapidly
> telling Nautilus that there is nothing there.
>