Cant open smb hosts by name in Nautilus net browser [Solved]

[Bones McCracker]

I'm using Gnome 2.16.3 on x86 with stable versions of samba and everything.

Samba is working fine from the command line (smbtree, smbclient, etc., all work fine) and server functions are fine. So I am confident this is not a Samba configuration problem. I think it's a problem with gnome-vfs or some other component of Gnome, and that's what I need help figuring out.

The problem is apparent in the nautilus network browser:

• The Gnome/Nautilus network browser correctly displays "Windows Network" as well as Windows and Samba hosts.
  
• Opening "Windows Network" correctly displays the workgroup.
  
• Opening the workgroup correctly displays the hosts in the workgroup.
  
• But, when I attempt to open any host by double-clicking on it, I get the standard error message:
  

  Quote:

  Could folder contents could not be displayed. Sorry, couldn't display all the contents of "Windows Network: tsunami".

  
  
  However, if I manually type into Nautilus "smb://<the host's ip address>", then it shows the host's shares correctly.
  
  Again, I don't think it's a samba problem, because I can do "smbclient -L <hostname>".
  Also, I can ssh://<hostname> in nautilus, so it's not gnome-wide; it's specific to smb in the network browser.
  And, I can browse these hosts successfully on my other box (ppc), so it's not the hosts, it's on this x86 box (or specific to gnome components that may be in different versions on the two archs).
  
  I would appreciate whatever help someone can offer. : )
  
  
  Also, I don't know to what extent the following are relevant, but I am getting some ~/.xsession-errors while using the nautilus network browser, but I'm not smart enough to know what they mean.
  
  Whenever I open an object in the browser by double-clicking on it (e.g. opening "Windows Network" or trying to connect to one of the hosts by double-clicking on it), I get the following:
  

  Quote:

  (nautilus:4268): Eel-WARNING **: Trying to add a callback for preferences/background_set that already exists.

  
  
  When I attempt to connect to a host by double-clicking its icon, I get this (.xsession-errors):
  

  Quote:

  (nautilus:4268): Eel-WARNING **: Trying to add a callback for preferences/background_set that already exists. (nautilus:4268): Eel-WARNING **: Trying to add a callback for preferences/background_color that already exists. (nautilus:4268): Eel-WARNING **: Trying to add a callback for preferences/background_filename that already exists. ** (nautilus:4268): WARNING **: Hit unhandled case 4 (Invalid parameters) in fm_report_error_loading_directory

  
  
  And when I manually type into the nautilus address bar "smb://192.168.1.100" (host ip address), I get this (but it successfully opens a window displaying the host's shares):
  

  Quote:

  (nautilus:4268): Eel-WARNING **: Trying to add a callback for preferences/background_set that already exists. (nautilus:4268): Eel-WARNING **: Trying to add a callback for preferences/background_color that already exists. (nautilus:4268): Eel-WARNING **: Trying to add a callback for preferences/background_filename that already exists.

  
  
  Last edited by Bones McCracker on Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:51 pm; edited 1 time in total

[ferg]

Hi,

this may not be of any help at all. But my experience here may be useful.

I've got a properly working SAMBA setup. A few Macs and a Windows machine can see the shares on my Linux box and other machines. However, Gnome could never see the other machines nor it's own shares.

However, without me doing anything to the configuration when I upgraded to Gnome 2.18 (from 2.16) it magically started working, and I can now view the shares on other machines from within the desktop environment.

Don't know why, and I'm not saying that upgrading Gnome will help.

Cheers
Ferg
_________________
Climb up it, kayak down it + make sure it runs on GNU/Linux
"cease to exist, giving my goodbye, drive my car into the ocean,
you think I'm dead, but i sail away, on a wave of mutilation!"

[Bones McCracker]

I removed all the entries I had added to the default /etc/samba/lmhosts, and now everything works fine. I imagine it's using the /etc/hosts file or netbios broadcast to achieve name resolution, and I don't know why lmhosts doesn't work.

But it all works fully. Everybody can browse exactly what they should be able to, etc. Thanks for the help.

[keola]

I would configure a wins server... just for the heck of it though