OpenSolaris

CIFS Client Release Notes

These release notes document the Beta1 code drop of the CIFS client module (SMBFS). The purpose of this document is to give you information about this distribution, its capabilities, and any known limitations and bugs. The release notes also provide instructions on installing and uninstalling the CIFS client module, information about accessing the CIFS client source files, reporting bugs, and making contributions to the code.

This document covers the following topics:

Installing and Uninstalling the CIFS Client Packages
Accessing the CIFS Client Source Files
Known Limitations
Known Bugs
Reporting Bugs
Making Code Contributions

The Beta1 version of the CIFS client module is a Solaris Virtual File System (VFS) that permits the Solaris OS to look up, read, and write files on a Windows server or on a system that runs Samba. Such systems use the SMB/CIFS distributed file system protocol.

You can use the CIFS client module to view available shares on a server and mount the shares on your system. You can create, delete, and write files on the mounted CIFS share.

The Beta1 version of the CIFS client module can also use the existing Kerberos client mechanism setup to authenticate users with an CIFS server.

An updated version of automound is delivered as part of the Beta1 code drop, so be sure to install the new version when prompted to do so during installation.

This Beta1 release includes the following Solaris packages:

SUNWsmbfsr - nsmb and smbfs kernel modules
SUNWsmbfsu - smbutil and mount binaries and libsmbfs.so library

These packages are based on and have been tested with the OS/Net (ON) Nevada Build 75. The binaries in these packages are expected to run without issues starting with Build 64.

The CIFS client team values your feedback and thanks you for using this Beta1 release of the CIFS client software! If you encounter problems or issues that are not mentioned in the Known Limitations and Known Bugs sections, see the Reporting Bugs section.

Installing and Uninstalling the CIFS Client Packages

The installable Solaris packages are in two tar files.

The smbfs-beta1-bins-20071109.sparc.tar file has the following directory structure:

packages/
packages/sparc
packages/sparc/nightly
packages/sparc/nightly/SUNWsmbfsr
packages/sparc/nightly/SUNWsmbfsu

The smbfs-beta1-bins-20071109.i386.tar file has the following directory structure:

packages/
packages/i386
packages/i386/nightly
packages/i386/nightly/SUNWsmbfsr
packages/i386/nightly/SUNWsmbfsu

NOTE: An updated version of automound is delivered as part of the Beta1 code drop, so be sure to install the new version when prompted to do so during installation.

If you uninstall the Beta1 packages, the original automountd is restored.

You can install and uninstall the CIFS client packages by using the Solaris packaging tools:

Accessing the CIFS Client Source Files

This Beta1 release also includes a tar file that contains the CIFS client sources.

Download the smbfs-beta1-src-20071109.tar file to your system and release the files from the tar archive with the following command:

# tar xvf smbfs-beta1-src-20071109.tar

If you want to build the sources, you must have a working OpenSolaris source workspace set up and building.

Building the CIFS client packages now requires you to have the closed bins in place. There are more steps with the Beta1 because of greater integration with the Solaris OS. To build, do the following:

# ws path-to-workspace
# tar xvf path-to/smbfs-beta1-src-20071109.tar
# (cd $SRC/uts && dmake -k all_h install_h)
# ( cd $SRC/lib/libc ; dmake install_h )
# ( cd $SRC/lib/libc ; dmake install )
# ( cd $SRC/lib/libuutil ; dmake install )
# ( cd $SRC/lib/libavl ; dmake install )
# ( cd $SRC/lib/libzfs ; dmake install )
# $SRC/quickbuild

The following list shows the source locations for each of the CIFS client modules:

Known Limitations

Known Bugs

Following is the list of open bugs in the Beta1 CIFS client:

Bug ID Synopsis
6612197 SMB write call problems
6616151 smbfs report time expired, and can't rm, ls on some files
6621436 TX smbfs mount is read only when the labels are equal
6623384 TX smbfs mount fails when we should have read down
6625797 System deadlock after doing some operations
6627447 Not seeing file and dir names as expected from Storage Tek NAS
6543838 can't get the correct file size when the file size is changing
6584371 File browser window freezes when checking properties.
6597391 Client prints too many notices
6607037 tar command get in infinite loop
6607050 bonnie failed with normal user on root mounted smbfs
6607513 mount get "device busy" after dbench and rm testing
6609429 'read failed' errors when executing 'dbench' on Sparc platform.
6612198 Ungraceful shutdown of local zone fails due to a dangling reference
6620829 smbutil view -A doesn't work with Windows 2003
6624072 if the server doesn't exist, the smbutil timeout is too long
6624591 There is "drastic I/O error" when executing dbench command
6624631 minauth in server section in .nsmbrc doesn't work
6624671 "spnego blob2principal error 1" error when mounting from windows domain
6625078 Authentication to Sun CIFS server fails
6625193 nbns option doesn't work
6626841 SUNWsmbfsr needs to be refactored
6627450 "touch" fails if the file name's length more than 9 chars on STK NAS

Reporting Bugs

For each problem you encounter, send the following information to help the team determine the root cause of the problem:

  1. Describe the problem and describe what you were doing when you encountered the problem.

    NOTE: Give as much information as you can to enable the team to reproduce the problem.

  2. Describe your configuration.

    For example, x data servers running on x machines.

  3. Describe the bits you have installed.

    For example, run the following command on all machines:

    % cat /etc/motd
  4. If the problem is a panic, include the stack trace and access to the core file.

  5. If possible, a snoop or ethereal trace would be helpful in many cases, especially with issues unique to a particular server.

    For example, run this command:

    # snoop -o /tmp/bug1.snoop client-name server-name
  6. Send the information in an email message to the smbfs dash discuss at opensolaris dot org alias.

The CIFS client team will not provide patches or fixes to this distribution. However, any new bugs and issues will be logged into our tracking tool. These issues will be evaluated for inclusion in future releases.

Making Code Contributions

If you would like to contribute to this project, contact the CIFS client team at the smbfs dash discuss at opensolaris dot org alias.

The acceptance or rejection of code from a community member will follow this existing OpenSolaris process:

  1. An internal CIFS client project sponsor (sponsor) is assigned to an external contributor (contributor).

  2. The sponsor reviews the changes from the contributor and determines whether to accept or reject them.

    • If the changes are accepted, the sponsor integrates the changes from the contributor into the CIFS client project gate.

    • If the changes are rejected, the sponsor notifies the contributor that the changes have been rejected.