[SMBNETFS] - Slow down when accessing files

[André Madureira]

Hello,

I tried opening remote files (via SAMBA on a Windows XP Professional CPU) via KIO SLAVES in my Kubuntu distribution and I couldn't open most of them because a lot of aplcations don't have support for KIO SLAVES smb:// protocol (and I don't know why - it's a lot more efficient to access a remote path directly than mounting it with CIFS or something related...)...

PROBLEM:

Anyway, when I open some files with some specific programs (until now I've only see this happen with GNOME Mplayer and LibreOffice) via SMBNETFS mounting filesystem, I have a delay when compared to the CIFS mounting (to mount via CIFS I used MOUNT.CIFS)... So is this delay related to the WORKGROUP scan or is it a bug of the program?

SOLUTION:

Use CIFS similar way of mounting remote SAMBA paths on SMBNETFS to speed it up...

SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

In the attachments there is a XLS file that has some information about how this delay affected the accessing speed...

Thanks for your attention and help,

André M.

[Mikhail Kshevetskiy (laska)]

Hello, smbnetfs delay might be related to libsmbclient name resolution procedure.
By default libsmbclient tries to resolve names via lmhosts file, dns, wins and broadcast.
libsmbclient tries each resolution method for each configured network interface. So the
network name resolution may takes a a very looooooong time.

Try access files using ip-address instead of computer names
  1) mount smbnetfs via command "smbnetfs /media/SMB"
  2) access files using the following path "/media/SMB/192.168.1.99/TESTE"

If the problem disappear, you may do the following:
  1) Fix libsmbclient name resolution procedure. You may play with "name resolve order",
      "interfaces" and "bind interfaces only = Yes" options in your ~/.smb/smb.conf file.
      See "man smb.conf" for details.
  2) use "link" directive in your "~/.smb/smbnetfs.conf" file to access all required
      computer by their ip-address. See smbnetfs documentation for details.

[André Madureira (andreluizromano)]

Hello Mikhail Kshevetskiy,

I tested the procedure you provided,but DOLPHIN could not access the
folder with the error message:

"Can't enter path /media/SMB/192.168.1.99/TESTE"

So, I'm forced to use access this path exclusively with the address
"/media/SMB/WORKGROUP/LUIZA-CPU/TESTE"

PS: When I access the path WORKGROUP for the first time inside SMB the
DOLPHIN freezes for a while and then the remote computers appear as
links to paths with their names (in example: LUIZA-CPU, CONCE-CPU,
etc)... So, I think SMBNETFS mount the WORKGROUP only when I try to
access it via DOLPHIN or other file manager for the first time and then
SMBNETFS refreshes the mounting automatically in the default time of
300s (5 min)...

Thanks for your help,

André Madureira
Estudante do Ensino Médio
"Uma vez que o cérebro se expande para o conhecimento,
nunca mais voltará ao seu estado inicial." (Albert Einstein)

Em 22-03-2011 04:37, Mikhail Kshevetskiy escreveu:
> Hello, smbnetfs delay might be related to libsmbclient name resolution procedure.
> By default libsmbclient tries to resolve names via lmhosts file, dns, wins and broadcast.
> libsmbclient tries each resolution method for each configured network interface. So the
> network name resolution may takes a a very looooooong time.
>
> Try access files using ip-address instead of computer names
> 1) mount smbnetfs via command "smbnetfs /media/SMB"
> 2) access files using the following path "/media/SMB/192.168.1.99/TESTE"
>
> If the problem disappear, you may do the following:
> 1) Fix libsmbclient name resolution procedure. You may play with "name resolve order",
> "interfaces" and "bind interfaces only = Yes" options in your ~/.smb/smb.conf file.
> See "man smb.conf" for details.
> 2) use "link" directive in your "~/.smb/smbnetfs.conf" file to access all required
> computer by their ip-address. See smbnetfs documentation for details.
>