can't ping by name; affecting autofs? [SOLVED]

[scrognoid]

I can ping by IP in both directions, from Computer A to Computer B and back. I can ping B.local from A but not the other way.
I think this is related to my real problem: autofs mounts on B take minutes to list directories or fail entirely.

Computer A = Mate 17.3
Computer B = Mate 18.3

My network is all Linux Mint now. To make things simple (?!?) I am share via Guest Access. caja-share seems to work (different folder from autofs mounts).

autofs set up according to altair4: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=144997

Tried purging Samba and reinstalling full ubuntu according to altair4: viewtopic.php?t=224391

[altair4]

I can ping B.local from A but not the other way.

** Is your network complicated? As in multiple routers or access points? mDNS ( the .local part ) cannot traverse a subnet which would result in your symptom. It could also be a firewall issue of course.

** And are you addressing the server with the .local host name or by ip address?

autofs mounts on B take minutes to list directories or fail entirely.

Don't know how to explain that one either. Is this still how you are mounting it:

2bb -fstype=cifs,rw,username=tim,password=newpass,uid=1000,iocharset=utf8 ://10.0.0.60/2bb

I don't know where Mint is with all this but you might want to add another option to your list vers=3.0 :

2bb -fstype=cifs,rw,username=tim,password=newpass,uid=1000,iocharset=utf8,vers=3.0 ://10.0.0.60/2bb

From the Linux Kernel 4.13 on the default smb dilect is 3.0 but before that it was 1.0. If your kernel is before 4.13 changing the smb dialect to 3 in the cifs mount increases speed and stability. I don't know if that will be enough to resolve this issue but it's worth a shot.

[scrognoid]

Thanks for the reply.
I fixed it. Just wish I understood what I did.
What I did:

• add user "guest" to auto.sambashares. I started sharing via Guest and took user, password out of auto.sambashares. Adding 'guest' was a necessary but not sufficient condition.

xpsLinHome -fstype=cifs,rw,guest,uid=1000,iocharset=utf8 ://xps13.local/xpsLinHome

• purged and reinstalled everything I could think of: autofs, samba, cifs-utils

That pretty much fixed it. I went a step further and took your advice (viewtopic.php?f=157&t=185410#p960482), using avahi for name resolution on my now all Linux network. I wish there was a GUI for that. I won't think about this stuff again until I get a new computer in three years and I won't remember any of it.



For the record, your questions:

• simple network: cable modem, two wireless routers.
  addressing by name: xps13.local
  running kernal 4.13.0-37, so I guess I'm using Samba v3.

[altair4]

That pretty much fixed it. I went a step further and took your advice (viewtopic.php?f=157&t=185410#p960482), using avahi for name resolution on my now all Linux network. I wish there was a GUI for that.

Then you are in luck. Unless Mint deviates from it's Ubuntu roots - and there is always that possibility - Mint 19 will "publish" itself to the rest of the network using avahi the moment you install samba. It will do that automatically without the need for an avahi service file. It started with Ubuntu 17.10 and continues with Ubuntu 18.04 which will be the basis for Mint 19.

[scrognoid]

Good to know. Thanks.