Discussion:
Broken link on http://svn.netlabs.org/samba/
Peter Brown
2009-11-04 02:24:08 UTC
Permalink
Hi

Thought I'd start investigating samba on eCS so decided I'd download the latest
client and server packages.

I ran into a problem with this link
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/incoming/samba-3.3.8beta4-os2-20091030.zip

Seamonkey reports: 550 Failed to change directory.


Just thought someone ought to know...


Regards

Pete
Herwig Bauernfeind
2009-11-05 15:16:34 UTC
Permalink
Post by Peter Brown
Thought I'd start investigating samba on eCS so decided I'd download the latest
client and server packages.
I ran into a problem with this link
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/incoming/samba-3.3.8beta4-os2-20091030.zip
If you start with with Samba Server, do yourself a favour and use the
WPI installer first:

http://msplins06.bon.at/%7Eadmin139/files/samba-1-0-2-RC1.wpi (based
upon 3.0.36 and 2 known bugs of the 1.0.1 GA (based upon 3.0.35) fixed.
After that get
http://svn.netlabs.org/samba/browser/branches/scripts/smb_init/smb.cmd
which has another bug fixed, which is present in the above 2 packages.

In our 3.0.37 we see a problem with browsing (bug in nmbd.exe) at the
moment, so the above 3.0.36 is the best choice right now.

If you really want to switch to the current 3.3.9 build afterwards,
that's easy: Use the files from the zip as drop in replacements.
Note: You cannot go back from 3.3.x to 3.0.x!
Post by Peter Brown
Just thought someone ought to know...
That would be me, the link is corrected now.

Regards,
Herwig
Pete Brown
2009-11-07 22:57:11 UTC
Permalink
Hi Herwig
Post by Herwig Bauernfeind
Post by Peter Brown
Thought I'd start investigating samba on eCS so decided I'd download the latest
client and server packages.
I ran into a problem with this link
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/incoming/samba-3.3.8beta4-os2-20091030.zip
If you start with with Samba Server, do yourself a favour and use the
http://msplins06.bon.at/%7Eadmin139/files/samba-1-0-2-RC1.wpi (based
upon 3.0.36 and 2 known bugs of the 1.0.1 GA (based upon 3.0.35) fixed.
After that get
http://svn.netlabs.org/samba/browser/branches/scripts/smb_init/smb.cmd
which has another bug fixed, which is present in the above 2 packages.
In our 3.0.37 we see a problem with browsing (bug in nmbd.exe) at the
moment, so the above 3.0.36 is the best choice right now.
If you really want to switch to the current 3.3.9 build afterwards,
that's easy: Use the files from the zip as drop in replacements.
Note: You cannot go back from 3.3.x to 3.0.x!
Post by Peter Brown
Just thought someone ought to know...
That would be me, the link is corrected now.
Regards,
Herwig
Well, I tried samba-1-0-2 and near the end of install discovered I
needed something called "apache" in order to run something called SWAT.

Lack of docs in the package did not help.

I did locate and install apache - which I have no idea of the purpose in
life of this software (yet again, software from a *nix world that
expects everyone to know what it is and how to configure and use it) but
it is a large package to need installed simply to run a configuration
utility.

SWAT may have run successfully - I have no idea. I thought I'd click the
"Help" button to get an idea on configuration but that does not work as
there is no Help file included it seems.

Couple the above with the general failure of EVFSgui to access files and
directories on the network and I would, possibly incorrectly, state that
samba has a long way to go before it can replace File and Print Client.

I'll look into samba again in a few months and see how it has progressed.

Regards

Pete
Herwig Bauernfeind
2009-11-09 18:33:18 UTC
Permalink
Hi Pete,
Post by Pete Brown
Well, I tried samba-1-0-2 and near the end of install discovered I
needed something called "apache" in order to run something called SWAT.
Lack of docs in the package did not help.
Erh, the package list at the begin clearly says that SWAT is the Samba
Web Administration Tool.
And the explanation on the SWAT configuration programs says, that it
needs a CGI-capable web server and that it was only tested with Apache
2.x. Therefore Apache must be a...?

Well, neither SWAT nor Apache is really needed to run Samba successfully
and effectively, in future revisions of the WPI the SWAT package will be
deselected by default. Even the Samba people say "that SWAT is ugly and
nobody uses it" - we just include it, because we can (and we find it
useful sometimes), but as I said it is absolutely not essential.
Post by Pete Brown
I did locate and install apache - which I have no idea of the purpose
in life of this software
If you had read the (rather minimalistic) docs, you 'd have known.
Post by Pete Brown
SWAT may have run successfully - I have no idea.
Forget SWAT, you probably will never need it anyway. Local Server
Administraion can be performed completely using SSCC.EXE and
SMUSERS.EXE. SWAT is only useful if you plan to configure Samba from a
remote machine.
Post by Pete Brown
I thought I'd click the "Help" button to get an idea on configuration
but that does not work as there is no Help file included it seems.
Yes, the help file for SSCC has not been done yet, as it is not really
clear what should be in it, as the program is pretty self explanatory
and adding the whole smb.conf manpage would not be really useful and be
awfully lot of work.

More information can be found here: http://svn.netlabs.org/samba/wiki/FAQ
Post by Pete Brown
Couple the above with the general failure of EVFSgui to access files
and directories on the network and I would, possibly incorrectly,
state that samba has a long way to go before it can replace File and
Print Client.
Samba Server and Client for eCS are run successfully in several company
networks already. By and large it works quite well, is reasonably stable
and outperforms LAN Server, WSEB and IBM Peer on the same hardware.
Post by Pete Brown
I'll look into samba again in a few months and see how it has progressed.
We usually do what we can to fix any reported (and reproducible) problem
as fast as we can.

Please, be aware that Samba development is driven by 2 to 3 people by
and large in spare time. We simply do not have the manpower to test
every possibe configuration and setup (let alone write extensive help
files, that the majority of users never reads) and heavily rely on user
feedback. If everybody (except us developers) just waits, there wont be
much progress, as we only make sure that it works for us and in our
environments.

Your report about your EVFSGUI observations lead to 2 fixed bugs. Expect
a new build these days, which should not exhibit any of the effects you
described with beta4.

Thanks for your feedback, it is appreciated!

Kind regards,
Herwig
Pete Brown
2009-11-09 02:57:07 UTC
Permalink
Hi Herwig
Post by Herwig Bauernfeind
Hi Pete,
Post by Pete Brown
Well, I tried samba-1-0-2 and near the end of install discovered I
needed something called "apache" in order to run something called SWAT.
Lack of docs in the package did not help.
Erh, the package list at the begin clearly says that SWAT is the Samba
Web Administration Tool.
And the explanation on the SWAT configuration programs says, that it
needs a CGI-capable web server and that it was only tested with Apache
2.x. Therefore Apache must be a...?
Well, neither SWAT nor Apache is really needed to run Samba successfully
and effectively, in future revisions of the WPI the SWAT package will be
deselected by default. Even the Samba people say "that SWAT is ugly and
nobody uses it" - we just include it, because we can (and we find it
useful sometimes), but as I said it is absolutely not essential.
Post by Pete Brown
I did locate and install apache - which I have no idea of the purpose
in life of this software
If you had read the (rather minimalistic) docs, you 'd have known.
I tried that; they are in html format that fails to display - the code
is shown instead. Maybe I picked the wrong start page - index.html
Post by Herwig Bauernfeind
Post by Pete Brown
SWAT may have run successfully - I have no idea.
Forget SWAT, you probably will never need it anyway. Local Server
Administraion can be performed completely using SSCC.EXE and
SMUSERS.EXE. SWAT is only useful if you plan to configure Samba from a
remote machine.
Post by Pete Brown
I thought I'd click the "Help" button to get an idea on configuration
but that does not work as there is no Help file included it seems.
Yes, the help file for SSCC has not been done yet, as it is not really
clear what should be in it, as the program is pretty self explanatory
and adding the whole smb.conf manpage would not be really useful and be
awfully lot of work.
More information can be found here: http://svn.netlabs.org/samba/wiki/FAQ
Post by Pete Brown
Couple the above with the general failure of EVFSgui to access files
and directories on the network and I would, possibly incorrectly,
state that samba has a long way to go before it can replace File and
Print Client.
Samba Server and Client for eCS are run successfully in several company
networks already. By and large it works quite well, is reasonably stable
and outperforms LAN Server, WSEB and IBM Peer on the same hardware.
Post by Pete Brown
I'll look into samba again in a few months and see how it has progressed.
We usually do what we can to fix any reported (and reproducible) problem
as fast as we can.
Please, be aware that Samba development is driven by 2 to 3 people by
and large in spare time. We simply do not have the manpower to test
every possibe configuration and setup (let alone write extensive help
files, that the majority of users never reads) and heavily rely on user
feedback. If everybody (except us developers) just waits, there wont be
much progress, as we only make sure that it works for us and in our
environments.
Your report about your EVFSGUI observations lead to 2 fixed bugs. Expect
a new build these days, which should not exhibit any of the effects you
described with beta4.
Thanks for your feedback, it is appreciated!
Kind regards,
Herwig
Yes, I think I will need to spend a bit of time looking at how to
configure samba server - without SWAT.

The problem I ran into with EVFSgui which is a real "show stopper" is
that it could not display all directories within a directory on a shared
network drive in tree view and could not display most files and
directories in the same directory in icon view. This particular
directory had a lot of files, without counting > 100, and about 20
subdirectories. Other directories with lots of files and subdirectories
also failed to display contents fully. In all cases there were no
problems accessing those directories with Peer.

As you say EVFSgui is not causing that sort of problem for other people
I am left wondering what exactly I have got wrong.

I'll certainly give EVFSgui another go when the new build is ready and
see if the above directory access problem disappears.

Regards

Pete

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