Samba With the latest firmware

Community Archives WD TV Live Networking
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Has WD confirmed one way or another if the Samba version is to blame for the NAS issues with the latest firmware?  If so, do they plan to fix it?  If not, what version of Samba does it require?  Then I can ask my NAS manufacturer if upgrading with break anything. I can get around Linux, but I’m not a power user by any means.  My NAS (Sans Digital MN4L+) runs a wide open Linux back end with Samba 3.0.31 that I can upgrade as I see fit, but I want to ensure it won’t brake anything, it should be backward compatable, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. What would really be nice is if they would offer a version of the 1.3.x.x firmware with the old Samba.

Like Jacksbox’s solution with the Dlink DNS-323 NAS I had to enable uPNP/DNLA to access the share.  Now it shows up as a “Media Server” rather than a “Network Share”. But it doesn’t sort things properly, say with the folders first, grouped and sorted by extension then filename (Default Windows sorting), and it doesn’t exclude non-relevant file types such as cover scans, text files or anything else.  It doesn’t display the file extension which iratates me to no end.  A “Network Share” does all these things.  Why make them function differently?  It makes no sense.  Perhaps a limitation of the uPNP/DNLA protocol?  Maybe a way to change ordering on the NAS box?

Why the change? I had no problem accessing W7x64 shares with the old version 1.2.x.x of the firmware, and that worked with my NAS.  I was hoping this would fix some audio syncing issues I have with some OGM files.  If it doesn’t then I’ll probably go back to the old firmware as the above mentioned issues would bother me to distraction.  It’s incredibly inconvenient to not have playlists sorted at the top of the file list.  I could create a “Playlist” folder I suppose but I shouldn’t have to.

I keep getting this Samba error, anyone have any ideas (192.168.1.66 is the address of the WD Live TV box)?

[2010/11/18 23:54:04, 0] lib/util_sock.c:read_data(534)
  read_data: read failure for 4 bytes to client 192.168.1.66. Error = Connection reset by peer

Cheers,

Rob

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Try here:

http://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/freenas/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=68

3

This may or may not fix issues for some people, but it may be worth mentioning: make sure that the case of your workgroup name match across all devices accessing it.  As an example, my recollection is that the WD TV Live ships with the workgroup name set to ‘workgroup’ by default.  Many NAS devices, however, ship with it in capitals (‘WORKGROUP’).  If both do not match, this may cause problems.

Can’t guarantee that this will work as a fix in every case, but it’s a relatively quick and easy thing to check if you are having issues.  I’m running a mix of machines and devices that use different versions of Samba (mainly from the 3.0.x / 3.5.x releases) and have found that case-sensitivity can play a part in accessing things.

4

casm23 wrote:

…the WD TV Live ships with the workgroup name set to ‘workgroup’ by default.  Many NAS devices, however, ship with it in capitals (‘WORKGROUP’).  If both do not match, this may cause problems.

It would be GREAT to know if this DOES fix anything, because Workgroup names are NOT supposed to be CASE SENSITVE.   If changing one fixes something, then one of the devices IS broken.  :)

5

I’ll check the “WORKGROUP” case.  But one would think this would have given even older versions of Samba difficulties as well.  It was working fine until I installed the new firmware, I still suspect a Samba version issue.

6

“WORKGROUP” is uppercase in both devices.  It seems likely to be a Samba issue.  I’m going to file a bug with WD.  There are a number of other issues/inconsistencies I’d like to raise as well.  One bizaar thing that struck me was playing from a USB device.  I have some very old playlists in a M3U8 format (Support for Unicode).  It works fine playing from a network share, but not from the USB device.  I simply had to rename it to M3U but didn’t even have to resave the file.  There are much more major issues running it in uPNP mode along with some general network inconsistencies.

7

This is what I submitted to WD…

–snip–

I could access my NAS as a “Network Share” with the 1.2.x.x version of the firmware, but when I updated to 1.3.x.x I can no longer access the NAS.  I can access my W7x64 network shares either way.  Some have suggested this might be a Samba compatability issue caused by an upgraded Samba version (Perhaps 3.5?) in the new firmware to support certain Windows 7 functionality. My NAS (Sans Digital MN4L+) runs a Linux back end with Samba 3.0.31.  I get no meaningful errors, after trying for a minute or two it simply tells me I cannot access the device.  

If it is actually a Samba issue, and it makes sense, I would be very surprised if the new Samba was not backwards compatible to older versions.  That being said, an easy solution would be to include an option in the username/password screen for a share, to tell the firmware to use and older Samba compatability mode, like that used in firmware 1.2.x.x.  This would not require packing both versions of Samba, just supplying an alternative processing path based on the option chosen. Just a flag even, something like “Use Legacy Samba”, something that supports at least back to the 3.0.28 that I understand was in Firmware 1.2.x.x.  This way the new Samba version could still be packaged in the Firmware, supporting Windows 7, while still supply support for legacy hardware.  AND, in all reality, it should only require minor changes to the firmware.

For the time being I ended up having to enable uPNP/DNLA just to access the share.  Now it shows up as a “Media Server” rather than a “Network Share”, which is fine. But now I have several other issues…

** it doesn’t sort things properly, say with the folders first, files grouped and sorted by extension then filename (Default “Windows” sorting).  It’s incredibly inconvenient to not have playlists sorted at the top of the file list.  I could create a “Playlist” folder I suppose but I shouldn’t have to.

** It doesn’t display the file extension which iratates me to no end.  

** it doesn’t exclude non-relevant file types such as PDF files, text files or anything else.  So, it doesn’t matter whether I pick music, pictures or movies all files show up all the time in any mode, even non-supported, non-playable, non-media files. Added to that, without the file extension, it can be difficult to descern the difference.

A “Network Share” on this device does all these things.  Why make them function differently?  It makes no sense.  Fixing either Samba so Network shares work or fixing uPNP so it behaves properly would be equally acceptable solutions.

A couple other things, unrelated to the main firmware issue above…

Now, back to general networking.  When I pick “Network Share”, then pick my Windows 7 box, sometimes it displays all the shares, sometimes it does not.  I have 5 folders shared, the “User” folder which seems to be shared by default on W7, two on external USB devices which generally show up “most” of the time, if they’re turned on, a BluRay drive and DVD drive.  The BD drive and DVD do not consistently show up at all.

My network hardware (A 4 port (4 used) router and 8 port (3 used) switch) is all Cisco Gigabit Professional series workgroup hardware all connected with heavily shielded Cat-6a 10Gbit cabling…network is not an issue.

Lastly, one bizaar thing that I came across was playing from a USB key plugged in to the device.  I have some very old playlists in an M3U8 format (Support for UTF-8 Unicode).  The exact same playlist works fine playing from a network share, but not from the USB device.  To get it to work, I simply had to rename it to M3U but didn’t have to resave the file.  Thought I’d mention it as this is just a small inconsistency.

8

Whoa.   There’s some confusion there.

The WDTV is only able to display what the DLNA server TELLS it to display.  

MINE shows File Extensions.

MINE does NOT show incompatible files (PDF, etc)

The blame for THAT still lies with your NAS, not the WDTV.

Do you know what DLNA server your NAS uses?

I have THREE DLNA servers (and all of them are Twonky.)

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Hmmm, I’ll have to check.  I had a suspicion it might be something like this, but I thought I might lay it all out on the table since I was going anyway.  Ultimately, I would prefer to have the network share working.  Thanks.

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Just to back up what Tony is saying, a “Media Server”, almost by definition, is responsible for the sorting and organisation of media.  The playback device should be able to display the supplied data in a variety of ways but, ultimately, what it sees is what you get.

The Live asks for a list of files of a certain type and the media server provides the filenames and other details where available.

Like Tony, I’ve got a couple of devices running Twonky Media Server.  I also run TVersity (a software media server) on my PC.

They have their own folder / sorting systems.  

They only display relevant files (e.g. if you navigate there from Video, you only see video files).

However, when accessing them with my Live Hub, I’m not seeing file extensions.

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TVersity is a Window-only application.  My server is running a Linux back-end.  In theory, it shouldn’t matter, but…

I have the “Media Library Compilation” turned off in the system options.  I don’t have a dedicated local drive (Other than a small memory key with some Xmas music on it for my wife).  I wonder if that could be the issue. The manual only mentions running this process on a USB device.  Is the Media Library Compilation required for DLNA to function properly?   Do I need a local drive to store the library or will it write it to the share/media server?  Are the media files separate per device/share/media server or does the device maintain one grande file for everything?  If it’s only a single file, I have quite a bit of redundant data, due to backup mirrors and the such, how does the Media Library Compilation handle this?  This is namely my 300+ CD collection that I recently ripped along with all my purchased music…all which is stored on 3 separate drives all accessible to the WD Live.  As I said, most drives aren’t on all the time…in fact it’s rare that they’re on all the time…especially the Linux server, which I only turn on when I need it. 

I’m not at home and can’t check at the moment, but Linux being Linux, if it is ultimately the server returning bad data, then, in theory, I should be able to configure it.  There are a number of server options.  Seems most likely to be either Twonky, Media-Tomb or UUPNP-DLNA.

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I don’t THINK the DLNA server requires Media Library, as Twonky creates its own index.

The Library is stored on the media you attach (USB stick or HD).

For NETWORK storage, or the internal HD, the media library is stored on the internal disk.

For Network Storage, it will recompile the library any time you switch accounts or servers.  Meaning, if you have MULTIPLE shared volumes on your server, but they all use the same USER to access them, the WD will scan ALL of them.

If you have servers with MULTIPLE users, the WD will re-compile if you switch to a different user.

The Media Library will compile EVERYTHING it has access to, even if it’s copies of something else it already has access to.

I’ve overcome all these issues in my NAS;   I assign specific USER Accounts to EACH WD device.   Like for my kids, when THEY access it, all they see is “Kid Safe” material.  The one in the Master Bedroom sees ALL.   This is pretty easy in Samba software;  just specify the credentials required for each volume.

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Yes, and I will likely do something similar to segregate data once Samba is fixed, but in the mean-time I guess I’ll hobble along.  Nothing is a show-stopper so to speak, just annoyances.  The more major thing is that, at least in my quick test, the new firmware “seems” to have fixxed the audio-syncing issues with the OGM files.  While not officially supported by WD, I have a lot of these and it’s nice that it will play them.  Worse comes to worse, I do have a “proper” HD home theater PC to fall back on if I have issues with things, but the WD box is much more convenient for my wife.  In fact the HTPC will play every known format up to full 1080p resolution, but my wife HATES it.  And you know what they say, “happy wife, happy life”.

14

It’s using uShare.  A fairly widely used uPNP/DLNA service for Linux.  I can’t find anything that suggests there’s issues with uShare other than a vague thing saying something to the effect that DLNA is an incomplete standard.  If it’s true that DLNA just spews out what the server returns then, it might just be a limitation due to the Linux file system.  Perhaps I’ll try installing Twonky, if it’s compatible with CentOS 4.1 kernel 2.6.18-128.1.10-i686-x6.  However, at this point I suspect it’s perhaps more a Linux thing.

Thanks,

Rob

15

If anyone’s wondering, firmware 1.4.x.x does not resolve the Samba issue and from the release notes, it appears it wasn’t intended to.  I’m still waiting for a reply from WD.

16

Problem solved…sort of.

The manufacturer supplied me with a new firmware that had Samba 3.4.4.  Still didn’t work AND it broke my Windows connections to the NAS.

Obviously, there is something broken or not set up correctly in the password authentication on my NAS, so I turned it authentication off since I don’t need it at the moment anyway and things seem happier…especially my wife.   If I required authentication, then I might  be hooped.

TonyPH12345 said:

“I’ve overcome all these issues in my NAS;   I assign specific USER Accounts to EACH WD device.   Like for my kids, when THEY access it, all they see is “Kid Safe” material.  The one in the Master Bedroom sees ALL.   This is pretty easy in Samba software;  just specify the credentials required for each volume.”

This is the ultimate goal as my kids get older.  I like very extreme horror…the kind of stuff you only work up to over years of desensitization, stuff I won’t want my kids stumbling upong, but I have a few years yet.  By then, I’m sure I’ll have upgraded hardware anyway.

Here’s what I did, and it “should” work for any Samba box where you have access to edit the smb.conf file.

I added the line
guest account = nobody

to the [global] parameters section of the smb.conf, then modified the ‘share’ definition section like such (My share name is SDRAID…

#Original WEB created parameters
#[SDRAID]

comment = Sans Digital RAID5 MN4L+

path = /exports/SDRAID

valid users = “hello”

admin users = “hello”

read only = No

hosts allow = 192.168.1.100, 192.168.1.110, 192.168.1., 192.168.

hide files = /.*/aquota.*/

#New custom “GUEST” account parameters
[SDRAID]
comment = Guest access share
path = /exports/SDRAID
browseable = yes
read only = no
guest ok = yes
hosts allow = 192.168.1.100, 192.168.1.110, 192.168.1., 192.168.
hide files = /.*/aquota.*/

Anonymous “guest” login is not something that can be set up through the supplied user supplied Web interface for my NAS.  I would still like to know why authentication wasn’t working though.