Comment 18 for bug 1690684

Ok, your eth0 network interface is controlled by network manager then. This means that it only becomes available after you login on your Ubuntu desktop, and that's why samba is failing: the network interface you told it to use is not available when samba starts.

You have some options:
a) do not specify the interfaces line in /etc/samba/smb.conf. This is usually only needed when you have multiple interfaces and want to control where samba will listen. I'm not sure if samba will pick up eth0 once it becomes available, you should try it.

b) Specify the eth0 interface details in /etc/network/interfaces. See the interfaces manpage with "man interfaces". Then it will be brought up during boot, and will be ready for samba when it starts.

c) Workaround: configure samba to not start automatically. You would then start it manually after you login on your desktop and the network is available.

I suggest you try (a) first, unless you have multiple interfaces and really need samba to only use eth0. Or if samba doesn't pick up your eth0 network once it's up (after you login). If that doesn't work, then you should really treat this machine like a server and go for (b). (c) is a workaround.