[SOLVED] Mint 17 - Pinging by Netbios Names: Not Working

[bwestrup777]

Mint 17 Mate 64bit

I've completed the standard steps to get pinging by netbios name working but it still doesn't work:

1. Install winbind
2. Add "wins" to /etc/nsswitch.conf

This works instantly on my Ubuntu servers but fails miserably on Linux Mint 17.

Also, added the following to /etc/samba/samba.conf :

name resolve order = bcast, host, lmhosts, wins

Still no luck...

This should "just work"...why not?

[altair4]

I have no idea but why is there a need to ping by netbios name. Is it different from your host name? And either way changing the name resolve order isn't going to help you much with ping.

Anyhoo, You referenced your ubuntu servers. Is this an all Linux network?

If it is why not ping by the mDNS qualified host name instead:

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ping some-host-name.local

Don't forget the ".local" at the end. As long as you haven't gone out of your way to disable avahi or closed it's ports on any of these machines this should work.

[bwestrup777]

Except for myself, I can ping nothing by name on the local network from my Mint Desktop. Pinging using mDNS doesn't work, either. However, I can browse the network via Nautilus. Other computers on the network can see my desktop in their network neighborhood and can ping me. So it's working, partially.

We have lots of Windows boxes on our network, so being able to see what's going on in the netbois namespace is important, especially when people start complaining about it not working. (Programmers who don't like having to type in an ip address, when they commit code.)

The only thing I can figure is that there is some config file being automatically applied that's overriding my configuration changes. This should work...

[altair4]

Well if you have legacy systems ( i.e., Windows ) in your network mDNS isn't going to help much since it's only a Linux / OSX thing. But if you can't ping by a hostname.local between Linux machines something is definitely messed up with your network since it's designed to do that by default. Outside of being in different subnets or blocking it with a firewall you would have to go out of your way to stop it.

However, I can browse the network via Nautilus. Other computers on the network can see my desktop in their network neighborhood and can ping me. So it's working, partially.

So samba itself appears to be working.

The only thing I can figure is that there is some config file being automatically applied that's overriding my configuration changes. This should work...

What configuration changes. The only thing you mentioned here ( that isn't samba related ) is nsswitch.conf. You might want to post it's contents:

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cat /etc/nsswitch.conf

[bwestrup777]

Here's a copy of my nsswitch.conf:

# /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# Example configuration of GNU Name Service Switch functionality.
# If you have the `glibc-doc-reference' and `info' packages installed, try:
# `info libc "Name Service Switch"' for information about this file.

passwd: compat
group: compat
shadow: compat

hosts: files wins mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns
networks: files

protocols: db files
services: db files
ethers: db files
rpc: db files

netgroup: nis

[altair4]

It's a bit unusual to trigger wins so early. It's usually listed last so that things like mdns and even normal dns can function properly but other than that ..........

You know, I have just stumbled upon something here that may be the answer. I don't use Mint I use Xubuntu but I have Mint 17 Cinnamon as a VBox guest and I did the whole winbind / nsswitch thing and there is a problem.

"wins" as described in nsswitch.conf depends on the library: libnss_wins.so to work. libnss_wins.so is installed when the package libnss-winbind is installed.

Here's the problem:

If you were to install the winbind package in any of the Ubuntu's libnss-winbind ( which is really all you need rather than winbind itself ) is installed with it because it's listed as a "recommended" dependency. When you do this in Mint it does not because of this: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=185770 It's actually a very irritating thing about Mint.

Anyway, install the following package and see if things resolve themselves ( no pun intended ):

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sudo apt-get install libnss-winbind

[bwestrup777]

That did it! (I knew it was some weird, Mint specific thing, that was tripping me up)

I installed "libnss-winbind" and it immediately started working.

Thanks so much!