How to Install and Test SAMBA

Step 0: Read the man pages

The man pages distributed with SAMBA contain - lots of useful info that will help to get you started. - If you don't know how to read man pages then try - something like:

$ nroff -man smbd.8 | more -

Other sources of information are pointed to - by the Samba web site, http://www.samba.org

Step 1: Building the Binaries

To do this, first run the program ./configure - in the source directory. This should automatically - configure Samba for your operating system. If you have unusual - needs then you may wish to run

root# ./configure --help -

first to see what special options you can enable. - Then executing

root# make

will create the binaries. Once it's successfully - compiled you can use

root# make install

to install the binaries and manual pages. You can - separately install the binaries and/or man pages using

root# make installbin -

and

root# make installman -

Note that if you are upgrading for a previous version - of Samba you might like to know that the old versions of - the binaries will be renamed with a ".old" extension. You - can go back to the previous version with

root# make revert -

if you find this version a disaster!

Step 2: The all important step

At this stage you must fetch yourself a - coffee or other drink you find stimulating. Getting the rest - of the install right can sometimes be tricky, so you will - probably need it.

If you have installed samba before then you can skip - this step.

Step 3: Create the smb configuration file.

There are sample configuration files in the examples - subdirectory in the distribution. I suggest you read them - carefully so you can see how the options go together in - practice. See the man page for all the options.

The simplest useful configuration file would be - something like this:

	[global]
-	   workgroup = MYGROUP
-
-	   [homes]
-	      guest ok = no
-	      read only = no
-

which would allow connections by anyone with an - account on the server, using either their login name or - "homes" as the service name. (Note that I also set the - workgroup that Samba is part of. See BROWSING.txt for details)

Note that make install will not install - a smb.conf file. You need to create it - yourself.

Make sure you put the smb.conf file in the same place - you specified in theMakefile (the default is to - look for it in /usr/local/samba/lib/).

For more information about security settings for the - [homes] share please refer to the document UNIX_SECURITY.txt.

Step 4: Test your config file with - testparm

It's important that you test the validity of your - smb.conf file using the testparm program. - If testparm runs OK then it will list the loaded services. If - not it will give an error message.

Make sure it runs OK and that the services look - reasonable before proceeding.

Step 5: Starting the smbd and nmbd

You must choose to start smbd and nmbd either - as daemons or from inetd. Don't try - to do both! Either you can put them in inetd.conf and have them started on demand - by inetd, or you can start them as - daemons either from the command line or in /etc/rc.local. See the man pages for details - on the command line options. Take particular care to read - the bit about what user you need to be in order to start - Samba. In many cases you must be root.

The main advantage of starting smbd - and nmbd using the recommended daemon method - is that they will respond slightly more quickly to an initial connection - request.

Step 5a: Starting from inetd.conf

NOTE; The following will be different if - you use NIS or NIS+ to distributed services maps.

Look at your /etc/services. - What is defined at port 139/tcp. If nothing is defined - then add a line like this:

netbios-ssn 139/tcp

similarly for 137/udp you should have an entry like:

netbios-ns 137/udp

Next edit your /etc/inetd.conf - and add two lines something like this:

		netbios-ssn stream tcp nowait root /usr/local/samba/bin/smbd smbd 
-		netbios-ns dgram udp wait root /usr/local/samba/bin/nmbd nmbd 
-

The exact syntax of /etc/inetd.conf - varies between unixes. Look at the other entries in inetd.conf - for a guide.

NOTE: Some unixes already have entries like netbios_ns - (note the underscore) in /etc/services. - You must either edit /etc/services or - /etc/inetd.conf to make them consistent.

NOTE: On many systems you may need to use the - "interfaces" option in smb.conf to specify the IP address - and netmask of your interfaces. Run ifconfig - as root if you don't know what the broadcast is for your - net. nmbd tries to determine it at run - time, but fails on some unixes. See the section on "testing nmbd" - for a method of finding if you need to do this.

!!!WARNING!!! Many unixes only accept around 5 - parameters on the command line in inetd.conf. - This means you shouldn't use spaces between the options and - arguments, or you should use a script, and start the script - from inetd.

Restart inetd, perhaps just send - it a HUP. If you have installed an earlier version of nmbd then you may need to kill nmbd as well.

Step 5b. Alternative: starting it as a daemon

To start the server as a daemon you should create - a script something like this one, perhaps calling - it startsmb.

		#!/bin/sh
-		/usr/local/samba/bin/smbd -D 
-		/usr/local/samba/bin/nmbd -D 
-

then make it executable with chmod - +x startsmb

You can then run startsmb by - hand or execute it from /etc/rc.local -

To kill it send a kill signal to the processes - nmbd and smbd.

NOTE: If you use the SVR4 style init system then - you may like to look at the examples/svr4-startup - script to make Samba fit into that system.

Step 6: Try listing the shares available on your - server

$ smbclient -L - yourhostname

You should get back a list of shares available on - your server. If you don't then something is incorrectly setup. - Note that this method can also be used to see what shares - are available on other LanManager clients (such as WfWg).

If you choose user level security then you may find - that Samba requests a password before it will list the shares. - See the smbclient man page for details. (you - can force it to list the shares without a password by - adding the option -U% to the command line. This will not work - with non-Samba servers)

Step 7: Try connecting with the unix client

$ smbclient //yourhostname/aservice

Typically the yourhostname - would be the name of the host where you installed smbd. The aservice is - any service you have defined in the smb.conf - file. Try your user name if you just have a [homes] section - in smb.conf.

For example if your unix host is bambi and your login - name is fred you would type:

$ smbclient //bambi/fred -

Step 8: Try connecting from a DOS, WfWg, Win9x, WinNT, - Win2k, OS/2, etc... client

Try mounting disks. eg:

C:\WINDOWS\> net use d: \\servername\service -

Try printing. eg:

C:\WINDOWS\> net use lpt1: - \\servername\spoolservice

C:\WINDOWS\> print filename -

Celebrate, or send me a bug report!

What If Things Don't Work?

If nothing works and you start to think "who wrote - this pile of trash" then I suggest you do step 2 again (and - again) till you calm down.

Then you might read the file DIAGNOSIS.txt and the - FAQ. If you are still stuck then try the mailing list or - newsgroup (look in the README for details). Samba has been - successfully installed at thousands of sites worldwide, so maybe - someone else has hit your problem and has overcome it. You could - also use the WWW site to scan back issues of the samba-digest.

When you fix the problem PLEASE send me some updates to the - documentation (or source code) so that the next person will find it - easier.

Diagnosing Problems

If you have installation problems then go to - DIAGNOSIS.txt to try to find the - problem.

Scope IDs

By default Samba uses a blank scope ID. This means - all your windows boxes must also have a blank scope ID. - If you really want to use a non-blank scope ID then you will - need to use the 'netbios scope' smb.conf option. - All your PCs will need to have the same setting for - this to work. I do not recommend scope IDs.

Choosing the Protocol Level

The SMB protocol has many dialects. Currently - Samba supports 5, called CORE, COREPLUS, LANMAN1, - LANMAN2 and NT1.

You can choose what maximum protocol to support - in the smb.conf file. The default is - NT1 and that is the best for the vast majority of sites.

In older versions of Samba you may have found it - necessary to use COREPLUS. The limitations that led to - this have mostly been fixed. It is now less likely that you - will want to use less than LANMAN1. The only remaining advantage - of COREPLUS is that for some obscure reason WfWg preserves - the case of passwords in this protocol, whereas under LANMAN1, - LANMAN2 or NT1 it uppercases all passwords before sending them, - forcing you to use the "password level=" option in some cases.

The main advantage of LANMAN2 and NT1 is support for - long filenames with some clients (eg: smbclient, Windows NT - or Win95).

See the smb.conf(5) manual page for more details.

Note: To support print queue reporting you may find - that you have to use TCP/IP as the default protocol under - WfWg. For some reason if you leave Netbeui as the default - it may break the print queue reporting on some systems. - It is presumably a WfWg bug.

Printing from UNIX to a Client PC

To use a printer that is available via a smb-based - server from a unix host you will need to compile the - smbclient program. You then need to install the script - "smbprint". Read the instruction in smbprint for more details. -

There is also a SYSV style script that does much - the same thing called smbprint.sysv. It contains instructions.

Locking

One area which sometimes causes trouble is locking.

There are two types of locking which need to be - performed by a SMB server. The first is "record locking" - which allows a client to lock a range of bytes in a open file. - The second is the "deny modes" that are specified when a file - is open.

Record locking semantics under Unix is very - different from record locking under Windows. Versions - of Samba before 2.2 have tried to use the native - fcntl() unix system call to implement proper record - locking between different Samba clients. This can not - be fully correct due to several reasons. The simplest - is the fact that a Windows client is allowed to lock a - byte range up to 2^32 or 2^64, depending on the client - OS. The unix locking only supports byte ranges up to - 2^31. So it is not possible to correctly satisfy a - lock request above 2^31. There are many more - differences, too many to be listed here.

Samba 2.2 and above implements record locking - completely independent of the underlying unix - system. If a byte range lock that the client requests - happens to fall into the range 0-2^31, Samba hands - this request down to the Unix system. All other locks - can not be seen by unix anyway.

Strictly a SMB server should check for locks before - every read and write call on a file. Unfortunately with the - way fcntl() works this can be slow and may overstress the - rpc.lockd. It is also almost always unnecessary as clients - are supposed to independently make locking calls before reads - and writes anyway if locking is important to them. By default - Samba only makes locking calls when explicitly asked - to by a client, but if you set "strict locking = yes" then it will - make lock checking calls on every read and write.

You can also disable by range locking completely - using "locking = no". This is useful for those shares that - don't support locking or don't need it (such as cdroms). In - this case Samba fakes the return codes of locking calls to - tell clients that everything is OK.

The second class of locking is the "deny modes". These - are set by an application when it opens a file to determine - what types of access should be allowed simultaneously with - its open. A client may ask for DENY_NONE, DENY_READ, DENY_WRITE - or DENY_ALL. There are also special compatibility modes called - DENY_FCB and DENY_DOS.

Mapping Usernames

If you have different usernames on the PCs and - the unix server then take a look at the "username map" option. - See the smb.conf man page for details.