[jcain]

I'm having problems using samba with 10.2.4 on my 12" powerbook. I have several volumes shared both on Windows XP and Linux boxes. I can connect to them just fine the first time using "Connect to server..." under the Go menu in the Finder. The shared volumes then appear on my desktop.

However, if I click on the share icons later (particularly after the laptop goes to sleep), the icon starts to expand into a window, but then disappears. I am then unable to see the shares in the Finder. However, they remain mounted in /Volumes.

I have tried using umount in the terminal to unmount the volumes and then reconnecting via the Finder, but this doesn't seem to work either. I don't get any error messages, but the shares don't show up on the desktop. They are once again mounted in /Volumes, though.

The only way I have found to restore correct operation is to reboot. Has anyone else seen this? Any suggestions?

[ghporter]

If your PowerBook is networked wirelessly, the problem could be that it loses its network connection when it goes to sleep. This is a common problem, and not all wireless cards handle the sleep issue gracefully.

You might try going a little deeper than just trying to reconnect with those shares, and try to reestablish your network connection itself. That usually fixes the wireless/sleep issue, and may fix other sleep related, non-wireless networking problems as well.

[jcain]

Well, I haven't seen any other network-related problems. I can still access the internet with no problem, and I can still see and connect to the other servers--they just don't show up on the desktop or in the Finder.

[ghporter]

I think that when the computer loses those shares, it saves the names of the connected servers, but doesn't really keep their paths. When this happens, the Finder has names, but can't connect to them. When your computer boots, it goes through a step that could be called "discovery," in which it looks for shares that it wants to connect to. If you disconnect from your network, then reconnect, this may do the same thing, restoring the paths for the shares that are lost.

Obviously these shares being on XP and Linux machines has a lot to do with losing them. MacOS keeps track of connected Mac servers differently than Samba tracks Windows and Linux servers, and that's why you can still connect to your other shared resources, but not to the XP and Linux shares.

[Scarpa]

I remember when installing Samba from scratch on my Debian box that I read something about disconnected session not being handled very well.

I've experienced similar problems on my TiBook with 10.1, and I've developed the habit of unmounting (via command-E in the finder) any shares that are mounted when I wake up my Powerbook. This seems to work well and allows me to reconnect to the share if I wish. Trying to simply open the previously mounted share up after sleep does not work. Leaving a previously mounted share alone after sleep seems to slow the finder down considerably.

[lgelfan]

I have a fileserver with Samba 2.2 running in a small office and have had some frustrating problems using it with Macs. The fileserver uses Linux 2.4.20 (Red Hat 9), the Macs have 10.2.6 -- the Windows machines on the same network have not had problems.

The primary issue is that I often get permissions or corrupted file error when trying to save or open (respectively) from the fileserver. Unmounting and remounting the share usually solves the problem. The permissions are being set correctly as sometimes just waiting a few seconds after updating a file will solve the problem - it seems like the Mac isn't getting a proper status response. It seems particularly problematic if a file is still "selected" in the finder (which happens when you double-click a file to open it).

File transfers also are a bit slower on the Macs than to/from Windows machines as well. We recently moved to a gigabit switch, so while it is a bit faster, I was hoping for better performance with the fileserver.

I wonder if anyone else is experiencing similar problems and if the problem is likely to be on the Mac side or the Linux side or both? I have thought about trying the Samba 3 beta, but have not heard about anyone using it with OS X. I also might try Dave 4 on the Macs to see if that helps.

FYI, I had worse problems with netatalk (v1.5) and could not get the latest (1.6.2, non-binary) version to install on RH9. Hopefully a new RPM will be out soon so I can try it out.

Any advice/similar experience would be greatly appreciated. FYI, I'm not tied to using RH9, just thought it would have the latest drivers, etc. I'm willing to use whatever Linux flavor/version that will give me the best fileserver performance in a mixed OS environment.

Thanks!

[khufuu]

Wow! You actually get Samba to work...cool!!

I always get -36 errors when I try to connect to another server.

I've been using ftp to get things across. Needless to say, I don't pull things across very often.

[suthercd]

khufuu-

Give WebDAV a try. I've had a good experience with this.

Craig

[lgelfan]

Samba actually works ok, I would just like to get it working a bit smoother as it was on my recommendation that we get a Linux fileserver this time instead of using Win2k as we had prior.

Other than the occasional locking issues I described earlier, it also rounds up the filesize to the MB, which is a minor nuisance that I had heard about. The Windows fileserver shows more accurate file sizes via Samba and connecting via Appletalk/Services For Mac works pretty well too, so that is the standard users are used to.

FYI, I got Samba to work using a standard server install of Red Hat 9 on a new Dell 600SC P4 (a great deal, btw), updated it via up2date and installed SWAT to configure Samba (v 2.2.7a).

I might try WebDav as well and see how it compares.

-lars

Originally posted by khufuu:
Wow! You actually get Samba to work...cool!!

I always get -36 errors when I try to connect to another server.

I've been using ftp to get things across. Needless to say, I don't pull things across very often.