Samba Release Notes


Table of Contents

  • What is Samba?
  • Support Policy
  • Installation Information
  • Silicon Graphics Legal Notice
  • Author's Notice(s)
  • Documentation Information

  • What is Samba?

    Samba is an SMB client and server for Unix. It makes it possible for client machines running Windows 95 and Windows for Workgroups to access files and/or print services on a Unix system. Samba includes an SMB server to provide LanManager-style file and print services to PCs, a Netbios (RFC10001/1002) name server, and an FTP-like client application for accessing PC resources from Unix.

    To make Samba work you'll need to configure your server host to run smbd and nmbd whenever you connect to a certain Internet port from the client machine. Smbd and nmbd can be started either as daemons or from inetd.

    By default smbd and nmbd are started as daemons by the file /etc/init.d/samba in conjunction with the chkconfig variable samba being set to on. If you set chkconfig samba off then the deamons will not be automatically started on reboot. In this case you must type the following at a shell prompt to start samba after a reboot:

       chkconfig samba on
       /etc/init.d/samba start
    

    If you make changes to your configuration files, smbd and nmbd may be restarted by typing the following at a shell prompt:

       /etc/init.d/samba start
    

    smbd and nmbd may be killed by typing the following at a shell prompt:

       /etc/init.d/samba stop
    

    To have smbd and nmbd started by inetd you can execute the shell script /usr/samba/inetd.sh to automatically configure the various files and start the processes. This shell script first kills any running smbd and nmbd processes. It then removes any existing entries for "netbios*" from /etc/inetd.conf and adds the following lines

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

    It then removes any existing entries for "netbios*" from /etc/services and adds the following lines

        netbios-ns        137/udp                         # SAMBA
        netbios-ssn       139/tcp                         # SAMBA
    

    Inetd is then restarted by executing:

       /etc/killall -HUP inetd
    

    If you make changes to your configuration files, smbd and nmbd may be restarted by typing the following at a shell prompt:

       /etc/killall smbd nmbd
       /etc/killall -HUP inetd
    

    Author's Notice(s):

    The author of this product is: Andrew Tridgell

    Samba is distributed freely under the GNU public license.

    Support:

    The software in this package is considered unsupported by Silicon Graphics. Neither the authors or Silicon Graphics are compelled to help resolve problems you may encounter in the installation, setup, or execution of this software. To be more to the point, if you call us with an issue regarding products in the Freeware package, we'll have to gracefully terminate the call. The Samba Web Page has a listing of companies and individuals that offer commercial support for a fee.

    Installation Information

    Samba includes these subsystems:

    samba.sw.base (default) Execution environment for Samba.
    samba.man.manpages(default) Samba's online manual pages (preformatted).
    samba.man.doc (default) Samba documentation: hints on installation and configuration, an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), help in diagnosing problems, etc..
    samba.man.relnotes (default) Samba online release notes.
    samba.src.samba The Samba software distribution from which this product was built (including the packaging/SGI directory which will allow this distribution to be rebuilt).

    Installation Method

    All of the subsystems for Samba can be installed using IRIX. You do not need to use the miniroot. Refer to the Software Installation Administrator's Guide for complete installation instructions.

    Prerequisites

    Your workstation must be running IRIX 5.3 or later in order to use this product.

    Configuration Files

    Because configuration files often contain modifications, inst treats them specially during the installation process. If they have not been modified, inst removes the old file and installs the new version during software updates. For configuration files that have been modified, the new version is installed and the old version is renamed by adding the suffix .O (for older) to the name. The no-suffix version contains changes that are required for compatibility with the rest of the newly installed software, that increase functionality, or that fix bugs. You should use diff(1) or gdiff(1) to compare the two versions of the files and transfer information that you recognize as machine or site-specific from the .O version to the no-suffix version.

    /usr/samba/lib/smb.conf
    Configuration definitions for the smbd program; the SMB server process. The default configuration sets up password-based access to home directories on a machine as well as open access to to all printers and /tmp. The workgroup is set by default to "workgroup". It is highly recommended that administrators review the content of this file when installing Samba for the first time.
    /usr/samba/printcap
    A file that specifies the available printers on a system. It is included as an example; administrators may want to replace it or override the reference to it in the smb.conf file. The script /usr/samba/mkprintcap.sh was used by inst to create a printcap file that contains all printers on your system. You may wish to remove some printers or add a comment to each printer name to describe its location.

    Documentation Information

    Preformatted manual pages are installed by default as are the contents of the docs directory from the Samba distribution; consult samba(7) for an introduction.

    There is a mailing list for discussion of Samba. To subscribe send mail to listproc@samba.org with a body of "subscribe samba Your Name"

    To send mail to everyone on the list mail to samba@samba.org.

    There is also an announcement mailing list where new versions are announced. To subscribe send mail to listproc@samba.org with a body of "subscribe samba-announce Your Name". All announcements also go to the samba list.

    You might also like to look at the Usenet news group comp.protocols.smb as it often contains lots of useful info and is frequented by lots of Samba users. The newsgroup was initially setup by people on the Samba mailing list. It is not, however, exclusive to Samba, it is a forum for discussing the SMB protocol (which Samba implements).

    A Samba WWW site has been setup with lots of useful info. Connect to: http://samba.org/pub/samba/. It is maintained by Paul Blackman (thanks Paul!). You can contact him at ictinus@lake.canberra.edu.au.