NMDB.EXE fails when started at boot time.

[Doug Bissett]

Often (but not always) I find that NMDB.EXE is not running after starting the SAMBA server at boot time. I start it from the STARTUP folder, using REXX Autostart, so it takes more than 10 seconds before REXX Autostart tries to start the programs, after the desktop is populated.

This is on my Asus M3A78-EM motherboard, using a PCI card with a Realtek 8169 NIC, and the r8169-0.1.0.wpi driver (the on board Realtek 8168 died, and is disabled in the BIOS). I know that the DHCP sequence has completed, before NMDB.EXE is started, because the Timeset program runs, and gets to the time servers.

See log.nmbd.

[Silvan Scherrer]

what interface does get the ip adress? as lan0 for sure doesn't have anything at all. and are you sure the DHCP adress was really given?

[Doug Bissett]

There is only one NIC, known as LAN0. It does get the address long before NMBD.EXE is started because the TIMESET program uses it successfully to access the time server. I have also tried adding another 10 second delay, before starting SAMBA, and the problem still happens. I have seen the same problem on other systems, but not as often.

[Silvan Scherrer]

i have no idea whats wrong there. but the log says clear there is no adress at interface LAN0. and to be honest for a server it's usually a bad idea to go with DHCP. Servers should have a fixed address. Could you try with fixed IP and see it it then works always?

[Doug Bissett]

Well, this is not really a server. I am attempting to set up an equivalent to the old PEER networking. Each system needs the SAMBA server running, and each system needs the client. I want to start the server part at boot time so it will be available for the other systems to use.

I increased the time between starting each item in the startup folder (using REXX AutoStart), from .75 seconds to 1 second. The SAMABA server is the last thing to get started, so it is now about 20 seconds before it starts it (it was 15 seconds, when it was failing). That seems to have solved the problem.

If the SAMBA server takes that long before it can start successfully, it needs to have a delay before attempting to start it. I also notice that my older, slower, machines (single processor) don't have the problem.

[Silvan Scherrer]

this is not a samba problem. as long as the tcpip is not seen from the server we can't do anything. so it's up to the user to set the right values.